Dokumen - Pub - Old Norse Womens Poetry The Voices of Female Skalds Translated From The Old Norse 1843842718 9781843842712 PDF

Old Norse
Women’s Poetry
THE VOICES OF FEMALE SKALDS
The LIBRARY of
MEDIEVAL WOMEN
Sandra Ballif StrauBhaar

Library of Medieval Women
Old Norse Women’s Poetry:

The Voices of Female Skalds
Library of Medieval Women ISSN 1369-9652
Series Editor: Jane Chance

The Library of Medieval Women aims to make available, in an English translation,
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Previously published titles in this series appear at the back of this book
Old Norse Women’s Poetry:
The Voices of Female Skalds
Translated from the Old Norse
Sandra Ballif Straubhaar
D. S. BREWER
© Sandra Ballif Straubhaar 2011
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First published 2011

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Contents
Foreword vii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
I. Real People, Real Poetry 11
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir nefju 12
Jórunn skáldmær 13
Gunnhildr konungamóðir 16
Steingerðr Þorketilsdóttir 16
Þórhildr skáldkona 17
Auðr Hvelpssystir und Hóli (Bróka-Auðr) 18
Steinunn Refsdóttir 18
Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir pá 20
Kerling í Tungu 21
II. Quasi-Historical People and Poetry 23
Fóstra Þórodds Þorbrandssonar 23
Arnfinnsdóttir jarls 24
Ármóðsdóttir skeggs 25
Unnr Marðardóttir 26
Bóndadóttir, Kerling, and Ambátt in Vǫlsa þáttr 28
Ásdís á Bjargi 31
Signý Valbrandsdóttir 32
Þorbjǫrg Grímkelsdóttir 32
Helga Bárðardóttir 34
Ólǫf geisli 35
Ketilríðr Hólmkelsdóttir 36
III. Visionary Women: Women’s Dream-Verse 39
Kona at Munka-Þverá 40
Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum 40
Halldóra Þórðardóttir 41
Kona ein í Svartárdal 41
Þuríðr at Fellsenda í Dǫlum 42
Kona skammt frá Þingeyrastað 43
Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir í Miðjumdal 43

IV. Legendary Heroines 49
Helreið Brynhildar 50
Signý Hálfdansdóttir 55
Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervararkviða) 56
V. Magic-Workers, Prophetesses, and Alien Maidens 71
Heiðr in Vǫluspá 72
Darraðarljóð 73
Grottasǫngr 77
Four Miscellaneous Spákona Sequences 85
1. Hrólfs saga kraka (Heiðr) 85
2. Ǫrvar-Odds saga (Heiðr) 86
3. Ǫrvar-Odds saga (Ǫlvǫr) 88
4. Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar (vǫlva) 88
Gyðja (Pagan Priestess) from Ǫrvar-Odds saga 89
Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir 91
Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir and Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir 93
Buslubœn 95
VI. Trollwomen 101
Bragi Boddason’s Trollwoman 102
Forað 102
Feima and Kleima 105
Hildigunnr Risadóttir 106
Vargeisa 106
Ýma, Hergunnr, and Margerðr 108
Hetta trollkona 111
Old Norse Literature Time Line 115
Glossary of Personal Names 117
Bibliography 129
Index of Names 135

Foreword
In chapter 32 of Laxdœla saga, a thirteenth-century Icelandic narrative

purporting to retell to us events from several centuries earlier, we are
introduced to one Auðr of Hóll in Saurbœr (Breiðafjǫrðr), a farmer
in Viking-Age Iceland. Her very name means Treasure, or Wealth;
perhaps this is not an accident, since she is that rare thing in early-
medieval Europe, namely, a woman owning land in her own right. She
is introduced not in the traditional way as ‘the fairest of women’ (‘allra
kvenna vænst’), but uniquely as ‘neither good-looking nor hard-working’
(‘ekki væn né gǫrvilig’). But we readers are expected to like her. It is
clear that the narrator likes her. Shortly after we meet her, we learn that
her husband, Þórðr Ingunnarson, is desired by the man-hungry Guðrún
Ósvífrsdóttir, who is already a well-known character in the saga. Guðrún
has convinced Þórðr to divorce Auðr on the perfectly legal grounds that
she wears men’s breeches. There must be some reason, argues Guðrún,
that the neighbors keep calling Þórðr’s wife ‘Bróka-Auðr’ (‘Breeches-
Auðr’). (Do they, in fact, call her that? We are never told.)
When Auðr hears that Þórðr has cast her out, she behaves as Icelandic
saga-heroes often do at moments of high drama, spitting out a line of
urgent poetry, cited later on in these pages. She then does the second
thing that Icelandic saga-heroes often do, namely, go to ground for the
winter and make plans.
In the following summer Auðr steps on stage again, stealing secretly
into her ex-husband’s new residence one night while Guðrún is out. At
this moment, the saga-author chooses to point out to us – seemingly
with a wink to the audience – that Auðr is wearing men’s breeches.
(Whether or not she has ever actually worn them in the past is left nicely
ambiguous, and irrelevant.) She finds Þórðr asleep in bed; she draws her
sword on him, striking not to kill, but only to cripple. She gashes him
across the nipples, successfully puts his sword-arm out of commission,
and leaves him pinned in the bed with the blade. Then she rides away,
presumably feeling the score to be now even.
This volume is intended to give voice to Auðr and her sisters,
namely, real and legendary early Nordic women whose exploits, poetic
and otherwise, were considered memorable enough to record in the
Middle Ages, and who deserve to be considered as equally memorable
today.
vii

viii Old Norse Women’s Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds
Auðr’s temper and brashness give her a similar cachet to that of

the better-known (male) saga-(anti)hero, Skarphéðinn of Njáls saga,
who is famous for his pride, his impetuosity, and his perpetual feral,
tooth-baring grin. Both Auðr and Skarphéðinn are skǫrungar, people
who make a difference in history. These skǫrungar, figures in the sagas
who have left their mark on events and on folk memory, are commonly
remembered as skalds as well; this means that, like Auðr, they are said
to have marked the notable events of their lives with verse, delivered
spontaneously and passionately on the spur of the moment.
In the pages that follow I have gathered together as many of Auðr’s
sisters as I could find, women characters who are remembered in sagas
(family sagas, historical sagas, legendary sagas and late romantic sagas)
and related texts as composers of poetry.
Readers of this book are invited to seek out the full textual
environments cited here in brief, particularly those readers who are
new to the multifaceted world of Old Norse literature. The Penguin
volume, The Sagas of Icelanders,1 containing a selection from the
Leifur Eiríksson multi-volume English-version set,2 is a fine place to
start, although both of these anthologies are limited to only one saga
genre, the Icelandic family saga. Original texts for these same sagas,
plus some historical and legendary sagas as well, are available in Old
Norse (spelling conventions vary) at Snerpa.is.3 Some of them are also
found in Old Norse and a handful of modern languages at the Icelandic
Saga Database,4 as well as at many other locations on the Web.
This project has sat on my desk in various forms for quite a while,
long enough to see both academic and popular-culture constructions
of both medieval Scandinavians and medieval women go through
a series of bemusing and amusing changes. Those of us with an
academic interest in the Nordic Middle Ages continue to participate in
an ongoing symbiosis with the authors of popular historical novels and
feature films; with berserker re-enactors; with reconstructionist Æsir-
worshippers; and with other related interest groups. Continued popular
enthusiasm for vikings and medieval Scandinavia in general is good
for our line of work. Similarly, it has been fascinating to watch modern
and postmodern Scandinavians, both academic and otherwise, switch
several times in the past decades between embarrassment at, and pride
1
The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, with a Preface by Jane Smiley and an
Introduction by Robert Kellogg (New York: Penguin, 2000).
2
The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, ed. Viðar Hreinsson et al., 5 vols. (Reykjavík:
Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, 1997).
3
http://www.snerpa.is/net/fornrit htm (18 December 2009)
4
http://www.sagadb.org/ (11 July 2010)

Foreword ix
in, their warlike viking ancestors,5 and also to watch the interface of that
debate with popular-culture manifestations of that pride, from viking
markets to neopagan midsummer festivals.
The ongoing academic rediscovery of medieval women and their
histories, particularly medieval women with literary output, has similarly
been a joy to observe and, in a small way, participate in. In the case of
Nordic medieval women, the reader is referred especially to the works
of Jenny Jochens and Judith Jesch.6 It is hoped that this volume will be
considered a worthy contribution to such an inspiring conversation.
This project, as well as its earlier partial incarnations, has gone on
sufficiently long for the scholars and friends to whom I am indebted to
have become beyond count. One stands out from the throng, however:
special thanks are due to the eagle eyes of Shaun F. D. Hughes.
5
A case in point is the reaction of Swedish gadfly-journalist and popular
novelist Jan Guillou to the idea of Swedes being proud descendants of vikings.
Forget that, he says, in a column from 2000; we Swedes would be better off
acknowledging an eastern-Baltic ancestry, instead of this berserker stuff –
which only encourages neo-Nazis: http://wwwc.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/0007/10/
guillou html (18 December 2009).
6
Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press,
1991); Jenny M. Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society (Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1995); Jenny M. Jochens, Old Norse Images of Women
(Philadephia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).

Abbreviations
Full details of publications will be found in the Bibliography.
FJ Finnur Jónsson, Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning.

FSNL Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda
Kock Ernst Albin Kock, Den norsk-isländska skalde
diktningen
SPSMA Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages
(University of Sydney project under Margaret Clunies
Ross)
xi

Introduction
The scope of the present project

This book is an attempt to present, in one volume, a selection of notable
Old Norse (Old Icelandic) poetry in which the voice of the speaking
poet (skald, Icelandic skáld) is female. This poetry is attributed, in the
manuscripts, to skalds from the ninth to the thirteenth century, as well as
to numerous legendary figures impossible to verify or date. The poems
are generally presented in the manuscripts within a prose narrative
matrix, as speech acts performed by named women characters within
that narrative. (This is in marked contrast to such conventions as those,
common in some other European medieval traditions, in which, for
example, a male poet adopts a woman’s voice for rhetorical purposes.)
One can conclude, from the frequency of these female-voiced Old
Norse poetic texts, that the Old Norse poetic production environment
in the pre-manuscript era (however tentatively we might construct it or
extrapolate about it) exhibited no particular hostility or disbelief in the
face of the idea of women as composers and speakers of poetry.
It is very likely that the selection and preservation in manuscript
of these Old Norse women’s texts have been further assisted by the
relatively female-inclusive environments in which high-medieval
Icelandic vernacular manuscripts were produced, environments which
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir and Robert Kellogg have both investigated.1
Early-modern and modern editors have not been as favorable to women
as the medieval ones were, however, with the rather astonishing result
that this book represents the first published collection (that I know of) of
all the poetry attributed to Old Norse women skalds.
A first perusal of the standard twentieth-century collections of skaldic
poetry by Finnur Jónsson and Ernst Albin Kock2 is likely to lead the
1
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir, Skáldkonur fyrri alda, 2 vols. (Akureyri: Kvöldvökuútgáfan,
1961); 2nd ed. in one volume (Akranes: Hörpuútgáfan, 1995); Robert Kellogg, ‘Sex
and the Vernacular in Medieval Iceland,’ Proceedings of the First International Saga
Conference, Edinburgh, 1971, ed. Peter Foote, Hermann Pálsson, and Desmond
Slay (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1973), 244–58.
2
Finnur Jónsson, ed., Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning (Copenhagen and
Kristiania: Gyldendal, 1912–15; rpt. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger,
1967–73) – critical and normalized editions; Ernst Albin Kock, ed., Den norsk-
isländska skaldediktningen (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1946–50) – normalized
edition only; a response to Finnur.
1
2 Old Norse Women’s Poetry: The Voices of Female Skalds
reader to conclude that the corpus of preserved poetry in Old Icelandic

attributable to women poets (skáldkonur) is rather small. However, this
first impression may change somewhat by tracing the verses in Finnur’s
and Kock’s collections back to their original saga environments. It then
becomes clear, for instance, that a sizeable amount of the dream-verse
and prophetic fragments in Sturlunga saga was attributed to women,
or that that pithy epigram labeled ‘Fragment’ in the modern editions
was originally attributed to Bróka-Auðr in Laxdœla saga. Finnur’s and
Kock’s editions can thus be sifted to yield the following:
1. Eight pre-Christian Norwegian and Icelandic skáldkonur, cited in the
konungasögur, Íslendingasögur and related þættir;3
2. Eight Icelandic skáldkonur of the Sturlung Age (thirteenth century);4
3. Thirteen additional early skáldkonur from the Íslendingasögur and
þættir, but of more doubtful authenticity than the first group;
4. A number of shield-maidens, foreign princesses, witches, priestesses,
prophetesses, and troll-women cited as reciting verse in various
legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur).5
In connection with lists of this sort, however, we should bear in mind
that all of the surviving poetry, whether attributed to men or women,
must represent only a fragmented, random portion of the total amount of
poetry composed during the Middle Ages in Scandinavia.
The eight skáldkonur of the first group mentioned above were active
in the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh. The poetry of this
period was dominated by the complex dróttkvætt (‘court meter’) style
(see below), and all of the compositions of these eight skáldkonur, with
the possible exception of two kviðlingar (epigrams, too short to classify),
were composed in that meter. The earliest three of these skáldkonur,
Jórunn skáldmær (‘poet-maiden’), Hildr Hrólfsdóttir, and Gunnhildr
konungamóðir (‘mother of kings’), were Norwegians, tied to various
kings by obligations of family, or perhaps fealty (in Jórunn’s case). They
were probably active in court circles, where dróttkvætt had become
the fashionable mode of expression; accordingly, the subjects of their
poetry reflected events of interest at court. The remaining five women
poets in this first group were Icelanders. Their poetic commentaries
3
I have included these under Section I in the body of this book.
4
I have included these under Sections I and III in the body of this book.
5
The ‘Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages’ (SPSMA) critical-edition
project, incorporating Finnur, Kock and additional sources including runic
inscriptions, currently ongoing at the University of Sydney under the direction
of Margaret Clunies Ross and a team of editors, remedies this anti-attributive
bias to some degree, but still lists the stanzas of the Sturlung-Age visionaries
(male and female both) under ‘Anonymous’: http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/
db.php?table=verses&id=1468 (20 May 2008)
Introduction 3
on errant husbands or lovers (by Bróka-Auðr, Þórhildr skáldkona, and

Steingerðr Þorkelsdóttir), satires on Christian missionaries (by Steinunn
Refsdóttir), and exhortations addressed to lukewarm avengers (by
Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir) may have been noncourtly in theme, but they were
no less elegant as examples of the dróttkvætt style than the poetry of the
first three.
The eight skáldkonur of the second group are all known from
Sturlunga saga. One of them, Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir (á Keldum), is
also listed elsewhere, in the Skáldatal, as being a professional skald in
the pay of the Norwegian chieftain Gautr Jónsson (á Mel). However,
the extant half-stanza (vísuhelmingr) by her is not a poem in praise of
Gautr, but a poetic vision, as are all but one of the compositions in this
group. (The exceptional case is the single stanza by ‘Kerling í Tungu,’
the Old Woman of Tunga, which is a simple report of recent local
violence.) These poetic visions are always recounted in the same way.
The skáldkona is portrayed as having a dream or a vision, or seeing
an apparition, in connection with which she experiences the poetry,
which she recites upon awakening or coming out of the trance. All but
one of these visions are doom-prophecies presaging one of the great
climaxes of Sturlunga saga, the fall of Sturla Sighvatsson at the battle
of Ǫrlygsstaðir in 1238. Their style is chant-like and simple, using Eddic
meters (see Eddic and Skaldic Poetry, below), such as fornyrðislag and
galdralag, rather than dróttkvætt. The longest of them, eight stanzas of
dream-verse relating to the battle of Þverá (1255) by the sixteen-year-
old Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir, constitutes the largest body of poetry by a
single historically attestable woman that survives in Old Norse literature.
The skáldkonur of groups 3 and 4 above, incorporating the less-
historical women poets from the sagas of the Icelanders (Íslendingasögur)
as well as the women poets from the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur),6
are significant not so much for their own sake as for what they reveal
about the attitudes toward women and poetry among the thirteenth-
century redactors who compiled these sagas. As Guðrún P. Helgadóttir
has noted,7 the saga compilers seem to have been far readier to ascribe
lengthy poems to supernatural women or legendary heroines of long ago
than to their own recent female ancestors.
To sum up, then, the first entries in this collection, beginning with
Section I, are attributed to historically attestable women whose names
are otherwise known to us. The later entries, ending with Section VI,
are put into the mouths of female characters from legendary sagas or
folklore narratives. These figures may or may not have been thought
6
Comprising Sections II, IV, V and VI in the body of this book.
7
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir, Skáldkonur fyrri alda, I, 41.
real or historical by the scribes of the Icelandic manuscript age (twelfth

to fifteenth century) who recorded or copied the texts, often at a
considerable remove from the ‘lifetimes,’ real or legendary, of the skalds
cited. For me, such (unsolvable, and ultimately uninteresting) riddles
surrounding historicity (and its construction through time) take a back
seat to the bald fact that, flourishing within the well-known conventions
and boundaries of Old Norse saga-prose and spoken poetry, there are
cited twelve-hundred-plus lines of poetry issuing, within the narratives
themselves, from the mouths of women. (A not-uncommon way to
introduce such poetry is ‘Varð henni ljóð á munni,’ ‘A poem came into
her mouth.’8) I know of no other medieval vernacular literature that can
match this record.
One surprising outcome of this project has been that despite its
unconventional angle of entry, the composite portrait (historical,
mythological, legendary) of the worlds of Old Norse literary narrative that
emerges here is an entirely recognizable one, familiar to us from a broad
range of more traditional textual samplings, as a glance at the Glossary of
Names at the back of this book will show. Namely, the skáldkonur of this
book inhabit the same legendary, semi-historical and historical landscapes
as Sigurðr Fáfnir’s-Bane, Eiríkr the Red, Skarphéðinn Njálsson, and
any number of their more widely celebrated male counterparts from the
various saga genres. As outlined above, it is worth repeating that one
finds the skáldkonur of the present collection embedded in a variety of
prose environments: in fornaldarsaga (legendary-saga) texts derived,
at some remove, from Germanic Migration-Age legends; in the classic
Icelandic family sagas, which tell the reconstructed histories of Iceland’s
and Norway’s Viking Age, as well as the transition to Christianity in
Scandinavia; in the thirteenth-century contemporary narratives from
Iceland’s Sturlung Age; and also in a handful of other texts of mixed
genre. I hope that those readers who are not already acquainted with the
(admittedly, less woman-friendly) traditional canon of Old Norse sagas
and poetry will be encouraged, by the small glimpses presented here, to
read more widely in these textual traditions.
Eddic and skaldic poetry

The term skáld (related etymologically to English ‘scold,’ not
inappropriately, considering the playful and satirical tone of much
skaldic poetry) is a neuter noun, applicable to men or women as
needed. For instance, Skáld-Torfa (mother of the eleventh-century
Icelandic male skald Bersi Skáldtorfuson) and ‘Vilborg skáld’ (from
8
See Judy Quinn, ‘“Ok verðr henni ljóð á munni’ – Eddic Prophecy in the
Fornaldarsögur,” Alvíssmál 8 (1998), 29–50.
Introduction 5
Skáldatal, a thirteenth-century list of skalds) are two attested women

skalds, unfortunately without surviving poetry, who are named in
the manuscripts using the simple word skáld in an uncompounded
form. More often, however, women skalds are designated by gender-
specific bynames such as skáldkona (‘skald-woman,’ pl. skáldkonur) or
skáldmær (‘skald-maiden,’ pl. skáldmeyjar).
A skald could potentially compose poetry (skáldskapr) in any number
of modes and styles, including (but not at all limited to) that range of
styles that have been designated as ‘skaldic.’
This skaldic poetry was characterized by a number of strictly obeyed
features which made it both easily memorized and – happily for this
collection – relatively difficult to corrupt through time. Its golden age
was in the Viking Age (roughly, 800–1100), where it is recorded in the
sagas as having flourished not only in Iceland, but everywhere Icelandic
(and to a lesser degree, Norwegian) skalds lived or went, including
England, Ireland, the Orkneys, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and
Byzantium. The prototypical (but not exclusive) environment for the
delivery of a skaldic poem is a foreign court presided over by noble
persons whom the skald, whose name is always cited in the surrounding
prose, wishes to impress; the prototypical skaldic meter is accordingly
called dróttkvætt or court meter. Each eight-line dróttkvætt stanza was
required to have these features: six syllables per line; four sets of three
alliterating staves (see Notes on Translation, below); four sets of two
internal perfect rhymes (in each of the even-numbered lines); and
four sets of two internal slant rhymes (in each of the odd-numbered
lines). Refinements and additions to these basic requirements were
common. Both John Lindow9 and Roberta Frank10 have stressed the
default masculinity of this genre and the environments in which it was
composed, but, as Sections I and II of this book particularly illustrate,
men did not have a monopoly over its production.
The term Eddic poetry covers a variety of (non-skaldic) poetic
forms which were popular over many centuries. However, none of
them are as formally structured as the skaldic meters are, and poetry
composed using Eddic meters is consequently more easily corrupted in
memory and recording. These meters are called Eddic because of their
prominence in the thirteenth-century manuscript, Codex Regius GKS
2365 4to, in which the god-poems and hero-poems of what has been
9
John Lindow, ‘Riddles, Kennings and the Complexity of Skaldic Poetry,’
Scandinavian Studies 47 (1975), 311–27.
10
Roberta Frank, Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1978).
traditionally (but misleadingly)11 called the Elder Edda appear. They

include the shorter-lined fornyrðislag (old-lore meter) and galdralag
(spell-casting meter, featuring repeated refrains), as well as the longer-
lined or variable-lined forms of málaháttr (speech meter) and ljóðaháttr
(song meter). Some of the Eddic poetry we retain is ascribed to named
skalds, although most of it is not. The poems in the Codex Regius of
the Elder Edda are all anonymous, for instance. Accordingly there is
only one full poem from the Codex Regius included in this collection,
Helreið Brynhildar, which (within the context of the larger narrative)
is placed in the mouth of the valkyrie Brynhildr and a trollwoman with
whom she has an existential argument. In selecting texts to include
here, I gave preference to poetry ascribed to named women characters
that was also found within prose narrative environments; but I dared
to include the anomalous Helreið both because of the centrality of the
figure of Brynhildr to the Germanic heroic tradition,12 as well as the
argument that although the poem is not found in the Völsunga saga
where the most expansive version of Brynhildr’s story is otherwise
found, it ought to be. That I have not expanded the project to include
additional women-centered Eddic poems from the Codex Regius (e.g.,
any of the Guðrún poems, or Oddrúnargrátr) is an entirely a matter of
space, thematic balance, and the author’s caprice.
The entries in Sections I and II of this book are largely skaldic in
form, while those in Sections III–VI are generally Eddic. As is usually
the case with general rules, there are some exceptions.
Notes on the text

I am deeply indebted to a number of previous editors for their versions
of the texts in this volume, particularly (mostly for skaldic texts, but also
for others) Finnur Jónsson and Ernst Albin Kock, as mentioned above;
and (mostly for Eddic-style texts) Andreas Heusler; Jón Helgason;
Eric V. Gordon; Hugo Gering and Barend Sijmons; Lee M. Hollander;
Christopher Tolkien; Gustav Neckel and Hans Kuhn; Anthony Faulkes;
and Klaus von See et al.13 The skaldic poetry critical-edition (SPSMA)
11
Because Snorri Sturluson’s (1179–1241) four-part instruction manual for poets
is named ‘Edda (‘This book is called Edda,’ states the fourteenth-century Codex
Upsaliensis), and because it retells in prose many of the same narratives that we
find in poetic form in the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, the same name has
become attached to the poetry collection as well.
12
See Theodore Murdock Andersson, The Legend of Brynhild, Islandica 43 (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1980).
13
Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch, Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer
Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken (Dortmund: Friedrich
Wilhelm Ruhfus, 1903; rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,
Introduction 7
website at the University of Sydney, directed by Margaret Clunies Ross,

has also been invaluable.14
Instead of having to consult dozens of manuscripts myself to compare
variants, I have had the luxury of choosing, among these transcriptions
and a few others, the readings that made the most sense to me. In no
case have the variations resulted in significant differences in meaning
or interpretation.
Like most editors of the past two centuries, I have used conventionalized
Old Norse spelling, developed in the nineteenth century and more or
less based on the spelling conventions of the twelfth-century First
Grammatical Treatise.
Under each entry, for the convenience of the reader I have included,
when pertinent, the source pages in Finnur Jónsson’s normalized edition
(B-volumes); the source pages in E. A. Kock’s edition; and the URL
from the University of Sydney website, plus the name of the editor
for that entry. In some few cases, I have had to refer the reader to an
additional textual source.
Notes on the translation

Poetry translators have always had to walk an awkward and unsatisfying
middle road between form and meaning. It is virtually impossible to
reproduce both, even when – as is the case with Old Norse and modern
English – the original and target languages are close relatives. Hence each
passage of poetry in this book is translated twice: once as poetry (in an
attempt to at least suggest the form of the original) and then as prose (in an
attempt to reproduce, more or less precisely, the meaning of the original).
1974); Jón Helgason, ed., Heiðreks saga: Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs
(Copenhagen: J. Jørgensen & Co., 1924); Eric Valentine Gordon, rev. A. R.
Taylor, An Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957) (used for
Hervararkviða); Hugo Gering and Barend Sijmons, Die Lieder der Edda (Halle
an der Saale: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1927); Lee Milton Hollander,
Old Norse Poems: The Most Important Non-Skaldic Verse Not Included in
the Poetic Edda (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936); Christopher
Tolkien, ed., The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and
Sons, 1960); Gustav Neckel, ed., rev. Hans Kuhn, Edda: Die Lieder des Codex
Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1962); Snorri
Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, ed. Anthony Faulkes, 2 vols. (London: Viking
Society for Northern Research, 1998); Klaus von See, Beatrice LaFarge, Eve
Picard, Katja Schulz, and Matthias Teichert, eds., Kommentar zu den Liedern der
Edda, 6 vols. (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 1997–2009).
14
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=home (20 May 2008). Two parts
have appeared in print under the rubric ‘Skaldic Poetry in the Scandinavian
Middle Ages’: Margaret Clunies Ross, ed., Poetry on Christian Subjects, 2 vols.
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2007) and Kari Ellen Gade, ed., Poetry from the Kings’
Sagas, 2 vols. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009).
In the poetry translations, I have tried to maintain at least some of the

following features of the originals, in this order of precedence:
• Meaning
• Tone (e.g., heroic, comic, serious, frightening)
• Alliteration (at least sets of two, ideally sets of three: Snorri Sturluson’s
stuðlar [supporters] and hǫfuðstafr [main-stave])
• Syllable count (six per line, in dróttkvætt) and/or stress count
• Internal rhyme (perfect and slant); also occasional end-rhyme
• Circumlocutions for nouns, both complex and simple: kenningar (e.g.,
‘goddess of gold’ for ‘woman’) and heiti (e.g., ‘ski’ for ‘ship’)
It goes without saying that too many of these features of the originals
have had to be sacrificed, in order to make room for others of their
fellows.
•
I. Real People, Real Poetry
T his first section contains poetry found in the historical sagas of the
Norwegian kings, the Icelandic family sagas, and the thirteenth-
century saga of contemporary events, Sturlunga saga. The ordering
of the entries is based on the chronological sequence of the recounted
events, irrespective of saga dating.
With the exception of the thirteenth-century ‘Kerling í Tungu,’ the
skáldkonur (women poets) of this section date from the ‘Viking Age,’
the early days of Iceland’s settlement. Three are Norwegians and the
rest Icelanders. All nine of these poets use the traditional and complex
dróttkvætt (court meter) form (see Introduction), with the possible
exception of the epigrammatists Þórhildr and Auðr. (Two-line epigrams,
kviðlingar, can be metrically ambiguous, because of the brevity of the
sample.) Dróttkvætt as we usually encounter it was used commonly in
the courts of kings, often in a kind of extemporaneous verse-repartee
between a king and the members of his household. Indeed, John Lindow
has suggested that dróttkvætt may have been intended as a secret code
language for the exclusive fraternities of housecarls and courtiers
surrounding the various Viking-Age kings.1 If this were the case, then it
is a particular credit to our skáldkonur here that they seem to have had
no trouble with spontaneous composition in dróttkvætt, considering that
they probably were not entitled to membership in one of these fraternities.
(There is some ambiguity, however, in the case of Jórunn [see below],
who does seem to have been a commissioned court poet and who would
have been, therefore, familiar with court lore and procedures.)2
Readers are encouraged to consult the Glossary of Names at the back
of the book for further background on the various personalities.
1
Lindow, ‘Riddles, Kennings’.
2
This argument, of course, depends on the verses being genuinely composed
by the skalds to whom they are ascribed within the prose saga texts; and not,
instead, mere compositions of the authors of the sagas in question. The book
in your hands makes the assumption that at least some portion of the poetry
anthologized in it is genuine. On the other hand (to make a worst-case argument),
even if none of it is genuine, the fact that generations of reading audiences saw
these poems (in all their poignancy and variety) as genuine tells us much about
audience perceptions, through time, of women and the authorship of poetry.
11
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir nefju

Around 900, Norway
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: Haralds saga hárfagra, ch. 24
FJ IB, 27; Kock I, 17
SPSMA (ed. Kari Ellen Gade):
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=poems&id=264
Hildr asks King Haraldr Fairhair why he has sent her son, Gǫngu-
Hrólfr, into exile
Much of this stanza’s verbal cleverness is dependent upon knowing that
‘Hrólfr,’ which is both the name of the exile referred to and the name of
his (namesake) maternal grandfather (Hrólfr Nefja, or Rolf the Nose),
is a compound of hróðr (‘fame’) and úlfr (‘wolf’). This Gǫngu-Hrólfr
(Rolf the Ganger, or Rolf the Walker), son of Rǫgnvaldr, jarl of Mœrr
(Møre), is identified in Norwegian and Icelandic sources with Rollo,
the first duke of Normandy; however, this connection is impossible to
substantiate.
Hafnið Nefju nafna; You frame my father’s namesake

nú rekið gand ór landi, and force him on the wolf ’s road.
horskan ho˛lða barma; You hound the high-born hero.
hví bellið því, stillir? How, lord, can you allow this?
Illt’s við úlf at ylfask, I warn you: ’ware, warrior!
Yggr valbríkar, slíkan; Wolf-deeds reap warfare.
muna við hilmis hjarðir The lupine lad may lust
hægr, ef renn til skógar. for his former lord’s livestock.
You abandon Nefja’s namesake. Now you are driving the wolf 3 out
of the land, the wise kinsman of the landed men. Why, O king, do
you dare to do this? It is bad to act wolfishly against such a wolf,
O Óðinn-of-the-board-of-the-slain; he will not be gentle with the
ruler’s herds, if he runs to the woods.
3
Finnur Jónsson’s Lexicon poeticum, p. 170, glosses gandr simply as ‘wolf’
(second meaning, after ‘stout stick, staff’), presumably led to do so by the
multiple wolf-puns already present in the stanza (úlfr, ylfask, and the unnamed
Hrólfr). Recent work by Eldar Heide and Clive Tolley, however, has connected
this multivalent word – in this poem specifically, as well as elsewhere – not only
to its more common meaning of ‘magical staff’, but also to the helping-spirits
of Sámi shamans, as mentioned in the twelfth-century Historia Norwegiae.
See Eldar Heide, Gand, seid og åndevind (University of Bergen, 2006), 18–22;
and Clive Tolley, Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic, Folklore Fellows’
Communications 296–7 (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2009), I,
246–68.
Jórunn skáldmær (Jórunn the Poet-Maiden)

Early tenth century, Norway
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: Haralds saga hárfagra, ch. 36; Óláfs saga helga,
expanded introduction, ch. 3; Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, ed. Faulkes, I,
104, stanza 402
FJ IB, 53–4; Kock I, 33–4
SPSMA (ed. Judith Jesch):
Jórunn praises her fellow skald, Gotþormr sindri, for reconciling the
royal house with itself
Jórunn skáldmær is a particularly intriguing figure because she is the
only named woman skald who seems to have naturally filled the role of
king’s adviser, common for male skalds at court. However, we have no
biographical data for her, only extracts from her poem, and we can only
make guesses at the organization of it, since it has come down to us in
pieces.
Saga-author Snorri Sturluson (see Glossary of Names) tells us in
three different places (see above) how Eiríkr blóðøx (Eiríkr Blood-
Axe) and Hálfdan svarti, two of the most prominent of the many
sons of Haraldr hárfagri, came to blows a number of times as the
result of territorial disputes. At the point at which the events referred
to in Sendibit begin, Eiríkr has just slain a third brother, Bjǫrn, in
order to get Bjǫrn’s assigned territory in southern Norway. Brother
Hálfdan then ambushes Eiríkr’s encampment in the Trondheim fjord
at night, setting a number of buildings afire. Eiríkr, however, escapes
unscathed. He in turn reports Hálfdan’s deed to King Haraldr, who
gathers his men and sets up camp in the Trondheim fjord, preparing
to teach Hálfdan a lesson. At this point in the story, however, the
social power of poetry is showcased: skaldic art employed as a
diplomatic instrument to check fate and the hot blood of kings. The
skald Gotþormr sindri proposes a solution. He reasonably suggests
that Hálfdan and Eiríkr are to retain their territories as originally
assigned by their father, and are to cease trying to expand them. And
all becomes more or less quiet, until the succession to Haraldr’s throne
becomes an issue some years later. The noteworthy thing about this
episode is that Jórunn’s poem Sendibit seems to have been one of the
chief mechanisms by which it was retained in common memory, such
that Snorri could recount it three hundred years later.
If Haraldr hárfagri was in fact Jórunn’s direct employer, she would
have been at court together with Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, Haraldr’s most
celebrated skald. It is tempting to conclude that they had some contact
with each other, since they share one line, ‘hreggs dǫglinga tveggja’
(‘the storm of the two princes’). Besides occurring in Jórunn’s Sendibit,

it is also found in Þorbjǫrn’s Glymdrápa (Noise-Ode), a praise-poem
recounting some of Haraldr’s battles.
The Flateyjarbók manuscript of Óláfs saga helga uniquely calls
Jórunn not skáldmær (‘poet-maiden’) but skjaldmær (‘shield-maiden’).
Given that Óláfr helgi Haraldsson (St. Olav), the protagonist of that
saga, was known to station his male warrior-poets around him in the
shield-wall for the better subsequent recording of great battle-deeds, it
is tempting to think of Jórunn playing such a role for Haraldr, however
thin the evidence might be.
Sendibit The Biting Message

Bragningr réð í blóði, Red with blood of wretches
beið herr konungs reiði, were royal prince’s weapons.
(hús lutu opt fyr eisum) Hirdmen angered Haraldr.
óþjóðar slo˛g rjóða. Houses fell a-flaming.
The ruler managed to redden his weapons in the blood of ill-born
people; the people suffered the king’s wrath; buildings often sank
down in flames.
Harald frák, Hálfdan, spyrja O Halfdan, Haraldr heard of

herðibro˛gð, en lo˛gðis the hard strokes of your sword.
sýnisk svartleitr reyni They seemed dastard doings
sjá bragr, hinn hárfagra. and dark deeds to our Fairhair.
Þvít ríkr konungr rekka, As highborn king of heroes
reyr undlagar dreyra, his heart was stirred to action
morðs þá’s merkja þorðu when magnifiers of murder
magnendr, bjósk at fagna. dared mark their swords with
bloodshed.
O Hálfdan, I heard that Haraldr Fairhair learned of forceful dealings.
These deeds seem black to him because the mighty king of the heroes
prepared himself to react, when the increasers-of-slaughter dared to
color the reed-of-wound-fluid with blood.
Hvar vitu einka ˛orvir What more far-flung fame

˛orveðrs frama go˛rvan found can be among us
tunglrýro˛ndum tungla than bestowed by two bold princes,
tveir jo˛frar veg meira bending far towards battle
an geðharðir gerðu before hearing hawk-eyed Sindri?
golls landrekar þollum Hard-hearted lords repented.

(upp angr of hofsk yngva) Gotþormr’s skillful skaldcraft
óblinds fyr lof Sindra? softened stern dissension.
What do two very bold rulers know of the accomplished fame of
the destroyers-of-battle-shield-ornaments, more honorable [fame]
than the bold rulers gave to fir-trees-of-battle because of praise of
unblind Sindri? Distress of lords ceased.
Hróðr vann hringa stríðir Strong ode from ring-destroyer

Haralds framm kveðinn ramman. strife stopped for King Haraldr.
Gotþormr hlaut af gæti Good pay from goodly ruler
góð laun kveðins óðar. Gotþormr got for skaldship.
Raunframra brá rimmu Pair of lordly princes
runnr skjo˛ldunga gunnar; poet moved to peacemake.
áðr bjósk herr til hjo˛rva Spears had planned for sword-storm,
hreggs do˛glinga tvegg ja. but saved were they from slaughter.
Haraldr’s ring-dismantler delivered the strong verses; Gotþormr got
good rewards from the ruler for the poem he delivered; the battle-
tree altered the strife of bold kings; previously the army had been
preparing for the sword-storm of the two rulers.
Gunnhildr konungamóðir (Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings)

Tenth century, Norway
Hákonar saga góða, in Fagrskinna, ch. 7 (ed. Bjarni Einarsson) or ch. 6 (ed. Finnur
Jónsson)
SPSMA (ed. R. D. Fulk):
Gunnhildr assures her husband, Eiríkr Blood-Axe, that his brother

Hákon has not drowned as the rumors say he has
Readers familiar with Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar or Njáls saga will
have met other fictionalized incarnations of Gunnhildr, who is usually
presented in saga narratives as a colorful and vindictive sexual predator,
skilled in magical arts. The passage in which this bravura half-stanza
appears allows her to remain true to form as court gadfly. The news that
Hákon, his brother and rival, has survived a rough crossing is not good
news to Eiríkr – but Gunnhildr seems to delight in delivering it.
Hó˛- reið á bak bó˛ru Hákon went on wave-back,

borðhesti -kon vestan, from west he rode the board-horse;
sko˛rungr léta brim bíta his ship was scarcely surf-bit
bo˛rð, es gramr hefr Fjo˛rðu. as he soared into the Fjords.
Hákon rode the plank-horse from the west, on the back of the wave.
The bold one did not let the tide bite his prow when he reached Firðir.4
Steingerðr Þórketilsdóttir
Tenth century, Iceland
Kormáks saga, ch. 6 (ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson)
SPSMA (ed. Edith Marold):
Steingerðr answers Kormákr’s verse proposal with a cryptic ‘yes,’

particularly ironic since Kormákr’s brother Fróði has been dead for years
Kormákr Ǫgmundarson is one of a handful of Icelandic hero-poets
fated to be unlucky in love. Here we see that his unachievable (and,
indeed, unachieved) intended, Steingerðr, is remembered not only for
the beautiful ankles enshrined in Kormákr’s poetry, but for some skaldic
skill of her own as well.
4
Modern Fjordane, in western Norway.
As numerous further examples will show in the poetic texts which

follow, ‘ring-breaker’ (here: bauglestir) is a commonplace kenning for
a noble warrior, because poetic conventions assumed that one sign of a
great lord was the distribution of gold rings (or pieces of them).
Brœðr mynda ek blíðum, Should the gods be goodly,

bauglestir, mik festa, grant Fate I’ll be mated
yrði goð sem gerðisk with none else, O ring-breaker,
góð mér ok sko˛p, Fróða. other than – Fróði’s brother.
If it happens such that the gods and fate arrange things well for me,
ring-breaker, I would betroth myself to the blithe brother of Fróði.
Þórhildr skáldkona (Þórhildr the Poetess)

Njáls saga, ch. 34 (ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson)
SPSMA (ed. Russell Poole):
Þórhildr’s reproof to her husband, Þráinn Sigfússon, as he ogles a

fourteen-year-old girl at a wedding celebration
The narrator of Njáls saga is no friend to Þórhildr the skald, calling her
orðgífr mikit, ‘a great troll with words.’ Here, with this poem, Þórhildr
exhibits that edgy articulateness. The occasion is the wedding of
Gunnarr á Hlíðarenda and Hallgerðr ‘Long-legs.’ After Þórhildr speaks
her poetry, she is thrown out of the party. Her ex-husband, Þráinn, is
now free. Accordingly, he is re-married at once, to the very girl who has
caught his eye: fourteen-year-old Þorgerðr, daughter of the bride.
Short epigrams in simple style like this one were called kviðlingar
(‘little speeches’). They are typically uttered at times of heightened
emotional tension, and are clearly meant to be remembered for their
poignancy.
Esa gapriplar góðir, Your manners are missing,
gægr es þér í augum. Mister Bug-Eyes.
Open-mouthed staring is not proper. Your eyes are popping out.
Bróka-Auðr (Auðr in Breeches)

Laxdœla saga, ch. 35 (ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson)
SPSMA (ed. Guðrún Nordal):
Auðr’s remark upon hearing that her husband has divorced her
The story surrounding the production of this second kviðlingr is both
like and unlike Þórhildr’s in Njáls saga. Both women are rejected by
their husbands and react with a poetic outburst, but the subsequent
events are quite different in each case.
The narrator of Laxdœla saga calls Auðr ‘neither beautiful nor hard-
working’ (ch. 32) but is clearly favorable to her, allowing her a stylish
revenge – and a secured future, as an independent landowner – after her
husband Þórðr Ingunnarson is seduced away by the dangerous Guðrún
Ósvífrsdóttir. Auðr has been accused of wearing men’s breeches,
grounds for divorce under Icelandic law. Although the saga does not
specify, most readers have assumed that the charge is a fabricated one.
In any case Auðr makes sure to be wearing breeches when she has the
satisfaction of stabbing her ex-husband (although not fatally) in his bed
some months later.
Vel es ek veit þat, Well to be ware of it

vas’k ein of latin. when one’s been cast off.
It is well that I know it. I was left alone.
Steinunn Refsdóttir
999, Iceland
Njáls saga, ch. 102 (ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson); Kristni saga, ch. 9 (ed. Sigurgeir
Steingrímsson et al.)
FJ IB, 127–8; Kock I, 71
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=skalds&id=4084
Steinunn mocks the Christian missionary Þangbrandr and his wrecked

ship
The story of Iceland’s peaceful transition to Christianity in the year
1000 is a common narrative trope in the sagas, whether it constitutes
the central story or only appears as a backdrop to other events. Poems
such as Hjalti Skeggjason’s sexually charged slander against Óðinn and
Freyja (Njáls saga, ch. 102) on the one hand, and Steinunn’s praise of
Þórr the boat-smasher on the other (found in the same chapter), remind
us how emotionally fraught the debate must have been.
Steinunn’s poem is metrically near-flawless. It has a fine, aggressive
rhythm, echoing its sea-going topic, and lively kennings. There are a few
slant rhymes where one would expect a perfect rhyme, but that is all.
The stanza order below is that found in Njáls saga; in Kristni saga,
the stanzas are reversed.5
Braut fyr bjo˛llu gæti Troll-shaker Þórr, he broke

(bo˛nd ro˛ku val strandar) the dinged-up bell-ringer’s boat.
mo˛gfellandi mellu He flayed the floating falcon.
mo˛stalls visund allan; He foxed the ocean’s ox.
hlifðit Kristr, þa’s kneyfði Your Christ was mostly helpless
kno˛rr, málmfeta varrar; when the sea-steed sipped too deeply.
lítt hykk at goð gætti I believe you are bereft, for
Gylfa hreins at einu. your brave God did not save you.
The killer-of-the-giantess’s kinsman [Þórr] broke the bison-of-the-
gulls’-place [ship] completely, to spite the bell-keeper [Christian
priest]; the gods wrecked the falcon/horse-of-the-sea [ship]; Christ
did not protect the ore-treader [shod horse] of the tide, when the
ship was swamped; little, I think, did God protect Gylfi’s-reindeer
[the ship].
Þórr brá Þvinnils dýri Þórr snatched Þangbrandr’s longboat,

Þangbrands ór stað lo˛ngu, thwacked it, smashed it, wrecked it,
hristi blakk ok beysti shook the prow-steed, plowed it
barðs ok laust við jo˛rðu; precisely, nicely under.
munat skíð of sæ síðan So sad! No more sliding
sundfært Atals grundar, of ski upon the sea-foam:
hregg þvít hart tók legg ja, god-gales grabbed the sail-horse,
hó˛num kennt, í spó˛nu. god-winds chewed its splinters.
Þórr took Þangbrandr’s long Þvinnill’s-beast [ship] far from its
place, shook the horse-of-the-prow and beat [it] and struck [it]
against the earth; the ski-of-Atall’s-ground will not be able to swim
upon the sea from now on, because a fierce storm caused by him
[Þórr] took to smashing it in fragments.
5
Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, ed., Brennu-Njáls saga, Íslenzk fornrit 12 (Reykjavík:
Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1954), 265–6.
Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir pá
Eleventh century, Iceland
Heiðarvíga saga, ch. 22 (ed. Sigurður Nordal and Guðni Jónsson)
FJ IB, 97; Kock I, 103–4
Þuríðr, daughter of Óláfr the Peacock, urges her sons (Barði and his
brothers) to avenge their dead brother Hallr
This poem is delivered at the climax of an intense hvǫt (‘whetting’)
scene in which Þuríðr serves her three surviving sons an unusual two-
course meal: first, a huge ox-leg cut in thirds, to remind them of Hallr’s
dismembered body; and second, three stones, which are as hard to digest
as the fact of Hallr’s death.
The saga goes on to tell us that Þuríðr prepares to go with her sons on
their vengeance journey to make sure that they follow through with it,
but that Barði has arranged to have her saddle-cinch secretly loosened
before she mounts. She falls off her horse and into a creek, and must
stay behind.
Brátt munu Barða frýja They’ll call you full craven,

beiðendr þrimu seiða; my kinsman of ill fame.
Ullr munt ættar spillir Kin-spoiler, coward,
undlinns taliðr þinnar, Barði the bashful!
nema lýbrautar látir Rain blood with your blade
láðs valdandi falda on these brother-slayers!
(lýðr nemi ljóð, sem kváðum), Pay heed to this poem, for
lauðhyrs boða rauðu. people will scorn you.
The demanders-of-the-fish-of-battle will soon insult Barði’s courage;
Ullr-of-the-wound-serpent, you will be counted the spoiler of your
kin, unless you cause the offerers-of-foam-fire to wear red head-
coverings, possessor-of-the-road-of-the-land-fish! May the people
note the verse that I have spoken.
Kerling í Tungu
1244, Iceland
Þórðar saga kakala, ch. 25 (Króksfjarðarbók manuscript), in Sturlunga saga (ed.
Guðbrandur Vigfússon, and ed. Jón Jóhanesson et al.)
FJ IIB, 157–8; Kock II, 84
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=1488
An old woman at Sælingsdalstunga in Hvammsveit, one of the farms

harried by Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson’s men in acts of revenge against
the Sturlungs (see Glossary of Names), complains of the recent violence
This poem in skaldic style (dróttkvætt) is typical of many produced during
the thirteenth-century Icelandic period of intense civil unrest called the
Sturlung Age, retelling in a memorable form the details of recent violent
acts, with names attached so that the community will know exactly
who was responsible. Such poems would have been set to parchment
almost immediately. The production of contemporary chronicles, large
and small, was a minor cottage industry during this violent time, which
concluded with Iceland’s submission to the authority of Norwegian king
Hákon Hákonarson in 1262.
For more Sturlung-Age poetry produced by women, see Section III.
Beinir Brandr til rána Páll’s brother, brusque Brandr,

bróðir Páls í hljóði; breaks in and takes;
hykk at hvergi þykki both he and Broddi
hvinn Broddi þó minni; may bear that same fame.
hér var ólmr með Hjálmi Here Hjálmr was harried
Hallvarðr of dag allan; hard, by harsh Hallvarðr:
hann mun hefðarvinnu bad business only
Hafr Bjarnar sonr varna. brings Bjo˛rn’s son to that man.
Brandr, Páll’s brother, promotes noisy plundering; I think that by
no means does Broddi seem a lesser thief, however; Hallvarðr was
fierce with Hjálmr6 here, all the day long; Hafr, Bjo˛rn’s son, will
prevent him from doing honorable work.
6
Jón Jóhannesson suggested that this is not a name, but a simple noun (helmet),
since Hjálmr á Víðivǫllum cannot have been present at the attack on Tungu (if
this is in fact he); he was, as chapter 24 of the saga informs us, in Húnaþing
with Kolbeinn ungi at the time. The two lines would then mean something like,
‘Hallvarðr was fierce under his helmet.’ Jón Jóhannesson et al., Sturlunga saga,
II, 289.
II. Quasi-Historical People and Poetry
T his second section contains material generically similar to that in the

first section, largely culled from the more or less realistic narratives
of the Icelandic family sagas. The following fragments, however, are
less likely than those in Section I to be what they claim to be. Textual
anachronisms, or tell-tale elements in the poems’ prose environments,
make it less likely that these compositions can be attributed to historically
attestable persons. The poems appear roughly in order of historical
likelihood (most likely first).
Fóstra Þórodds Þorbrandssonar

(Þóroddr Þorbrandsson’s Foster-Mother)
Ostensibly early eleventh century, Iceland
Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 63 (ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson)
FJ IB, 394–5; Kock I, 195
SPSMA (ed. Judy Quinn):
Þóroddr’s foster-mother warns him about Glæsir, the ghost bull

Eyrbyggja saga is known for its numerous hauntings, of which the bull
Glæsir (Shiny, Glossy) is only one example. He is said to have been
conceived when a cow licked up the funerary ashes of a bothersome
human ghost.
Like Gunnhildr konungamóðir (Section I) and many of the
prophetesses (spákonur) of Section V, Þóroddr’s foster-mother finds
herself in the unenviable position of telling a stubborn man a true
prophecy that he does not want to hear. In this case the urgency of
the speaker comes through with particular force, in these two intense
dróttkvætt stanzas.
Haus knýr hjarðar vísi, I say: beware the beast!
hann ræðr of fjo˛r manna, It bodes blood when he bellows.
hallar hristi mjallar I tremble, for this bull
hadds, blóðvita ro˛ddu; will break your body’s life.
sá kennir þér sinna He’ll put fetters on your flesh.
svarðristit ben jarðar: He’ll give to you slit sod,
þat verðr, at fé fjo˛trar turned-up turf, earth-wounds,
fjo˛r þitt, en sék go˛rva. a grave: White-Hair sees plainly.
23
The herd-leader shakes his head with a blood-boding voice; he will

kill people. The shaker-of-the-hair-of-snow [old woman] totters.
He will teach you to go to a turf-cut wound in the earth [a grave].
It will happen that the animal will deprive you of your life, and I see
it clearly.
Oft es auðar þopta I rave, I rant, I roar,

œr, es tungu hrærir, I rage with tongue and teeth.
sék á blóðgum búki I see your fallen body
bengrát, es ér látið. bathed in tears of blood.
Tarfr mun hér, þvít horfa This bull burns with anger,
hann tekr reiðr við mo˛nnum, with vengeful wrath toward men.
þat sér golls ens g jalla Goddess of jingling gold
Gerðr, þinn bani verða. sees this: I see it.
Often the rowing-bench of riches is [I am] frenzied, when she
moves her tongue, according to your estimation; I see wound-tears
[blood] on a bloody body. The bull will be your death here, because
he is beginning to turn against men when angry. That, the Gerðr-of-
jingling-gold sees [I see].
Arnfinnsdóttir jarls
Ostensibly tenth century, Halland (Denmark then, Sweden today)
Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, ch. 48 (ed. Sigurður Nordal)
FJ IB, 604; Kock I, 294
SPSMA (ed. Margaret Clunies Ross):
Jarl Arnfiðr’s daughter mocks Egill’s prowess

This imperfect dróttkvætt stanza and its surrounding episode seem to
have no other purpose, in a saga otherwise studded with poetry, than to
goad the youthful saga-hero, Egill Skalla-Grímsson, to further deeds. Its
authenticity is thus suspect, but the scene is no less memorable.
Hvat skalt, sveinn, í sess minn? Who said this seat was yours, boy?
Sjaldan hefr þú gefnar Seldom have you drawn sword.
vargi varmar bráðir, From you the wolf gets no flesh.
vesa vilk ein of mína; My flesh likes sitting solo.
sátta hrafn í hausti You’ve never seen the crow caw
of hræsolli g jalla, on corpses slain at harvest;
vastat at, þars egg jar when shell-sharp swords came slashing
á skelþunnar tunnusk. you shied away, and stayed home.
What are you doing in my chair, boy? You have seldom given warm
flesh to the wolf. I would like to be alone with my own [flesh].
You did not see the raven in the autumn crowing over the corpse-
leavings. You were not there when the mussel-sharp swords rose to
the attack.
Ármóðsdóttir skeggs
Ostensibly tenth century, Norway
Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, ch. 71 (ed. Sigurður Nordal)
FJ IB, 603–4; Kock I, 294
The daughter of Ármóðr bóndi warns Egill to keep his temper; in vain,
as it turns out
Readers familiar with Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar will recognize this
dróttkvætt poem as coming from the episode where the mercurial Egill
Skalla-Grímsson memorably vomits in his host’s beard and later maims
him, in a protest against bad hospitality. The warning is delivered sotto
voce to a volatile poet; it makes perfect sense to have it couched in
verse, the better to get his attention.
Stylistically, this stanza echoes, and is most likely intended to echo,
Egill’s own well-known boyhood boast-poem, which begins very
similarly: Þat mælti mín móðir.
Því sendi mín móðir My mother has sent me

mik við þik til fundar to meet with you two,
ok orð bera Agli, and warns you with words:
at ér varir skyldið; Watch out, Egill’s men!
Hildr mælti þat horna: She who sends ale out
haga svá maga þínum, says your stomachs can wait;
eigu órir gestir our guests will be getting
œðra nest á frestum. gourmet food quite soon.
My mother sent me to meet you and bear the message to Egill that
you [all] should be careful. The Hildr-of-horns said: Manage your
stomach accordingly; our guests have expectation of better food.
Unnr Marðardóttir
Ostensibly tenth century, Iceland
FJ IIB, 210–11; Kock II, 110–11
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=5178 ff
Unnr uses poetry to explain to her father in greater detail why she wants
a divorce
Njáls saga recounts how the jealous spells of Queen Gunnhildr of Norway
(Gunnhildr konungamóðir, Section I) have disabled her ex-lover Hrútr
Herjólfsson in an unusual way. He has come home to Iceland and married
Unnr Marðardóttir as planned, but their marriage cannot be consummated.
As is ironically appropriate for a man named Hrútr (Ram), his problem
is not impotency but hyper-potency. This situation makes the numerous
warrior-kennings (spear-sharpener, bow-bender, blade-launcher), with
which these stanzas are studded, particularly poignant.
These dróttkvætt verses are found in only three of the dozens of
manuscripts of this very popular saga, but two of those three are among
the oldest and most complete, namely, Reykjabók and Kálfalækjarbók.
Víst segik gott frá geystum I’d gladly say good things
geirhvessanda þessum, about my spear-sharpener:
þats sjálfráðligt silfra he would if he could,
sundrhreyti er fundit; my ring-breaker lover.
verðk, þvít almr er orðinn But this war-tree’s been hexed.
eggþings fyr gørningum There’s a spell on his spindle.
(satt er at, sék við spotti) I’m afraid folk will scorn me:
seg ja mart eða þeg ja. I’ll say all, or be silent.
Certainly I speak well of this one-fiercely-engaged-in-spear-
sharpening, concerning that which is deemed that a silver-breaker
has within his own control; because the elm-of-swordplay has
become subject to sorcery (it is true that I would like to avoid
scorn), I must say much or else be silent.
Víst hefr, hringa hristir, I’ll say fairly, my father,

Hrútr líkama þrútinn, that Hrútr looms extra-large
brjótr þás linnbeðs leitar when he seeks hard to slake
lundýgr munuð drýg ja; the salt thirsts of desire.
leita ek með ýti I also try everything
undlinna þá finna to aid the blade-launcher,
yndi okkars vanda, to find a good fit

aldræðr boði skjaldar. for our pickle, my father!
Certainly, O shaker-of-rings, Hrútr has a swollen body, when the
breaker-of-gold tries pugnaciously to carry out his desire; I try then
with the sword-launcher to find satisfaction in our difficulty, O aged
shield-offerer.
Þó veitk hitt, at hreytir Good father, I’ll grant that

handfúrs, jo˛kuls spannar
my gracious gold-giver 1
meiðr, er jafnt sem aðrir knows a bow-bender’s business
ýtendr boga nýtir, better than many.
vilda ek við ˛oldu But I’d still like to split
jókennanda þenna, from this skillful ship-master.
rjóðr (lít orð ok íðir) My actions and words
undlegs, skilit seg ja. both speak loud here, my father!
Though I know that the scatterer-of-hand-fire, O tree-of-the-hand-
glacier, is just as useful as other bow-benders, I would like to declare
myself divorced from this tamer-of-wave-horses; behold [my] words
and deeds, O sword-reddener.
1
Like ‘ring-breaker’ (see stanza 1, as well as Steingerðr Þórketilsdóttir, above),
‘gold-giver’ was a common kenning for a man of high rank.
Bóndadóttir, Kerling, and Ambátt

(Farmer’s Daughter, Farmwife, and Serving-Maid)
Ostensibly 1029; a remote headland in northern Norway
Vǫlsa þáttr (ch. 266 of Óláfs saga helga in Flateyjarbók manuscript), ed. Faulkes
FJ IB, 237–9; Kock II, 123–4
SPSMA (ed. Wilhelm Heizmann):
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=5480&val=
St. Óláfr, fleeing his enemy Knútr (Canute the Great), offends his pagan
hosts, who worship a preserved horse’s penis
This story, in the form we have it, is clearly intended as an extended joke
at the expense of superstitious and greedy peasants, as well as a vehicle
to praise its Christian hero-king (who is traveling under an assumed
name, ‘Grímr’) for his powers of observation and wit. There may or
may not be remnants of authentic pre-Christian ritual hidden behind the
story, especially the reference to magic done ‘atop the door,’ since the
kind of sorcery known as seiðr is said to have been performed on an
elevated platform (seiðhjallr).
Who the Mǫrnir are, or is, is unknown. Suggestions vary from plural
readings including ‘giantesses’ and ‘fertility goddesses’ to singular ones
meaning ‘sword’ and thereby ‘[deified] phallus.’2
The name ‘Vǫlsi’ (horse’s penis) is elsewhere known to us as the
source of the dynastic name of the Vǫlsungs, the family of Sigurðr
Fáfnisbani the dragon-slayer.
The poetry is in simple Eddic style.
Bóndadóttir Farmer’s Daughter

Ek sé gull á gestum I see gold on the guests,
ok guðvefjar skikkjur. and goodly cloaks.
Mér fellr huga til hringa. I’d like those rich rings.
Heldr vil ek bjúg en ljúga. Lame me if I lie, but
Kenni ek þik, konungr minn. I ken my own king:
Kominn ertu, Óláfr. Óláfr is come.
2
See Rudolf Simek, Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie (Stuttgart:
Alfred Kröner, 2006), 474–5; and Clive Tolley, ‘Vǫlsa þáttr: Pagan Lore or
Christian Lie?’, in Analecta Septentrionalia: Papers on the History of North
Germanic Culture and Literature / Beiträge zur nordgermanischen Kultur- und
Literaturgeschichte, ed. Wilhelm Heizmann, Klaus Böldl, and Heinrich Beck
(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 680–700.
Farmer’s Daughter: I see gold on the guests, and cloaks of costly

fabric. I desire the rings. I would rather be struck crippled than lie: I
know you, my king. You have come, Óláfr.
Kerling Farmwife
Aukinn ertu, Vo˛lsi, I lift you up, Vo˛lsi,
ok upp of tekinn, enlarged as you are,
líni gæddr, lapped in linen,
en laukum studdr. studded with leeks.
Þiggi mo˛rnir May the Mo˛rnir
þetta blæti, take this offering;
en þú, bóndi sjálfr, but first, my husband,
ber þú at þér Vo˛lsa. have you the Vo˛lsi.
Farmwife: You have grown, Vo˛lsi; you have been taken up, protected
by linen, aided by herbs. May the trollwomen receive this offering;
but you, man of the house – take the Vo˛lsi to you.
Vo˛lsi goes from house-father to daughter

Bóndadóttir Farmer’s Daughter
Þess sverk við Gefjun I swear by Gefjun
ok við go˛ðin ˛onnur, and other gods:
at ek nauðig tek this red ‘nose’ is what
við nosa rauðum. I would not like to hold.
en, þræll hjóna, but first, our houseboy,
þríf þú við Vo˛lsa. have you the Vo˛lsi.
Farmer’s Daughter: I swear by Gefjun and the other gods that I
reluctantly take up this red ‘nose.’ May the trollwomen receive this
offering; but you, servant of the household – you take the Vo˛lsi.
Vo˛lsi goes from male slave to female

Ambáttin Serving-Maid
Víst eigi mættak I have a desire
við of bindask that I can’t deny:
í mik at keyra, to drive him into me
ef vit ein lægim while lying alone
í andkætu. in some cosy corner.

en þú, Grímr, gestr várr, but first, our guest Grímr,
gríp þú við Vo˛lsa. grasp you the Vo˛lsi.
Serving-Maid: Certainly I would not refrain from driving [the Vo˛lsi]
into me, if we two lay together in a cosy spot. May the trollwomen
receive this offering; but you, Grímr, our guest – you take the Vo˛lsi.
Óláfr throws Vo˛lsi to the dog

Kerling Farmwife
Hvat er þat manna Most uncouth of men
mér ókunnra, and unknown to me,
er hundum gefir he gives to dogs
heilagt blæti? this godly thing!
Hefi mik of hjarra High must I lift me
ok á hurðása, over hinges and doorframes,
vita ef ek borgit fæ to spell out a way
blætinu helga. to save what is holy.
Legg þú niðr, Lærir, Lay it down, Lærir!
ok lát mik eigi sjá, Let me not see it.
ok svelg eigi niðr, Don’t swallow it down,
sártíkin ro˛g! you damnèd dog!
Farmwife: What kind of man is this, unknown to me, who gives a
holy offering to dogs? Lift me up onto the hinges and onto the door-
beams to find out if I can protect this holy offering.
Put it down, Lærir, don’t let me see; and don’t swallow it, you vile
hound!
Ásdís á Bjargi
Ostensibly 1031, Iceland
Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, ch. 83 (ed. Guðni Jónsson)
FJ IIB, 476; Kock II, 260
SPSMA (ed. Andy Orchard and Jonathan Grove):
Grettir the Strong’s mother mocks her son’s killers when they come from
Drangey Island bringing her his head
Grettir’s mother delivers this dróttkvætt stanza in response to a stanza
by Þorbjǫrn ǫngull in which he calls the dead outlaw a griðbítr (‘peace-
breaker’) and his mother a nála nauma (‘needle-hag’). After Ásdís
speaks her poem, her enemies are moved to remark that it is no wonder
that she had a brave son, since she herself is so brave.
Mundut síðr en sauðir, I know your news, for

Sýrar gráps, fyr dýri, new tales have come north.
komit es norðr at Njo˛rðum High-hearted heroes:
nýtt skaup, á sjá hlaupa, hosts against one man!
ef styrviðir stæði, My son was sick
stála Freyr, í eyju, from your sorcerous spells,
verit hefk lofs of lýði or else you’d have fled
létt, ósjúkum Gretti. like feckless sheep.
You would, no less than a sheep, have fled before the wolf [lit., beast]
to the sea, if the battle-tree had stood, if Grettir had not been sick
on the island. O Freyr-of-steel [warrior], in the north new mockery
would have affected the Njo˛rðr of Freyja’s sleet [warrior]; I would
have been ready, otherwise, to give praise to people.
Signý Valbrandsdóttir
Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, ch. 7 (ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson)
SPSMA (ed. Tarrin Wills):
The three-year-old saga-hero Hǫrðr, in taking his first steps, breaks his
mother’s necklace. She speaks this stanza.
This portentous stanza in skaldic style contains linguistic anachronisms
(the nature of the rhymes in lines 6 and 8, and the use of ‘ei’ as a negative
adverb in line 5) that mark it as no older than the fourteenth century. As
an ornament to the scene in which it appears, it works very well, however.
Braut í sundr fyr sætu Broke in bits before her,

Sírnis hljóða men góða; the lady lacks her necklace.
ýta, trúik, at engi bœti No wretch can repair it:
auðar hlíði þat síðan. no righting for this wrong.
Gangr varð ei góðr ins unga Gold-hunter’s first foray
gulls lystis inn fyrsti. failed to be a good one.
Hverr mun héðan af verri. Each step of his will worsen,
Hneppstr mun þó inn efsti. but worst will be the last one.
[The boy] broke apart the good neckring-of-the-giant’s-voice [gold]
in front of the woman; I believe that no one can repair it for the
hillside-of-riches [woman] later. The first step of the young gold-
desirer was not a good one. Each step will be progressively worse
from here on. The worst one, though, will be the last.
Þorbjǫrg Grímkelsdóttir
Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, ch. 11, 38 (ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni
Vilhjálmsson)
FJ IIB, 478 and 481; Kock II, 261 and 263
SPSMA (ed. Tarrin Wills):
Both of the following stanzas are used to dramatic effect within the
saga-narrative. In the first one, Þorbjǫrg tells her brother Hǫrðr of her
depth of feeling for him; in the second, she actively demonstrates it.
When Þorbjǫrg’s husband Indriði comes home with a group of

men and the news of Hǫrðr’s death, she serves them dinner to the
accompaniment of the second stanza below. After that, she confronts
Indriði at swordpoint and demands the head of Hǫrðr’s slayer, as well as
sanctuary for his widow and two sons.
The first stanza is in simple Eddic meter, while the second, in skaldic
style, has the additional (and somewhat rare) ornament of end-rhyme. Its
syllable-count is imperfect, making a tenth-century provenance unlikely.
Þorbjǫrg reacts to her brother Hǫrðr’s pronouncement: ‘You will live

longer than I’
Verðir þú, svá If I found out

at ek vita go˛rla, that you were fallen,
vápnum veginn brought low by blades
eða í val fallinn, or slain in battle –
þeim skulu manni that man who did it
mín at so˛nnu would be my foeman,
bitrlig ráð and should best beware
at bana verða. my bitter vengeance.
If you are slain with weapons or fallen in battle, such that I know
fully of it, my bitter intentions will surely be the death of that man
[i.e., your slayer].
Þorbjǫrg taunts her brother’s killers, among them her own husband, Indriði
Varð í hreggi ho˛rðu They brought Ho˛rðr down,

Ho˛rðr felldr at jo˛rðu, dashed him to the ground.
hann hefr átta unnit, He bested thirteen men
Unns, ok fimm at gunni. in battle before then.
Heldr nam grimmra galdra If not for sorcerous will
galdr rammliga at halda; that sapped his battle-skill,
mundi enn bitra branda that man of bitter brand
brandr elligar standa. would not have ceased to stand.
Ho˛rðr was felled to earth in a hard storm-of-Óðinn [battle]. He
defeated eight-and-five [thirteen] men in battle. The magic of grim
sorcery3 took hold rather strongly; otherwise, the staff-of-bitter-
swordblades would be still standing.
3
Meaning the ‘war-fetter’ or herfjǫtr (a paralyzing panic in the heat of battle) that
caused Hǫrðr’s death.
Helga Bárðardóttir
Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss, ch. 5, 7 (ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson)
These two fragments, one Eddic and one skaldic in style, are recited by the
daughter of the semi-legendary Bárðr Snæfell’s-Hero in the fantastic saga
that recounts his exploits. Helga recites the first one in a homesick moment
in Greenland, where she is visiting the celebrated settler Eiríkr inn rauði
(Eiríkr the Red). She has come to Greenland, all the way from Snæfellsnes,
in unlikely fashion: namely, riding on a piece of drift-ice. Because of her
mode of travel and her exceptional strength, some of the Greenlanders
think her a troll, even though she is kvenna vænst (the most beautiful of
women). She is human enough for Miðfjarðar-Skeggi, however, who is
visiting from Iceland on business. She saves him from a family of trolls and
he takes her on his travels to Norway and back to Iceland. Skeggi already
has a wife in Iceland, however, and Helga’s scandalized father Bárðr takes
her back into his home. Heartbroken, she declaims the second stanza below
and presently disappears to spend the rest of her life haunting caves and
craters, keeping people awake at night by playing her harp.
Helga is homesick for Snæfellsnes
Sæl væra ek How happy I’d be

ef sjá mættak to behold once more
Búrfell ok Bala, Búrfell and Bali,
báða Lóndranga, both Lóndrangar,
Aðalþegnshóla Aðalþegnshólar
ok O˛ndverðnes, and O˛ndverðnes,
Heiðarkollu Heiðarkolla
ok Hreggnasa, and Hreggnasi,
Dritvíkrmo˛l and Dritvík’s beach
fyr dyrum fóstra. from the doorstep at home.
I would be happy if I could see Búrfell and Bali, both Lóndrangar,
Aðalþegnshólar and O˛ndverðnes, Heiðarkolla and Hreggnasi, and
the Dritvík gravel, from my foster-father’s door.
Helga mourns further; for Miðfjarðar-Skeggi as well
Braut vilk bráðla leita. Because of the gold-giver

Brestr eigi stríð í flestu I must go soon from here.
mér fyrir menja rýri. Strife eats my soul.

Mun ek dáliga kálast, In pain I will pine
þvít auðspenni unnak for my passion, once pure,
allteitum sefa heitum. glad and strong, that I had.
Sorg mák sízt því byrg ja. I gape open with grief.
Sitk ein. Trega greinum. I speak sorrow to myself.
Soon I will seek the road. Conflict in most things does not cease in
me because of the dispenser-of-necklaces. I will waste away miserably
because I loved the riches-spender with a glad and fervent heart. Thus
I can hardly hide [my] sorrow. I sit alone. I explain [my] sorrow.
Ólǫf geisli (Ólǫf Sun-Ray)

Víglundar saga, fourteenth century; ch. 6 (ed. Jóhannes Halldórsson)
SPSMA (ed. Kate Heslop):
Ólǫf pines for Þorgrímr Eiríksson, not in vain as it turns out

In the first vignette of the courtly flavored Víglundar saga, Ólǫf geisli,
the beautiful daughter of one Þórir jarl in Norway, recites this dróttkvætt
stanza on the occasion of her father’s arranging for her marriage to
someone other than her true love. But the story ends happily, because
her beloved, Þorgrímr Eiríksson, appears at the wedding and carries her
off. The two flee to Iceland and become the parents of the hero of the saga.
Veit ek, at gullhrings gætir I know the glad gold-giver

glaðr kveðr betr en aðrir; speaks skald-verse with skill.
sá mun hljómr í heimi That sound is sorrow to me
hauklanda Vo˛r granda. so long as I’m alive.
Engi er hirðir hringa I do withdraw my love-gaze
hvítr svá, at ek til líta; from any white ring-guardian.
einum vann ek eiða; With one man I wound love-oaths;
ann ek vel bjo˛rtum manni. I wanted that bright warrior.
I know that the glad guardian-of-the-gold-ring4 speaks poetry
better than others. That sound will make the goddess of the hawk-
land [i.e., lady, me] unhappy in the world. No fair keeper-of-rings
is such that I care to gaze fondly on him. I made my pledge to one
[man]. I loved the bright man well.
4
Gold-giver, ring-guardian: i.e., generous lord.
Ketilríðr Hólmkelsdóttir
Víglundar saga, fourteenth century; ch. 12, 18, 21, 22
FJ IIB, 488–92; Kock II, 266–8
SPSMA (ed. Kate Heslop):
These irregularly rhymed dróttkvætt stanzas are charming ornaments to

Víglundar saga’s romantic-comedy narrative, in which it becomes clear
at the end that the heroine’s marriage to old Þórðr is one in name only
and everyone can live happily ever after as the best of friends. (It is clear
that we are no longer in the conceptual universe of, say, Njáls saga.)
Ketilríðr mistakenly believes that her lover, Víglundr, and his best friend
Trausti have been drowned by sorcery
Eigi má ek á ægi The waves make me weep.

ógrátandi líta, I don’t wish to see them,
sízt er málvinir mínir since my sweetest companions
fyr marbakkann sukku; sank under the sea-cliffs.
leiðr er mér sjóvar sorti Swart seas are loathsome,
ok súgandi bára. and the sucking surf.
Heldr go˛rði mér harðan Those tides brought a burden –
harm í unna farmi. they buried my joys.
I cannot look at the sea without weeping, since my beloved friends
sank before the sea-cliffs. The blackness of the sea, and the sucking
of the waves, are loathsome to me. Cruel grief was caused to me in
the burden of the waves.
Víglundr must go into exile; Ketilríðr mourns his loss
Skammt leidd ek skýran I walked awhile with him,

skrauta-Njo˛rð ór garði. but I wanted to walk longer.
Þó fylgdi hugr minn hánum My feet just passed the fence;
hvers kyns konar lengra; my heart followed still farther.
munda ek leitt hafa lengra, If waves had been wide lands,
ef land fyr lægi væri had seas been grassy pastures,
ok ægur marr yrði there would have been no limit
allr at grænum velli. to the length of my walk with him.
I followed the bright Njo˛rðr-of-ornaments for a short way out of
the yard; still, my heart followed him farther, in every possible way. I
would have walked even farther with him if there were land instead
of ocean, and the terrible sea turned entirely into a green plain.
Víglundr and Trausti return from abroad; they land at Gautavík, where
Ketilríðr lives with Þórðr, her new husband
Kenni ek Víglund vænan Shining river’s gold

Vánar elds, at kveldi – gleams on Víglundr at evening.
firn er, at fund minn girnist Glad is he to greet me.
flaustra eims, ok Trausta. Good Trausti I see also.
Gipt er gullhlaðs þopta But I must say I am given
grannvaxin nú manni, to a new man in marriage.
æ mun engi finnast In the wide world there is no one
ellri þeim í heimi. more old and grey than he.
I recognize fair Víglundr of river-fire [gold], and Trausti, in the
evening; it is wonderful that he is glad to see me. The slender gold-
crowned rowing bench is [=I am] now married to a husband. There
is none older than he in the world.
Ketilríðr warns Víglundr at a chess game, saying that Þórðr has put
him in check
Þoka mundir þú, Þundar, Enwrapped in fair tapestry,

þinni to˛fl, inn g jo˛fli, the reed of riches makes remarks:
(ráð eru tjalda tróðu Man, change that chessman’s station.
teit) at ˛oðrum reiti. I cheerfully suggest it.
Generous warrior, you should move your chessman to another
square. That is the advice of the cheerful branch-of-tapestries.
III. Visionary Women: Women’s Dream-Verse
T his section contains poetry heard by women in dreams, and

later repeated to listeners as the dream is retold. Like Guðrún P.
Helgadóttir,1 I have chosen to count these stanzas as the compositions
of the dreamers.
Although there are scattered examples of dream-poetry and portents
throughout the family sagas and kings’ sagas, it is in Sturlunga saga,
the thirteenth-century contemporary chronicle of Icelandic civil war and
the last days of the Icelandic republic, that this narrative trope really
comes into its own. All of the entries in the following section are from
Sturlunga saga. In the visionary dreams of Sturlunga saga, the dream-
personage tends to be male when the dreamer is a woman, and is not
uncommonly female when the dreamer is a man; but it will be noted that
the longest entry below does not fit this pattern.
The speakers of the poetry, within the various dream contexts
recounted here, include ghosts, dead (or soon-to-be-dead) men and
women, legendary figures and other supernatural agents. It is a common
feature of Icelandic folklore to this day -- in which supernatural portents
are taken quite seriously -- that the speech of ghosts and damned souls
has several identifiable features, notably including the repetition of
phrases, as in the old poetic spell-casting meter, galdralag.
All of the entries in this section are in a simple Eddic style. Although
they are not as metrically complex as the poetry in Sections I or II,
for the golden age of skaldic poetry was long past, many of them are
memorable pieces of poetry. A good example is Halldóra Þórðardóttir’s
fragment, which echoes the earlier, anonymous Darraðarljóð (see
below).
All but one of these poetic visions are doom-prophecies presaging one
of the great climaxes of Sturlunga saga, the fall of Sturla Sighvatsson at
the battle of Ǫrlygsstaðir in 1238. The most memorable vision, however
– and also the longest – refers to other climactic events, the burning of
the farmstead at Flugumýrr (1253) and the subsequent battle of Þverá
(1255).
1
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir, Skáldkonur fyrri alda, I, 131.
39
Kona at Munka-Þverá
1238, Iceland
Sturlunga saga: Íslendinga saga, ch. 130 (ed. Guðbrandur Vigfússon, and ed. Jón
Jóhanesson et al.)
In the woman’s dream, an unidentified dream-man speaks

This stanza is the first of a total of nineteen verse fragments received in
dreams and visions by both men and women, recorded in the Íslendinga
saga section of Sturlunga saga, all referring to the upcoming battle
of Ǫrlygsstaðir, between the Sturlungs and the followers of Gizurr
Þorvaldsson and Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson.
For all of the Sturlunga saga entries herein, the reader is encouraged
to consult the Glossary of Names to keep the factions straight.
Saman dragask sveitir, Men are being mustered.

svellir órói – Malice is rising.
varir mik ok varir mik, I suspect, oh, I suspect
at viti Sturla. that Sturla knows about it.
Ætla lýðir, Folk will pay in full
þótt á laun fari to fight against this thing.
– kemr vél fyrir vél – They’ll use any foul trick:
vélar at g jalda. treachery for treachery.
Troops are being brought together. Unrest is growing. I suspect and
I suspect that Sturla knows of it. Even though it be done in secret,
the people intend to repay the betrayal. Betrayal is met with betrayal.
Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum

1238, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
In Steinvǫr’s dream, her brother’s severed head, resting on the fencing of

a deserted cattle-pen, speaks the following to Þorgrímr ór Gunnarsholti
Another Ǫrlygsstaðir portent. Sturla Sighvatsson was in fact fated to die
in the battle, after sustaining numerous head wounds.
III. Visionary Women: Women's Dream-Verse 41
Sit ek ok sék á I sit here seeking

svarit Steinvarar. Steinvo˛r’s reply:
Hví liggr hér á vegg Heavy hangs a head
ho˛fuð í ørtro˛ð? on this wall. What for?
I sit and I look for Steinvo˛r’s answer: Why is there a head here, on
the cattlepen-wall in the overcrowded pasture?
Halldóra Þórðardóttir (from the Fljót district of Skagafjǫrðr)

1238, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
In Halldóra’s dream, an unidentified dream-man speaks

Another Ǫrlygsstaðir portent. The language echoes the death-song of
the valkyries (Darraðarljóð), purportedly from the Battle of Clontarf
(1014), cited in Njáls saga and featured below in Section V.
Røkkr at éli, Clouds gather.

rignir blóði, Gore falls like rain.
hrýtr harðsnúinn The stubborn head
hjalmstofn af bol. is snapped from its body.
The sky darkens with storm. Blood rains down. The hard-twisted
[stubborn] helmet-stump [head] is flung from the torso.
Kona ein í Svartárdal

1238, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
Spoken to a woman from Svartárdalr in a dream by a ‘large and evil-

looking man’
Another Ǫrlygsstaðir portent. An identical stanza, similarly delivered by
a ‘large and evil-looking’ (‘mikill ok illilegr’) male dream-messenger, is
also recorded five chapters earlier as having been received in a dream-
vision by an unnamed man in Borgarfjǫrðr.2

Sumar munat þetta I don’t prophesy
svarflaust vesa, peace for this summer,
rýðr rekka sjo˛t but battalions bespattered
rauðu blóði. in bloody crimson.
Herr mun finnask On slag-fields the swordsmen
fyr hraun ofan, are seen to swarm.
þar mun blóð vakit Bloodshed’s more likely
betra en eigi. than the lack of it is.
This summer will not be devoid of strife; the dwelling-places of
warriors will be reddened in red blood. An army will meet together,
up on the lava fields; there blood will flow, more likely than not.
Þuríðr at Fellsenda í Dǫlum

1238, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
Sturla Sighvatsson, on the eve of his death, appears in a dream to Þuríðr

and speaks the following
Another Ǫrlygsstaðir portent.
Hverir vo˛ktu mér What butchers bathed me
varman dreyra? in this warm blood?
Segið mér, ok segið mér, Say their names, say their names!
sárt vask leikinn. Sorely they dealt with me.
Ætlask virðar Trusty men take up arms,
– ok veit Tumi: and Tumi knows of it.
gleðr mik ok gleðr mik – I am glad, I am glad.
Gizur veiða. Gizurr will pay for this.
Who drenched me in warm blood? Tell me, tell me! I have been ill-
treated. Men intend (and Tumi knows it: it cheers me, it cheers me)
to hunt Gizurr down.
2
Guðbrandur Vigfússon, ed., Sturlunga saga, I (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1878), 365; Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason and Kristján Eldjárn, eds.,
Sturlunga saga, I (Reykjavík: Sturlunguútgáfan, 1946), 418.
Kona skammt frá Þingeyrastað

1238, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
A woman near Þingeyrastaðr hears an invisible man speak the following

stanza
Again, an Ǫrlygsstaðir portent.
Leikr es í norðri, Blades in the north

lýðir berjask, bristle in battle.
þeir vilja Gizur Spear-storm seeks
geirum sveipa; to swallow Gizurr;
munat þeir Gizur spear-flood fails
geirum sveipa. to follow Gizurr.
There is sport in the north. Warriors fight. They want to strike
Gizurr with spears all round; they will not strike Gizurr with spears.
Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir í Miðjumdal

1255, Iceland
Jóhanesson et al.)
FJ IIB, 158; Kock II, 84–5
Guðrún Gjúkadóttir appears to the young Jóreiðr

The legendary pagan heroine, Guðrún Gjúkadóttir, appears to the
sixteen-year-old Jóreiðr in dreams, reporting to her about the burning at
Flugumýrr (1253) and the battle of Þverá (1255). The chief combatants
at Þverá included Þorvarðr Þórarinsson, Sturla Þórðarson and Þorgils
skarði Bǫðvarsson on the one side, and Hrafn Oddsson and Eyjólfr ofsi
Þorsteinsson on the other (see the Glossary of Names).
Both the burning at Flugumýrr and the battle of Þverá have already
occurred when, as the saga tells us, Jóreiðr í Miðjumdal3 hears about
them from her dream-woman in July of 1255. But the full version of the
3
Now Miðdalur, in Biskupstungnahreppur.
violent news has not yet trickled down to southern Iceland where Jóreiðr
lives, near today’s Biskupstungnahreppur (not far from Þingvellir),
in the house of a priest and farmer named Páll – either as his wife or
maidservant, although the saga is not clear on this point.
Jóreiðr’s concerns do not seem to be political. She wants to know how
her kinsmen have fared. It is striking that her dream-woman, Guðrún
Gjúkadóttir, is one of the grand figures of ancient pagan legend from the
Continent; she was the rival of Brynhildr Buðladóttir (see the first entry
in Section IV). Julia McGrew suggested that Guðrún’s presence may be
meant to suggest an irony of history repeating itself:4 Guðrún married
an enemy (Atli Buðlason) with disastrous results, serving as an example
to those who would resolve feuds by marriage, as had been attempted
at Flugumýrr.
Prose sections are included in small print, for continuity.
‘Where do you come from?’
‘From the north, the abode of the dead.’
‘What do you know of Þorvarðr (Þórarinsson)?’
‘I know everything about him.’
Hann es hurð fyr heim By his house-door he bides,

brynjaðr í sveim, byrnied for battle.
eru brennumenn þá, Fiends wait with fire,
mannhundar, hjá, false dogs that they are.
mannhundar hjá. False dogs that they are!
He stands at home before the door, armored amidst battle. Now the
burners, the villains, are nearby, villains nearby.
‘Is there any meaning in what you say to me?’
Mark es þér, There is meaning for you

sem þínum fo˛ður and for your father,
ok ˛ollum yðr and all of your other
áttniðjungum. family and kin.
There is a meaning for you, as well as for your father and all of your
kinsfolk.
‘Where are the burners?’
Eru menn þá, The snare is snapped;

er þeim vegnar svá: fate has them trapped.
4
Julia McGrew, tr., Sturlunga saga, 2 vols. (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1971),
I, 476.
heldr vísak þeim Those men I would tell

í helju heim, to go straight to Hel,
í helju heim. to go straight to Hel.
Now the men are where circumstance has brought them: I would
rather show them the way to Hel, the way to Hel.
‘What do they intend, since fate has brought them thus far?’
‘They intend, with their wickedness, to bring heathendom upon this whole country.’
‘Where do you come from?’
‘From the northern districts.’
‘What do you know of Þorvarðr?’
Nú es Þorvarði Now is Þorvarðr

þro˛ngt of hjarta, thronged by woe.
þó es buðlungi But soon the chief
bót it næsta, shall have good cheer,
bót it næsta. shall have good cheer.
Now Þorvarðr’s heart is heavy, although better things are coming
for that lord, better things coming.
‘What about Steinólfr, his brother?’
Nú es Steinólfr Now Steinólfr,

í styrstraumi amid the strife,
á stagli píndr aches on the rack
með Agli. with Egill beside him.
Ves þú vinr Be faithful to me
vinar míns, and befriend my friend,
en ek mun með svinnum and I shall surely
at saka bótum. seek redress.
Now Steinólfr, in the battle, is tortured on the rack with Egill. Be a
friend to my friend, and I will, with a wise man, find a remedy for
his offenses.
‘Why do you not ask me anything, even my name? . . . I am Guðrún Gjúkadóttir.’
‘What are heathens doing here?’
‘It doesn’t concern you whether I am Christian or heathen – but I am a friend to my friends.’
‘What do you know of Gizurr Þorvaldsson?’
Minnir milding That man remembers

morgun sáran. a mournful morning.
Hvárt mun Gizuri Do you guess that Gizurr
ganga at óskum? will get what he wants?
Vildak at óskum I’d want the wishes

˛oðlings syni of that warlord’s son
˛oll ævi sín to be all fulfilled
eftir gengi. for the rest of his life.
The lord is reminded of a painful morning. Will things go for Gizurr
according to his wishes? I would that things should go according to
his wishes, for the son of a lord, for all their lives.
‘What would happen in that case?’
‘Then he would rule Iceland until he dies.’
‘Do you think well of him?’
‘Quite well.’
‘What do you think of Þorvarðr?’
‘All birds who fly high seem good to me.’
‘What do you think of Hrafn?’5
‘All black birds are loathsome to me.’
‘What do you think of Þorgils skarði?’6
‘I think ill of all birds who foul their nests.’
Seg Þorvarði Tell Þorvarðr

þessa grímu, (the young thane)
ungum auðskata, this night’s business,
ef þik eptir spyrr. if he seeks the news.
En þótt þik eigi And even if
eptir fregni, he asks you not,
þó skaltu seg ja let the young lord
syni oddvita. hear what has happened.
Tell Þorvarðr, the young chieftain, about this night, if he asks you
afterwards. And even if he doesn’t ask for news afterwards, tell him,
the nobleman’s son, anyway.
‘Now this has happened to you three times, because all good things come in threes. It is no
less true that God’s Trinity is good.’
Jóreiðr sees Guðrún again, dragging Eyjólfr Þorsteinsson by the tail of

her horse, in punishment for the burning at Flugumýrr
Þá vas betra, It was better before,
er fyr baugum réð when Brandr presided –
Brandr inn ˛orvi a mild gold-giver
ok burr skata. and a goodly man.
5
Hrafn was Eyjólfr’s partner in the Flugumýrr burning (1253), who fought against
Þorvarðr, Sturla and Þorgils at Þverá (1255).
6
Þorgils was Þorvarðr’s and Sturla Þórðarson’s partisan in the Þverá battle.
En nú es fyr lo˛ndum But now king Hákon

ok lengi mun and his kinsmen
Hákon konungr will rule these lands
ok hans synir. for long years to come.
It was better then, when Brandr the generous, and the son of the
man, managed the finances. But now Hákon the king and his sons
are over the lands, and it will be for a long time.
IV. Legendary Heroines
T he three speaking poets in the following section come from the

paradoxical world of the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur) – written
down relatively late (typically in the thirteenth or fourteenth century)
in terms of saga-writing, but assembled from very early narrative
material, going back to the time of the early tribal migrations in northern
Europe (ca. 350–600). Historical events, locations and persons from the
Migration Age appear in the fornaldarsögur in altered but recognizable
form, with little importance given to historical chronology, just as they
do in analogous narratives from other northern European literatures –
e.g., Beowulf, although Beowulf is five or six centuries older than these
sagas. These legendary sagas are exemplified by such stories as those
of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Fáfnir’s Bane) and Brynhildr the Valkyrie; the
Danish king Hrólfr kraki, who – like his Beowulfian analogue, Hroðgar
– needs a foreign hero with a B-name to save his mead-hall from a
monster; and Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir, the curse-daring shield-maiden,
wielding her fated ancestral sword, Tyrfingr. References to actual events
and persons sprinkled throughout the legendary sagas include the great
battle between the Goths and the Huns in 451, and figures such as Attila
the Hun and the Gothic chieftains Theodoric and Ermanaric.
Vǫlsunga saga, perhaps the most celebrated of these legendary sagas,
tells the full version of Brynhildr the shield-maiden’s tragic story. The
Eddic poem from the Codex Regius (but not found in the saga) that
is included immediately below allows her an otherwise unprecedented
opportunity to speak for herself, at some length.
49
Brynhildr and Gýgrin (the Trollwoman)

in Helreið Brynhildar (Brynhildr’s Ride to Hel)
Codex Regius GKS 2365 4to, late thirteenth century
Also in Nornagests þáttr, Flateyjarbók manuscript (FSNL I)
Neckel, Edda, rev. Kuhn, 219–221
Klaus von See et al., Kommentar, VI, 489–565
Riding to the Otherworld in the funerary wagon in which her body has
lately been immolated, the legendary heroine Brynhildr defends the life
she has lived
This poem displays some of the inconsistencies of the larger narrative
complex in which it is embedded. Is Brynhildr an ordinary mortal
woman who happens to frequent battlefields, has a famous brother (Atli,
i.e. Attila), and falls foul of a family of vindictive royal Burgundians
whose names start with G? Or is she an immortal valkyrie, and a lapsed
favorite of the god Óðinn? Vǫlsunga saga can be read to support either
interpretation.
This poem enables her to tell her story her own way. One hopes that
she will get her Sigurðr after all.
Gýgrin Trollwoman
Skaltu í go˛gnom You cannot come
ganga eigi through my caverns,
grjóti studda my rock-founded
garða mína; realms underground.
betr semði þér Better for you
borða at rekja to beat at a loom,
heldr en vitja and not hanker after
vers annarrar. someone’s husband.
Trollwoman: You shall not go through my domains, built on rocks;
it would have been more seemly for you to weave tapestries than to
chase after someone else’s man.
Hvat skaltu vitja Foreign woman

af Vallandi, and fickle-headed,
hvarfúst ho˛fuð, what do you want
húsa minna? with me and my house?
1
Gustav Neckel, ed., rev. Hans Kuhn, Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst
verwandten Denkmälern (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1962).
Þú hefir, Vár gullz, Goddess of gold,

ef þik vita lystir, you were not free of guilt
mild, af ho˛ndum when you wiped and washed
mannz blóð þvegit. wet blood from your hands.
What are you looking for – foreign one, fickle-headed – at my
house? Gracious Vár-of-gold, you have, if you care to hear, washed a
man’s blood from your hands.
Brynhildr Brynhildr
Bregðu eigi mér, You cannot stay me,
brúðr, ór steini, stone-bride,
þótt ek værak whether or not
í víkingo; I have waged war.
ek mun okkar Men might judge
œðri þykkja, between me and you,
hvars menn eðli but clearly I come
okkart kunno. of a higher kindred.
Do not hinder me, woman from the rock, though I have been on
a viking journey; of the two of us, I would be considered nobler,
anywhere that men knew of our origins.
Gýgrin Trollwoman
Þú vart, Brynhildr But you, Brynhildr,
Buðla dóttir, Buðli’s daughter,
heilli versto were born in the world
í heim borinn; to the worst of fortunes.
þú hefir Gjúka You have killed
um glatat bo˛rnom all Gjúki’s kin
ok búi þeira and struck to the ground
brugðit góðo. their goodly house.
You, Brynhildr Buðli’s daughter, were born into this world with the
worst fortune; you have destroyed the children of Gjúki and ruined
their fair house.
Brynhildr Brynhildr
Ek mun seg ja þér, I’ll share wisdom
svinn, ór reiðo, from my wagon,
vitlaussi mjo˛k, if you, fool, will hear

ef þik vita lystir, what I have to say.
hvé gørðo mik It was Gjúki’s kin
Gjúka arfar who caused my end:
ástalausa loveless, alone
ok eiðrofa. and an oath-breaker.
Very foolish one, I the wise one will tell you from my wagon, if you
care to hear, how Gjúki’s heirs made me loveless and an oath-breaker.
Lét hami vára Covered in cloaks

hugfullr konungr, by courageous king
átta systra, we lay, eight sisters
undir eik borit; under the oak.
var ek vetra tólf, To tell the truth,
ef þik vita lystir, I was twelve years old
er ek ungom gram when I gave promises
eiða seldak. to the young prince.
The brave king had our cloaks, [those] of eight sisters, brought under
an oak. I was, if you care to hear, twelve winters old when I gave my
oaths to the young prince.
Héto mik allir Helmet-Hildr

í Hlymdo˛lom they called me,
Hildi undir hjálmi, those in Hlymdalir
hverr er kunni. who knew me.
All the people in Hlymdalir who knew me called me Hildr-under-
the-helmet.
Þá lét ek gamlan I sent Hjálm-Gunnarr

á Goðþjóðo on the Hel-road.
Hjálm-Gunnar næst I gave the old Goth
heljar ganga; a warrior’s end,
gaf ek ungom sigr allowing Auða’s
Auðo bróður. young brother to win.
Þar varð mér Óðinn Óðinn was angry
ofreiðr um þat. with me for that.
Then next I caused old Hjálm-Gunnarr of the Goths to go to Hel. I gave
victory to Auða’s young brother, and Óðinn was very angry with me.
Lauk hann mik skjo˛ldom I lay locked under shields

í Skatalundi, in Skatalundr,
rauðom ok hvítom, white and red,
randir snurto; their rims touching.
þann bað hann slíta Óðinn put spells
svefni mínom, to prolong my sleep:
er hvergi lanz none but the fearless
hrœðaz kynni. could free me from them.
He imprisoned me with shields in Skatalundr, red and white ones.
Their edges touched each other. Then he commanded my sleep to be
broken by one who knew no fear anywhere.
Lét um sal minn, Óðinn bespelled

sunnanverðan, the southern walls
hávan brenna with fearful flames,
her allz viðar; the foe of all trees.
þar bað hann einn þegn Only one thane
yfir at ríða, could ride through it,
þannz mér fœrði gull who brought bright gold
þatz und Fáfni lá. from Fáfnir’s bed.
On the south side of my hall he commanded the enemy-of-all-
wood, [piled] high, to burn. Then he commanded that one man
would ride over it, the one who would bring me the gold that had
lain under Fáfnir.
Reið góðr Grana The good gold-giver

gullmiðlandi, on Grani’s back
þars fóstri minn came to the court
fletjom styrði; of my foster-father.
einn þótti hann þar He bore himself better
˛ollom betri than the bench-sitters there,
víkingr Dana, most like a Viking
í verðungo. of the valiant Danes.
The good gold-giver rode Grani to where my foster-father ruled the
roost. Alone, there he seemed better than all in the crowd – a viking
of the Danes.
Sváfo vit ok unðom Sweetly we slept

í sæing einni, in a single bed,
sem hann minn bróðir as if he had been
um borinn væri; my born brother.
hvártki knátti For eight nights
ho˛nd yfir annat neither of us two
átta nóttom laid hand on the other
okkart legg ja. in lust or love.
We slept in joy in one bed, as if he were born my brother. Neither of
us laid a hand over the other for eight nights.
Því brá mér Guðrún Then said Guðrún,

Gjúka dóttir, Gjúki’s daughter,
at ek Sigurði that I had slept
svæfak á armi; in Sigurðr’s arms.
þar varð ek þess vís, And thus it happened,
er ek vildigak, what I had not wanted;
at þau vélto mik they tricked me into
í verfangi. taking a husband.
Then Guðrún, Gjúki’s daughter, said I had slept in Sigurðr’s arms.
And I found out what I did not want – that they had tricked me
into a marriage.
Muno við ofstríð Fierce feuding

allz til lengi fills the lives
konor ok karlar of women and men
kvikvir fœðaz; in this mortal world.
Vit skolom okkrom Sigurðr and I
aldri slíta, shall never be split
Sigurðr, saman – one from another.
søkkstu, gýg jarkyn! Step aside, trollspawn!
For all too long, women and men are born to live their lives in
extreme strife. The two of us, Sigurðr and I, will never be split apart.
Sink down, troll-kin!
Signý Hálfdansdóttir
Setting: Legendary Denmark
Hrólfs saga kraka, ch. 3 (FSNL I)
SPSMA (ed. Desmond Slay):
A legendary heroine laments her brothers’ fate

The legendary saga of the Danish king Hrólfr kraki dates from the late
Middle Ages, but it has its roots in fifth- and sixth-century history. The
Signý of this poem is the aunt of the hero-king. Her tragedy is that she
has married an enemy of her clan and must watch the degradation of her
family.
O˛ll er orðin The tree of my kin

ætt Skjo˛ldunga, (the Skjo˛ldung kings)
lofðungs lundar, is blasted now,
at limum einum; with barren branches;
bræðr sá ek mína bareback my brothers
á berum sitja, bestride their horses,
en Sævils rekka while Sævill’s soldiers
á so˛ðluðum. sit on saddles.
The Skjo˛ldung line, kingly branches, have all turned into bare twigs;
I saw my brothers sit bareback, while Sævill’s warriors sat on saddles.
Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervararkviða)

Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs, ch. 4 (ed. Jón Helgason)
Heusler and Ranisch, Eddica Minora, 13–20
SPSMA (ed. Hannah Burrows):
A shield-maiden finds out the truth about her dead father; she goes to
his grave to confront his ghost and demand her inheritance
That the following poem (here reproduced with a few stanzas from
a preceding scene)2 should have been a favorite of anthologists for
several hundred years is no surprise. It contains a number of memorable
elements: its young, warlike heroine, traveling (disguised as a man) with
a band of viking raiders, the haunted grave-ground, and, not least, the
presence of a deadly curse. As the saga-narrative reveals throughout,
tragedy must ensue for any wielder of the sword Tyrfingr, since it
carries the curse of the captive dwarf smiths who were forced to forge
it. Relative to that curse, there is particular irony in Hervǫr’s insisting
that she does not care – as long as she may claim the sword – if her
descendants kill each other in future generations; they are, of course,
now fated to do exactly that.
Hervǫr’s berserker father and eleven berserker uncles are also found
in the saga of Arrow-Oddr (Ǫrvar-Odds saga; see Sections V and VI),
where their deaths are recounted in greater detail.
Hervǫr’s visit to a parent’s grave to recover an heirloom of value
has an analogue in more familiar folk narrative, in the Grimms’ version
of Cinderella. An additional curiosity perhaps worth noting is that the
Danish island of Sámsey (Samsø), where the legendary-saga tradition
sets this scene – portraying it as the haunted site of dead berserkers
and cursed weapons – is chiefly known today for summer cottages and
aquatic sports.
2
The original texts of these additional stanzas – the first five below – are borrowed
from Christopher Tolkien’s edition of Hervarar saga: Christopher Tolkien, ed.
and tr., The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons,
1960), 10–12; they are absent in the Heusler edition. (The resulting orthography
mismatches are due to Tolkien’s favoring of the R manuscripts, while Heusler
prefers Hauksbók. See Tolkien, Heidrek, xxix–xxxi.) There are also two narrative
stanzas interspersed further down for continuity, drawn from E. V. Gordon’s
edition of the poem in Introduction to Old Norse, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1957, 143–4). (Gordon’s choice of stanzas, and their order, largely follows
Guðbrandur Vigfússon and F. York Powell, Corpvs Poeticvm Boreale [Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1883, 163–8].)
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Áka ek várri Pitiful praise
vegsemð hrósa, is our family’s portion,
þótt hon Fróðmars even though Fróðmarr
fengi hylli; favored Tófa.
fo˛ður hugðumk ek I thought I had
frœknan eiga, a father of fame,
nú er sagðr fyrir mér but people are saying
svína hirðir. it was pigs he herded.
I have no need to praise our reputation, even though she [Tófa, my
mother] gained the praise of Fróðmarr.3 I thought I had a famous
father, but now people say to me that he was a swineherd.
Bjarmi jarl Jarl Bjarmi

Logit er mart at þér These are lies,
of lítil efni, little worth noting.
frœkn með fyrðum A worthy warrior
var faðir þinn taliðr; was your warlike father.
stendr Angantýs Angantýr’s howe,
ausinn moldu a hollowed hill,
salr í Sámsey stands on Sámsey,
sunnanverðri. south of here.
Much that is said to you is a lie of little account. Your father was
counted as brave among the warriors. Angantýr’s hall, covered with
dirt, stands on Sámr’s island, south of here.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Nú fýsir mik, Uncle, I’ll go there,
fóstri, at vitja the graves to see:
framgenginna the dim howes
frænda minna; of my dead kindred.
auð mundu þeir A fine blade
eiga nógan, may be buried there;
þann skal ek ˛oðlask, that prize is mine,
nema ek áðr fo˛rumk. unless I perish.
Foster-father, now I am eager to visit my departed kinsmen. They
must have considerable treasure. I will get it, unless I die first.
3
It is impossible to identify who Fróðmarr is: see Tolkien, Heidrek, 91.
Skal skjótliga Swiftly I’ll strip

af sko˛r búa4 the lapped linen
blæju líni, from my hanging hair
áðr braut fari; before I leave.
mikit býr í því, Much depends on
er á morgin skal the morning’s tasks:
skera bæði mér to make me a man’s
skyrtu ok ólpu. mantle and shirt.
Swiftly the linen wrapping will come off of my hair before I depart.
Much depends on having both a shirt and a cape tailored for me in
the morning.
Bú þú mik at ˛ollu Mother, make for me

sem þú bráðast kunnir, man’s clothing,
sannfróð kona, what I would wear
sem þú son myndir; if I were your son.
satt eitt mun mér My dreams have shown me
í svefn bera, but one destiny:
fæ ek ekki hér I’ll not find happiness
ynði it næsta. here at home.
Prepare everything for me as fast as you can, wise woman, as if you
were making it for a son. One true thing my sleep reveals to me: I
will get no joy here at all.
Narrator Narrator
Hitt hefr mær ung The young maid met a man
í Munarvági on the Munarvág shore;
við sólar-setr he watched his flock
segg at hjo˛rðu.5 under waning sunlight.
A young maiden met with a man herding his flocks in Munarvágr
at sunset.
4
Tolkien cites this sensible emendation by Finnur Jónsson, but then declines to
use it, printing instead the ‘um skǫr’ of the manuscripts (Tolkien, Heidrek, 11).
The difference is between taking off a linen headcloth (as here) and putting one
on (as in Tolkien).
5
Gordon, Introduction, 143.
Hirðir Herdsman
Hverr er einn saman Who has arrived
í ey kominn? alone on this island?
gakktu greiðliga Go to a guest-house,
gistingar til! get you to shelter!
Who has come alone to the island? Go quickly to a guest-house.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Munkat ek ganga I can go to no guest-house
gistingar til, nor get me to shelter,
þvíat ek engi kann for none on this island
eyjarskegg ja; knows my face.
segðu hraðliga, Say to me swiftly
áðr heðan líðir: the answer I’m seeking:
hvar ró Hjo˛rvarði where are the howes
haugar kendir? of Hjo˛rvarðr’s kin?
I may not go to any lodgings, since I know no one on the island. Tell
me quickly before you leave: where are the burial mounds named
for Hjo˛rvarðr?
Hirðir Herdsman
Spyrjattu at því, Unwisely you ask
spakr ertu eigi, for answers best hidden.
vinr víkinga, Friend of vikings,
þú ert vanfarinn; vain is your journey.
fo˛rum fráliga, Let our feet take us far,
sem okkr fœtr toga! as fast as we can.
allt er úti Horrors are here
ámátt firum. for anyone human.
Do not ask that. You are not wise, vikings’ friend. You have come
to the wrong place. Let us go from here as fast as our feet can go.
Everything out here is ghastly for mortals.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Men bjóðum þér Talk, and a treasure
máls at g jo˛ldum; I’ll tender to you.
muna dreng ja vin But it’s hard to hinder

dælt at letja; a blade-brother:
fær eigi mér I’ll take no bribes
fríðar hnossir, to abandon my quest –
fagra bauga, no rich rings
svát at ek fara eigi. nor bright bracelets.
I offer you a necklace in return for this conversation. It’s hard to
hinder the friend of warriors. No one can give me fair treasures or
pretty rings to halt my journey.
Hirðir Herdsman
Heimskr þykki mér, I hold you half-witted
sá er heðra ferr, to come hither,
maðr einn saman, one man alone
myrkvar grímur; under murky shadow.
hyrr er á sveimun, Grave-mounds gape open
haugar opnask, and ghost-fires rise up.
brenn fold ok fen: The bogs are burning.
fo˛rum harðara! Begone! We must flee!
Anyone who comes here – a man by himself under dark shadows –
seems foolish to me. The fire is soaring. The mounds are opening.
The fields and swamps are burning. Let us run faster!
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Hirðumat fælask Why should we fear
við fno˛sun slíka, such foolish talk?
þótt of alla ey Let all the island
eldar brenni! be awash in ghost-fire.
látum okkr eigi We shall have no fear
liðna rekka of departed forebears,
skjótla skelfa! nor shudder to seek
skulum við talask. speech with these dead.
Let us not be frightened by such nonsense, even if fires burn all over
the island. Let us not quickly tremble at departed warriors. We must
talk with them.
Narrator Narrator
Var þá féhirðir Fast fled that herdsman
fljótr til skógar forest-ward.
mjo˛k frá máli Weary was he
meyjar þessar, of weird talk.
enn harðsnúinn But Hervo˛r’s heart
hugr í brjósti was high in her:
of sakar slíkar the grim grave-ground
svellr Hervo˛ru.6 gave her no pause.
The herdsman went swiftly to the forest, away from the speech of
this girl. But Hervo˛r’s resolute heart swells in her bosom, thinking
of such things.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Vaki, Angantýr! Wake, Angantýr!
vekr þik Hervo˛r, Hervo˛r wakes you –
einga dóttir your only daughter,
ykkur Tófu; and Tófa’s too.
selðu ór haugi Give from the grave
hvassan mæki, the grim blade,
þann er Sváfrlama smithed by dwarfs
slógu dvergar! for Sváfrlami.
Wake, Angantýr! Hervo˛r wakes you, the only daughter of yourself
and Tófa. Give me the sharp sword from out of the mound, the one
that the dwarfs forged for Sváfrlami.
Hervarðr, Hjo˛rvarðr, Hervarðr, Hjo˛rvarðr,

Hrani, Angantýr, Hrani, Angantýr!
vek ek yðr alla Arise and wake
und viðar rótum, under wooden roots:
hjálmi ok með brynju, in helms and byrnies,
hvo˛ssu sverði, bright swords bearing,
ro˛nd ok með reiði, shields and riding-gear
roðnum geiri. and reddened spears.
Hervarðr, Hjo˛rvarðr, Hrani, Angantýr! I wake you all under the
tree-roots, in helm and with mail-shirt, with sharp sword, with
shield and with chariot, with bloody spear.
6
Ibid., 144.
Mjo˛k eruð orðnir, Sons of Arngrímr,

Arngríms synir, (awesome warriors!),
megir meinsamir, dust you must be,
moldar at auka, damp mold merely!
er engi skal Do Eyfura’s kinsmen
sona Eyfuru lack the courage
við mik mæla to meet with me
í Munarvági. in Munarvágr?
Arngrímr’s sons, kinsmen battle-ready, you must have already
descended to dust, since none of the sons of Eyfura wishes to talk
with me in Munarvágr.
[Hervarðr, Hjo˛rvarðr, Hervarðr, Hjo˛rvarðr,

Hrani, Angantýr!] Hrani, Angantýr!
Svá sé yðr ˛ollum Bare may your ribs be
innan rifja, and rotten with vermin,
sem ér í maura itch upon itch
mornið haugi, ever beset you,
nema sverð selið, if you yield not the death-dealer
þat er sló Dvalinn; Dvalinn forged;
samira draugum what good for a ghost
dýrt vápn fela. is a grim-edged weapon?
May it be with you all, inside your ribs, as if you rested in an anthill,
unless you give up the sword which Dvalinn forged. It is not seemly
for ghosts to hide a costly weapon.
Angantýr Angantýr
Hervo˛r dóttir, Hervo˛r, daughter,
hví kallar svá, doom fills your words!
full feiknstafa? Curses suit poorly
ferr þú þér at illu! a shield-maid so highborn.
œr ertu orðin Wild your thoughts are,
ok ørvita, and wanting in wit,
villhygg jandi, if in truth you desire
vekr menn dauða! dead men to awaken.
Hervo˛r, daughter! Why do you call on us full of curses? This
is unseemly of you. You have turned crazy, and wanting in wit,
thinking wildly, to awaken dead men.
Grófat mik faðir niðr Neither father nor mother

né frændr aðrir; these mounds did make for us,
[two missing lines] [’twas Arrow-Oddr dug them,
destroyer of us all.]
þeir ho˛fðu Tyrfing The two men who lived
tveir er lifðu, took Tyrfingr away.
varð þó eigandi One perished soon after.
einn of síðir. The sword is not here!
My father did not bury me, nor other kinsmen. [Probable missing
lines: My foemen laid me in this mound.] Two men who lived took
Tyrfingr, but afterwards only one owned the sword.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Segðu eitt satt! Give me the truth!
svá lati áss þik May some god doom you
heilan í haugi, to burial alive,
sem þú hafir eigi! if the blade is not here,
trauðr ertu at veita if Tyrfingr is lost!
Tyrfing hvassan Truly, ’tis ill-done
arfa þínum, to hold back an heirloom
einga barni. from your only heir.
Tell me one true thing! May a god leave you whole in the mound, if
you do not have it! You are reluctant to yield keen-edged Tyrfingr to
your heir [and] only child.
Angantýr Angantýr
Hnigin er helgrind, The hell-gate opens,
haugar opnask, the howes are open:
allr er í eldi fearsome fires
eybarmr at sjá; fathom the island,
atalt er úti gruesome to gaze on,
um at litask; ghastly to view.
skyntu, mær, ef þú mátt, Get away, girl,
til skipa þinna! go to your ships!
The hell-gate is open, the mounds open up. The surface of the island
is all aflame. It is terrible to look at out here. Hurry, girl, if you can,
to your ships!
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Brennið ér eigi I need more than burning
bál á nóttum, balefires at dusk
svá at ek við elda to force me to fear:
yðra fælumk; flames do not stop me.
skelfrat meyju Hervo˛r’s heart
muntún hugar, heeds no danger,
þótt hón draug séi though walking dead
í durum standa. in doorways stand.
No flames that you burn at night could make me fear your fires. The
heart in this maid’s breast does not tremble, even if she sees a ghost
standing in the door.
Angantýr Angantýr
Segi ek þér, Hervo˛r, – Hearken, Hervo˛r,
hlýttu til meðan, highborn daughter,
vísa dóttir! – hear me tell
þat er verða mun: your hapless fate:
sjá mun Tyrfingr, this bitter blade
ef þú trúa mættir, I bear, this Tyrfingr,
ætt þinni, mær, will author the ending
allri spilla. of all your kin.
I say to you, Hervo˛r, daughter of princes – listen, meanwhile, to
what will happen! This Tyrfingr, if you will believe me, will destroy
all of your kinsmen, maiden.
Muntu son geta, A son you shall have,

þann er síðan mun a swordsman mighty;
Tyrfing bera Tyrfingr he’ll bear,
ok trúa afli; and trust his own might.
þann munu Heiðrek Heiðrekr he’ll hight,
heita lýðar, this hardy hero;
sá mun ríkstr alinn he will stand strong
und ro˛ðuls tjaldi. under the sky-tent.
You will bear a son, who later will wield Tyrfingr and trust in his
might. Men will call him Heiðrekr. He will be the most splendid
man nourished under the sun’s canopy.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Ek vígi svá Kindred, I cast you
virða dauða, a lasting curse:
at ér skuluð restful repose
allir ligg ja, I wrest from you;
dauðir með draugum, may you rot here, restless,
í dys fúnir; with the wretched dead.
selðu, Angantýr, Give me, Angantýr,
út ór haugi the grim sword;
dverga smíði! it’s unwise to hide
dugira þér at leyna. that dwarf-made blade.
Thus I curse you dead men, that you may all lie dead among the
ghosts, rotting in the howe. Give me the dwarfs’ work from out of
the mound. It is not seemly for you to hide it.
Angantýr Angantýr
Kveðkat ek þik, mær ung, Hervo˛r, I hold you
mo˛nnum líka, hardly human,
er þú um hauga stealing by night
hvarfar á nóttum to stalk our grave-ground;
gro˛fnum geiri with graven spear
ok með Gota málmi, and Gothic armor,
hjálmi ok með brynju with helm and byrnie
fyr hallar dyrr. our hall-doors to face.
Young maiden, I consider you hardly human – you, who walk
around barrows at night with graven spear and Gothic metal, with
helm and with mail-shirt before the mound’s door.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Maðr þóttumk ek Nay, normal am I,
menzkr til þessa, in no wise uncommon,
áðr ek sali yðra at least until
sœkja réðak; I essayed this quest.
selðu ór haugi Give from the grave
þann er hatar brynjur, the gasher of mail-shirts,
hlífum hættan hater of hard shields,
Hjálmars bana! Hjálmarr’s bane.
They thought I was human enough for this, before I decided to seek
your hall. Give me from the mound that which hates mail-shirts:
Hjálmarr’s bane, dangerous to shields.
Angantýr Angantýr
Liggr mér und herðum Buried beneath me
Hjálmars bani, is Hjálmarr’s bane,
allr er hann útan enfolded in flames
eldi sveipinn; from hilt to point;
mey veit ek enga no mortal maid
moldar hvergi, of mankind’s tribe
at þann hjo˛r þori would dare catch and keep
í hendr nema. so curst a thing.
Under my shoulders lies Hjálmarr’s bane. It is encircled with flames
all around. I know no maiden anywhere on earth who would dare
take that sword in her hands.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Ek mun hirða I would catch and keep
ok í hendr nema, so keen a blade,
hvassan mæki, and guard it well,
ef ek hafa mættak; if gain it I could.
uggi ek eigi For fire and flames
eld brennanda: I feel no fear;
þegar loga lægir, see! they subside
er ek lít yfir. when stared upon straightly.
I would guard and take in my hands the sharp sword, if I might have
it. I do not fear the burning flames, since the fire lessens as I look at it.
Angantýr Angantýr
Heimsk ertu, Hervo˛r, I hold you half-witted
hugar eigandi, to harbor this horror,
er þú at augum and foolish, to face
í eld hrapar! the fires unprotected.
Heldr vil ek selja But I cannot, daughter,
sverð ór haugi, deny your desire:
mær en unga, I give from the grave
mákat ek synja. the grim blade.
You are foolish, Hervo˛r, to have the thought to rush open-eyed into
the fire. I would rather give you the sword from the mound. Young
maiden, I would not deny you.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Vel gørðir þú, Virtue you have,
víkinga niðr, viking kinsman,
er þú seldir to give from the grave
sverð ór haugi; the grim blade;
betr þykkjumk nú, peerless, beyond price,
buðlungr, hafa, this princely thing,
en ek Nóregi nobler to own
næðak ˛ollum. than Norway entire.
You do well, kinsman of vikings, that you give me the sword from
the mound. O prince, I think now that it is better to have it than to
acquire all of Norway.
Angantýr Angantýr
Veizt eigi þú – Fey and frightful,
veso˛l ertu mála, these fell words of yours;
fláráð kona! – high-hearted you are,
hví fagna skal; but hollow your joy.
sjá mun Tyrfingr, This bitter blade
ef þú trúa mættir, I bear, this Tyrfingr,
ætt þinni, mær, will author the ending
allri spilla. of all your kin.
Your words are ill-fated, false-spoken woman. You do not know
what you rejoice at. This Tyrfingr, if you will believe me, will destroy
all of your kinsmen, girl.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Ek mun ganga I’ll haste away hence;
til g jálfrmara; high is my mood.
nú er hilmis mær Death-dealer’s daughter
í hugum góðum: departs over sea now.
lítt hræðumk þat, I care for no curses,
lofðunga niðr, O kinsman of kings:
hvé synir mínir I care not if my kin
síðan deila. kill one another!
I will go to the sea-steed [ship]. Now the hero’s daughter is in good

humor. Little do I fear, O kinsman of kings, how my sons will fight
later on.
Angantýr Angantýr
Þú skalt eiga Long shall you have
ok una lengi, and hold this blade.
hafðú á hulðu, Take care how you touch
Hjálmars bana, this Tyrfingr, I tell you.
takattu á egg jum, Painted with poison
eitr er í báðum; are point and both edges;
sá er mannz mjo˛tuðr a dealer of doom
meini verri. and death it is.
You shall own, and enjoy for a long time, Hjálmarr’s bane. Hold it by
the scabbard and do not grasp it by the edges, since there is poison
on both of them. It is the worst dispenser of evil to men.
Far vel, dóttir! Hearken, Hervo˛r,

fljótt gæfak þér heed my farewell:
tólf manna fjo˛r, if you’d give me hearing,
ef þú trúa mættir, gladly I’d grant you
afl ok eljun, stamina and strength –
allt et góða such as we had,
þat er synir Arngríms Arngrímr’s twelve sons,
at sik leifðu. ere all were slain.
Farewell, daughter. I would swiftly give you the strength of twelve
men, if you would believe me – strength and endurance and all the
good things the sons of Arngrímr lost in death.
Hervo˛r Hervo˛r
Búið ér allir – May fate keep and hold you
brott fýsir mik – hale in your howes;
heilir í haugi! rest there unroused.
heðan vil ek skjótla; The road calls me on.
helzt þóttumk nú Unease I felt now
heima í millim, at these unearthly things,
er mik umhverfis when between the worlds
eldar brunnu. the balefires burned.
I must be going. May you all stay well in the mound. I must leave
soon. I certainly felt between the worlds just now, when all around
me the fires were burning.
V. Magic-Workers, Prophetesses, and Alien Maidens
W hat many of the legendary skalds in this diverse section have

in common with the equally loquacious (but more inhuman1)
trollwomen in Section VI is that their primary purpose in a given
narrative is to serve as a speaking foil or a bearer of news to a male
listener. The attitude of these legendary women skalds toward the said
legendary heroes varies widely, from mild and flirtatious to pugnacious
and hostile.
Some of the skalds in this section are valkyries or air-riding spirits,
and some are giant-maidens, and thus only marginally human; these tend
also to be foresighted prophetesses. Others are ordinary human women
with a prophetic gift, or a skill for casting curses (or even magical
weapons). Still others are simply out-of-town girls, despite the exotic
features of the narratives they find themselves in. These last are thus
the legendary or foreign equivalents of Egill Skalla-Grímsson’s playful
interlocutors, found in Section II.
Skalds who are witches, pagan priestesses or prophetesses often
address a reluctant or inimical male audience, as the foresighted
Gunnhildr konungamóðir did (see Section I); those who have no such
powers may (or may not) be met with a friendlier reception, presumably
because they are less threatening figures.
One of the texts below comes from an Eddic poem of the Codex
Regius, and one from the otherwise realistic world of the Icelandic
family saga (Njáls saga, in this case); but the others are drawn from
the liminal world of the legendary sagas, the fornaldarsögur (see the
introduction to Section IV).
1
The admittedly arbitrary line of demarcation between Sections V and VI was set
thus: Section V, non-trolls; Section VI, trolls. With particular reference to the
set of texts in this collection, ‘troll’ may simply be an ethnic slur for ‘foreigner,’
though (see the introduction to Section VI).
71
Heiðr vǫlva
Codex Regius GKS 2365 4to, late thirteenth century
Neckel, Edda, rev. Kuhn, 5, stanza 22
Vǫluspá 22, the tasks of a seeress

I include this extract here because of its description of the work of
a spákona (prophetess), as well as its mention of one prophetess’s
multivalent name ‘Heiðr’ (Clear, or Bright, or Honor, or Heath – as
in the home of heathens). This name is in fact applied to a number of
spákonur in both poetry and prose. The common use of this name (or
title? or term of opprobrium?) as designating a wise woman is perhaps
traceable to this poem.
Although many of the stanzas in Vǫluspá are spoken from a first-
person perspective, the speaker may be either be referring, in this third-
person stanza, to her own work as prophetess; or, just as well, to the
work of another.2
Heiði hana hétu They called her Clear-minded

hvars til húsa kom, when she came to the houses,
vo˛lu vel spá, and Seeress; she spoke
vitti hon ganda; her spells with a staff.
seið hon, hvars hon kunni, Witch-tricks she worked:
seið hon hug leikinn, she worked them wild-minded.
æ var hon angan Wicked wise-women
illrar brúðir. welcomed her always.
They called her Heiðr [bright one] when she visited houses, and
a vo˛lva [prophetess]; she knew well how to prophesy with magic
staves; she knew how to do magic, she worked magic while out of
her wits, she was always a joy to wicked women.
2
Ursula Dronke sees the narrator and ‘Heiðr’ as separate figures; see The Poetic
Edda, Volume II: Mythological Poems, ed. and tr. Ursula Dronke (Oxford
University Press, 1997), 27–30, 99–101. By contrast, John McKinnell draws a
variant conclusion, namely, that ‘Heiðr’ should be read as the poem’s narrator;
see ‘On Heiðr,’ Saga-Book of the Viking Society 25 (2001), 394–417. W. H.
Auden and Paul B. Taylor, in their popularized translation of 1970, chose to
present the Heiðr stanza using the first person; see W. H. Auden and Paul B.
Taylor, The Elder Edda: A Selection (London: Faber and Faber, 1970), 144.
Darraðarljóð
FJ IB, 389–92; Kock I, 192–4
The saga tells us how this poem was seen and heard in a vision by a
man named Dǫrruðr, on Good Friday, 1014, in Caithness, Scotland – on
the morning of the battle of Clontarf in Ireland. In it, valkyrie-women
weave a bloody tapestry, prophesying of battle.
This much is known: the battle of Clontarf was fought on Good Friday,
1014, between the forces of Munster (under Brian Boru) and Leinster
(under Máelmorda mac Murchada and many allies). However, although
the Njáls saga text explicitly connects the poem below with that battle,
there are too many mismatches to make that connection smoothly; the
poem’s somewhat generic warlike images make it equally applicable to
any number of events. Still, attempts have been made, for instance, to
connect the ‘young king’ of stanza 4 with Sigtryggr silkiskegg, the Norse
king of Dublin, who was an enemy and a complicated in-law (both son-
in-law and stepson) of Brian Boru, who has in turn been connected to
the ‘doughty king’ in stanza 7. Sigtryggr, however, was not present on
the battlefield that day.3
Vítt es orpit Widely we stretch

fyr valfalli our weaving-warp:
rifs reiðiský; the ribs of our loom
rignir blóði. rain down blood.
Nú’s fyr geirum Warriors’ lives
grár upp kominn fill our grey web.
vefr verþjóðar, With red threads
es vinur fylla we work the warp,
rauðum vepti weave the weft,
Randvés bana. fulfill Óðinn’s will.
The hanging cloud of the loom crossbar is stretched wide before the
slaughter. Blood rains down. Now the grey web of men is raised up
on spears, which the women friends-of-Randvér’s-slayer [friends of
Óðinn] fill in with a red weft.
3
An excellent summary of the scholarship surrounding the poem’s potential
historicity is contained in Russell G. Poole’s Viking Poems on War and Peace: A
Study in Skaldic Narrative (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991).
Sjá er orpinn vefr The web is warped

ýta þo˛rmum with warriors’ guts.
ok harðkléaðr The warp is weighted
ho˛fðum manna; with heavy heads.
eru dreyrrekin Bloody spears
do˛rr at sko˛ptum, support the loom.
járnvarðr yllir With iron-shod shuttle,
enn ˛orum hrælaðr; with arrows for beaters
skulum slá sverðum and swords for stiffeners,
sigrvef þenna. we shape our weaving.
This web is strung with men’s entrails and heavily weighted with
men’s heads. Blood-soaked spears are used for supports. The shuttle
is iron-clad, and arrows are used as battens. We will forge this victory
web with swords.
Gengr Hildr vefa Hildr weaves,

ok Hjo˛rþrimul, and Hjo˛rþrimul;
Sanngríðr, Svipul Sanngríðr and Svipul,
sverðum tognum. with sweeping swords.
Skapt mun gnesta, Spear-shafts will clash
skjo˛ldr mun bresta, and targes will shatter.
mun hjalmgagarr The helmet-hound
í hlíf koma. will harry the shield.
Hildr goes a-weaving, and Hjo˛rþrimul, Sanngríðr and Svipul with
drawn swords. Shafts will clash, shields will break. The helm-hound
[ax] will strike the shield.
Vindum, vindum We weave, we weave

vef darraðar, the web of spears:
þann er ungr konungr the young war-king
átti fyrri! once owned this weaving.
Fram skulum ganga We follow forward
ok í folk vaða, where folk are fighting,
þar er vinir várir where favored friends
vápnum skipta. wield their weapons.
We weave, we weave the spear-web, that which the young king
previously owned. We will go forth and walk among the people,
where our friends exchange weapons.

vef darraðar the web of spears.
ok siklingi We come in the wake
síðan fylg jum! of the war-chief.
Þar sjá bragnar Swordsmen will see
blóðgar randir, their shields bloodied,
Gunnr ok Go˛ndul where Gunnr and Go˛ndul
es grami fylgðu. go to follow the king.
We weave, we weave the spear-web, and afterwards follow the prince
to war. The heroes will see bloody shields, where Gunnr and Go˛ndul
followed the prince.

vef darraðar, the web of spears,
þar er vé vaða where brave banners
vígra manna! of warriors are waving.
Látum eigi Let us not let
líf hans farask: his life be lost!
eigu valkyrjur Valkyries decide
vals of kosti. who dies and who lives.
We weave, we weave the spear-web, where the banners of fighting
men are waving. Let us not let his life be lost. Valkyries have the
choice of the slain.
Þeir munu lýðir Outland lords

lo˛ndum ráða, will rule the lands,
er útskaga who once dwelt
áðr of byggðu; on the windy nesses.
Kveð ek ríkum gram A doughty king
ráðinn dauða. is doomed to die.
Nú er fyrir oddum Spears will strike
jarlmaðr hniginn. and a jarl will fall.
Those men will rule the lands who used to settle on outer headlands. I
say a mighty king is doomed to death. Now a jarl has fallen under spears.
Ok munu Írar The grief of this day

angr of bíða, will grow for Ireland,
þat er aldri mun and men shall always
ýtum fyrnask. hold it in memory.

Nú er vefr ofinn, Our web is full woven
en vo˛llr roðinn. and the field fully reddened.
Mun um lo˛nd fara This sad tale of strife
læspjo˛ll gota. will be sounded abroad.
The Irish will also experience grief, such that men will always
remember it. Now the web is woven and the battlefield reddened.
The ill tale of warriors will travel through the lands.
Nú er ogurligt Bloated with blood,

um at lítask, red clouds veil the sky –
es dreyrugt ský gruesome to gaze on,
dregr með himni; ghastly to view.
mun lopt litat The blood of heroes
lýða blóði, hues the heavens,
es sóknvarðar but the battle-women
syng ja kunnu. can still sing.
Now it is terrible to look around, as the bloody cloud floats against
the sky. The sky will be dyed with the blood of men, but the battle-
women still know how to sing.
Vel kváðu vér We have praised in full

um konung ungan; the fair young king.
sigrhljóða fjo˛lð We end in good cheer
syngum heilar: our warlike chanting.
en hinn nemi, Let him who hears this
er heyrir á, pay heed and hearken,
geirfljóða hljóð and sing to all men
ok gumum segi! the spearwomen’s song!
We have spoken well about the young king; in health we sang many
victory songs. But let him who listens take note of the spear-women’s
song, and tell it to men.
Ríðum hestum, We ride, we ride

hart út berum, in fast foray,
brugðnum sverðum with swords held high,
á brott héðan! away from here!
We ride fast away from here on horses without saddles, with our
swords drawn.
Grottasǫngr: Fenja and Menja

Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, ed. Faulkes, I, 52–7, stanzas 159–82
The Mill-Song, sung by the giant maidservants of Fróði Friðleifsson, the

great-uncle of king Hrólfr kraki of Denmark
The tale of the magic mill which grinds out whatever the owner desires,
here called Grotti, has analogues in Finnish tradition (the Sampo of
the Kalevala) as well as in the Norwegian folktale collection of Peter
Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (‘Kvernen som står og maler på
havsens bunn’).
In every incarnation of the tale, the mill is a mixed blessing. Here the
story serves as a warning to imperious masters, or perhaps as a sermon
against greed.
King Fróði – whose name means both ‘wise’ and ‘fertile’, but who, as
the poem ironically shows, lives up to neither designation – is ignorant
of the impending danger emanating from his slaves’ quarters, failing
to identify the giant lineage, and potential power, of the thrall-women
Fenja and Menja.4
Hrólfr kraki’s father Helgi married his own daughter unwittingly,
which is why Yrsa is both Hrólfr’s sister and mother (stanza 22 below).
However, in contrast to Sigurðr’s half-brother Sinfjǫtli of Vǫlsunga
saga, Hrólfr is not negatively affected by his incestuous origin.
Nú eru komnar Now have come

til konungs húsa to the king’s houses
framvísar tvær, two far-seeing ones,
Fenja ok Menja; Fenja and Menja:
Þær ró at Fróða mighty maidens,
Friðleifssonar kept as menials
máttkar meyjar by King Fróði
an mani hafðar. Friðleifsson.
Now two seeresses have come to the king’s houses, Fenja and Menja.
They, mighty maidens, are kept for thralls by Fróði Friðleifsson.
4
Clive Tolley, ed. and tr., Grottasǫngr: The Song of Grotti (London: The Viking
Society for Northern Research, 2008). Tolley also connects these giantesses and
their mill with the three powerful giantesses of Vǫluspá, who upset the gods’
chess game; both groups of ‘mátkar meyjar’ (‘mighty maids’: see stanza 1,
below) wield anarchic female might against a male power structure.
Þær at lúðri They were made to go

leiddar váru to the grinding-mill,
ok grjóts grjá commanded to keep
gangs of beiddu. the mill moving.
Hét hann hvárigri He rendered to them
hvíld né ynði, no respite, no rest:
áðr hann heyrði he had to hear always
hljóm ambátta. the hum of their working.
They were led to the mill’s platform and bidden to set the grey stones
in motion. He allowed them neither rest nor satisfaction until he
heard the song of the thrallwomen.
Þær þyt þulu The mill made moans,

þo˛gnhorfinnar: ceasing its silence.
‘Legg jum lúðra, ‘Let us lift up our load
léttum steinum.’ and set up these stones.’
Bað hann enn meyjar, Still he goaded those girls
at þær mala skyldu. to start up their grinding.
They cause creaking in the silence-banished [mill]. ‘Let us set up the
mill, lift up the stones.’ Then he commanded the maids again to grind.
Sungu ok slungu They sang and they spun

snúðgasteini, the spinning stone,
svá at Fróða man and Fróði’s house-slaves
flest sofnaði; fell to sleeping.
þá kvað þat Menja Then Menja said,
(var til meldrs komin): there by the mill:
They sang and turned the whirling stone, so that Fróði’s servants
mostly slept; then Menja said, who had come to the grinding:
‘Auð mo˛lum Fróða, ‘For Fróði, good fate;

mo˛lum alsælan, For Fróði, fine fortune;
mo˛lum fjo˛ld fjár much money we grind
á feginslúðri. on the mill for him.
Siti hann á auði. May he rest on riches,
Sofi hann á dúni, sleep on soft bedding,
vaki hann at vilja, wake when he wills it:
þá es vel malit. then we have ground well.
‘We grind riches for Fróði, we grind to make him blessed, we grind
great amounts of money on the lucky mill. May he sit on heaps of
riches, sleep on down, wake when he wants to; then we have ground
well.
‘Hér skyli engi ‘No one here

˛oðrum granda, shall wound another,
til bo˛ls búa work baleful deeds
né til bana orka, or be a man’s bane,
né ho˛ggva því nor hew another
hvo˛ssu sverði, with heavy blade –
þó at bana bróður even if that other
bundinn finni.’ is his brother’s slayer.’
‘Here no one shall injure another, wreak harm or cause death, nor
hew with the sharp sword, though he meet his brother’s killer bound
before him.’
En hann kvað ekki But Fróði uttered

orð it fyrra: only these words:
‘Sofið eigi þit ‘Rest no longer
né of sal gaukar, than rooftop-ravens,
eða lengr en svá no longer than I take
ljóð eitt kveðak.’ to sing one song.’
But he spoke no word but this first one: ‘Sleep no more than the
cuckoos on the roof, or longer than it takes me to recite one poem.’
‘Varattu, Fróði, ‘Far from your knowing,

fullspakr of þik, speech-friend Fróði,
málvinr manna, was wisdom’s rede
er þú man keyptir. when you bought your thralls.
Kaus þú at afli You chose us for strength
ok at álitum, and our sturdy frames,
en at ætterni but you never asked
ekki spurðir. what kin we came from.
‘You were not, Fróði, altogether wise about your own interests,
speech-friend of men, when you bought us as serving-maids; you
chose for strength and outward appearance, but you never asked our
pedigree.
‘Harðr var Hrungnir ‘Hardy was Hrungnir,

ok hans faðir, and his father as well,
þó var Þjazi though Þjazi had stronger
þeim ˛oflgari; thews than they.
Iði ok Aurnir, Also Iði and Aurnir
okkrir niðjar, were our kinsmen,
bræðr bergrisa, the cave-troll brothers;
þeim erum bornar. we were born to that clan.
‘Hrungnir was strong, and his father, although Þjazi was stronger
than they. Iði and Aurnir, our kinsmen, brothers of the mountain
giants – we were born into their clan.
‘Kæmia Grotti ‘These millstones had never

ór grjá fjalli left the mountains,
né sá inn harði these rough rocks had never
hallr ór jo˛rðu, been raised to the surface,
né mœli svá nor had a troll-maiden
mær bergrisa, known the use of a mill,
ef vissi vit if she had not had
vætr til hennar. this knowledge from birth.
‘Grotti would not have come out of the grey mountain, nor the hard
stone out of the earth, nor would the hill-giant maid work the mill
this way, if it were not something she knew about already.
‘Vér vetr níu ‘For nine winters we girls

várum leikur gamed with each other,
˛oflgar alnar with strength in our arms,
fyr jo˛rð neðan. under the earth.
Stóðu meyjar Strong against stones
at meginverkum, set in living rock,
fœrðum sjálfar we mighty maidens
setberg ór stað. moved mountains.
‘For nine winters we were playmates, strong-armed, under the
ground. The maidens performed mighty deeds: we ourselves moved
a flat-topped mountain from its place.
‘Veltum grjóti ‘We rolled the rocks

of garð risa, from the giants’ garth.
svá at fold fyrir The ground groaned

fór skjalfandi. and shook beneath them.
Svá sløngðum vit Then we slung the stone,
snúðgasteini, the spinning stone,
ho˛fgahalli, heavy as mountains,
at halir tóku. and men took it up.
‘We overturned stones at the giants’ dwelling, such that the earth
trembled. Then we threw the turning stone, the heavy stone, and
men took it.
‘En vit síðan ‘We went then to Sweden,

á Svíþjóðu seeress and seeress.
framvísar tvær We walked together
í folk stigum. among the warriors.
Beiddum bjo˛rnu We faced the swordsmen
en brutum skjo˛ldu, and smote their shields,
gengum í gegnum in our restless going
gráserkjat lið. through grey-shirted ranks.
‘Later, in Sweden, we two seeresses walked among the people. We
challenged warriors [‘bears’] and broke shields, and made our way
through the grey-armored company.
‘Steyptum stilli, ‘We threw down one king

studdum annan, and created another.
veittum góðum We gave support
Gothormi lið. to good Gothormr.
Vara kyrrseta, There would have been war
áðr Knúi felli. without Knúi’s fall.
‘We overthrew one prince and set up another one. We gave support
to good Gothormr. There was no peace until Knúi fell.
‘Fram heldum því ‘We did yet more deeds

þau misseri, in those days long gone,
at vit at ko˛ppum well-known for our skills
kenndar várum. and strength in battle.
Þar skorðu vit With sharpened spears
sko˛rpum geirum we slashed and wounded.
blóð ór benjum, Our bloodied brands
ok brand ruðum. bore reddened edges.
‘In those seasons we carried on, until we were known for our deeds;
there, with sharp spears, we slashed the blood out of the wounds
and reddened our weapons.
‘Nú erum komnar ‘Now we have come

til konungs húsa to the king’s houses,
misskunnlausar maids kept as menials
ok at mani hafðar. and shown no mercy.
Aurr etr iljar, Silt eats our bare soles,
en ofan kulði, frost bites our feet,
dro˛gum dolgs sjo˛tul. we pull at the peace-wheel.
Daprt er at Fróða. Here is dull and dreary.
‘Now we have come to the king’s houses, kept for slaves and shown
no mercy. Mud eats the soles of our feet and cold bites the rest of
them. We turn the strife-settler. It is dull at Fróði’s.
‘Hendr skulu hvílask, ‘Hands will have rest,

hallr standa mun, and the stone will stand still,
malit hefi ek fyr mik when the task we’ve begun
mitt of létti. is ground and done.
Nú muna ho˛ndum There can be no stopping,
hvíld vel gefa, no ceasing of labor,
áðr fullmalit until Fróði tells us
Fróða þykki. our task is finished.
‘Hands will rest and the stone will stand still when I have ground
out my share, for my part. Rest will not be granted to hands now,
not until it seems to Fróði that the grinding is finished.
‘Hendr skulu ho˛lða ‘War-hands will hold

harðar trjónur, hardened war-staffs
vápn valdreyrug. and bloodied brands.
Vaki þú, Fróði! Awaken, Fróði!
Vaki þú, Fróði! Awaken, Fróði!
ef þú hlýða vill Wake and listen
so˛ngum okkrum to the legends of old,
ok so˛gnum fornum. to the songs we are singing.
‘The hands of the warriors will be hard staves, bloody weapons. Awaken,
Fróði. Awaken, Fróði, if you will listen to our songs and ancient tales.
‘Eld sé ek brenna ‘East of your fortress

fyr austan borg, there are fires burning:
– vígspjo˛ll vaka – they wake the war-beacons
þat mun viti kallaðr. to bring forth battle.
Mun herr koma War-bands come west
hinig of bragði to fight you, Fróði,
ok brenna bœ and set burning brands
fyr buðlungi. to your houses here.
‘I see fire burning east of the fortress. War-tidings are awakened. I
would call that a beacon. An army will come moving this way and
burn the settlement in front of its ruler.
‘Munat þú halda ‘Soon you will lose

Hleiðrar stóli, your high-seat at Lejre,
rauðum hringum your red-gold rings
né regingrjóti. and these royal grindstones.
To˛kum á mo˛ndli, Maiden, now let us
mær, skarpara; grind with more might!
eruma varmar We are not yet warmed
í valdreyra. by warriors’ blood.
‘You will not keep the throne at Lejre, the gold rings or the mighty
stone. Maiden, let us grasp the mill-handle more strongly. We are
not warm in slain men’s blood.
‘Mól míns fo˛ður ‘My father’s daughter

mær ramliga, grinds more fiercely:
þvíat hon feigð fira she foresees the deaths
fjo˛lmargra sá. of many men.
Stukku stórar The metal-shod pillars
steðr frá lúðri, under our mill
járni varðar; are bursting their bounds,
mo˛lum enn framar! but we grind still more!
‘My father’s daughter ground fiercely, for she saw the death of many
men. The great mill-supports, reinforced with iron, have burst from
their places. Let us grind yet more!
‘Mo˛lum enn framar! ‘Let us grind still more!

Mun Yrsu sonr, Yrsa’s offspring,
við Halfdana, will avenge Fróði

hefna Fróða. on the Half-Danes;
Sá mun hennar we both know
heitinn verða that she will bear
burr ok bróðir, a boy, who will be
vitum báðar þat.’ both her son and her brother.’
‘Let us grind more! Yrsa’s son will avenge Fróði on the Half-Danes;
he will be called both her son and her brother. We both know that.’
Mólu meyjar, The girls kept grinding.

megins kostuðu. Their anger grew great.
Váru ungar The giant-maids
í jo˛tunmóði. were yet young in years.
Skulfu skapttré, They shook and they shattered.
skauzk lúðr ofan, The mill-stand shuddered.
hraut inn ho˛fgi The great grindstone
hallr sundr í tvau. groaned, and split.
The maidens ground; they used up their strength. They were young
in their giantish rage. The mill-shafts shook, the mill-stand broke
down, the heavy millstone fell into two pieces.
En bergrisa The cave-troll slave-girl

brúðr orð um kvað: spoke these words:
‘Malit ho˛fðum, Fróði, ‘Fully finished
sem munum hætta. is our grinding, Fróði.
Hafa fullstaðit We have stopped our striving.
fljóð at meldri.’ The thrall-maids are done.’
But the hill-giant maiden spoke these words: ‘We have ground,
Fróði, to the point where we will stop. The women are finished with
their grinding.’
Four Miscellaneous Spákona Sequences

Perhaps the best-known appearance of a magic-working prophetess
(spákona or vǫlva) found in the sagas is that of Þorbjǫrg lítilvǫlva
(Þorbjǫrg the Little Sibyl) in the saga of Eiríkr the Red, Eiríks saga
rauða. It is said that she is the last of nine sisters, and that it is her habit
to wander the settlements (of Greenland, in this case) at festival times,
telling fortunes for both individuals and the community. She is treated
with great honor. Her clothing, involving many different kinds of fur,
is described in detail. She requires a local woman assistant to sing a
necessary charm-song (varðlokur) for the work, but we are not given
the text of the song.
The four poetry samples below are all drawn from younger narratives,
but the prose vignettes surrounding them seem to be considerably
indebted to the account in Eiríks saga rauða. In these cases, however,
we are privileged to hear the seeresses speak their poetry.
1. Hrólfs saga kraka (Heiðr)

Hrólfs saga kraka, ch. 3 (FSNL I)
SPSMA (ed. Desmond Slay):
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=5122&val= ff
The prophetess sees (multiple times) through the disguises and false
names of the threatened princes – Hrólfr kraki’s father and uncle
It is a commonplace in the legendary sagas that true nobility shines out
through the eyes. Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, for instance, is said in Vǫlsunga
saga to have had eyes too keen for common men to look at. Here, two
Danish princes of the Skjǫldung clan are said to display that same trait.
Tveir eru inni Two sit inside.
(trúi ek hvárigum), I trust neither of them.
þeir es við elda High-born, they rest
ítrir sitja. by the warm hearth.
Two are inside, they who sit splendid by the fire. I trust neither of
them.
Þeir, es í Vífilsey They lived a long time

váru lengi on Vífill’s island,
ok hétu þar and were called there
hunda no˛fnum, by hounds’ names:
Hoppr ok Hó. Hoppr and Hó.
The ones who stayed long in Vífilsey and were called there by dogs’
names: Hoppr and Hó.
Sék, hvar sitja I can seen where the sons

synir Hálfdanar, of Hálfdan are sitting,
Hróarr ok Helgi, Hróarr and Helgi,
heilir báðir; healthy and hale.
þeir munu Fróða They are Fróði’s foes,
fjo˛rvi ræna. and will find and kill him.
I see where the sons of Hálfdan are sitting, Hróarr and Helgi, both
hale; they will rob Fróði of life.
O˛tul eru augu Hawk-eyed princes,

Hams ok Hrana, Hamr and Hrani –
eru ˛oðlingar wondrously bold
undra djarfir. and brave they are.
Fierce are the eyes of Hamr and Hrani. The princes are wondrously
brave.
2. Ǫrvar-Odds saga (Heiðr)

Setting: Legendary Norway
Ǫrvar-Odds saga, ch. 2 (FSNL II)
FJ IIB, 310–11; Kock II, 164–5
Ǫrvar-Oddr (Arrow-Odd) smacks Heiðr across the nose with a stick, but
she delivers her unwelcome prophecy anyway
Heiðr’s prophecy (below) has such unusual force that the saga-hero
cannot die until he comes home, ‘ancient of days,’ to fulfill it. Thus
Oddr lives on through multiple lifetimes. (This is presumably the reason
that Oddr cannot die on the island of Sámsey in the duel with the twelve
berserker brothers, as recounted in both this saga and Hervarar saga,
despite being vastly outnumbered. See Hervararkviða, Section IV.)
Œgðu eigi mér, Don’t you annoy me,

Oddr á Jaðri, Oddr of Jæren,
elda skíðum, or wave sticks at me
þótt ýmist geipum. when I say strange things.
Saga mun sannast, The tale will prove true

sú er segir vo˛lva. that the vo˛lva tells.
O˛ll veit hon ýta She can foresee
˛orlo˛g fyrir. the fate of all men.
Do not threaten me, Oddr of Jæren, with pieces of firewood – even
though I say many strange things. The story that the prophetess
speaks will prove true. She foreknows the fate of all men.
Ferr eigi þú svá Wherever you fare –

fjo˛rðu breiða over broad fjords,
né líðr yfir or wandering over
láð ok vága, wave-capped waters,
þótt sjór yfir þik or storm-driven
sæg jum drífi – over salty seas –
hér skaltu brenna they’ll burn you here,
á Berurjóðri. at Berurjóðr.
No matter if you go over broad fjords or travel over the sea and the
waves, even if the sea drives you with storms – here you shall be
burned, at Berurjóðr.
Skal þér ormr granda A shining snake,

eitrblandinn, a venomous viper,
fránn ór fornum bursts forth from Faxi’s
Faxa hausi. ancient skull.
Naðr mun þik ho˛ggva The adder attacks
neðan á fœti, you on the ankle.
þá ertu fullgamall Ancient of days
fylkir orðinn. you’ll be by then.
A snake will harm you, a poisonous one, gleaming from the ancient
skull of Faxi [a horse]. Down below on your foot the snake will
strike you. You will be an extremely old lord by then.
3. Ǫrvar-Odds saga (Ǫlvǫr)

Setting: Legendary Ireland
Upon receiving a magical silk (or silver) shirt with golden seams, Oddr
asks Ǫlvǫr, the Irish princess: ‘Did you make this all by yourself?’
Ǫlvǫr’s poem is both like and unlike the other spákona fragments. It
is not a foretelling, but it does reveal an occult backstory invisible to
the ordinary eye. The stanza is composed in flawed but memorable
dróttkvætt: there are only a few of the expected internal rhymes present,
and an extra syllable in the second line. The magical shirt is variously
said (depending upon the manuscripts) to be made either of silk or of
silver.
Serk of frák ór silki Seamstresses sixfold

ok í sex sto˛ðum gervan: stitched this shirt.
ermr á Íralandi, One sleeve was made by Sámi,
˛onnur norðr med Finnum; and the other by the Irish.
slógu Saxa meyjar, Saxon sisters strung the silk,
en suðreyskar spunnu, and southern maidens spun it.
váfu valskar brúðir, Welsh women wove the shirt,
varp Óþjóðans móðir. on looms warped by No-One.
I heard the shirt is of silk and made in six places: one sleeve in Ireland,
the other northwards among the Sámi. Saxon maidens harvested it,
women of the southern islands spun it, Franco-Italian women wove
it, and No-people’s mother strung the loom.
4. Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar (Vǫlvan)

Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, ch. 5 (ed. Faulkes, Two Icelandic Stories, 70)
SPSMA (ed. Peter Jorgensen):
The foretold fate of Ásbjǫrn prúði, best friend of the hero

The parallels to Ǫrvar-Oddr’s prophecy and fate are obvious. Likewise,
the frame-story for the prophecy’s delivery is very similar to the one in
Eiríks saga rauða recounted at the head of this section.
Þó at þú látir Widely you’ll ride

yfir lo˛gu breiða the running wind-steed,
byrhest renna and, wandering farther,
ok berisk víða, race over strange waters –
nær mun þat ligg ja, but it’s here, close to home,
at norðr firir Mœri, near mountainous Mœrr,
þú bana hljótir; you’ll meet your death.
bezt mun at þeg ja. I’m done. That’s all.
Though you let the wind-horse run over the wide ocean and you are
carried far, it will be near here that you will get your death, north of
Mœrr.5 Best to be silent now.
Gyðja (Pagan Priestess) from Ǫrvar-Odds saga

Setting: Legendary ‘Bjalka’ (Antioch)
FJ IIB, 310–32; Kock II, 172–3
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?if=default&table=verses&id=5315 ff
A sorceress-queen tries to defend her people

While romancing the daughter of a certain King Herrauðr, Ǫrvar-Oddr
(Arrow-Oddr) takes a troop of men to collect the king’s taxes from King
Álfr bjalki of Bjalka. Oddr kills Álfr’s son Víðgripr, fills Álfr full of
arrows, and sets their city on fire. Álfr’s wife, known simply as Gyðja
(Priestess), shoots magical arrows at Oddr from every finger, as well as
engaging him in poetic debate for not worshipping the right gods.
Hverr veldr eldi, What fighters have come
hverr orrostu, with fire and sword,
hverr jarls-magni attacking our men
egg jum beitir; with honed edges?
hof sviðnuðu, Our shrines are smoking,
ho˛rgar brunnu, our altars in ashes.
hverr rauð egg jar Whose swords have bloodied
á Yngva nið? the sons of Yngvi?
Who wields fire? Who [wields] battle? Who lets the blades feed on
free men? The temples were smoldering and the altars were burning.
Who reddened their blades against Yngvi’s kin?
5
Now Møre, in western Norway, south of Trøndelag.
Hlægir mik þat, Freyr’s anger

at hefir fengna and ill will
Freys reiði þú, lash out at you:
fári blandna; it makes me laugh.
hjálpi æsir Grant me aid, gods
og ásynjur, and goddesses!
go˛rvo˛ll regin, Help your priestess,
gyðju sinni. O potent powers!
I laugh that you have incurred the wrath of Freyr, mingled with
malice. May the gods and goddesses – all the powers – aid their
priestess.
Hverir ólu þik Who raised you, fool,

upp til heimskan, who reared you so badly?
er þú eigi vilt Wretch, you refuse
Óðin blóta? to honor Óðinn!
Who raised you up to stupidity, that you will not sacrifice to Óðinn?
Auð þættumk ek I’d be rich enough

eiga gnógan, in royal goods
ef enn ágæta if I could have
Álf of fyndak; my Álfr again.
blót gefk honum I’d hold a feast,
ok bú fjogur; four farms’ worth.
hann mun yðr alla And he would burn you
í eld draga. all to blazes.
I would be thought to own sufficient riches, if I could have the noble
Álfr back. I’d give him a sacrificial feast, and four farms. He would
drag you all through the fire.
Hvat efldi þik What eastern gods

austan hingat gave you victory,
feikna-fullan you loathsome one
ok fláráðan? and full of lies?
muntu hvarvetna Doleful darts
herja vilja, from all directions
er Álfi máttuð flew frightfully
aldrspell gera. and felled my Álfr.
What helped you here from out of the east, frightful and deceitful
one? You wanted to fight everywhere, when you made age-damage
on Álfr.
Hjálpi æsir Grant me aid, gods

ok ásynjur, and goddesses!
go˛rvo˛ll regin, Help your priestess,
gyðju sinni. O potent powers!
May the gods and goddesses – all the powers – aid their priestess.
Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir
Setting: A legendary fortress
Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis, ch. 14 (FSNL IV)
FJ IIB, 358–9; Kock II, 193–4
SPSMA (ed. Richard Harris):
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?if=default&table=verses&id=5089&val=
Hǫrðr’s future sweetheart introduces herself and gives advice to heroes

In similar fashion to the ‘master-maid’ in Asbjørnsen and Moe’s
Norwegian folk-tale collection,6 Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir suggests
courses of action to the three saga-heroes (Hjálmþér, Ǫlvir and their
mysterious servant Hǫrðr) that enable them to rid her sinister fortress
home of various evils and safely escape. The saga informs us that not
only does Hervǫr have golden hair, a snow-white complexion, skin as
fair as a lily, eyes as bright as gemstones and cheeks like roses, but she
is also a fine chess-player. It is thus no surprise that when the time comes
for the three heroes to depart, the smitten Hǫrðr neatly abducts her from
her father’s court by tying a walrus-hide rope around the tower she lives
in, uprooting it and hauling it on board his ship.
Hervǫr’s first meeting with our heroes is more hostile, however, as
the first two of these stanzas show. Hjálmþér advises Hǫrðr to bribe her
with treasure, after which she immediately becomes more helpful.
Hervo˛r ek heiti Hervo˛r am I,

Hunding ja dóttir; Hundingi’s daughter.
minn fo˛ður ro˛skvan You’d like to look
ef þú réðir líta, at my lordly father?
6
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, Samlede eventyr, med alle de
originale tegningene, 2 vols. (Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1994), II, 264.
líf þitt án dvo˛l You’d cross the king,

þú láta myndir, cut him down?
ef værir genginn You’ll lose your life
í gegn do˛glingi. without delay.
I am Hervo˛r, Hundingi’s daughter. You’ll lose your life without delay,
if you plan to look at my bold father, if you go against the king.
Allt ferr eptir einu, Bold men who come here

eigi margt vitum frægra, all bear the same fate:
virðar vinna listir skilled swordsmen
ok val tafni fæða; are sacrificed, slain.
fyrr skyldir þú hanga More likely you’ll hang
á hávum gálga on a high gallows
en í glaum inn ganga; than steal into our hall.
gakk eigi hóti framar. Stop right there.
It always happens the same way. We don’t care much about heroes.
Men practice their skills and the slain sacrifices rise higher. You’re
more likely to hang on a high gallows than enter into the feasting.
Don’t come one step closer.
Í ho˛ll skalt ganga Go in and bow

ok hilmi lúta, to our bold lord,
kveðja kurteisliga greet the great king
konung enn stórráða; with courtesy;
lát þú eigi æðru let no fear
á þér finna, be found in you,
þótt í ho˛ll lítir though the hall be full
háva stórgarpa. of tall fighters.
You shall go into the hall and bow to the ruler. Greet the great-
counseled king courteously. Let no fear be found in you, even
though you see great and tall warriors in the hall.
Gef þú auð jo˛furr, Would you be a gold-giver,

ef þú ˛orr þykkisk, a generous lord?
þágu gull gumnar, If they take your treasure,
gerask þér vel hollir; you’ll win over the warriors.
en ef maðr metnask If a tiresome toady
við mildings síðu, cozies up to the king, though,
sýn leiðum lyndi show him your temper:

lát hann sneypu hljóta. he’ll take disgrace then.
Lord, give out treasure, if you wish to be thought generous. If the
men take the gold, they will be quite faithful to you. But if a man
exalts himself at the ruler’s side, show the loathsome one your
quality; let him get dishonor for it.
Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir (formerly Skinnhúfa)

and Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir (formerly Vargeisa)
Setting: Legendary Arabia
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?if=default&table=verses&id=5113
Journeys end in lovers’ meetings: two sisters, both princesses, greet old
friends
Hildisif, identified in Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis as the daughter of king
Ptólómeus of Arabia, last saw the warrior Ǫlvir and his hero-companion
Hjálmþér in ch. 9 of the saga, when she was under a spell as the ‘creature’
(kvikendi) Skinnhúfa (Skin-Cloak), slave to a cave-dwelling giant.7
Similarly Álsól, her sister, last saw Hjálmþér in ch. 10 when she was
under a spell as a horse-headed fabulous monster (finngálkn), at which
time she gave him a fine sword (Snarvedill) and a new servant (Hǫrðr).8
Now, at saga’s end, Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir find themselves at the Arabian
court of these two princesses and their brother, the mysterious King
Hringr – who bears a strange likeness to that valiant former servant,
Hǫrðr, whom they have recently mourned as dead.
All enchantments have been broken, and every Jack will have his
Jill, in true comedy fashion: Hǫrðr (King Hringr) will marry Hervǫr
Hundingjadóttir,9 while Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir will marry the king’s two
sisters, Álsól and Hildisif. But first, Hildisif and Álsól must calm down
the moody and grieving hero-pair by revealing the true identities of the
three royal siblings, thus assuring them that ‘Hǫrðr’ is quite alive after
all.
7
This giant is unnamed in ch. 9 of the saga, but called ‘Bendill’ in the stanza here.
8
See the entry on Vargeisa in Section VI for more details.
9
See the entry on Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir, immediately above.
Hildisif to O˛lvir Hildisif to O˛lvir

Sax hefir þú O˛lvir, A splendid sword
slík eru vápn færi, is your sax, O˛lvir;
bana veittir Bendli, its blade, Bendill’s bane;
bart þú þat ór helli; you bore it from the cave.
brá ek hilmis sonum I spell-shifted you both
í hauka líki; to falcon shapes
forðaðek ykru fjo˛rvi; and saved your lives.
fegri em ek nú hóti. See my beauty now!
You have a chopper, O˛lvir. Those kinds of things are ready weapons.
You served Bendill with death; you brought it [the weapon] out of
the cave. I changed the lords’ sons into hawks; I saved your lives. I’m
a lot prettier now.
Álsól to Hjálmþér Álsól to Hjálmþér

Keyptir þú Snarvendil You bought Snarvendill
með kossi einum; with a single kiss,
var þat verð lítit, a trifling thing.
vel frák at mér kæmi; I took it gladly.
˛orr mundir af auði When you are rich
ef optar svá fengir, you’ll give out rings,
jo˛furr enn ógndjarfi a fearless hero
ok einkar heppni. and happy lord.
You bought Snarvendill with a kiss. It was not worth much. I heard
clearly that it was coming to me. You’ll be generous with treasure if
you get it reasonably often, dauntless lord [boar] and rather lucky.
Buslubœn
Setting: Legendary Sweden
Bósa saga, ch. 5 (FSNL III)
FJ IIB, 352–4; Kock II, 189–90; Heusler and Ranisch, Eddica Minora, 126–8
SPSMA (ed. Wilhelm Heizmann):
Busla the witch uses a curse to defend the hero Bósi, and his friend
Herrauðr, against their enemy – Herrauðr’s father, King Hringr10
The cryptic runic formula (described here but not shown) that goes
with the final stanza has analogues elsewhere, including inscriptions on
memorial rune stones from Sweden and Denmark. Lee M. Hollander
suggested that the six nouns in the formula all could be seen as having
sexual connotations,11 while Claiborne W. Thompson preferred to
classify them as the kind of ‘sonorous nonsense’ characteristic of many
magical formulae.12 The full list of nouns (appearing in the manuscripts
independently of the poetry) is: ristill (‘plowshare’), aistill (‘testicle’),
þistill (‘thistle’), kistill (‘box’), mistill (‘mistletoe’) and vistill (unknown).
Hér liggr Hringr konungr, You lie here, king Hringr,

hilmir Gauta, lord of the Gautar,
einráðastr most hard-hearted
allra manna; of all men.
ætlar þú son þinn You mean to murder
sjálfr at myrða, your own son.
þau mun fádœmi The world will wonder
fréttast víða. at this odd idea.
Here lies king Hringr, lord of the Gautar, most stubborn of all men.
You mean to murder your own son. That strange deed will be heard
of far and wide.
Heyr þú bœn Buslu, Hear Busla’s boon!

brátt mun hun sungin, Boldly I sing it.
svá at heyrast skal All the earth
um heim allan; gives ear to it.
10
No relation to King Hringr Ptólómeusson, featured in the previous entry.
11
Lee Milton Hollander, Old Norse Poems: The Most Important Non-Skaldic Verse
Not Included in the Poetic Edda (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936),
79.
12
Claiborne W. Thompson, ‘The Runes in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs,’ Scandinavian
Studies 50 (1978), 54.
ok óþo˛rf ˛ollum It is hard for anyone

þeim sem á heyra, who hearkens to it;
en þeim þó fjándligust, for the one I speak to,
sem ek vil fortala. its words are yet worse.
Listen to Busla’s prayer. Soon it will be sung all though, such that it
will be heard over all the world. [It is] not good for anyone who may
hear it, but most inimical to the one I speak it to.
Villist vættir, May wights wander free,

verði ódœmi, and wonders be seen;
hristist hamrar, may cliffs crash,
heimr sturlist, and plains quake;
versni veðrátta, may the weather worsen,
verði ódœmi, and all ill occur –
nema þú, Hringr konungr, unless you, King Hringr,
Herrauð friðir make peace with Herrauðr,
ok honum Bósa and bring Bósi out
bjargir veitir. of this outlawry.
May spirits be loosed, may eerie things happen, may cliffs shake, may
the world be overturned, may the weather worsen, may eerie things
happen – unless you, king Hringr, make peace with Herrauðr, and
grant protection to Bósi.
Svá skal ek þjarma I curse your chest

þér at brjósti, inside your ribs:
at hjarta þitt a fierce worm
ho˛ggormr gnagi, will feed on your heart.
en eyru þín I curse your ears
aldregi heyri so they cannot hear.
ok augu þín I curse your eyes
úthverf snúist, to turn inside out –
nema þú Bósa unless Bósi’s made free
bjo˛rg of veitir of this outlawry
ok honum Herrauð and you leave off hating
heipt upp gefir. Herrauðr, your son.
Thus shall I curse you in your chest, that a viper will gnaw at your heart,
and your ears will cease to hear, and your eyes will be turned inside
out, unless you grant protection to Bósi and leave off hating Herrauðr.
Ef þú siglir, When you set sail,

slitni reiði, the riggings will slit,
en af stýri the rudder will rip
sto˛kkvi krókar, free from its frame,
rifni reflar, the sails will rot
reki segl ofan, and fall free from the mast,
en aktaumar the sheets will split
allir slitni, and fly free in the wind –
nema þú Herrauð unless you stop hating
heipt upp gefir Herrauðr, your son
ok svá Bósa and broker a bargain
biðr til sátta. of peace with Bósi.
If you sail, may the rigging tear, may the hooks holding the steering
break, may the sails tear and fall, may all the sail-ropes tear, unless
you stop hating Herrauðr and make peace with Bósi.
Ef þú ríðr, When you ride,

raskist taumar, the reins will tangle,
heltist hestar, the horses go halt,
en hrumist klárar, the steeds grow weary;
en go˛tur allar and every trail
ok gangstígar and traveling-path
troðist allar will take you into
í tro˛llhendr fyrir þér, trollish hands –
nema þú Bósa unless Bósi’s made free
bjargir veitir of all outlawry
ok Herrauð and you leave off hating
heipt upp gefir. Herrauðr, your son.
When you ride, may the reins be disarranged, may the horses go
lame, may the steeds grow weak, and all roads and footpaths take
you into the hands of trolls, unless you grant protection to Bósi and
stop hating Herrauðr.
Sé þér í hvílu In your bed,

sem í hálmeldi, burning straw;
en í hásæti in your privy,
sem á hafbáru; queasy unease;
þó skal þér seinna and after that,
sýnu verra, worse things.

en ef þú vilt við meyjar When you try to take
manns gaman hafa, man’s pleasure with maidens,
villist þú vegarins; you’ll lose your way.
eða viltu þulu lengri? Want a longer list?
May it be like burning straw in your bed, like an ocean wave in your
privy.13 But later you shall see worse sights. And if you want to take
a man’s pleasure with maidens, you will lose your way. Do you want
a longer list?
Saga narrator reluctantly includes more of the curse’s second part

Troll ok álfar May elves and trolls
ok taufrnornir, and evil witches,
búar, bergrisar hill-giants and bogles
brenni þínar hallir. burn your halls.
Hati þik hrímþursar, May ice-giants hate you,
hestar streði þik, stallions straddle you,
stráin stangi þik, bed-straws scratch you,
en stormar œri þik, and storms strike you.
ok vei verði þér, Fulfill all my wishes,
nema þú vilja minn gerir. or woe be unto you.
May trolls and elves and sorcerous witches, spirits and mountain-
giants burn your halls. May frost giants hate you, stallions use you
for sex, straws poke you and storms buffet you; and woe be unto you
unless you do my will.
Formula to go with the þistill-mistill-kistill runes

Komi hér seggir sex, Here are six swordsmen,
segg þú mér no˛fn þeira Say me their names,
˛oll óbundin, all in the right order,
ek mun þér sýna: as I show them to you.
getr þú eigi ráðit, If you cannot guess
svá at mér rétt þykki, the good and true answer,
þá skulu þik hundar then baleful hounds
13
Lit. ‘throne,’ but easily extended to this meaning; cf. Atlakviða 36. See Beatrice
LaFarge and John Tucker, Glossary to the Poetic Edda (Heidelberg: Carl Winter,
1992), 321.
í hel gnaga, will bite you in hell,

en sál þín and your very soul
so˛kkva í víti. sink down to the pit.
Let six warriors [runic letters] come here. Tell me their names all
rightly arranged. I will show them to you. If you cannot interpret
this puzzle such that it seems correct to me, then hounds will gnaw
you in hell and your soul will sink to perdition.
VI. Trollwomen
T he trollwomen who haunt a certain subtype of the fornaldarsögur

(legendary sagas) are almost always hostile towards the human
men they encounter, usually in remote places far away from human
settlements. There are often ownership disputes over fishing-grounds,
boats and fishermen’s huts. Verbal violence, often in verse, usually
escalates into physical violence. Since trolls are often said to live in the
north and to have alien facial features, clothing, and manners, it is no
great leap to conclude that many troll-encounter stories have had their
roots in real-world meetings and misunderstandings between Norse-
speakers and Sámi-speakers.
Of course there are exceptions that prove the rule. A few notable
warm encounters involving trolls and humans are sprinkled thoughout
these legendary sagas as well, such as the kiss exchanged between
Hjálmþér and the horse-monster Vargeisa (below);1 or the romance
between Ǫrvar-Oddr and the giant-maiden Hildigunnr, who first keeps
the hero in a baby’s cradle, but later bears him a child (also below).
It is worth noting that the taxonomy of non-humans in these legendary
sagas is nothing like as exact as we postmodern, post-Linnean readers,
perhaps brought up on Dungeons and Dragons manuals in which the
carefully delineated varieties and types of trolls are listed in loving
detail, might expect. Trolls (troll), giants (jǫtnar) and fabulous monsters
(finngálkn) constitute variable categories amongst themselves; and any
of them might be human enough to breed with.
1
See also ‘Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir’ in Section V.
101
Bragi Boddason’s Trollwoman

Setting: Legendary Norway (ostensibly ninth century)
Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, ed. Faulkes, I, 85, stanza 300
SPSMA (ed. Edith Marold):
Bragi Boddason ‘the Old’ is the semi-legendary first of all skalds. This
stanza follows one of Bragi’s describing what a skald is. Both stanzas are
(presumably deliberately) encrusted with obscure and difficult kennings.
Troll kalla mik, You skalds say I’m a troll:

tungl sjo˛t-Rungnis, I’m Hrungnir’s moon-loony.
auðsúg jo˛tuns, I suck gold from giants.
élsólar bo˛l, I slay the storm-sun.
vílsinn vo˛lu, I work woe for the witch-wife.
vo˛rð náfjarðar, I’m warden at Death Fjord.
hvélsvelg himins. I swallow the sky-wheel.
Hvat er troll, nema þat? What’s a troll but that?
They call me troll,2 the moon of home-Hrungnir, the giant’s
treasure-sucker, the bane of the storm-sun, the prophetess’s pleasant
companion,3 the guardian of the corpse-fjord, the swallower of
heaven’s wheel. What’s a troll but that?
Forað
Ketils saga hœngs, ch. 5 (FSNL II)
FJ IIB, 303–5; Kock II, 161–2
SPSMA (ed. Beatrice La Farge):
The Norwegian hero, Ketill hœngr (Ketill Salmon), is taunted by a

trollwoman while on a fishing trip
The following are Forað’s stanzas only; Ketill’s part of the conversation
in the saga is also in verse. Ketill addresses Forað at one point as fóstra
2
‘Troll’ (the form is ambiguously nominative or accusative; singular or plural) can
be read as subject (‘The trolls call me . . .’) or object (‘They call me a troll’). I
prefer the second option.
3
Or ‘hard labor.’ See Finnur Jónsson, ed., Lexicon Poeticum Antiquae Linguae
Septentrionalis, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen: Atlas, 1966), 625.
VI. Trollwomen 103
(foster-mother), perhaps referring to a distant kinship. (The men of

Ketill’s family, the heroes of Hrafnista, are famous for dallying with
trolls when they aren’t killing them.) The three named arrows Forað
refers to are magic Sámi arrows Ketill has stolen.4 The conversation
ends when Forað turns into a whale and Ketill shoots her under the tail,
bragging that he has now made her unsuitable for marriage.
Forað ek heiti. I bear the name Forað.

Fœdd vark norðarla, I was born far up north,
hraust í Hrafnseyju, full of health, in Hrafnsey,
hvimleið búmo˛nnum, hated by neighbors,
˛or til áræðis, ever-ready for wreckage
hvatki er illt skal vinna. when roguery was called for.
My name is Dangerous Place. Strong was I born, in the north, in
Hrafnsey [Raven Island], detested by the local people, ready for
mischief, whatever evil there is to be done.
Mo˛rgum manni I’ve turned many a man

hefik til moldar snúit, to a musty corpse
þeim’s til fiskjar fór. when he fared out to fish.
Hverr er sá inn ko˛purmáli, Who is this cocky one
er kominn er í skerin? who’s come here to these rocks?
Many a man have I made bite the dust, when he went fishing. Who
is this boastful one who has come into the skerries?
Synjak þess eigi, I don’t deny it,

seggr inn víðfo˛rli, dauntless wanderer:
at þú líf hafir you’ll have lived longer
langt of menn aðra, than those luckless others,
ef þú fund okkarn when you retell the tale
fyrðum óblauðum, of our time here together
sveinn lítill, segir. to your bold companions.
Sék þinn hug skjalfa. But now you’re a coward.
I doubt not, well-traveled warrior, that you will have longer life than
other men, if you [live to] tell courageous men of our meeting, little
fellow. I see your courage is failing.
4
These same arrows are eventually passed down to Ketill’s grandson Ǫrvar-Oddr
(Arrow-Oddr), becoming the source of his lifelong by-name.
Gang hóf ek upp í Angri. I began in Anger,

Eigraðak þá til Steigar. then my way led to Steig.
Skálm glamrandi skrapti. Sword in sheath ratttled.
Skarmtak þá til Karmtar. I stormed on to Karmøy.
Elda munk á Jaðri In Jæren and Utsteinn
ok at Útsteini blása. I’ll fan a few fires.
Þá munk austr við Elfi, Then east, to Elf River,
áðr dagr á mik skíni, before break of day,
ok með brúðkonum beigla I’ll meet with my bridesmaids
ok brátt gefin jarli. and soon marry the Jarl.
I started my journey in Angr.5 Then I plodded to Steig. The rattling
short-sword clattered. I hastened then to Ko˛rmt.6 I will blow on
fires at Jaðarr7 and at Útsteinn. Then, eastwards by the Elfr,8 before
daylight shines on me, I will shuffle off with the bridesmaids and
soon be married to an earl.
Seyði þínum munk snúa, I’ll kick at your cookfires

ok sjálfum þér gnúa, and chop you in pieces.
unz þik gríðr of gripi Then the troll-girl will grab you
ok með g jálfri sínu komi. and great waves will swamp you.
I will overturn your cookfire and pulverize you, until the giantess
seizes you and comes with the roar of waves.
Flaug ok Fífu ‘Flight’ is far off,

hugða ek fjarri vera, and so is ‘Arrow.’
ok hræðumkat eigi ‘Shaft’ may bite,
Hremsu bit. but I am not bothered.
Flight and Arrow, I think, are far off; and I do not fear the bite of
Shaft.
5
Now Varanger. As the saga’s prose tells us, this journey runs down the Norwegian
coast, eventually heading east to Sweden.
6
Now Karmøy.
7
Now Jæren.
8
Now Götaälv.
VI. Trollwomen 105
Feima and Kleima

Gríms saga loðinkinna, ch. 1 (FSNL II)
SPSMA (ed. Beatrice La Farge):
Two troll-girls discourse with Grímr loðinkinni (Grímr Hairy-Cheek)

before he kills them
Grímr, son of Ketill hœngr, is no more chivalrous to trolls than his father.
Fishing rights are once again the issue of contention.
Feima ek heiti. I bear the name Feima.

Fœdd vark norðarla, I was born far up north,
Hrímnis dóttir Hrímnir’s daughter
ór háfjalli. from the high mountain.
Hér er systir mín, And now my sister,
hálfu fremri, more splendid than I am,
Kleima at nafni, Kleima by name,
komin til sjóvar. has come to the sea.
My name is Woman. I was born in the north, Hrímnir’s daughter
from the high mountain. Here is my sister, better by half,
Procrastinator by name, having come to the sea.
Þat var fyrri, Empty threats!

at faðir okkar This is the truth:
brottu seiddi our father made magic
báru hjarðir. and the fish-flocks fled.
Skuluð aldrigi, Unless fate favors you,
nema sko˛p ráði, you’ll never escape
heilir héðan away from here
heim of komast. or arrive safely home.
It is rather the case that our father magicked the wave-flocks away
from here. Unless fate decrees it, you [pl.] will never escape to your
home unharmed.
Hildigunnr Risadóttir
Ǫrvar-Odds saga, long version, ch. 18 (FSNL II)
The giant-maiden Hildigunnr dandles Oddr on her knee and teases him
about his size
Once Oddr convinces Hildigunnr that he would be better off in her bed
than in a giant’s baby cradle, things go better for them. They have a son
together, Vignir.
Tuttr litli Teensy Shorty,

ok toppr fyr nefi, mustache on his lip;
meiri var Goðmundr bigger was Goðmundr,
í gær borinn. born yesterday.
Short little fellow, mustache under his nose. Goðmundr, born
yesterday, was bigger.
Vargeisa
Setting: Legendary Nowhere
FJ IIB, 354–5; Kock II, 191–2
The hero meets a ‘splendid’ (‘gildligt’) woman-monster (‘finngálkn’) with

a horse’s mane, tail and face; she offers him a sword and gives him advice
This hero-and-monster encounter is unusual, as such things tend to go
in the legendary sagas. Even though Hjálmþér is a bit afraid of the alien
woman-creature, he is always courteous to her, and his good manners
ultimately pay off.
There are many analogues in pan-European folk tales: if you respect
the wild magical being, it will help you out in your quest later on. More
specific benefits may ensue, as Hjálmþés saga certainly attests, if you
are a man and the wild magical being is female.9 Ballad 31 in Francis
9
More benefits than are mentioned in this episode. See the entry on Álsól
Ptólómeusdóttir (in Section V) to find out what happened later.
VI. Trollwomen 107
James Child’s Anglophone collection, ‘The Marriage of Sir Gawain,’ is

a distant analogue; so is the Wife of Bath’s tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales, as well as the story of Grímr and Lopthœna in the legendary saga
Gríms saga loðinkinna.
Vargeisa ek heiti, I am called Wolf-fire.

heyr þú, vísa son, Listen, my lord:
vilt, at þér í sinni sjá; do you crave a companion?
allra þinna Trust me when I tell you
telk þik þurfa munu that all friends are a treasure
vel trúra vina. you will truly have need of.
My name is Wolf-Fire. Listen, son of chieftains, do you want me to
live with you? I think that you may well have need of all your true
friends.
Sæk Snarvendil, Seek Snarvendill

sigr mun honum fylg ja, and snatch victory;
horskr ef hilmir vilt hold in your hand
þér í hendi bera; the hard blade.
koss vilk af þér Just a hasty kiss
klénan þigg ja, I’ll have from you; then
þá munt mímung you’ll have from my hand
mér ór hendi fá. the sword I hold.
Seek Snarvendill [her sword]. Victory will follow it if you, brave
leader, will take it in your hand. I would like a little kiss from you,
and then you can have the sword from my hand.
Selk þér Snarvendil, Seek Snarvendill

sigr mun honum fylg ja, and snatch victory
jo˛furr inn stórráði, for all your life long,
um þína aldrdaga; audacious lord.
snúist þín ævi æ Wars won, and fair fortune,
til sigrs ok gæfu, you will always have,
hvar sem þú heim kannar, anywhere you call home.
hugr er í konungs barni. The king’s son shows courage.
I give you Snarvendill. Victory will follow it, great-counseled prince,
until your old age. Your life will always turn to victory and good
luck, wherever you find a home. Courage is in the king’s son.
Vert eigi svá ærr, Don’t be so mad, man,

at O˛lvi grandir; that you malign O˛lvir.
vert honum heill hilmir, Be as trusty to him, king,
hann er þér hollr fylkir; as he is to you, young lord.
lát eigi illmæli Let no gossiping
æða lund þína; goad your mood.
vel þér vini tryggva Find faithful friends
ok vert þeim hollr dróttinn. and rule them fairly.
Don’t be so furious that you hurt O˛lvir. Be true to him, prince. He
is loyal to you, chieftain. Let no slander anger your disposition.
Choose true friends and be a loyal lord to them.
Kjós þann þræl Of all the lord’s men,

af þengils liði make him your lackey
er gefr svínum soð; who gives soup to the swine.
mun þér eigi maðr A chance-chosen thrall
duga af mildings hirð, from the king’s court won’t do,
ef þér glapvígr gerisk. if your war-skills start slipping.
Choose a servant from the king’s men, the one who gives broth to
the swine. No man from the generous one’s court will be sufficient
for you, if you become clumsy at killing.
Ýma, Hergunnr, and Margerðr

Setting: Legendary Nowhere (Seaside)
FJ IIB, 356–8; Kock II, 191–3
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=5077 f
Hjálmþér and his men, including his new thrall Hǫrðr, have a violent
encounter with a family of trollwomen
This seaside episode, in which a fishing-dispute subtext may also be
present, begins with flirtation and erotic teasing but descends into
butchery very quickly. The surrounding prose makes it clear that these
troll girls, unlike Vargeisa, are grotesquely ugly – and thereby, within
the value judgments of the narrative, deserving only of death. Vargeisa’s
VI. Trollwomen 109
gifts from the previous episode – both the sword and the new thrall10
– help our heroes, Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir, to dispatch these trolls quickly.
Ýma Ýma
Illa kveðr til mín, Young man with no manners,
því enn ungi munt master of men:
fyrst hafðr á seyði I’ll fry you first
af segg jum þínum; over my fire here.
með gullofnum dúki Look, this fair damsel
má sjá en glaða mær dries her light locks
þerra sína ljósa lokka. with linens of gold.
You speak rudely to me, young one. You will be the first of your
warriors to be put over the cooking fire. With a gold-woven cloth
the beautiful maid may be seen drying her fair locks.
Víst gleðr mik eitt, But one thing cheers me,

þótt vitir eigi, battle-brave chieftain –
jo˛furr inn ógndjarfi, you have no idea
hvat um er at vera: of what will happen.
nú munu systr mínar Out on your war-keels
at nái gera the wives of my kin
út á herskipum will kill all your men
alla menn þína. and make corpses of them.
Certainly one thing makes me glad, although, O battle-brave prince,
you do not know what will happen. My sisters will turn all your men
into corpses, out on the warships.
Hergunnr Hergunnr
To˛lum ek treysti In truth, I can talk
at tala við ho˛fðing ja, to this chieftain, I trust,
þó námum vér lítit, but there’s little to win here
þats til vegar horfir; that leads to honor.
skulum til skála We’ll hasten our steps
skunda go˛ngu to the sleeping-hall
ok menn mildings and watch these men
merkja á seyði. seethe and melt on the fire.
10
See the entry on Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir (in Section V) for the hidden relationship
between Vargeisa and Hjálmþér’s new ‘thrall,’ Hǫrðr.
I trust myself to talk to the chieftain, although we may achieve little

honor by it. We will hasten our pace to the sleeping-hall and watch
the king’s men over the cookfire.
Heldk upp hro˛mmum; My playful paws

hér mátt jo˛furr líta you can see here, prince.
hendr Hergunnar; Hergunnr’s hands
hefk negl óskorna; have ragged claws.
rifna mun þín ólpa, I’ll rip up your robes,
ef vit jo˛furr finnumk; royal one, when we meet:
þér skalt eigi kyrrt klappa, my embrace is not soft
konungr inn suðrœni. for you, southern king.
I hold up my paws. Here, O prince, you may see Hergunnr’s hands. I
have untrimmed nails. Prince, if we meet, your coat will be torn. You
will not be embraced softly, O king from the south.
Margerðr Margerðr
Illa leikr þú O˛lvir, You are no fit playmate
eigi ert hæfr vífum, for us women, O˛lvir.
má eigi fang festa My claws can’t capture
á fylki vel bornum; the high-born king.
egg jar eru eitrblandnar, These princes are powerful:
æfir eru do˛glingar, their blades are bloody,
oddar eru blóðgir, their swordpoints poisoned.
eigi munum vér sigrask. Hope for victory is vain.
You play roughly, O˛lvir. You are not polite to women. My grasp cannot
capture the well-born chief. The blades are poisoned, the princes are
powerful, the swordpoints are bloody – we will not be defeated.
Hergunnr Hergunnr
Hvar ert Margerðr, Where are you, Margerðr,
mær in ˛oflgasta? monstrous maiden?
vinnr þú sigr lítinn You can hardly win
á siklings liði; against these warriors.
hryggr er hálflaminn, My back is shattered,
en herðar brotnar, my shoulders broken.
sterkr er stafnbúi, This sailor’s a strong one.
sto˛kkva mun nú verða. It’s best to seek safety.
VI. Trollwomen 111
Where are you, Margerðr, most powerful maiden? You are gaining
a small victory over the king’s men. My back is half maimed and my
shoulders broken. The sailor is strong. I must flee now.
Hetta Trollkona
Setting: Legendary Iceland (Snæfellsnes)
Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss, ch. 8 (ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson)
http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?table=verses&id=4716 f
Hetta the troll, a shape-changer and a cattle-killer, almost lures a

fisherman to his death
Ingjaldr the fisherman, who has unwisely taken fishing advice from
Hetta the troll, is finally rescued from freezing to death, after the events
represented below, by the saga’s eponymous hero.
‘Norpr inn nefskammi’ (‘frozen, short-nosed person’) is, of course,
a troll-to-human ethnic slur: trolls are well-known for long noses, and
Ingjaldr is not a troll.
Róa skaltu fjall Firða Row past cliffs at Firðafell

fram á lo˛g stirðan, where wet waves flash and swell.
þar mun grátt glitta, It’s by Grímr’s waterway
ef vilt Grímsmið hitta; where fishscales glimmer grey.
Þar skaltu þá ligg ja – It’s there your way wends.
Þórr er vinr Frigg ja – (Þórr is Frigg’s friend.)
rói norpr inn nefskammi To Hrakhvammr he rows,
Nesit11 í Hrakhvammi. with his wee frozen nose.
You shall row past Firðafjall12 on choppy seas if you wish to find
Grímr’s fishing-ground. Codfish will glitter there. There you shall
stay. Þórr is Frigg’s friend. Let the short-nosed frozen person row to
Nes13 in Hrakhvammr.14
11
Now Rifshöfuð.
12
Now Kirkjufell, Snæfellsnes.
13
Now Rifshöfuð.
14
Now Hregghvammur, below Búrfell.
Út reri einn á báti Rowed out in boat alone,

Ing jaldr í skinnfeldi, Ing jaldr in Skin-Cloak.
týndi átján ˛onglum Can’t find his fishhooks,
Ing jaldr í skinnfeldi; Ing jaldr in Skin-Cloak.
ok fertugu færi Can’t find his fishing-lines,
Ing jaldr í skinnfeldi, Ing jaldr in Skin-Cloak.
aptr komi aldri síðan Never ever coming back,
Ing jaldr í skinnfeldi. Ing jaldr in Skin-Cloak.
Rowed out alone in a boat. Ingjaldr in a skin cloak [repeated three
more times]. Lost eighteen fishhooks, and forty fishing-lines. Let
him never return.
•
Old Norse Literature Time Line
The emphasis is on dates pertinent to the present collection of poems, with the
earlier periods providing source materials for their composition.
1–500 Early Christian saints (e.g., Sebastian, Catherine of

Alexandria, Mary of Egypt).
350–600 Migration Age in Europe. Historical prototypes for
later epic heroes, e.g., Sigebert the Frank, Brunichildis
the Visigoth, Gundicarius of Burgundy, Ermanaric the
Ostrogoth, Attila the Hun, Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
750–1100 ‘Vikings’ from Scandinavia venture as far as the
Mediterranean, the Near East and North America
for purposes of plunder, exploration, settlement and
mercantile activity.
872–933 Haraldr hárfagri (Haraldr Fairhair) reigns in Norway.
874–930 Iceland is founded and settled by Scandinavians from the
Continent, mainly Norwegians.
931–933 Eiríkr blóðøx (Eiríkr Blood-Axe) reigns in Norway.
933–960 Hákon góði (Hákon the Good) reigns in Norway.
995–1000 Norway and Iceland convert to Christianity. Manuscript
tradition begins (pens and parchment).
1014 Battle of Clontarf (Ireland).
1015–1028 Óláfr Haraldsson (St. Olav) reigns in Norway.
1150 Saints’ lives (see first entry above) begin to be translated
from southern European prototypes.
1150–1241 Saxo Grammaticus (Denmark) and Snorri Sturluson
(Iceland) begin to write down old stories from the pagan
era, both mythological and historical. (There is a two- to
eight-hundred-year gap between these ‘events’ and the
recording of them.)
1217–1263 Hákon Hákonarson (Hákon the Old) reigns in Norway.
1230s Snorri Sturluson is the likely author of Egils saga Skalla-
Grímssonar, a semi-historical biographical account of a
direct ancestor, who was one of the founders of Iceland.
115
1240s on. Sagas of other founders and settlers of Iceland, such as

Laxdœla saga and Njáls saga, continue to be written
down, by authors other than Snorri (with a two to three
centuries gap between the events described and the saga
composition).
1238 Battle of Ǫrlygsstaðir (Iceland).
1253 Wedding at Flugumýrr (Iceland).
1255 Battle of Þverá (Iceland).
Late 13c. on. Early legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur), such as Vǫlsunga
saga and Hervarar saga, featuring figures out of the
Migration Age as characters, begin to be composed and
written down. The poetry in these sagas is sometimes
older, by an indeterminable period, than the prose.
1260s Sturla Þórðarson (Iceland) writes the Íslendinga saga
portion of Sturlunga saga (contemporary history with
little time gap).
1262 Norway, under Hákon Hákonarson, finally annexes
Iceland, after decades of Icelandic civil war.
1250 x 1300 The Codex Regius GKS 2365 4to manuscript of the Poetic
Edda is written (Iceland). Just under half the poetry of the
Codex Regius tells stories of the pagan gods, while the
remainder retells the heroic cycle of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani,
the dragon-slayer of Vǫlsunga saga. Some poems are
probably recent compositions; others must be old, but
dating is problematic.
Glossary of Personal Names
The names listed here are primarily personal, but include a few proper names of
objects. Alphabetical order follows English conventions. Diacritical marks are
ignored, and ð is alphabetized as if it were d, and þ as if th. Boldface type (whether
italicized or not) marks a name as having its own entry in the Glossary. Boldface
italics mark names which have their own entries as skalds within the body of the
book.
Agnarr, Auða – Brother and sister favored by the valkyrie Brynhildr

Buðladóttir (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic poetry).
Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir – A legendary princess of Arabia, formerly
enchanted in monstrous form (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis). See also
Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir and Vargeisa.
Ambátt (Maidservant) – A quasi-historical eleventh-century Norwegian;
said to have met the incognito Óláfr Haraldsson (Vǫlsa þáttr).
Angantýr Arngrímsson – Berserker father of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir
(Hervarar saga).
Ármóðsdóttir skeggs (Daughter of Beard-Ármóðr) – Said to have met
and spoken with Egill Skalla-Grímsson in Norway (Egils saga
Skalla-Grímssonar).
Arnfinnsdóttir jarls (Daughter of Jarl Arnfinnr) – Said to have met and
spoken with Egill Skalla-Grímsson in Halland (then Denmark, now
Sweden) (Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar).
Arngrímr – Paternal grandfather of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervarar
saga).
Arrow-Oddr – See Ǫrvar-Oddr.
Ásbjǫrn prúði (Ásbjǫrn the Magnificent) – Legendary Norwegian
hero, companion of Ormr Stórólfsson (Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar).
Ásdís á Bjargi – Eleventh-century Icelander, farmed at Bjarg, Miðfjǫrdr,
northern Iceland; mother of Grettir Ásmundarson (Grettis saga).
Atall – A legendary sea-king.
Aurnir (Gravel) – A giant.
Barði Guðmundarson – Eleventh-century Icelander, lived at

Ásbjarnarnes, Vatnsnes, northern Iceland; son of Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir
(Heiðarvíga saga).
117
Bárðr Snæfellsáss (Bárðr, Snæfell’s Hero) – Tenth-century quasi-

historical Icelander from Snæfellsnes, western Iceland; eponymous
hero of the fantastic saga Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss.
Bendill – A cave-dwelling giant (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Bóndadóttir (Farmer’s Daughter) – A quasi-historical eleventh-century
northern Norwegian; said to have recognized the incognito Óláfr
Haraldsson (Vǫlsa þáttr).
Bósi Þvarason – A legendary Swedish hero (Bósa saga).
Bragi Boddason – Semi-legendary ninth-century Norwegian, first of all
skalds (Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál).
Brandr Kolbeinsson of Staðr – A thirteenth-century Icelander, a
follower of Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson (Sturlunga saga).
Brandr inn ǫrvi (Brandr the Generous) – An otherwise-unidentified
thirteenth-century Icelander, either Brandr Vermundsson or Brandr
Kolbeinsson (Sturlunga saga).
Brian Boru – King of Ireland, died at the battle of Clontarf (1014), even
though his side (Munster) was victorious.
Broddi Þorleifsson of Hof – A thirteenth-century Icelander, a follower
of Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson (Sturlunga saga).
Bróka-Auðr (Breeches-Auðr) – A tenth-century Icelander, lived at Hóll,
Saurbœr, western Iceland; wife of Þórðr Ingunnarson in Laxdœla saga.
Brynhildr Buðladóttir – Legendary valkyrie heroine, lover of Sigurðr
Fáfnisbani (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic poetry).
Buðli – Father of Brynhildr Buðladóttir (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic
poetry).
Busla – A legendary witch in Sweden, patroness of Bósi Þvarason
(Bósa saga).
Dvalinn – A dwarf; forged Tyrfingr for Sváfrlami (Hervarar saga).
Egill – A thirteenth-century Icelander, companion of Steinólfr

(Sturlunga saga).
Egill Skalla-Grímsson – A tenth-century Icelander, lived at Borgarfjǫrðr,
western Iceland; poet, adventurer and saga-hero (Egils saga Skalla-
Grímssonar).
Eiríkr blóðøx (Eiríkr Blood-Axe) – King of Norway (931–3), son of
Haraldr hárfagri (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Eyfura – Paternal grandmother of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervarar
saga).
Eyjólfr ofsi (the Overbearing) Þorsteinsson – Icelander; former son-in-
law of Sturla Sighvatsson; burned the house down at the Flugumýrr
wedding (1253), with Hrafn Oddsson; killed at the battle of Þverá
(1255) (Sturlunga saga).
Fáfnir – A dragon, slain by Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Vǫlsunga saga and

Eddic poetry).
Faxi – A horse belonging to Ǫrvar-Oddr, also the indirect cause of his
death at his birthplace in Norway (Ǫrvar-Odds saga).
Feima (possibly: Woman) – A troll-woman encountered by the legendary
Norwegian hero Grímr loðinkinni (Gríms saga loðinkinna).
Fenja – A giant-maiden in legendary Denmark (Grottasǫngr).
Fífa – See Gusisnautar.
Flaug – See Gusisnautar.
Forað (possibly: Dangerous Place) – A troll-woman encountered by the
legendary Norwegian hero Ketill hængr (Ketils saga hœngs).
Fóstra Þórodds Þorbrandssonar (Þóroddr Þorbrandsson’s Foster
Mother) – An eleventh-century Icelander, said to be living in
Álptafjǫrðr (Snæfellsnes, western Iceland) in Eyrbyggja saga.
Freyja – A goddess.
Freyr – A god.
Frigg – A goddess, wife of Óðinn.
Fróði Friðleifsson – A legendary king of Denmark (Hrólfs saga kraka
and Grottasǫngr).
Fróði Ǫgmundarson – Tenth-century Norwegian; sickened and died in
childhood, just before his family sailed from Norway to Iceland; half-
brother of the Icelandic skald Kormakr Ǫgmundarson (Kormaks saga).
Gefjun – A goddess.
Gerðr – A goddess, wife of Freyr.
Gizurr Þorvaldsson – Icelander; an enemy of the Sturlungar; fought
alongside Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson at the battle of Ǫrlygsstaðir
(1238) (Sturlunga saga); owner of the estate at Flugumýrr, site of
an ill-fated wedding between enemies that became a conflagration
(1253).
Gjúki – Father of the legendary heroine Guðrún Gjúkadóttir (Vǫlsunga
saga and Eddic poetry).
Gjúkungar – The legendary Burgundian dynastic family that included
Guðrún Gjúkadóttir and her brothers (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic
poetry).
Glæsir (Shining One) – A supernatural bull in eleventh-century
Álptafjǫrðr, Snæfellsnes, western Iceland; said to be conceived after
a cow ate the funerary ashes of a bothersome ghost (Eyrbyggja saga).
Goðmundr – An infant giant, brother of Hildigunnr Risadóttir (Ǫrvar-
Odds saga).
Gǫndul (Staff-Bearer) – A valkyrie.
Gǫngu-Hrólfr (Hrólfr the Walker) – Said in Norwegian and Icelandic
sources to have been the grandson of Hrólfr nefja and the son of Hildr
Hrólfsdóttir and Rǫgnvaldr jarl of Mœrir; semi-legendary founder of

Normandy (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Gothormr – A legendary king of Sweden (Grottasǫngr).
Gotþormr sindri – A skald for Haraldr hárfagri king of
Norway; contemporary of Jórunn skáldmær (Snorri Sturluson,
Heimskringla).
Grani – The horse of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic
poetry).
Grettir Ásmundarson – An eleventh-century Icelandic outlaw and
saga-hero (Grettis saga).
Grímr (1) – A name for Þórr (Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss).
Grímr (2) – An alias for Óláfr Haraldsson in Vǫlsa þáttr.
Grímr loðinkinni (Grímr Hairy-Cheek) – A legendary Norwegian hero,
son of Ketill hœngr (Gríms saga loðinkinna) and father of Ǫrvar-
Oddr.
Grotti (Millstone) – The magic mill acquired by legendary Danish king
Fróði Friðleifsson, at which Fenja and Menja were forced to toil.
Guðrún Gjúkadóttir – A legendary heroine; rival and enemy of
Brynhildr Buðladóttir; married to Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Vǫlsunga
saga and Eddic poetry).
Gunnhildr konungamóðir (Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings) – Queen of
Norway, wife of Eiríkr blóðøx (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Gunnr (Battle) – A valkyrie.
Gusisnautar – Flaug, Fífa and Hremsa: the three magical arrows passed
down in the family of the heroes of Hrafnista, inherited by Ǫrvar-
Oddr.
Gyðja (Priestess) – A pagan priestess-queen of ‘Bjalka,’ an enemy of
Ǫrvar-Oddr (Ǫrvar-Odds saga).
Gylfi – A legendary sea-king.
Hafr Bjarnarson – A thirteenth-century Icelander, follower of Kolbeinn

ungi Arnórsson (Sturlunga saga).
Hákon góði (Hákon the Good) – King of Norway (933–60), son of
Haraldr hárfagri (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Hákon Hákonarson inn gamli (Hákon the Old) – King of Norway
(1217–63) (Sturlunga saga).
Hálfdan – Brother of Fróði (Friðleifsson), legendary king of Denmark;
grandfather (and great-grandfather) of Hrólfr kraki (Hrólfs saga
kraka and Grottasǫngr).
Hálfdan svarti – Son of Haraldr hárfagri (Snorri Sturluson,
Heimskringla).
Halldóra Þórðardóttir – A visionary thirteenth-century Icelander;
farmed at Fljót in Skagafjǫrðr in northern Iceland (Sturlunga saga).
Hallr Guðmundarson – Eleventh-century Icelander, lived at Ásbjarnarnes,

Vatnsnes, northern Iceland; son of Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir (Heiðarvíga saga).
Hallvarðr Jósepsson – A thirteenth-century Icelander, follower of
Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson (Sturlunga saga).
Hamr – An alias for Hróarr Hálfdanarson (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Haraldr hárfagri (Haraldr Fairhair) – King of Norway (872–933), son
of Hálfdan svarti; father of Hálfdan svarti, Hákon góði, and Eiríkr
blóðøx (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Heiðr (possibly: Bright; Honor; or Heath) – A name or title for a
prophetess.
Heiðr vǫlva (Heiðr the Seeress) – Names given to prophetesses in Hrólfs
saga kraka and Ǫrvar-Odds saga.
Heiðrekr – A legendary king of Reiðgotaland, son of Hervǫr Angantýs
dóttir (Hervarar saga).
Helga Bárðardóttir – Semi-legendary tenth-century Icelander;
daughter of Bárðr Snæfellsáss (Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss); sometime
companion of Miðfjarðar-Skeggi.
Helgi Hálfdanarson – A legendary king of Denmark, father (and
grandfather) of Hrólfr kraki (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Hergunnr – A troll-woman encountered by legendary hero Hjálmþér
(Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Herrauðr Hringsson – A hero-prince in legendary Sweden, companion
of Bósi Þvarason (Bósa saga).
Hervarðr Arngrímsson – Berserker uncle of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir
(Hervarar saga).
Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir – A legendary shield-maiden and saga-heroine
(Hervarar saga).
Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir – A legendary chess-playing princess said
to have had ‘eyes like gemstones and cheeks like roses,’ abducted
from her father’s fortress by Hǫrðr (Hringr) (Hjálmþés saga ok
Ǫlvis).
Hetta trollkona (Hetta the Troll-woman) – An Icelandic troll-woman
encountered by Bárðr Snæfellsáss (Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss).
Hildigunnr risadóttir (Hildigunnr Giant’s-Daughter) – A giant-maiden
encountered by Ǫrvar-Oddr (Ǫrvar-Odds saga).
Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir – A legendary princess of Arabia, formerly
enchanted in monstrous form (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis). See also
Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir and Skinnhúfa.
Hildr (Battle) – A valkyrie.
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir – A tenth-century Norwegian; mother of Gǫngu-
Hrólfr (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Hjálm-Gunnarr – Old warrior, not favored by the valkyrie Brynhildr
Buðladóttir (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic poetry).
Hjálmarr – A legendary Swedish hero, companion of Ǫrvar-Oddr,

slain with the cursed sword Tyrfingr (Hervarar saga and Ǫrvar-
Odds saga).
Hjálmr (á Víðivǫllum?) – A defender of Tongue Farm (Iceland) against
Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson in the thirteenth-century Icelandic civil
wars (Sturlunga saga); or (alternate reading) a follower of Kolbeinn,
not present at the attack on the farm (and therefore not referred to in
the poem). See the entry on Kerling í Tungu.
Hjálmþér – A legendary hero, son of the ‘king of Mannheim’ and a
princess of Persia (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Hjǫrþrimul (Sword-Clashing) – A valkyrie.
Hjǫrvarðr Arngrímsson – Berserker uncle of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir
(Hervarar saga).
Hó – A dog-alias for Helgi Hálfdanarson (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Hoppr – A dog-alias for Hróarr Hálfdanarson (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Hǫrðr Grímkelsson – Tenth-century Icelandic saga-hero, active in
southern and western Iceland (Harðar saga ok Hólmverja).
Hǫrðr (Hringr Ptólómeusson) – A servant-man with a secret identity,
hired by Hjálmþér at the advice of Vargeisa, who turns out to be
very good at killing trolls (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Hrafn Oddsson – Icelander; former son-in-law of Sturla Sighvatsson;
burned the house down at the Flugumýrr wedding (1253), with
Eyjólfr ofsi Þorsteinsson; killed at the battle of Þverá (1255)
(Sturlunga saga).
Hrani – An alias for Helgi Hálfdanarson (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Hrani Arngrímsson – Berserker uncle of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir
(Hervarar saga).
Hremsa – See Gusisnautar.
Hrímnir (Sooty, or Icy) – A giant.
Hringr – A king of the Gautar in legendary Sweden, father of Herrauð
(Bósa saga).
Hringr Ptólómeusson – See Hǫrðr.
Hróarr Hálfdanarson – Brother of Helgi Hálfdanarson (Hrólfs saga
kraka).
Hrólfr kraki (Hrólfr the Ladder) – A legendary king of Denmark, son
of Helgi Hálfdanarson and Yrsa (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Hrungnir – A giant.
Hrútr Herjólfsson – Tenth-century Icelander, briefly married to Unnr
Marðardóttir (Njáls saga).
Iði (Agile) – A giant.

Ingjaldr – Icelander; a fisherman friend of the eponymous hero, in the
fantastic saga Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss.
Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir í Miðjumdal – A visionary thirteenth-century

Icelander. Sixteen years old, she served as maidservant to a priest and
farmer in Miðjumdalr, not far from Þingvellir. The legendary pagan
heroine Guðrún Gjúkadóttir appeared to her in a series of visions
(Sturlunga saga).
Jórunn skáldmær (Jórunn the Poet-Maiden) – A Norwegian skald at the
time of Haraldr hárfagri (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Kerling (Old Woman) – Norwegian; said to have met Óláfr Haraldsson

while incognito (Vǫlsa þáttr).
Kerling í Tungu (The Old Woman of Tongue Farm) – An Icelander of
the Sturlung age (thirteenth century) (Sturlunga saga).
Ketill hœngr (Ketill Trout/Salmon) – A legendary Norwegian hero
(Ketils saga hœngs). Father of Grímr loðinkinni and grandfather of
Ǫrvar-Oddr.
Ketilríðr Hólmkelsdóttir – Icelander; the heroine of the saga-romance
Víglundar saga.
Kleima (possibly: Procrastinator) – A troll-woman encountered by
legendary Norwegian hero Grímr loðinkinni (Gríms saga loðinkinna).
Knúi – A legendary king of Sweden (Grottasǫngr).
Kolbeinn ungi (the Young) Arnórsson – A thirteenth-century Icelander,
resident in Skagafjǫrðr, inimical to the Sturlungar (Sturlunga saga).
Kona at Munka-Þverá (Woman at Munka-Þverá) – A visionary
thirteenth-century Icelander, resident in Eyjafjǫrðr (Sturlunga saga).
Kona ein í Svartárdal (A Woman in Blackriver Valley) – A visionary
thirteenth-century Icelander, resident in Svartárdalr, Húnavatn
(Sturlunga saga).
Kona skammt frá Þingeyrastað (Woman, close to Þingeyrir) – A
visionary thirteenth-century Icelander (Sturlunga saga).
Kormakr Ǫgmundarson – A tenth-century Icelandic skald and saga-
hero, from Miðfjǫrðr, northern Iceland (Kormaks saga).
Lærir – A dog in Vǫlsa þáttr.
Margerðr (possibly: Sea-Goddess) – A troll-woman encountered by

Hjálmþér (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Menja – A giant-maiden (Grottasǫngr).
Miðfjarðar-Skeggi (Skeggi of Miðfjǫrðr) – A tenth-century Icelander,
featured in a number of sagas.
Mǫrnir (possibly: Giantesses, or deified phallus) – A divine entity or
entities worshipped by the peasant family in Vǫlsa þáttr.
Njǫrðr – A god.
Óðinn – The All-father, god of battle and poetry.

Óláfr Haraldsson – King of Norway (1015–28); also Norway’s patron
saint (Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla).
Óláfr pái (Óláfr the Peacock) – Prominent tenth-century Icelander,
said to be the grandson of Muircearteach, king of Ireland (Laxdœla
saga).
Ólǫf geisli (Ólǫf Sun-ray) – The hero’s mother, a princess of Norway, in
the saga-romance Víglundar saga.
Ǫlvir – A legendary hero, companion of Hjálmþér (Hjálmþés saga ok
Ǫlvis).
Ǫlvǫr – A legendary princess of Ireland, beloved of Ǫrvar-Oddr
(Ǫrvar-Odds saga).
Ormr Stórólfsson – A legendary Norwegian hero (Orms þáttr
Stórólfssonar).
Ǫrvar-Oddr (Arrow-Oddr) – A legendary Norwegian hero, inheritor of
three magic arrows, endowed with an unnaturally long life (Ǫrvar-
Odds saga).
Páll Kolbeinsson of Reynistaðr – A thirteenth-century Icelander;

follower of Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson (Sturlunga saga).
Randvér’s Bane – A name for Óðinn.
Sævill – An evil jarl, married to Signý Hálfdansdóttir (Hrólfs saga

kraka).
Sanngríðr (True Courage, or True Giantess) – A valkyrie.
Signý Hálfdansdóttir – Sister of Hróarr and Helgi, married to Sævill
(Hrólfs saga kraka).
Signý Valbrandsdóttir – A tenth-century Icelander from Reykjadalr in
southern Iceland; mother of Hǫrðr Grímkelsson (Harðar saga ok
Hólmverja).
Sigtryggr silkiskegg (Sigtryggr Silkbeard) – King of Dublin, son-in-
law and enemy of Brian Boru; allied with Brian’s Leinster enemies
at the battle of Clontarf (1014).
Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Sigurðr Fáfnir’s Bane) – A legendary dragon-
slaying hero (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic poetry).
Sigurðr Hlǫðvisson – Jarl of Orkney, allied with Brian Boru’s Leinster
enemies at the battle of Clontarf (1014).
Skinnhúfa (Skin-Cloak) – Alias for Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir while
enslaved by the giant Bendill (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis).
Skjǫldungar – The legendary Danish dynastic family that included
Hróarr Hálfdanarson, Helgi Hálfdanarson, Signý Hálfdansdóttir
and Hrólfr kraki (Hrólfs saga kraka).
Snarvendill (Turns Quickly) – A sword (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis), given

by Vargeisa to Hjálmþér.
Snorri Sturluson – A thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain and man
of letters; author of Skáldskaparmál and Heimskringla; uncle of
Sturla Þórðarson, Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum and Sturla
Sighvatsson; killed by his former son-in-law Gizurr Þorvaldsson,
among others.
Steingerðr Þórketilsdóttir – A tenth-century Icelander; beloved of
Kormakr Ǫgmundarson (Kormaks saga).
Steinólfr – A thirteenth-century Icelander, brother of a certain Þorvarðr,
possibly Þorvarðr Þórarinsson of Eyjafjǫrðr; companion of Egill
(Sturlunga saga).
Steinunn Refsdóttir – An Icelander, living at Hofgarðr on Snæfellsnes,
around 999 (Njáls saga and Kristni saga).
Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum – A thirteenth-century Icelander of the
Sturlungar; farmed at Keldur; cousin of Sturla Þórðarson; foretells
the death of her brother, Sturla Sighvatsson (Sturlunga saga).
Sturla Sighvatsson – A thirteenth-century Icelander of the Sturlungar,
brother of Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum; died at the battle of
Ǫrlygsstaðir (1238) (Sturlunga saga).
Sturla Þórðarson – A thirteenth-century Icelander of the Sturlungar;
chronicler of contemporary civil war; author of the Íslendinga saga
section of Sturlunga saga; cousin of Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum.
Sturlungar (Sturlungs) – A dynastic faction in the thirteenth-century
Icelandic civil wars recounted in Sturlunga saga.
Sváfa – See Tófa.
Sváfrlami – Great-grandfather of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir, maternal
grandfather of Angantýr and his berserker brothers (Hervarar saga).
Svipul (Quick) – A valkyrie.
Sýr (Sow) – A name for Freyja.
Þangbrandr – A Christian missionary to Iceland, around 999 (Njáls

saga and Kristni saga).
Þjazi – A giant.
Þorbjǫrg Grímkelsdóttir – An Icelander; sister of Hǫrðr Grímkelsson
(Harðar saga ok Hólmverja).
Þorbjǫrn hornklofi – A ninth- and tenth-century Norwegian, skald to
Haraldr hárfagri.
Þorgils skarði Bǫðvarsson – A thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain;
fought on Sturla Þórðarson’s side at the battle of Þverá (1255)
(Sturlunga saga).
Þorgrímr Eiríksson – Norwegian; father of the eponymous hero in the
saga-romance Víglundar saga.
Þórhildr skáldkona – A tenth-century Icelander of southern Iceland;

wife of Þráinn Sigfússon in Njáls saga.
Þóroddr Þorbrandsson – An eleventh-century Icelander, said to be living
in Álptafjǫrðr (Snæfellsnes, western Iceland) (Eyrbyggja saga).
Þórr – A god.
Þorvarðr Þórarinsson – A thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain,
resident in Eyjafjǫrðr, possible kinsman of Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir
í Miðjumdal; possible brother of Steinólfr (Sturlunga saga).
Þundarr – A man’s name, used in poetry to refer to Víglundr (Víglundar
saga).
Þuríðr at Fellsenda í Dǫlum (Þuríðr from Fellsendi in the Dales) – A
visionary thirteenth-century Icelander (Sturlunga saga).
Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir pá – Eleventh-century Icelander; daughter of Óláfr
pái and grandddaughter of Egill Skalla-Grímsson; mother of Barði
Guðmundarson and Hallr Guðmundarson (Heiðarvíga saga).
Þvinnill – A legendary sea-king.
Tófa (Vixen) – The mother of Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervarar saga).
Sváfa in some manuscripts.
Trausti – Companion of Víglundr in the saga-romance Víglundar saga.
Tumi Sighvatsson – A thirteenth-century Icelander of the Sturlungar,
brother of Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum and Sturla Sighvatsson
(Sturlunga saga).
Tyrfingr (possibly: Buried under turf) – A legendary cursed sword,
made by Dvalinn, inherited by Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir (Hervarar
saga).
Ullr – A god.
Unnr – A name for Óðinn (in Þorbjǫrg Grímkelsdóttir’s second stanza
only).
Unnr Marðardóttir – A tenth-century Icelander, briefly married to
Hrútr Herjólfsson (Njáls saga).
Ván – A river-name, used in poetry (Víglundar saga).

Vár (possibly: Oath) – A goddess-name. See also Vǫr.
Vargeisa (Wolf-Fire) – A legendary monster-woman, keeper of
Snarvendill (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis). See also Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir.
Víglundr Þorgrímsson – The eponymous hero of the saga-romance
Víglundar saga.
Vignir – A legendary figure, son of Ǫrvar-Oddr and Hildigunnr
risadóttir (Ǫrvar-Odds saga).
Vǫlsi – The eponymous sacred object in Vǫlsa þáttr.
Vǫlsungar – The legendary Continental dynastic family that included
Sigurðr Fáfnisbani (Vǫlsunga saga and Eddic poetry).
Vǫlva – A name or title for a prophetess.

Vǫlva – The otherwise nameless prophetess in Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar.
Vǫr (possibly: Wary) – A goddess-name; also, a common second
element in women’s names (Hervǫr, Olvǫr, Steinvǫr). See also Vár.
Yggr (Frightful) – A name for Óðinn.

Ýma – A troll-woman encountered by Hjálmþér (Hjálmþés saga ok
Ǫlvis).
Yrsa – The mother (and half-sister) of Hrólfr kraki (Hrólfs saga kraka).
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Index of Names
Aðalþegnshólar (Iceland) 34
Agnarr 52, 117
Álfr bjalki 89–91
Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir 93, 101, 106–9, 117
Ambátt (Vǫlsa þáttr) 28–30, 117
Andersson, Theodore Murdock 6
Angantýr Arngrímsson 57, 61–8, 117
Angr (Norway) 104
Ármóðsdóttir skeggs 25, 117
Arnfinnsdóttir jarls 24–5, 117
Arngrímr 62, 68, 117
Arrow-Oddr – see Ǫrvar-Oddr
Ásbjǫrn prúði 88, 117
Asbjørnsen, Peter Christen 77, 91
Aschenputtel 56
Ásdís á Bjargi 31, 117
Atall 19, 117
Atlakviða 98
Atli Buðlason 44, 50
Attila 49–50, 115
Auða 52, 117
Auden, Wystan Hugh 72
Auðr Hvelpssystir und Hóli – see Bróka-Auðr
Aurnir 80, 117
Bali (Iceland) 34
Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss 34, 111
Barði Guðmundarson 20, 117
Bárðr Snæfellsáss 34, 111, 118
Beck, Heinrich 28
Bendill 93–4, 118
Beowulf 49
Bersi Skáldtorfuson 4
Berurjóðr (Norway) 87
Biskupstungnahreppur (Iceland) 43–4
Bjalka (Antioch) 89
135
Bjarg (Iceland) 31
Bjarmi jarl 57
Bjarni Einarson 16
Bjarni Vilhjálmsson 32, 34, 111
Böldl, Klaus 28
Bóndadóttir (Vǫlsa þáttr) 28–9, 118
Borgarfjǫrðr (Iceland) 42
Bósa saga 95
Bósi Þvarason 95–7, 118
Bragi Boddason 102, 118
Brandr inn ǫrvi 46–7, 118
Brandr Kolbeinsson 21, 46–7, 118
Brandr Vermundsson 46–7, 118
Breiðafjǫrðr (Iceland) vii
Brian Boru 73, 118
Broddi Þorleifsson 21, 118
Bróka-Auðr vii, 2–3, 11, 18, 118
Brunichildis 115
Brynhildr Buðladóttir 44, 49–54, 118
Buðli 44, 50–1, 118
Búrfell (Iceland) 34, 111
Burrows, Hannah 56
Busla kerling 95–9, 118
Buslubœn 95–9
Canterbury Tales 107

Chaucer, Geoffrey 107
Child, Francis James 106–7
Cinderella 56
Clontarf (Ireland) 41, 73, 115
Clunies Ross, Margaret x, 2, 7, 24–5, 34, 86, 88–9, 106, 111
Codex Regius 5–6, 49–50, 71–2, 116
Darraðarljóð 39, 41, 73–6

Drangey (Iceland) 31
Dritvík (Iceland) 34
Dronke, Ursula 72
Dublin 73
Dvalinn 62, 118
Egill (Sturlunga saga) 45, 118

Egill Skalla-Grímsson 24–5, 71, 118
Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar 16, 24–5, 115
Einar Ólafur Sveinsson 16–19, 23, 26, 73
Index 137
Eiríkr blóðøx 13, 16, 115, 118

Eiríkr rauði 4, 34, 85
Eiríks saga rauða 85, 88
Elfr (Sweden) 104
Ermanaric 49, 115
Eyfura 62, 118
Eyjólfr ofsi Þorsteinsson 43, 46, 118
Eyrbyggja saga 23
Fáfnir 53, 119

Fagrskinna 16
Faulkes, Anthony 6–7, 13, 28, 77, 88, 102
Faxi 87, 119
Feima 105, 119
Fellsendi í Dǫlum (Iceland) 42
Fenja 77–84, 119
Fífa 104, 119
Finnar (Sámi) 88
Finnur Jónsson x, 1–2, 6–7, 12–13, 16–18, 20–1, 23–6, 28, 31–2, 34–6,
40–3, 55, 73, 85–6, 88–9, 91, 93, 95, 102, 105–6, 108, 111
Firðafjall (Iceland) 111
Firðir (Norway) 16
First Grammatical Treatise 7
Fjordane (Norway) 16
Flateyjarbók 14, 28, 50
Flaug 104, 119
Fljót (Iceland) 41
Flugumýrr (Iceland) 39, 43–4, 46, 116
Foote, Peter 1
Forað 102–4, 119
Fóstra Þórodds Þorbrandssonar 23–4, 119
Frank, Roberta 5
Freyja 19, 119
Freyr 31, 90, 119
Frigg 111, 119
Fróði Friðleifsson 77–9, 82–4, 119
Fróði Ǫgmundarson 16–17, 119
Fróðmarr 57
Fulk, R. D. 16
Gade, Kari Ellen 7, 12

Gautavík (Iceland) 37
Gautr Jónsson (á Mel) 3
Gawain 107
Gefjun 29, 119

Gerðr 24, 119
Gering, Hugo 6–7
Gizurr Þorvaldsson 40, 42–3, 45–6, 119
Gjúki 51–2, 54, 119
Gjúkungar 51–2, 119
Glæsir 23, 119
Glymdrápa 14
Goðmundr 106, 119
Gǫndul 75, 119
Gǫngu-Hrólfr 12, 119
Gordon, Eric Valentine 6–7, 56, 58
Götaälv (Sweden) 104
Gothormr 81, 120
Gotþormr sindri 13, 15, 120
Grani 53, 120
Grettir Ásmundarson 31, 120
Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar 31
Grímr (Óláfr Haraldsson) 28, 30, 120
Grímr (Þórr) 111, 120
Grímr loðinkinni 105, 107, 120
Gríms saga loðinkinna 105, 107
Grottasǫngr 77–84
Grotti 77, 80, 120
Grove, Jonathan 31
Guðbrandur Vigfússon 21, 40–3, 56
Guðni Jónsson x, 20, 31
Guðrún Gjúkadóttir 6, 43–6, 54, 120
Guðrún Nordal 18, 21, 40–3
Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir vii, 18
Guðrún P. Helgadóttir 1, 3, 39
Guillou, Jan ix
Gundicarius 115
Gunnarr á Hlíðarenda 17
Gunnhildr konungamóðir 2, 16, 23, 26, 71, 120
Gunnr 75, 120
Gusisnautar 120
Gyðja 89–91, 120
Gýgrin 50–1
Gylfi 19, 120
Hafr Bjarnarson 21, 120

Hákon góði 16, 115, 120
Hákon Hákonarson inn gamli 21, 47, 115–16, 120
Index 139
Hákonar saga góða 16

Hálfdan svarti 13–14, 120
Halland (Denmark/Sweden) 24
Halldóra Þórðardóttir 39, 41, 120
Hallgerðr Hǫskuldsdóttir 17
Hallr Guðmundarson 20, 120
Hamr (Hróarr Hálfdanarson) 86, 121
Haraldr hárfagri 12–15, 115, 121
Haralds saga hárfagra 12–13
Harðar saga ok Hólmverja 32
Harris, Richard 91, 93, 108
Heiðarkolla (Iceland) 34
Heiðarvíga saga 20
Heide, Eldar 12
Heiðr vǫlva 72, 85, 86, 121
Heiðrekr 64, 121
Heimskringla 12–13
Heizmann, Wilhelm 28, 95
Hel 45, 52
Helga Bárðardóttir 34–5, 121
Helgi Hálfdanarson 77, 85–6, 121
Helreið Brynhildar 6, 50–4
Hergunnr 108–11, 121
Hermann Pálsson 1
Herrauðr Hringsson 95–7, 121
Hervararkviða 56–69, 86
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs 56, 86, 116
Hervarðr Arngrímsson 61–2, 121
Hervǫr Angantýsdóttir 49, 56–69, 121
Hervǫr Hundingjadóttir 91–3, 121
Heslop, Kate 35
Hetta trollkona 111–12, 121
Heusler, Andreas 6, 56, 95
Hildigunnr risadóttir 101, 106, 121
Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir 93–4, 121
Hildr 25, 52, 74, 121
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir nefju 2, 12, 121
Hjálmarr 65–6, 68, 121
Hjálm-Gunnarr 52, 121
Hjálmr, possibly á Víðivǫllum (Sturlunga saga) 21, 122
Hjálmþér 91, 93–4, 101, 106, 108, 122
Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis 91, 93, 106, 108
Hjalti Skeggjason 18
Hjǫrþrimul 74, 122
Hjǫrvarðr Arngrímsson 59, 61–2, 122

Hleiðr (Lejre, Denmark) 83
Hlymdalir 52
Hó (Helgi Hálfdanarson) 85–6, 122
Hóll (Iceland) vii
Hollander, Lee Milton 6–7, 95
Hoppr (Hróarr Hálfdanarson) 85–6, 122
Hǫrðr Grímkelsson 32–3, 122
Hǫrðr (Hringr Ptólómeusson) 91, 93, 95, 108–9, 122
Hrafn Oddsson 43, 46, 122
Hrafnista (Norway) 103
Hrafnsey (Norway) 103
Hrakhvammr (Hregghvammur, Iceland) 111
Hrani (Helgi Hálfdanarson) 86, 122
Hrani Arngrímsson 61–2, 122
Hreggnasi (Iceland) 34
Hremsa 104, 122
Hrímnir 105, 122
Hringr (Bósa saga) 95–6, 122
Hringr Ptólómeusson 91, 93, 122
Hróarr Hálfdanarson 85–6, 122
Hroðgar 49
Hrólfr kraki 49, 55, 77, 85, 122
Hrólfr nefja 12
Hrólfs saga kraka 55, 85
Hrungnir 80, 102, 122
Hrútr Herjólfsson 26–7, 122
Hughes, Shaun F. D. ix
Húnaþing (Iceland) 21
Hvammsveit (Iceland) 21
Iði 80, 122

Indriði þórvaldsson 33
Ingjaldr (Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss) 111, 122
Íslendinga saga 40–3, 116
Jaðarr (Norway) 86, 104

Jæren (Norway) 86–7, 104
Jesch, Judith ix, 13
Jochens, Jenny M. ix
Jóhannes Halldórsson 35
Jón Helgason 6–7, 56
Jón Jóhannesson 21, 40–3
Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir í Miðjumdal 3, 43–7, 123
Index 141
Jørgensen, Peter 88
Jórunn skáldmær 2, 13–15, 123
Kalevala 77
Kálfalækjarbók 26
Karmøy (Norway) 104
Keldur (Iceland) 3, 40
Kellogg, Robert viii, 1
Kerling (Vǫlsa þáttr) 28–30, 123
Kerling í Tungu 3, 11, 21, 123
Ketill hœngr 102, 105, 123
Ketils saga hængs 102
Ketilríðr Hólmkelsdóttir 36–7, 123
Kirkjufell (Iceland) 111
Kleima 105, 123
Knúi 81, 123
Knútr inn ríki 28
Kock, Ernst Albin x, 1–2, 6–7, 12–13, 16–18, 20–1, 23–6, 28, 31–2, 34–6,
40–43, 55, 73, 85–6, 88–9, 91, 93, 95, 102, 105–6, 108–11
Kolbeinn ungi Arnórsson 21, 40, 123
Kona at Munka-Þverá 40, 123
Kona ein í Svartárdal 41–2, 123
Kona skammt frá Þingeyrastað 43, 123
Kormakr Ǫgmundarson 16–17, 123
Kormaks saga 16
Kǫrmt (Norway) 104
Kristján Eldjárn 42
Kristni saga 18–19
Króksfjarðarbók 21
Kuhn, Hans 6–7, 50, 72
Lærir (Vǫlsa þáttr) 30, 123

LaFarge, Beatrice 7, 98, 102, 106
Laxdœla saga vii, 2, 18, 116
Leinster (Ireland) 73
Lejre (Denmark) 83
Lindow, John 5, 11
Lóndrangar (Iceland) 34
Lopthœna 107
Magnús Finnbogason 42
Margerðr 108–11, 123
Marold, Edith 16, 102
Matthias Þórðarson 23
McGrew, Julia 44
McKinnell, John 72
Menja 77–84, 123
Miðdalur (Iceland) 43
Miðdalr (Iceland) 43
Miðfjarðar-Skeggi 34, 123
Moe, Jørgen 77, 91
Mœrr (Norway) 12, 89
Møre og Romsdal (Norway) 12, 89
Mǫrnir 28–30, 123
Munarvágr (Denmark) 58, 62
Munka-Þverá (Iceland) 40
Munster (Ireland) 73
Neckel, Gustav 6–7, 50, 72

Nes (Iceland) 111
Njáls saga 16–19, 26, 36, 41, 71, 73, 116
Njǫrðr 31, 36, 123
Normandy 12
Nornagests þáttr 50
Oddrúnargrátr 6
Óðinn 12, 18, 33, 50, 52–3, 90, 124
Óláfr Haraldsson 14, 28–30, 115, 124
Óláfr pái 20, 124
Óláfs saga helga 13–14, 28
Ólǫf geisli 35, 124
Ǫlvir (Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis) 91, 93–4, 108–10, 124
Ǫlvǫr 88, 124
Ǫndverðnes (Iceland) 34
Orchard, Andy 31
Ǫrlygsstaðir (Iceland) 3, 39, 40–3, 116
Ormr Stórólfsson 88, 124
Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar 88–9
Ǫrvar-Oddr 56, 63, 86–8, 101, 106, 124
Ǫrvar-Odds saga 56, 86, 88–9, 106
Óþjóðan 88
Páll Kolbeinsson 21, 124

Picard, Eve 7
Poole, Russell 17–18, 20, 26, 73
Powell, F. York 56
Quinn, Judy 4, 23
Index 143
Randvér 73, 124

Ranisch, Wilhelm 6, 56, 95
Reykjabók 26
Rifshǫfuð (Iceland) 111
Rǫgnvaldr, jarl of Mœrr 12
Rollo, duke of Normandy 12
Sælingdalstunga (Iceland) 3, 11, 21

Sævill jarl 55, 124
Sámi 88, 101, 103
Sampo 77
Sámsey (Denmark) 56–7, 86
Sanngríðr 74, 124
Saurbœr (Iceland) vii
Saxo Grammaticus 115
Schulz, Katja 7
Sendibit 13–15
Sigebert 115
Signý Hálfdansdóttir 55, 124
Signý Valbrandsdóttir 32, 124
Sigtryggr silkiskegg 73, 124
Sigurðr Fáfnisbani 4, 28, 49, 54, 77, 85, 116, 124
Sigurður Nordal 20, 24–5
Sigurgeir Steingrímsson 18
Sijmons, Barend 6–7
Simek, Rudolf 28
Sinfjǫtli Sigmundarson 77
Sírnir (giant) 32
Skagafjǫrðr (Iceland) 41
Skáldatal 3, 5
Skáldskaparmál 77, 102
Skáld-Torfa 4
Skarphéðinn Njálsson viii, 4
Skatalundr 53
Skinnhúfa (Hildisif Ptólómeusdóttir) 93–4, 124
Skjǫldungar 55, 124
Slay, Desmond 1, 55, 85
Smiley, Jane viii
Snæfellsnes (Iceland) 34, 111
Snarvendill 93–4, 107, 125
Snorri Sturluson 6–7, 12–13, 77, 102, 115, 125
Steig (Norway) 104
Steingerðr Þórketilsdóttir 3, 16–17, 27, 125
Steinólfr Þórarinsson 45, 125
Steinunn Refsdóttir 18–19, 125

Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir á Keldum 3, 40–1, 125
Sturla Sighvatsson 3, 39–40, 42, 125
Sturla Þórðarson 43, 46, 116, 125
Sturlunga saga 3, 11, 21, 39–44, 116
Sturlungar 21, 40, 43, 125
Sváfrlami 61, 125
Svartárdalr 41
Svipul 74, 125
Sýr (Freyja) 31, 125
Taylor, Paul B. 72
Teichert, Matthias 7
Þangbrandr 18–19, 125
Theodoric 49, 115
Þingeyrir (Iceland) 43
Þingvellir (Iceland) 44
Þjazi 80, 125
Thompson, Claiborne 95
Þorbjǫrg Grímkelsdóttir 32–3, 125
Þorbjǫrg lítilvǫlva 85
Þorbjǫrn hornklofi 13–14, 125
Þorbjǫrn ǫngull 31
Þórðar saga kakala 21
Þórðr Ingunnarson vii, 18
Þorgils skarði Bǫðvarsson 43, 46, 125
Þorgrímr Eiríksson 35, 125
Þorgrímr ór Gunnarsholti 40
Þórhallur Vilmundarson 32, 34, 111
Þórhildr skáldkona 3, 11, 17, 126
Þórir jarl (Víglundar saga) 35
Þóroddr Þorbrandsson 23, 126
Þórr 19, 111, 126
Þorvarðr Þórarinsson 43–6, 126
Þráinn Sigfússon 17
Þundar (heiti) 37, 126
Þuríðr at Fellsenda í Dǫlum 42, 126
Þuríðr Óláfsdóttir pá 3, 20, 126
Þverá (Iceland) 3, 39, 43, 46, 116
Þvinnill 19, 126
Tófa 57, 61, 126
Tolkien, Christopher 6–7, 56–8
Tolley, Clive 12, 28, 77
Trausti (Víglundar saga) 36–7, 126
Index 145
Trøndelag (Norway) 89
Trondheim (Norway) 13
Tucker, John 98
Tumi Sighvatsson 42, 126
Tyrfingr 49, 56, 63–4, 67–8, 126
Ullr 20, 126

Unnr (Óðinn-heiti) 33, 126
Unnr Marðardóttir 26–7, 126
Útsteinn (Utstein, Norway) 104
Valland 50
Vár 51, 126
Varanger (Norway) 104
Vargeisa (Álsól Ptólómeusdóttir) 101, 106–9, 126
Viðar Hreinsson viii
Víðivellir (Iceland) 21
Vífilsey (Denmark) 85–6
Víglundar saga 35–7
Víglundr Þorgrímsson 36–7, 126
Vignir 106, 126
Vilborg skáld 4
Vǫlsa þáttr 28–30
Vǫlsi 28–30, 126
Vǫlsunga saga 49–50, 77, 85, 116, 126
Vǫlsungar 28, 126
Vǫluspá 72
von See, Klaus 6–7, 50
Vǫr 35, 127
Wills, Tarrin 32
Ýma 108–11, 127

Yngvi 89
Yrsa 77, 83–4, 127
Library of Medieval Women
Christine de Pizan’s Letter of Othea to Hector, Jane Chance, 1990
Writings of Margaret of Oingt, Medieval Prioress and Mystic, Renate Blumenfeld-
Kosinski, 1990
Saint Bride and her Book: Birgitta of Sweden’s Revelations, Julia Bolton Holloway,
1992; new edition 2000
The Memoirs of Helene Kottanner (1439–1440), Maya Bijvoet Williamson, 1998
The Writings of Teresa de Cartagena, Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez, 1998
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love and The Motherhood of God,
Frances Beer, 1998
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: A Florilegium of her Works, Katharina M. Wilson, 1998
Hildegard of Bingen: On Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Selections from Cause
et Cure, Margret Berger, 1999
Women Saints’ Lives in Old English Prose, Leslie A. Donovan, 1999
Angela of Foligno’s Memorial, Cristina Mazzoni, 2000
The Letters of the Rožmberk Sisters, John M. Klassen, 2001
The Life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence, Kathleen Garay and Madeleine
Jeay, 2001
Agnes Blannbekin, Viennese Beguine: Life and Revelations, Ulrike Wiethaus, 2002
Women of the Gilte Legende: A Selection of Middle English Saints’ Lives, Larissa
Tracy, 2003
Mechthild of Magdeburg: Selections from The Flowing Light of the Godhead,
Elizabeth A. Andersen, 2003
The Book of Margery Kempe, Liz Herbert McAvoy, 2003
Guidance for Women in Twelfth-Century Convents, Vera Morton and Jocelyn
Wogan-Browne, 2003
Anne of France: Lessons for my Daughter, Sharon L. Jansen, 2004
Goscelin of St Bertin: The Book of Encouragement and Consolation, Monika Otter,
2004
Late-Medieval German Women’s Poetry: Secular and Religious Songs, Albrecht
Classen, 2004
The Paston Women: Selected Letters, Diane Watt, 2004
The Vision of Christine de Pizan, Glenda McLeod and Charity Cannon Willard,
2005
Women’s Books of Hours in Medieval England, Charity Scott-Stokes, 2006
Caritas Pirckheimer: A Journal of the Reformation Years, 1524–1528, Paul A.
MacKenzie, 2006
Old Norse Women’s Poetry
Old NOrse pOetry is one of the most important and influential areas
of medieval European literature, and much of it is attributable to women
skalds. This book presents a bilingual edition (Old Norse and English) of this
material, from the ninth to the thirteenth century and beyond. The poems
reflect the dramatic and often violent nature of the sagas: they feature Viking
Age shipboard adventures and shipwrecks; prophecies; curses; declarations of
love and of revenge; duels, feuds and battles; encounters with ghosts; marital
and family discord; and religious insults, among many other topics. Their
authors fall into four main categories: pre-Christian Norwegian and Icelandic
skáldkonur of the Viking Age; Icelandic skáldkonur of the Sturlung Age
(thirteenth century); additional early skáldkonur from the Islendingasögur and
related material, not as historically verifiable as the first group; and mythical
figures cited as reciting verse in the legendary sagas (fornaldarsögur).
Cover (clockwise from top): Detail, British Library MS Harley 4431, f. 150; detail Mary, Queen
of Heaven by the Master of the Saint Lucy Legend, painted 1485-1500, from the Samuel H.
Kress Collection, ©1998 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington; detail, British
Library MS Cott. Dom. A XVII f. 74v; detail, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, MS Cod. Pal.
Germ. 848, f. 17.
An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
The LIBRARY of
MEDIEVAL WOMEN

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Old Norse

Sandra Ballif StrauBhaar

Old Norse Women’s Poetry:

Series Editor: Jane Chance

Translated from the Old Norse

Sandra Ballif Straubhaar

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation

First published 2011

ISBN 978 1 84384 271 2

D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

Typeset by Word and Page, Chester, UK

Printed in Great Britain by

In chapter 32 of Laxdœla saga, a thirteenth-century Icelandic narrative

Auðr’s temper and brashness give her a similar cachet to that of

Full details of publications will be found in the Bibliography.

FJ Finnur Jónsson, Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning.

The scope of the present project

reader to conclude that the corpus of preserved poetry in Old Icelandic

on errant husbands or lovers (by Bróka-Auðr, Þórhildr skáldkona, and

real or historical by the scribes of the Icelandic manuscript age (twelfth

Eddic and skaldic poetry

Skáldatal, a thirteenth-century list of skalds) are two attested women

traditionally (but misleadingly)11 called the Elder Edda appear. They

Notes on the text

website at the University of Sydney, directed by Margaret Clunies Ross,

Notes on the translation

In the poetry translations, I have tried to maintain at least some of the

Hildr Hrólfsdóttir nefju

Hafnið Nefju nafna; You frame my father’s namesake

Jórunn skáldmær (Jórunn the Poet-Maiden)

(‘the storm of the two princes’). Besides occurring in Jórunn’s Sendibit,

Sendibit The Biting Message

Harald frák, Hálfdan, spyrja O Halfdan, Haraldr heard of

Hvar vitu einka ˛orvir What more far-flung fame

golls landrekar þollum Hard-hearted lords repented.

Hróðr vann hringa stríðir Strong ode from ring-destroyer

Gunnhildr konungamóðir (Gunnhildr, Mother of Kings)

Gunnhildr assures her husband, Eiríkr Blood-Axe, that his brother

Hó˛- reið á bak bó˛ru Hákon went on wave-back,

Steingerðr answers Kormákr’s verse proposal with a cryptic ‘yes,’

As numerous further examples will show in the poetic texts which

Brœðr mynda ek blíðum, Should the gods be goodly,

Þórhildr skáldkona (Þórhildr the Poetess)

Þórhildr’s reproof to her husband, Þráinn Sigfússon, as he ogles a

Bróka-Auðr (Auðr in Breeches)

Vel es ek veit þat, Well to be ware of it

Steinunn mocks the Christian missionary Þangbrandr and his wrecked

Braut fyr bjo˛llu gæti Troll-shaker Þórr, he broke

Þórr brá Þvinnils dýri Þórr snatched Þangbrandr’s longboat,

Brátt munu Barða frýja They’ll call you full craven,

An old woman at Sælingsdalstunga in Hvammsveit, one of the farms

Beinir Brandr til rána Páll’s brother, brusque Brandr,

T his second section contains material generically similar to that in the

Fóstra Þórodds Þorbrandssonar

Þóroddr’s foster-mother warns him about Glæsir, the ghost bull

The herd-leader shakes his head with a blood-boding voice; he will

Oft es auðar þopta I rave, I rant, I roar,

Jarl Arnfiðr’s daughter mocks Egill’s prowess

Því sendi mín móðir My mother has sent me

Víst hefr, hringa hristir, I’ll say fairly, my father,

yndi okkars vanda, to find a good fit

Þó veitk hitt, at hreytir Good father, I’ll grant that