Egil’s Saga Read online

  11 BURDEN. ‘Reindeer-way’ (hreinbraut)—mountains. Athelstane is king of all the land, even to the mountain-tops.

  CHAPTER LVI

  1 BERGONUND. See here.

  2 STAVE. ‘Young hawk-cliff’s goddess’ (ung haukaklifs Hlín): ‘hawk-cliff’ = arm: Hlin of that—a lady. The playing upon words in the last four lines is like a Shakespeare sonnet, and quite untranslatable:

  Verþk í feld, þás foldar

  faldr kømr í hug skalde

  bergóneres brúna

  brátt miþstalle hváta.

  Brúna miþstallr, the thing standing up between (and below) the brows, is the nose. Bergóneres foldar faldr cannot be understood; but it conceals the name of Asgerd (query, faldr, ‘clothing’, part of which is gerðr, ‘girdle’, giving the second syllable of the name Ás-gerðr?); further F.J. extracts a reference to the first syllable (ÁS, ‘a God’) from bergóneres. With my ‘When-As girdle’ I have tried, clumsily enough, to give some indication of this obscure punning.

  3 STAVE. Suttung is a giant. The ‘beer’ (feast-fare) of the giant—poetry. ‘Sea-fire goddess’—lady: but some of the words here are corrupt. ‘Dighters… Valkyries’—warriors. ‘Fount (lit. beverage—veig) of the Lord of Strife’, i.e. of Odin—poetry. Meaning, the poets will be able to unravel his obscure puns and find out his mistress’s name, because they know the tricks of the trade.

  4 BIORN THE HITDALE CHAMPION. He has a saga of his own, not (so far as I know) translated into English.

  5 ILLUGI THE BLACK. Of Gilsbank; famous as the father of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue; see Gunnl., and also Eb. 17, and the Heath-slayings Saga (translated in same volume of the Saga Library as Eb.).

  6 MANY WINTERS. 927 to 932 (F.J.).

  7 WITH GUNNHILD. The Queen had, in her later years at any rate, a taste for personable young men: see the account of her scandalous proceedings with Hrut(Nj. 3, 6, and 7; Dasent has, perhaps pardonably, drawn a decent veil of paraphrase over one or two passages) and with Olaf the Peacock (Ld. 21); but there is nothing to suggest that her friendship now, in Eric’s lifetime, with Thorolf Skallagrimson (pp. 71, 94), and later with Bergonund, went to these lengths.

  8 VERY LOUD AND SAUCILY (snelt mjök). Cf. ‘the wind blows sharp and snell’. D. says (ad loc.), ‘harshly, in a high-pitched voice’.

  9 THE GULA-THING. Magnússon (Hkr. IV, p. 461) says it was “held on the shore of the bay of Gula, or rather of its off-shoot inlet Eyvind-wick, which cut into the southern side of the broad peninsula which bounds from the south the mouth of Sognfirth. It represented the folklands of South Mere, Firthfolk, Sognfolk, Valdres, Haddingdale, Hordfolk, Rogaland, and Agdir; and all these districts, when collectively spoken of, went under the territorial designation of Gula-Thing laws (parts)”.

  10 BONDWOMAN. The circumstances on which Bergonund based this charge were, of course, the runaway match related in chs. XXXII–XXXV. As to the substance of the charge, cf. the contentions on both sides, pp. 119–120.

  11 A STEEP THING (örðigt). F.J. says the meaning is not (as commonly), ‘difficult’, but ‘hostile, contumacious’ (feindlich, widersetzlich): “it seems to me too strong, and almost as if you would treat me as an enemy”. Örðigr primarily means ‘erect, upright, rising on end’ (D.), and at the risk of being accused of slang, I have used an idiom that precisely corresponds.

  12 ODAL-BORN (óðalborin). See note on ‘Odal’.

  13 NOBLE-BORN (tíginborin). I.e. descended from kings or earls (referring, no doubt, to Asgerd’s grandfather, Earl Hroald, see ch. II).

  14 Bergonund’s speech is a flawless masterpiece, ending, as it were with a thunderclap, with the proposal that the lady shall not only lose her case (quite wrongfully, as it appears), but be herself adjudged the King’s bondwoman!

  15 UNSPOKEN. Reading ómœlt: not, as F.J., ómœt (without might).

  16 STAVE. First couplet:

  Þýboma kveþr þoma

  þorn reiþ áar horna.

  ‘Þorna þorn’, which might stand for a general kenning for a man is pointedly used of Bergonund, the son of Thorgeir Thornfoot. Reiðr áar horna is the ‘bearer of the river of horns’ (i.e. of ale)—a lady. ‘Spear-brandisher’ is addressed to Bergonund, as is also ‘rich man’. I have preserved as far as I could the rhymes and assonances of the original.

  17 ASHMAN. Alf Ashman, her brother. See note.

  18 HOLMGANG. See note.

  19 PICK AND CHOOSE. Aimed, not obscurely, at the King. Cf. p. 123, where the spear that slew Ketil was clearly meant for his master.

  20 This ‘banning’ of Egil’s amounts to a serious níð or ‘Scorn’ against the King himself; cf. special note, p. 249 on ‘Scorn-pole’ Cf. also the Waterdale Saga, ch. 33: “But if any come not [to holm, when challenged], then shall be raised a Scorn (níð) against them, with this formular: That he shall be every man’s dastard (níðingr), and be never in the fellowship of good men, and have the anger of the Gods and the name of truce-dastard”.

  21 STAVE. The first two couplets are stuffed with consonances and playings on the word arfi (heir):

  Erfinge ræþr arfe

  arfljúgr fyr mér svarfa,

  mœtek hans ok heitom

  hóton, þymefótar.

  The last two couplets are corrupt and of doubtful meaning. I have been driven to a somewhat free rendering. ‘Stock’s sorrows syth’d of earth’ makes no sense: neither does the original (though Ernst A. Kock, op. cit. in note on p. 304, has amended the text and got some meaning from it). ‘Earth-dweller’s bed’, i.e. the worm’s bed (the Worm Fafnir)—gold.

  22 HOUSE-THING (hùsþing). Cf. Engl, ‘husting’. A council summoned from the immediate followers of a king or earl, usually to deal with some matter of immediate urgency.

  23 STEERED HER HIMSELF. The whole sentence reads, hann sagði leið fyrir honungs skipinu, en hann stýrði sjálfr. F.J. is probably right in saying, “en hann, i.e. King Eric”. In the sequel (same page) Ketil was steering, and Egil mistook him for the King, probably both because of the likeness and because it was known that the King usually steered himself.

  24 RUDDER…LOOPS. Stýristöng, which I have translated ‘rudder’, is properly ‘rudder-pole or rudder-stave’. We say ‘starboard’ (Icel. stjórnborði) of the right-hand side of a ship because that was where the rudder was in the viking time. See Hkr. IV, 445 for a full and interesting note on rudders. Loops (hamla) are used for rowlocks in Norway and Iceland (and elsewhere) to-day.

  25 STAVE (1). ‘Thunder-lord … heart’ (þrymrǫgner vígelds) þróttharþr)—Eric. ‘Wound-salmon’ (sárlax)—a sword: the ‘Sýr’ (a byname of Freyja) of that—a Valkyrie: the ‘quivering thorn’ (bitþorn) of the V.—a spear.

  26 STAVE (2). Lit. ‘So should the Gods pay him for robbing of my fee: Let the Binders sweep the king from the land: wroth be the Rulers, and Odin. Let the oppressor (lit. mower) of the folk flee from the lands, O Land’s-God. Frey and Niord, loathe Ye the people’s plague who hurteth the holy places’. This curse was no doubt held to have had its due effect next year, when Eric had to flee from Norway (p. 134).

  CHAPTER LVII

  1 BARE GUNNHILD A SON. Harald Greycloak, King of Norway, 961–970. He was fostered by Arinbiorn, who followed him into exile about 955 (ch. LXIX) and was his right-hand man till their death together at the Neck in the Limfirth.

  2 ROGNVALD. Elsewhere only mentioned in the list of the sons of Eric Bloodaxe in Flateyjarbók. F.J. thinks this is because he died so young. Some reject the whole story about Rognvald.

  3 THE BEACONS (Vitar). F.J. says they are an unidentified group of skerries. Aldi he identifies with the mod. island of Alden in the Firdafylke.

  4 STAVE. ‘When young.’ He is now about 32 or 33.

  5 CARAVEL (karfi). See note on ‘Long-ship’.

  6 A BEAR. Common enough in Norway in ancient times, and fairly common in certain parts (e.g. in Jostedal) comparatively recently, but now rare. See the stories about bears in Mr Cecil Slingsby’s Norway, the Northern Pl
ayground, ch. xx.

  7 NEBS OF WOOD (skógarnef). I.e. straggling ‘noses’ of wood and undergrowth jutting out from the main forest.

  8 BUSINESS. They asked hvat hann hefði syslat. Sysla is the regular word for a job or piece of business. Its use here has the characteristic grim humour of meiosis.

  9 STAVE. ‘Bough…ling-firth mackerel’ (lyngs fjarþǫlna ljósheims bǫrr), ‘ling’s firth’—land; ‘mackerel’ (ölun) of that—a serpent or worm; the ‘shining home’ (ljósheim) of that—gold; the ‘bough of gold’—a man. ‘Bedfellow of Bor’s Son’ (beþja Bors niþjar), i.e. of Odin: His ‘bedfellow’—the earth. ‘I have given the earth a bloody head-dress.’

  10 ALL WRATHFUL (allreiðr). The berserk rage, probably. The violence of this scene is immeasurably enhanced by the tense quietude of the narrative.

  11 STAVE. ‘War-flame’ (vígleiptr)—sword. ‘Saplings of ocean-moon’ (þollar lagar mána), i.e. of ‘ocean-brightness’, i.e. of gold (cf. the familiar Rheingold story, which is based on the far older Volsung story, C.P.B. vol. I, p. 31)—men.

  12 SCORN-POLE (níðstöng). See special note, p. 249.

  13 STAVE. See special note, p. 247.

  CHAPTER LVIII

  1 This little conversation between father and son is highly illuminating and diverting to the onlooker.

  2 SKALLAGRIM’S DEATH. Cf. the similar incident in Eb. 33, of Arnkel’s burial of his wicked old father, Thorolf Haltfoot: “Now Arnkel went into the fire-hall, and so up along it behind the seat at Thorolf’s back, and bade all beware of facing him before lyke-help was given to him. Then Arnkel took Thorolf by the shoulders, and must needs put forth all his strength before he brought him under. After that he swept a cloth about Thorolf’s head, and then did to him according to custom. Then he let break down the wall behind him, and brought him out thereby, and then were oxen yoked to a sledge, and thereon was Thorolf laid out, and they drew him up into Thors-water-dale”. Magnússon in his note on this (Eb. p. 282) says, “It would seem that in those times it was customary to teach him who was supposed to be likely to walk again a way to the house which did not lead to the door of it, but to the obstructing wall—a custom which seems to trace its origin to the imagination that ghosts being brainless were devoid of initiative”. Skallagrim’s grave was excavated some years ago by the late Síra Einarr Friðgeirsson, the learned parson at Borg. No human remains were found (they had probably been shifted to consecrated ground after the change of faith), but horses’ bones and other relics were dug up, and Síra Einarr showed me a tooth which no doubt belonged to Skallagrim’s horse, who, as the saga tells us, was buried with him.

  CHAPTER LIX

  1 HAKON ATHELSTANE’S-FOSTERLING. Also called Hakon the Good, a name which he seems to have deserved: reigned 934–60. He was privately a Christian, and tried to christen Norway, but without success (Hak. 15–20). For the story of his birth and fostering with King Athelstane, see Har. Hfr. 40–43. He fell, æt. circ. 40, in the moment of victory, at the battle of Fitiar in Stord.

  2 ERIC BLOODAXE IN NORTHUMBERLAND. There is disagreement as to the date of Eric’s rule in Northumberland, and some will have it not earlier than 948. There are reasons (see note, p. 280 on ‘Wina-heath’) for putting Egil’s visit to York in 937. That Eric ruled in York, and that the events here narrated are substantially historic, there is no reason to doubt.

  3 FASHION OF A LITTLE MAN. Icel. ‘lítilmannligt’.

  4 GARTH. See note, p. 267.

  5 STAVE. ‘Rope-core of Harald’s hard-spun line’ (snarþátt Haralds áttar), lit. ‘the hard-spun cord of Harald’s line’ (ætt—family).

  6 NIGHT-SLAYINGS ARE MURTHERS (náttvíg eru morðvíg). Cf. D. s.v. morð, where it is explained that in ancient times murder (morð) and manslaying (víg) were distinguished. To slay a man and give notice of the fact forthwith was víg, and might (if those in charge of the resulting blood-feud were willing) be atoned for by paying boot. But stealthy and secret killing was murder, and the doer of it became ‘morðvargr’, ‘murder-wolf’, and was out of the pale of the law.

  7 A MAN TO BE MOCKED AND TEASED (ertingamaðr). From erta, ‘to taunt, tease, provoke’.

  8 BRAGI. F.J. says he is the earliest historic Norse skald we know by name: fl. circ. 800–50. He was Arinbiorn’s great-grandfather on the mother’s side.

  9 SHAPE-CHANGER (hamhleypa). Or ‘skin-leaper’; one who leaps from his (or her) own human skin into that of, e.g., a swallow. Cf. note on ‘Shape-strong’, p. 245.

  CHAPTER LX

  1 HÖFUĐLAUSN. The rush and tumult of this great war-song can hardly be attained by a translation: unless indeed we find a poet to translate it who is, in a manner of speaking, Egil born again. I give the first stave as it reads in the original, with a literal translation, so as to help the reader to form an idea of the metre and movement of the poem and (as one compares a portrait with the sitter) to gather the principle underlying the present version and the mark it has aimed at but never fully attained:

  Vestr komk of ver,

  West came I over sea

  en ek Viþres ber

  And I bare Vidrir’s

  munstrandar mar,

  Wish-strand’s ocean:

  svá’s mítt of far;

  So is my (way) of faring;

  drók eik á flot

  Drew I oak afloat

  viþ ísabrot,

  With the breaking of the ice;

  hlóþk mærþar hlut

  Loaded I with booty of praise

  munknarrar skut.

  My wish-ship’s keel.

  The stave consists of four couplets; within each couplet the lines rhyme and are also related by alliteration. The structure of the poem is symmetrical: 16 eight-line staves, like the above, arranged thus: 5: 2: 2: 2: 5; and 4 four-line verses which, coming in at the divisions (:), form a changing burden.

  St. 1. ‘West over sea’; the British Isles were still ‘West over sea’ to Icelanders, who still looked at the world with their mind’s eye pointing from Norway. ‘God’s wish-strand’s spray’—poetry.

  St. 2. ‘Odin’s drink’—poetry.

  St. 4. Last four lines:

  Þar heyrþesk þá,

  þaut mækes á

  malmhríþar spá,

  sús mest of Iá.

  Lit. ‘There was heard then the song of the iron-storm, the sword-river whistled (þaut), which ran most in spate’. Mestr of liggja of a river in spate is idiomatic in Icel. to-day.

  St. 5. Last four lines:

  þars í blóþe

  í brimels móþe

  vǫllr of þrumþe

  und véom glumþe.

  Lit. ‘The field of the seal thundered in wrath under the banners, there where it wallowed in blood’.

  St. 7. Third couplet:

  œxto under

  jǫfra funder.

  I have throughout this book translated jöfurr ‘war-lord’. Its primary (but very rare) meaning is a ‘wild boar’: its metaphorical and common meaning, in poetry, probably arises from kings and lords in early times wearing boar’s-head helms.

  St. 8. Second couplet:

  beit bengrefell,

  Þat vas blóþrefell.

  Blóðrefill is a curious word. It means the point of a sword; query, with original reference to its coming out at the other side of your enemy after a good thrust. (D. says, “Does ‘refill’ here mean a snake!”)

  ‘The sword-belt’s ice’ (fetelsvell)—i.e. the sword. ‘Odin’s oaks’—men.

  St. 9 (Burden). Original:

  Þar vas odda at

  ok eggja gnat.

  Orþstír of gat

  Eiríkr at þat.

  St. 10. ‘Night-hags’ horses’ (flagþs gote); cf. Thorvald Hialtison’s stave on the battle of Fyrisfield where Styrbiorn the Strong fell in 983:

  Fari til Fyrisvallar folka tungls hverr es hungrar,

  verðr at virkis garði vestr kveld-riðo hesta.

  ‘Fare to Fyrisfield whosoever of the moon-folk (i.e
. wolves) hungereth: food at the western garth for night-riders’ stallions’ (C.P.B. vol. 11, p. 62).

  Last couplet:

  Traþ nipt Nara

  náttverþ ara.

  Lit. ‘Nari’s sister (i.e. the Goddess Hell) trod the night-meal of eagles’.

  St. 12 (Burden). Text is obscure in first couplet. I read:

  Kom gnauþar læ

  á Gjálfa skæ.

  Bauþ ulfom hræ

  Eiríkr of sæ.

  ‘Gjalfi’, a sea-king; his ‘steed’—a ship. Last couplet, lit. ‘Eric offered wolves carrion by sea’. Sea-fights were commonly fought near enough to land to enable the wolf to enjoy the leavings.

  St. 13:

  Lætr snót saka

  sverþ-Freyr vaka,

  en skers Haka

  skíþgarþ braka,

  brusto broddar

  en bito oddar,

  báro hǫrvar

  af bogom ǫrvar.

  Lit. ‘Frey of the Sword (i.e. Odin, God of Battles; or, possibly, by a not uncommon poetic licence, Eric) lets wake the Lady of Sakes or Quarrels (i.e. the Valkyrie), and lets break the wooden fence (i.e. bulwark) of the skerry of Haki (i.e. of the ship, Haki being a sea-king)’; etc. This stave and the next bring the battle-picture to its climax, where the rush of imagery, borne up by every technical device of which the metrical form is capable, makes the poetry like a leaping flame.

  St. 15 (Burden). ‘Wound-bees’ (unda bý)—arrows.

  St. 16. The second half of this stave is obscure, and probably corrupt:

  Verpr ábrǫndom

  en jǫforr lǫndom

  heldr hornklofe,

  hann’s næstr lofe.

  The meaning of Hornklofi is conjectural. I have taken it as meaning the raven, and referring to Eric’s banner.

  St. 17. ‘Wristglow’ (bógvite)—gold rings. ‘Hawk-strand’—the hand; ‘ore’ of that—gold. ‘Frodi’s flour’ (Fróþa mjǫl), lit. ‘meal’; again—gold; F.J. quotes the story of Frodi, the Dane-King, and his magic mill.