Egill Skallagrímsson (modern Icelandic
pronunciation: [ˈɛiːjɪtl̥
ˈskatl̥akrimsɔn];
c. 904 - c. 995)[1] was a Viking-Age poet, warrior and farmer.[2] He is known mainly as the protagonist of Egil's Saga. Egil's Saga historically
narrates a period from approximately 850 to 1000 CE and is believed to
have been written between 1220 and 1240 CE.[2]
Life
The following is
based on the Icelandic saga Egil's saga; like many sagas, it can be
unreliable as a source of historical fact.
Egill was born in Iceland, and was the son of Skalla-Grímr Kveldúlfsson[3] and Bera Yngvarsdóttir, and the
grandson of Kveld-Úlfr ("Night Wolf"). His
ancestor, Hallbjorn, was Norwegian-Sami.[4]
When Grímr arrived in
Egill composed his first poem at the
age of three years. He exhibited berserk behaviour, and this, together with
the description of his large and unattractive head, has led to the theory that
he might have suffered from Paget's
disease, which
causes a thickening of the bones and may lead eventually to blindness.[5]
At the age of seven, Egill was
cheated in a game with local boys. Enraged, he went home and procured an axe,
and returning to the boys, split the skull to the teeth of the boy who cheated
him.[6] After Berg-Önundr refused to allow
Egill to claim his wife Ásgerðr's share of her father's inheritance, he
challenged Önundr to a man-to-man fight on an island or holmgang.
Later, after being grievously
insulted, Egill killed Bárðr of Atley, a retainer of King Eirik Bloodaxe and kinsman of Queen Gunnhildr,
both of whom spent the remainder of their lives trying to take vengeance.
Seething with hatred, Gunnhildr ordered her two brothers to assassinate Egill
and his brother Þórólfr, who had been on good terms with her previously.
However, Egill slew the Queen's brothers when they attempted to confront him.
Gunnbildr's brother's names were Eyvind Braggart and Alf Aksmann.
In spring Þórólfr and Egill got
ready a large warship and went the Eastern route
(Austrvegr), where they won much wealth and had many battles. In Courland they made a peace for half a month and traded
with the men of the land. (ch. 46).
That same summer, Harald Fairhair died. In order to secure his place
as sole King of Norway, Eirik Bloodaxe murdered his two brothers. He then
declared Egill an outlaw in
"Here I set up a níð-pole, and declare
this níð against King Eiríkr and Queen Gunnhildr,"—he turned the
horse-head to face the mainland—"I declare this níð at the
land-spirits there, and the land itself, so that all will fare astray, not to
hold nor find their places, not until they wreak King Eiríkr and Gunnhildr from
the land." He set up the pole of níð in the cliff-face and left it
standing; he faced the horse's eyes on the land, and he carved runes upon the
pole, and said all the formal words of the curse. (ch. 57).
Gunnhildr also put a spell on Egill, which made him
feel restless and depressed until they met again.
Soon afterwards, Eiríkr and Gunnhildr
were forced to flee to the Kingdom
of Northumbria by
Prince Hákon. In Saxon England, they were set up as King and Queen
of Northumbria in rivalry with King Athelstan
of England.
Ultimately, Egill was shipwrecked in
The Vikings deemed it illegal to
kill a man during the night time. Arinbjorn told Egill that he should stay up
all night and compose a mighty head-ransom poem or drápa fit for such a
king, a poem in praise of his enemy. In the morning Egill went before king Eirik Bloodaxe and recited the great drápa.
This twenty-stanza long head-ransom poem appears in Chapter 63 of "Egil's saga". Eirik was so surprised by the quality of the
poem that he generously decided to give Egill his life, even though he had
killed his own son. The complex nature of these poems with unique word order
determined by sophisticated word choice and metaphor or kenning, as explained in the Poetic Edda, as well as the fact that they were
often about Kings and recited first in their royal presence ensures that seeds
of history abide in them, and the fact that professor Byock could diagnose Paget's
disease[5] from such poetry adds credence to
the truthfulness of their content. Such complex poems were remembered entirely,
as a whole cloth, or not at all. "Egil's saga" and other Icelandic sagas
appear to hang on a skeletal framework of such complex poetry, a spine of historical
truth.[7]
Egill also fought at the Battle
of Brunanburh in
the service of King Athelstan, for which he received payment in silver.[8]
Ultimately, Egill returned to his family
farm in Iceland, where he remained a power to be reckoned with
in local politics. He lived into his eighties and died shortly before the Christianisation of Iceland. Before Egill died he buried his silver treasure near Mosfellsbær. In his last act of violence he
murdered the servant who helped him bury his treasure.
When a Christian chapel was constructed at the family homestead,
Egill's body was re-exumed by his son and re-buried near the altar. According to the saga, the exhumed
skull bone was hit with an axe, and it only turned white, showing the strength
of the warrior, but also suggesting the traits of Paget's
disease.[5]
Issue
Egill had five
children with Ásgerðr Björnsdóttir: Þorgerðr Egilsdóttir, Bera Egilsdóttir, Böðvar
Egilsson, Gunnar Egilsson and Þorsteinn Egilsson. In later years,
Poems
Apart from being a warrior of
immense might in literary sources, Egill is also celebrated for his poetry,
considered by many historians to be the finest of the ancient Scandinavian
poets[5][9] and Sonatorrek, the dirge over his own sons, has
been called "the birth of Nordic personal lyric poetry". His poems
were also the first Old Norse verses to use end rhyme.[10]
The following works are attributed to Egill:
- Aðalsteinsdrápa. Drápa for the Anglo-Saxon King
Æthelstan.
- Höfuðlausn ("The Head Ransom", sometimes referred
to as "Head-Ransom"), with which Egill bought his life from Eiríkr
Bloodaxe, who had sentenced him
to death in England.
- Sonatorrek ("The Loss of a Son"). After the death of his son Böðvar
who drowned during a storm.
- Arinbjarnarkviða. Dedicated to his companion Arinbjörn
- Skjaldardrápa.
- Berudrápa.
- Lausavísur.
- Fragments
The following is one of Egill's Lausavísur
(no. 3), found in chapter 40 of Egils Saga:
Edition[11]
Þat
mælti mín móðir,
at
mér skyldi kaupa
fley
ok fagrar árar,
fara á brott með víkingum,
standa upp í stafni,
stýra dýrum knerri,
halda
svá til hafnar
höggva mann ok annan.
Translation by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards[12]
"My mother wants a price paid
To purchase my proud-oared ship
Standing high in the stern
I'll scour for plunder.
The stout Viking steersman
Of this shining vessel:
Then home to harbour
After hewing down a
man or two."
More literal translation (Wikipedia)
"Thus spake my mother
That for me should they buy
A barque and beauteous oars
To go forth with vikings.
Stand in the stern,
Steer a dear vessel,
Hold course for a haven,
Hew down many
foemen."
Runes
Egill was also a scholar of runes. His apparent mastery of their magic powers
assisted him several times during his journeys. During a feast at Atla-isle,
Bard's attempt to poison Egill failed when a rune carved by Egill shattered his
poisoned cup.
At a companion's request, he
examined a sick woman. A local land owner, after being denied her hand in
marriage, had attempted to carve love-runes. Instead, he had mistakenly carved
runes causing illness. Egill burned the offending runes and carved runes for
health, and the woman recovered. He then sang a poem declaring that "Runes
none should grave ever/Who knows not to read them."
Both these incidents are quite
believable. Most poisons of the period were strong alkaloids which would cause
cow-horn drinking cups to fray. This was one reason for their use. When Egill
carved the rune, in all likelihood he had spotted the fraying (which he would
have been looking for) and used it to disguise why he pried at the cup.
As for the sick young woman, in
addition to burning the runes, Egill ordered her to be lifted out of bed and
her old bedding to be thrown away and replaced with new sheets. Recovery was
swift.
Runes were also employed by Egill
during the raising of the Nithing Pole against King Eirik Bloodaxe and Queen
Gunnhildr.
Egill in popular culture
- The Icelandic brewery Ölgerðin
Egill Skallagrímsson is named
after him.
- There is a talk show on Icelandic television
called Egill's Silver, named after Egill's hidden treasure. This,
however, was also a double joke, since the host's first name is Egill.
- "Egill's Silver" is also the name of a
song by Megas, from his first album.
- In the SCA Barony of Adiantum there
is an "Egil Skallagrimsson Memorial Tournament" held annually on
memorial day weekend.
- The novelist Poul Anderson (a member of the SCA) wrote Mother of
Kings,[13] a historical fantasy centered on Gunnhildr and the long feud that she, Eirikr, and their children had with Egill. The novel is based on Heimskringla and Egils Saga.
- "Egil Saga" is a song on the album Licht
by the German band, Faun. The
lyrics are taken from "Egils Saga" and tell the story of the girl made sick by the runes and
how Egil cured her.
Footnotes
1.
Palsson and Edwards pp. 248-49
2.
Thorsson, 3
3.
Skalla- refers to his baldness and Grímr was a frequent name, being one
of the names of Óðinn, but also being a heiti for snake, billy-goat
and dwarf
4.
Pálsson, Hermann. "The
Sami People in Old Norse Literature." Nordlit 3.1 (2012): 29-53. "The
following nouns were used about people of mixed
parentage:".."halftroll 'a half troll'. This is used as the nickname
of Hallbjorn of Ramsta in Namdalen, father of Ketill hoengr, and
ancestor of some of the settlers of
5.
Byock, Jesse L. (January 1995). "Egil's Bones". Scientific
American. pp. 82-87. Retrieved 2015-07-06 - via The Viking Site.
6.
"Egil at the Ball-Play". Egil's Saga.
7.
Johnson, Kevin. "What Made the Vikings Tick?".
8.
"Egil's Saga". The
Sagas of Icelanders. Penguin Books, 2000. 109-119. Print.
9.
"Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal". Medievalists.net. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
10.
Jansson 1980:26-27
11.
Edited by Margaret Clunies
Ross at Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.
12.
Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards
(trs.). Egil's Saga. Harmondsworth, 1976. p. 94
13.
New York: Tor (ISBN 0-765-34502-1, ISBN 978-0-7653-4502-8), 2001, 2003
References
· Jansson, Sven B. (1980). Runstenar. STF,
·
Palsson, Hermann
and Edwards, Paul (Translators), Egil's Saga 1976, Penguin Classics
· Thorsson, Örnólfur, ed. (2000). The Sagas of the
Icelanders: A Selection. New York, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-100003-1
External links
Poems, Skaldic
Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.
In English:
- Egil's saga - English
translation (W. C. Green) at the Icelandic Saga Database, with original
Old Norse and Icelandic text
- Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal by Christina von Nolcken, from a University of
Chicago website
- Egil's Bones, from a University of California, Los Angeles website
- Text of the saga, translated into English by Rev. W. C. Green in 1893, from the Northvegr Foundation
In Icelandic:
- Egils
saga—Text of Egils saga at the Icelandic Saga
Database, modern spelling and Old Norse version
- Text of Egill's saga, with
modern spelling
- Höfundur Egill
Skallagrímsson
- [1]
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