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Sigurd watches as Regin reforges the sword Gram; Hylestad church door

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I already drew Sinfjotle and Godmundr from Norse mythology but I wanted to make a comic that really illustrated how stupid their shouting match in the Eddas is. It’s mostly Sinfjotle calling Godmundr a whore because he likes to bottom and Godmundr calling Sinfjotle an animal because he lived like one as a kid. There’s also some stuff about both of them sleeping with lower class and old women.

It should also be noted that Sinfjotle and his men are compared to wolves while Godmundr and his army are compared to horses. Both animals are sacred to some extend in Norse mythology and they’re both liked by Odin (Even though Godmundr is a jotun which is why he can get pregnant. Think of Loki), so neither of them were supposed to be the bad guy in this.

So yeah, it’s just two guys who used to be in a serious relationship but broke up and now they hate each other. A tale as old as time.

And yes, it does indeed end with Sinfjotle flipping the fuck out and his brother telling him to calm down.

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Norse readalong wk 12

Well, that wrapped up with quite a lot of action, and some real surprises. Having not skimmed ahead even to read chapter titles, I thought we were done with Thorolf Twist-foot haunting people and places!! It was remarkable how much effort they had to go through to finally get rid of him, and even after burning the corpse it seems he somehow was still causing problems, through the bull. I don’t know whether I think the bull was Thorolf in some manner, or just Like That because the cow had eaten Thorolf’s ashes.

It was nice to get a little wrapping up of some of the stories of the other people in the saga, like the “mysterious” old man who wanted to send some things to Thurid and Kjartan.

I’m annoyed I didn’t realize until now that there’s a map at the back of the book; that would have made the distances and places mentioned through make more sense. And from this it appears that in chapter 61, Thrand covers at least 40 miles in one day, which is pretty damn impressive even for someone who is a fast runner, considering it was winter and all.

One of my favorite things about this saga is how very matter-of-fact the style of the story-telling is. The facts about hauntings are delivered the same way as notes about the weather or someone being dealt a horrific wound, and then there are little details just dropped in the same way, like Thrand being helped out of his “wet clothes” when he gets to Snorri’s place. The very very dry humor (I assume) worked in here and there was fun.

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I am celebrating the solstice the traditional way: by refusing to go outside because monsters will get me.

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“What would your ancestors think” I dunno, are we talking about the one who got into a feud with an alleged witch over a matter of one dollar, the one who (non-lethally) stabbed so many people his nickname literally translates as “the Knife”, the one who managed to get himself legally convicted of vampirism, or the one who spontaneously combusted? Like, my family tree is not exactly the first place I’d look for normative moral guidance, is what I mean to say.

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Eyrbyggja Saga 59-65:

 I would love to read Glæsir if I could find it cheaply enough

I don’t personally think the bull is Thorolf exactly, so much as the last dregs of the curse that he had carried, and that had used him to deliver its payload, though I expect others’ opinions will differ

dapple grey is the classic colouring for a supernatural beast, as in this tale from Landnámabók (my translation):

2.10.133: “Auðunn sá um haust, at hestr apalgrár rann ofan frá Hjarðarvatni ok til stóðhrossa hans. Sá hafði undir stóðhestinn. Þá fór Auðunn til ok tók inn grá hestinn ok setti fyrir tveggja öxna sleða ok ók saman alla töðu sína. Hesturinn var góðr meðfarar um miðdegit, en er á leið, steig hann í völlinn til hófskeggja, en eftir sólarfall sleit hann allan reiðing ok hljóp til vatnsins. Hann sást aldri síðan.”

(Auðunn saw during autumn that a dapple grey horse ran down from Hjarðarvatn and to his stud horses. That one subdued the stallion. Then Auðunn went to and brought in the grey horse and harnessed it to a two-ox sledge and carted all the hay in his hayfield. The horse was easy to manage until mid-day, but then as time passed he trod into the field up to his fetlocks, and after sunset he broke all the harness and ran to the water. He was never seen again.)

another tale a bit later in the same book involves a dude who exhausts his mare in a race and has to come back for her the next day: he finds her with a grey stallion and this leads to a horse being born called Eiðfaxi, which Landnámabók, in its annoyingly concise manner, tells us was the death of seven men in a day, losing his own life as well, without saying how

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Eyrbyggja Saga Week 12 Prompts

Welcome to Week 12 of Eyrbyggja Saga and the final chapters! This week (Dec. 14th 2020—End) we’re reading chapters 59—65, as laid out in Hermann Pálsson’s translation. This week’s section starts off as follows:

Snorri the Priest took over the case against Ospak and his men from Alf the Short….And so we end this story about the people of Thor’s Ness, Eyr, and Altafjord.

Snorri goði tók við málum Álfs hins litla öllum á hendur þeim Óspaki….Og lýkur þar sögu Þórsnesinga, Eyrbyggja og Álftfirðinga.

Below are some prompts to invoke discussion. You don’t have to answer them (unless you want to), and you’re welcome to ask questions of your own for the group to discuss! We ask that you participate at least once a week in one form or another, be it through a response paragraph, fanart, etc., but you’re free to choose whatever topic you’d like. Remember to DM a link to your responses to @edderkopper so we can find them!

1.     Prosecuted by Snorri the Priest on behalf of Alf the Short, Ospak is sentenced to outlawry. According to Gragas or the Grey Goose Laws, there were stipulations embedded to protect those associated with the lawbreaker, such as the partner and heirs being accounted to in the form of bride-price etc. when wealth was to be divided as compensation (Gragas I). How does Ospak screw this all up legally speaking? 

2.     Why is the attention of the saga’s last chapters fixed so heavily on outlawry and the hoarding of wealth, and specifically the terror raised by Ospak around the community? Do we know of a creature also representative of these qualities? How does this reflect on Snorri the Priest and in general the social climate of the land?

3.     How is the term Viking/Vikings used in this saga?

4.     Bet you thought you’d seen the last of Thorolf Twist-Foot! Why might draugar be connected to farms? What is one of the worst fears the community has with regards to Thorolf’s haunting? Why throw his ashes into the sea?

5.     Bet y’all also thought the seal would be the end of weird funky animals too—hah! Yeah, right! Does the haunting of the cow follow any spooky patterns of traditional draugr possession? Think about setting, the cows’ coloring, etc.

6.     Do you think Thorolf is the bull and if so: Imagine you are Thorolf—could you ever be that pissed off to contrive a way to come back to life as a cloven bull? What is it that you think fuels his need to stay in the land of the living at all costs? (Bonus Recommendation: Check out Ármann Jakobsson’s book Glæsir)! OR what evidence do we have to suggest that the bull isn’t Thorolf?

7.     We are not even given a name for Thorodd’s Foster-Mother throughout the entire haunting incident. How are elderly woman regarded in the saga, and why might this be? Is there a duality to their character culturally and literarily? What does the purpose of skadic verse serve for this “old woman?”

8.     What can you glean about the reception of Icelanders within the frame of sagas as detailed in Chapter 64? What do you think about the mystery of Bjorn the Breidavik-Champion?

9.     Finally: What was your favorite part of the saga? Did you like the story, or do you have any critiques? Any lasting questions you yourself want to share? Let’s keep the conversation going with your fellow readers!  

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Norse Readalong Week 11

Trying to catch up! I really apologize for not being on top of things as I usually am. My area going back into lockdown threw a big wrench into a lot of my plans for this week.

Because I am a huge ocean nerd, I decided to research Icelandic seals to see exactly how spooky the ghost seal was. The passage doesn’t seem to specify which species it is, even when I peek at the Icelandic, so let’s have a look at what our options are. (Under a cut because many seal photos.)

Keep reading

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Eyrbyggja Saga 52-58:

My housemate, something of a connoisseur of horror, reckons that seal coming out of the floor was one of the most scary and disturbing things he has ever read!

Anyway, driftage. Iceland originally had forests, but they were quickly cut down, and it never had trees of very great size. And you needed wood for making nearly everything, including ships, without which you would be unable to trade, raid, fish, or leave. Iceland really didn’t have much in the way of building wood, and big bits of timber either had to be imported, or found as driftwood (and we aren’t talking about the little sticks I am familiar with on UK beaches, but bloody great trees from the forests of the east coast of North America). Driftage also included washed up whale carcasses, a sudden very large supply of meat. Hence rights to driftage being an important thing and the instances of fighting over it in the sagas. I can’t for the life of me remember where this is, but there is a scene where some dude is pleased with assistance he receives in some matter or other, so he orders the blubber pits opened, and all his helpers given one or two horse-loads of whale meat that has been stored for who knows how long: party on dudes! I am going to continue to focus on the wood. Here’s an interesting account from Landnámabók:

“Hallsteinn, sonr Þórólfs Mostrarskeggs, nam Þorskafjörð ok bjó á Hallsteinsnesi. Hann blótaði þar til þess, at Þórr sendi honum öndvegissúlur. Eftir þat kom tré á land hans, þat er var sextigi ok þriggja álna ok tveggja faðma digrt. Þat var haft til öndvegissúlna, ok eru þar af gervar öndvegissúlur nær á hverjum bæ um þverfjörðuna. Þar heitir nú Grenitrésnes, er tréit kom á land.”

(Hallstein, son of Þórólfr Mostrarskegg, settled Þorskafjörðr and lived at Hallsteinsnes. He sacrificed there in order that Þórr would send him high seat pillars. After that a very large tree came ashore on his land. It was used for high seat pillars, and from it were made pillars for every nearby farm around the fjord-tributary. Where the tree came ashore is now called Grenitrésnes).

Another interesting account is Sabine Baring-Gould’s spectacularly rude and arrogant (so much so that it goes right through offensive and becomes funny) travelogue of a trip to Iceland in 1862. There being no trees left for firewood in large parts of the country, travellers crossing the heaths (including Baring-Gould’s party) resorted to digging up willow roots, all that remained of the former forests. His guide assured him that these would never run out, but were already becoming hard to find. One wonders what this did for the soil erosion situation.

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The word ‘ergi’, like the word ‘trollskapr’, is not uncommon in Old Norse-Icelandic. Another thing these words have in common is we think we know what they mean.

Ármann Jakobsson, from “The Trollish Acts of Þorgrímr the Witch: The Meanings of Troll and Ergi in Medieval Iceland” (via prophet-9)

I feel moved to post something with slightly more substance than my regular AM meme jaunts this morning, and that’s a good article/quote so I don’t mind posting it alone, since he’s right: we certainly have an idea and textual examples of both of those, but not something as definitive and with a bit more nuance than I think often goes around the internet. Ármann is again very accessible and actually breaks down some various usages of the two words into loose categorizations with examples which is very helpful, although given the point of this paper and a lot of his other work on the subject you’ll want to remember that ‘loose’ descriptor.

If trolls, the undead, and other weirder appearances from the Old Icelandic sagas are something you’re interested in, his The Troll Inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North is still IMO the best entry point into that sort of thing and if you want to go deeper mine his excellent footnotes in the back; some other stuff by him has also been posted at @norsereadalong recently in this post and this post, but it’s also a page worth following if you’d like to read posts by a bunch of folks reading a Norse saga or participate (it’s Eyrbyggja Saga, and you’d have to do some catchup to actually jump in, but even if you don’t it’s a good follow)

If you’re interested in Old Norse Queer and Gender Studies, there’s a lot out there but a good place to start is Kyngervi Journal, which has both their issues online and open access and also links to the Norse Queer and Gender Studies Student Network, who runs the journal and also has a reading list available

(via prophet-9)

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Eyrbyggja Saga Prompts Week 11

Welcome to Week 11 of Eyrbyggja Saga! This week (Dec. 7th 2020) we’re reading chapters 52-58, as laid out in Hermann Pálsson’s translation. This week’s section starts off as follows:

 The farm at Frodriver had a large living room with a bed-closet behind it, as was usual in those days….Three of Ospak’s men were killed in the fight and one of Thorir’s, while a good many on either side were wounded.

Að Fróðá var eldaskáli mikill og lokrekkja innar af eldaskálanum sem þá var siður….Á þeim fundi féllu þrír menn af Óspaki en einn af Þóri en margir urðu sárir af hvorumtveggjum.

 Below are some prompts to invoke discussion. You don’t have to answer them (unless you want to), and you’re welcome to ask questions of your own for the group to discuss! We ask that you participate at least once a week in one form or another, be it through a response paragraph, fanart, etc., but you’re free to choose whatever topic you’d like. Remember to DM a link to your responses to @edderkopper so we can find them!

Alright, hope y’all are ready to talk a lot about ghosts, seals, and whales! Oh My!

1.     Right, so. Weird phenomenon galore! Urðarmáni, also known as a moon of destiny (weird moon), is an astrological omen that foreshadows death. Specifically, this is in relation to the people at Frodriver that take ill. What common theme can you find with regards to all these past omens? Are they all supernatural? Morally ambiguous? Meant to punish, correct, or just forewarn?

2.     Tis’ a cold season these Icelanders are enduring—what about the setting and timing is important for this particular string of haunting?

3.     How does the author describe haunting and how do others get dragged into being ghostly specters? So far, we’ve seen draugr-like behavior born out of miserly mean behavior, and revenge. Is this the same protocol as before or is it weirdly parasitic? Where exactly might these ghosts have come from?

4.     In your opinion which haunting of a “creature” has been the spookiest—and does that supernatural creature represent anything or speak to the Old Norse culture in some significant way? (It’s okay, you can admit that the seal scared you a little, happens to the best of us).  All answers and considerations welcome, and remember, this saga was written during a time of internal strife! 

5.     Thorodd and his men wash up on shore, having drowned the night before and Thorir Wood-Leg and his buried friends join them from the grave—how does the community eradicate the ghost problem, and what does this say about the structure and values of Medieval Iceland at the time? In what did people readily put their faith in when faced with unwanted ghoulish guests?

6.      Why might driftage rights (washed up lumber, beached wales, etc.) be so crucial to Icelanders’ way of life and something that one is willing to die over? 

Further Free-Access Reading Below Pertaining to these chapters, and remember--you can DM @cousinnick and I’ll try to get you personally-tailored articles related to topics you’re curious about!

Ármann Jakobsson. “Vampires and Watchm: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead.”  Journal of English and Germanic Phi 2011, Vol. 110.3., pp. 281-300.

Ármann Jakobsson. The Troll inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North. Earth, Milky Way: Punctum Books, 2017.

Ármann, Jakobsson. “The Taxonomy of the Non-Existent: Some Medieval Icelandic Concepts of the Paranormal.” Fabula, 2013, vol. 54, pp. 199-213.

Kanerva, Kirsi. The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga. 2011.

Kanerva, Kirsi. “Restless Dead or Peaceful Cadavers? Preparations for Death and Afterlife in Medieval Iceland.” Dying Prepared in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe. ed. Anu Lahtinen and Mia Korpiola, Leiden: Brill, 2018.

Laurin, Dan. The Everlasting Dead: Similarities Between The Holy Saint and the Horrifying Draugr. Scandia, 2020. N. 3.

Maraschi, Andrea. The Weird Story of an Icelandic Ghost Named Þórgunna. Medievalist.net   

Phelpstead, Carl. Ecocriticism and Eyrbyggja Saga. 2014. 

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Norse readalong week 9

1.     What might the author be attempting to convey with Thorgerd’s reaction to Bergthor’s death wound? How is this subtle hint different than how the author depicts Thorodd and Thurid’s relationship in Chapter 47 and why does Snorri have to clean up the mess?

Hmm. HMMMMMMM sounds like maybe someone was having an illicit relationship with her husband’s brother??????? Or wished she had, or something along those lines. It was interesting that this wasn’t brought up nearly as often as Thurid and Bjorn carrying on; I guess Thorgerd and etc. aren’t as central to the overall goings-on in this saga.

As to why Snorri had to deal with his sister’s affair - I guess it’s the man’s job to clean up. I was a bit surprised he went right after Bjorn, with no mention of him having any conversation with his sister, but then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, since only men are granted agency here (and going to attempt to murder Bjorn is probably the more effective way to handle that). Why it took so many years to get that point wasn’t clear to me. Were the gifts Thorodd gave Snorri really that amazing? Cause I seem to recall him complaining in the past about the situation, and nothing changed.

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Eyrbyggja Saga Week 9

so thorgunna’s entire story is fuckin wild, huh?

i actually love the idea that thorgunna walking around the larder is a counterpoint to thorolf becoming a draugr.  her reinforcing the rules of hospitality and generosity in contrast with thorolf’s relative greed during his life is so interesting.  i love the otherness of thorgunna too - something about the way she enforces her very specific boundaries and her notably stiff mannerisms and speech is both endearing and relatable to me as an autistic person.  i have to confess i don’t actually know if the motif of a witch refusing to let anyone else touch their tools was commonly in use at the time but thorgunna and her rake seems like a fairly obvious and literal example of this.

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Eyrbyggja Saga 46-51:

Going to ignore Thorgunna and her ominous portents, and take a look at the settlement. This is a really common saga scene, the outcome of a battle with a bunch of killings and woundings, and the tallying up of these for each side to see what was left over and needed to be compensated for with silver.

(from Wikipedia page on weregild)

Although there was some kind of basic price list as regards weregild, and what compensation various maimings should attract, in these settlements people were also valued according to their general awesomeness, and a proper badass could be “worth” several ordinary dudes in such a reckoning. It must have been quite the skill to bring off a settlement that everybody agreed with and didn’t feel that they still had vengeance owing for something (or at least realised the stupidity of carrying on a particular feud until absolutely everybody was dead and took the opportunity to get out with dignity intact)

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Eyrbyggja Saga Prompts Week 9

Welcome to Week Nine of Eyrbyggja Saga! This week (Nov. 30th 2020) we’re reading chapters 46-51, as laid out in Hermann Pálsson’s translation. This week’s section starts off as follows:

 Steinthor of Eyr and his men rowed to the boat-shed at Bakki and hauled the boat ashore….They had an easy journey and got back safely.

Þá er þeir Steinþór af Eyri koma til nausta á Bakka settu þeir þar upp skip sitt….og tókst þeim allt greitt um sína ferð og komu með öllu heilu heim.

 Below are some prompts to invoke discussion. You don’t have to answer them (unless you want to), and you’re welcome to ask questions of your own for the group to discuss! We ask that you participate at least once a week in one form or another, be it through a response paragraph, fanart, etc., but you’re free to choose whatever topic you’d like. Remember to DM a link to your responses to @edderkopper so we can find them!

1.     What might the author be attempting to convey with Thorgerd’s reaction to Bergthor’s death wound? How is this subtle hint different than how the author depicts Thorodd and Thurid’s relationship in Chapter 47 and why does Snorri have to clean up the mess? As a refresher—Thorgerd is the wife of Thormod, the elder brother of Bergthor.

2.     The Icelandic Commonwealth was subject to Summon Days, where lawsuits were heard, and administrative matters attended to in one of the 4 (and later 5th) Quarter courts.

Do you find this system helpful in settling the compensation disputes after the Battle of Vigra Fjord in which every man dead canceled each other out? Are the laws depicted as preventing crime or settling the aftermath and can this be related to the honor-system and the independent fighting spirit so sought after in the sagas? How do you feel about one man’s death being compensation for Thorleif Kimbi’s suffered assault?

3.     Let’s see…what did we learn in Chapter 49! Christianity comes to Iceland as everyone knows in 999/1000 C.E. after a very interesting debate! Iceland practices proprietary churches in which private land could be converted into a place of worship wherein the owner of the land gained proprietary profits! Well…obviously, the conversion was not as simple as that, but I’m curious to see what y’all know about the conversion of the Icelandic Common-wealth and what might have been the incentives to convert!

Some readers have highlighted the importance of conversion and power in previous prompts, but what is to be gained and what is to be lost? Why convert after all this time?

Bonus points if you can name the three “exceptions” demanded by the Pagan worshippers of the island before they converted! As always, there will be article links related to this featured below for the curious.

 4.     It is the lady of the hour, the one you have all been waiting for! Thorgunna is a famous figure in Old Norse scholarship, but who really is she? This isn’t the first witchy woman we’ve encountered, but what clues does the author gives us that might demarcate her as “witchy,” or “other,” compared to other characters? What foreshadows her demise, and is her awakening comparable to Thorlief Twist-Foot as a kind of Christian draugr?

 5.     Why does Thorgunna feel the need to appear before the farmers, and what is she doing besides fixin’ the weary coffin-bearers a nice little snack? What cultural lesson is learned with the burning of the clothes?

As promised, some additional readings and links! I know we go a little heavy on the Ármann Jakobsson, but he is a prolific writer, always makes his texts accessible, and is the king of Icelandic saga spookiness! If you find an article but can’t get access it, or want recommendations, just DM at @cousinnick and I’ll try to get a PDF to you!

Ármann Jakobsson. “Vampires and Watchm: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead.”  Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2011, Vol. 110.3., pp. 281-300.

Ármann Jakobsson. The Troll inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North. Earth, Milky Way: Punctum Books, 2017.

Ármann, Jakobsson. “The Taxonomy of the Non-Existent: Some Medieval Icelandic Concepts of the Paranormal.” Fabula, 2013, vol. 54, pp. 199-213. 

Late and Peaceful: Iceland's Conversion Through Arbitration in 1000. Jenny Jochens. SpeculumVol. 74, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 621-655 (35 pages)Published By: The University of Chicago Press

Kanerva, Kirsi. The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga. 2011.

Kanerva, Kirsi. “Restless Dead or Peaceful Cadavers? Preparations for Death and Afterlife in Medieval Iceland.” Dying Prepared in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe. ed. Anu Lahtinen and Mia Korpiola, Leiden: Brill, 2018.

Laurin, Dan. The Everlasting Dead: Similarities Between The Holy Saint and the Horrifying Draugr. Scandia, 2020. N. 3.

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Eyrbyggja Saga Week 8

i absolutely think it’s fair to call snorri the main character here.  even when he doesn’t have a hand in creating��the various events in the saga, he certainly has a vested interest in…almost everything so far.

my opinion of snorri as a person keeps changing chapter by chapter.  i don’t trust him as far as i can spit, but he’s not…awful.  i’m in agreement with eddie in that what is seen as being admirable in this story setting is not exactly what would be seen as moral now, or even necessarily at the time the saga was written.

Keep reading

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Eyrbryggja Saga Week 8

Welp, looks like everyone’s anger has finally boiled over. More than usual, I mean.

To respond to Nick’s prompts, I personally would say Snorri qualifies as the main protagonist of the saga. In terms of the overall amount of the story he’s present for, I feel like he’s actually around longer than some saga namesakes. For example, just doing a rough estimate based on chapter count, Egil Skallagrimsson’s life only takes up ~60% of his saga (59/92 chapters) whereas Snorri’s life takes up ~80% (53/65 chapters.) It’s true that Snorri’s not necessarily the driving force behind absolutely everything going on here, but again, the same could be said of Njal, who a lot of the time is mainly reacting to actions taken by other parties in the whole blood feud deal.

Is Snorri meant to be a good man? Eh. I feel that he was meant to be admirable, but being admirable and being of upstanding moral character don’t always go together in the sagas. Or our own literature, for that matter.

Jackson Crawford and others have done a lot of comparisons to westerns, and I think that’s a good analogy here. The actions of protagonists in Westerns often don’t align with modern moral or legal codes, and they are in some cases outlaws within their own narrative. But despite that, they’re typically framed as badass, and emblematic of a particular period in America’s past. Likewise, Snorri does some pretty shady stuff, but he embodies a lot of what the author views as the positive qualities of 10th century Iceland.

On a completely unrelated note, why was Egil the Strong so chill about this deal?

Why was anyone so chill about the spookiness?