Distracting From The Now

Death and the Hero

2012-01-30T15:18:00.004-05:00

One of the funnier moments in Njal's Saga was when Thorgrim went up to Gunnar's house to see if he was home and Gunnar ran him through with his halberk. Thorgrim staggered back to Gizur, who asked him if Gunnar was home. Thorgrim replied that, he did not know if Gunnar was home (he didn't actually see him) but his thrusting spear was and then died.It is rather like a part of of Grettir's

From Njal's Saga

2012-01-27T12:27:00.005-05:00

Here is a small excerpt from the Robert Cook translation (available through Penguin Books) to give you a taste of how modern the story sounds. It is a conversation between Unn and her father about Hrut, her husband. "Then Mord spoke to his daughter: 'Now tell me everything that's going on between you, however big it may seem in your eyes.' 'Alright then,' she said. 'I want to divorce Hrut,

Review: Njal's Saga, Penguin Edition

2012-01-25T07:31:00.006-05:00

The translator of this saga, Robert Cook, was an American professor of English in Iceland so his command of the language should be excellent. The sagas were written in plain language so they translate well into English. This edition includes footnotes at the back and a plot summary so you may remember the entire plot. There are a lot of actors in this tale. The story, written in the

The Blue Edged Sword

2012-01-21T09:55:00.004-05:00

In chapter 129 of Njal's Saga, while the house of Njal is burned with everyone in it, Kari Solmundarson escaped from the blaze and leaves so that he can avenge the deaths of Njal and his household but the edge of his sword has turned blue. It is suggested that the fire has turned the edge soft but, in true heroic fashion, he proposes to harden it with the blood of his enemies. One can

Audun and the White Bear

2012-01-18T08:42:00.003-05:00

The Icelandic sagas are interesting for anyone to read. I am particularly enjoying Njal's Saga right now but I want to mention a shorter story from the Morkinsinna, a history of the Norwegian kings. (There is another slightly different version of the story in the Flateyjarbok.) It is likely to be a true story and the events date around 1050. Audun was a poor man from the Westfjords, who

Say It Ain't So, Flavio!

2012-01-11T08:26:00.003-05:00

>>I was sitting in on a lecture on Boethius and the professor said that Cassiodorus, who was instrumental in preserving Boethius's writing, may have also been part of the conspiracy that condemned him to death by torture. I thought Cassiodorus was one of the good guys with an unblemished record but a quick search of scholarly articles show that there is indeed debate over if he, through his own

Swans and Valkyries

2012-01-02T15:25:00.002-05:00

I just finished a paper. It is a huge, huge subject. To do it justice , one could probably write a book. Valkyries are a Northern concept; they belong to the Viking Age. No other culture has the armoured, beautiful battle maidens in their mythology. At least no conclusive evidence for them has been found. The three valkyries in Volundarkvida are also swan maidens. There is a lot of

Mother's Night

2011-12-25T22:35:00.004-05:00

I have already written a bit about Yule which was, more or less a month or season in the Icelandic calender. There were some mid-winter sacrifices made to some female deities called the 'disarblot'. There is little information about what or who the 'disir' are but the Venerable Bede wrote a small chapter on the months of the Angles in his book De Temporum Ratione, it is a book about time

The Franks Casket

2011-12-22T12:04:00.002-05:00

In the holistic view of things, that everything is interrelated, I am going to agree that all the sides of the carved box have something to do with each other. Many scholars think the right side depicts the burial of Sigurd, which doesn't make sense to me. I like a suggestion from Thomas Bredehof that it is rather Hengist and Horsa, which balances out the left side which shows Romulus and

The Wild Man of Orford

2011-12-18T10:39:00.003-05:00

Ralph of Coggeshall was another medieval chronicler who, after he was finished writing the doings of the wealthy and powerful, collected curious little tales he had heard. He is the source for the story of the green children of Woolpit and this interesting story about the wild man of Orford. In his words, more or less, as I translate from the latin. "At the time of King Henry II when

No Yolking

2011-12-07T09:32:00.002-05:00

I know, it is a sad play on words but I could not help myself. I did not have a great title ready for today's blog which is about the phrase 'egging on'. This week's reading in Old Norse was sections of The Volsung Saga and, in keeping with Signy's rather determined efforts to avenge her father's death, she was egging her brother on. The verb in the Old Norse was eggja, that is "to incite

Twelve Dictionaries

2011-12-04T15:57:00.002-05:00

No, this is not like the twelve days of Christmas. I was looking at my bookshelves and, although I have more reference works than these dictionaries, for a book that can be properly called a dictionary I have twelve. Non-electronic. If I factor digital ones then I have even more. For my entertainment and your astonishment, I shall list them here in no particular order:Brewer's Britain

Leif the Lucky had a sister named Freydis

2011-12-02T09:22:00.004-05:00

It is probably a big shock to many who think that women don't get mentioned in chronicles and sagas. They do. Not as much as men but they are not completely invisible. Their complete absence from history books probably reflects a bias from 19th century and many 20th century historians. Eirik the Red left Iceland around 985 A.D. to colonize Greenland. That colony survived for centuries

How long does winter have to be to be a Fimbulwinter?

2011-11-26T20:38:00.007-05:00

I was lurking somewhere on the net being distracted by someone (I forget who) 's conjecture about the length of the fimbulvetr (really big/terrible winter) which would be only a year and a half because there is no summer in between. However, the Norse measured years by winters. The Zoëga entry on 'vetr' lists year as an alternative definition. Then there is the word for season 'misseri'

The Lay of Helgi Hjövard's Son

2011-11-25T14:46:00.004-05:00

Helgakvida Hjorvardssonar is a poem in Old Norse from the Codex Regius. There are a number of good English versions out there. Helgi is a king's son and a hero. He married a Valkyrie named Svava. One day, his brother met a troll-woman in the woods who offered him companionship for the night. Hedin declined and she said he would regret it at the bragarful. He did, too. It was Yule, a

fylgjur - Norse Protective Beings

2011-11-18T13:47:00.003-05:00

In Njal's Saga, Thord sees a goat covered in blood lying in a hollow that Njal cannot see. Njal tells him that he must have seen his fylgja and he should be careful. Thord says being careful will not help, he is about to die. He does die in an ambush by Sigmund and Skiolld, while Thrain stands by. In Hallfreder Saga, as he lay dying, Hallfred saw a woman in armour approaching him. He

Hagar the Horrible

2011-11-06T09:49:00.004-05:00

I was translating some Old Norse and came across the word 'hagr' which has little to do with the cartoon since the word as an adjective means 'skilful' and the noun has even less to do with the Viking bumbler. Hagar has been with us since 1973. When the original cartoonist, Dik Browne (who bore a slight resemblance to Hagar) died, his son, Chris Browne, continued the cartoon. It is a

Thor and Valkyries

2011-11-04T13:52:00.003-04:00

I have been working on a paper on Valkyries and Swan Maidens in reference to Volundrkvida (Wayland's Ballad). Sounds exciting? The majority of what I am reading says that the Valkyries are later developments in Norse myth, in the late first millennium after the Viking period got underway. This is about the time Thor rises to prominence as everyone's favourite Aesir. I don't think there is

I Call It Body Snatching

2011-10-22T19:44:00.004-04:00

It seems that, since cathedrals could not be consecrated without some saint's relics and possession of relics leads to pilgrim dollars donated to the cathedral, there was a lack of sharing amongst parishes when it comes to relics. Indeed, there was quite a bit of grave robbing going on. Of course it was not called 'grave robbing' or 'body snatching' rather it was called 'translatio' within

The Death of a Norseman

2011-10-19T13:31:00.002-04:00

It is always interesting how differently people expressed ideas at various times and places. I am practicing my Old Norse by reading Hrolfs Saga Kraka. I became interested in the poor fellow hiding in a bone-pile in a hall. Clearly Bodvarr hauled him out of the pile to help him. The other men in the hall notice Bodvarr and Hottr (the guy from the bone-pile) sitting at a table and start

My Hero, Thor

2011-10-19T09:42:00.003-04:00

I like Thor. He was a very popular god with the masses and why not. He was the protector of mankind. The humble dead went to his halls. His popularity was the biggest obstacle to converting the Norse to Christianity. We were reading the story in the Grimnismal where Thor went on a trip with Loki. Loki behaved himself for once. They stopped at a peasant's home where Thor slaughtered

One Tin Soldier

2011-10-14T19:09:00.004-04:00

I am sitting here avoiding my Old Norse homework, having a beer and taking a trip down memory lane on Youtube. There is one old song that I always pictured with Inca style mountain top towns or in the Southwestern US desert. Maybe that is because it was the theme song for a movie called 'Billy Jack' released in 1971 about a half-Indian Green Beret fighting for justice. The Original Caste

A Word of Old Norse

2011-10-13T13:53:00.002-04:00

I was reading the Penguin Classic The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking-Lore translated and edited by Andy Orchard. Orchard more than W.H. Auden or Henry Adams Bellow tries to keep the language as literal as possible so I was a little curious about a phrase in Lokasenna (Loki's Home Truths) that I won't repeat here because I am trying to avoid cuss words. I have to wonder if the Penguin people

Stardust, A Review

2011-10-10T09:53:00.004-04:00

I have never before read a book, the movie version of which was better than the book. Last night, that all changed. I read Stardust in three hours. It was a light and sweet story but there were a few problems. Tristan was born on the wrong side of the Wall. Everyone in his village knows this and Tristan reaches 17 without ever being told this by anyone including his father. Even when Tristan

Amon Hen, Odin's Seat of Seeing Far

2011-10-08T16:34:00.003-04:00

I was reading Skirnismal for a class and was interesting in the seat, Hlidskjalf, that Freyr was sitting in when he saw Gerd, a giantess. Looking up Hlidskjalf in The Cassell Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend by Andy Orchard, I noted that it is Odin's seat from which he can observe all the worlds. It sounds very much like Amon Hen. The more I read Old English and especially Old Norse, the

It's Freyr's Day

2011-10-07T07:53:00.004-04:00

Not really. It is his twin's day based on the Romans' calling the fifth day of the week 'dies Veneris' which in the Norse Pantheon would mean Friday is Freya's day. Or Frigg. The Oxford English Dictionary voted in favor of Frigg. Brewer's Guide is sitting on the fence but adds that Friday was considered a lucky day of the week for the Norse and was when weddings took place. If you ignore

Happy St. Jerome's Day

2011-09-30T08:39:00.007-04:00

I was going to write something about Old Norse but a post by The Plashing Vole that September 30 is the feast day of St. Jerome, patron saint of translators, librarians and students made me change my mind. I usually avoid blogging about men like St. Jerome because I have a hard time saying anything nice about them. Why do dried up old prunes like St. Bernard become saints when a truly nice

Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc and Gut-Bucket

2011-09-20T08:14:00.003-04:00

The topic of the day is dwarfs. More specifically dwarf names. It is always interesting to see where authors get names from. Some clearly make them up and they are cringe-worthy, others find them in heroic sagas or myth. Alan Garner said he got names from The Mabinogion, particularly "Culhwch and Olwen". I knew Tolkien took Durin's name from Norse myth but I found this list of names in

The Time Has Come

2011-09-18T22:32:00.002-04:00