[32] For a scholarly study of the abilities of European swallows to carry various loads, see Gilliam and Jones, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (scene 1).
[33] This motif derives from the Tristan legend, in which King Mark sees a bird carrying a woman’s beautiful hair, and vows to marry the woman whose hair it is, sending Tristan on the quest for his bride. (Kalinké, Bridal-Quest Romance, p. 147 n54)
[34] The motif of the uncatchable stag which leads the hunter to a supernatural woman has been discussed in the Introduction and in Gautreks saga (note 1). The decoration on the stag’s horns is very similar to the decoration on the cow’s horns in Gautreks saga (ch. 6); see Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature B101, “Animals with members of precious metal” (vol. 1, pp. 374-375).
[35] The seeress in Eiríks saga rauða wears an identical garment, a blár tuglamöttull or “blue-black mantle fastened with straps.” The color blár can encompass shades ranging from deep blue to pitch black. It seems to be associated with death and the uncanny; men who are setting out to kill often wear blár, while women often put on blár clothing to work magic or confront a magic-worker (e.g. Geirrid’s blá skikkja in Eyrbyggja saga ch. 20). See Wolf, “The Color Blue in Old Norse–Icelandic Literature,” for an overview.
[36] It’s worth noting the similarity of this encounter to Scottish folklore about a giant female being (sídhe) known as the Cailleach (Old Woman) who keeps the deer as her herds, and may or may not release them for a hunter to take (McKay, “The Deer-Cult”, p. 147-151).
[37] An Icelandic folk tale concerns an elf-woman who cannot give birth without a human to assist (“Álfkona í Barnsnauð”, in Jón Árnason, Íslenzkar Þjóðsögur og Æfintýri, vol. 1, pp. 15-16; see also Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, The Folk-Stories of Iceland, p. 172). Similar tales are widespread in Scandinavia and found all over Europe (F372.1, “Fairies take human midwife to attend fairy woman,” in Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature, vol. 3, p. 75; see Lövkrona, “The Pregnant Frog and the Farmer’s Wife”, pp. 79-89, and Kvideland and Sehmsdorf, Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend, pp. 227-228, for more Scandinavian examples).
[38] The motif of two weapons that are outwardly identical, with the inferior copy given to a king who demands it and the genuine one concealed by the man who will need it, appears in the tale of Velent in Þiðreks saga af Bern (ch. 67; transl. Haymes, The Saga of Thidrek of Bern, p. 47)
[39] The encounter with Hreggvid is a clever inversion of the haugbrot or “Gravemound Battle” seen in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar (ch. 4) and in several other sagas. Instead of selfishly fighting to keep his treasure, Hreggvid generously gives it to the man whom he wants to make his heir. A foul stench is usual in encounters with the undead, but in this case it’s not the fault of the undead man. And in Hrómundar saga and several other “Gravemound Battle” episodes, a necklace is specifically mentioned as an item whose attempted theft causes the dead man to attack (Stitt, Beowulf and the Bear’s Son, pp. 149, 155, 168)—whereas here, the undead man makes a special point of giving it freely. This episode especially resembles the first haugbrot in Gull-Þóris saga (ch. 3), in which the mound-breakers also face a terrible storm, and one of them has a vision of the mound-dweller, who turns out to be his kinsman and who offers him gifts.
[40] Several sagas mention kings who are discerning judges of craftsmanship; Olaf Haraldsson, for example, is described as skilled at judging handicrafts, “whether he himself had made them or others.” (Óláfs saga helga ch. 3; see Russom, “A Germanic Concept of Nobility,” pp. 7-9)
[41] In “Gravemound Battle” episodes, retainers are often charged with holding the rope that the hero descends on. When the fighting begins, the helpers are terrified by the noise, or else they assume that the hero has been killed, and they abandon their posts, leaving the hero to climb out on his own. (Stitt, Beowulf and the Bear’s Son, pp. 129-156) Icelandic audiences, who presumably knew very well how such episodes were “supposed to go”, no doubt found Vilhjalm’s bold brazenfaced lie amusing.
[42] The story of Hedin the son of Hjarrandi is told in full in Sörla þáttr, a story preserved in Flateyjarbók, which makes Hjarrandi the king of Arabia. The story is also told or alluded to in several other Norse sources and even Old English and Middle German texts. Hedinsey is probably the Baltic island of Hiddensee, off the coast of present-day eastern Germany.
[43] The name Sóti means “soot-colored.” Berserks and other sorcerous villains in the legendary sagas sometimes sport black skin or other unusual color schemes. Villains named Soti also appear in the legendary Ketils saga hængs (ch. 5) and Hálfdans saga Brönufóstra (ch. 1), and in the nominal “saga of Icelanders” Harðar saga ok Hólmverja (chs. 14-15), although the name appears neutrally in Sturlaugs saga starfsama (ch. 1). See the comments on blámenn in Sturlaugs saga, note 27.
[44] The resemblance to the story of Achilles is striking, but it’s not uncommon in legendary sagas for a warrior, usually a sorcerous and villainous one, to be enchanted so that blades cannot cut him. (Beard, “Á Þá Bitu Engi Járn,” pp. 13-16)
[45] In the mythology, Norðri (“northern”) is the name of a dwarf, one of the four who are said to hold up the sky (Gylfaginning 8; Snorri Sturluson, Edda, ed. Faulkes, vol. 1, p. 12). The connection between the mythological dwarf and Soti’s standard bearer is unclear, if indeed there is one.
[46] Sagas and poems refer to swearing an oath by a stone, sometimes while standing on a stone. In Guðrúnarkviða III, 3, Gudrun swears her innocence on or by a sacred white stone (transl. Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 203); Helgakviða Hundingsbana II 31 mentions oaths sworn at úrsvölum Unnarsteini, “on the ice-cold Unnar-stone” (transl. Orchard, p. 141); and Atlakviða 30 mentions an oath at Sigtýs bergi, “on Sigtyr’s (Odin’s) rock.” (transl. Orchard, p. 213). Men swear oaths at a feast while placing their feet on a stone in Hænsa-Þóris saga ch. 12. Saxo Grammaticus claims that the ancients stood on a stone to choose their kings, “as though to augur the durability of their action through the firmness of the rocks beneath them” (History of the Danes I.11, transl. Ellis Davidson and Fisher, p. 14, n5). The fact that Vilhjalm swears his oath while standing on a stump—which unlike stone is subject to fire and decay—may have connoted to readers and listeners that his oath is not trustworthy.
[47] Möndull means the handle or axle of a hand-mill (in modern Icelandic it means “axis”). Why a dwarf should be named this isn’t clear; the name may be a joke, implying that dwarves, like hand-mill axles, are thick and stumpy. Given Mondul’s sexual appetite, the name could also be a phallic joke—something like “Shaft” or “Johnson” in modern colloquial English. That said, several other attested dwarf-names relate to various tools (Fíli, “file”; Heptifíli, “file with a haft”; Kíli, “wedge”; Dóri, “auger”; Viggr, “axe-bit”; etc.), and all are probably connected with dwarves’ reputation as skilled craftsmen. Patti is a pet name for a baby boy, derived from a word meaning “teat” (cf. Danish pattekarl, “baby at the breast”), but figuratively meaning something like “little shaver.” Presumably this is a joke based on dwarves’ short and stout build. (Gould, “Dwarf-Names,” pp. 951, 953, 962-963)
[48] The implication is that the food and drink have been enchanted by Mondul to cause friendslips to be forgotten. This motif may have come from the Volsung legend (e.g. Völsunga saga ch. 25), as may the drink that Mondul offered Bjorn’s wife, and the “memory-draught” that he will give her in the next chapter.
[49] The motif of a couple maintaining chastity by sleeping with a naked sword between them was probably borrowed from Tristrams saga og Ísöndar and/or Völsunga saga. It’s parodied in Sturlaugs saga starfsama (ch. 9, see note 22).
[50] The sleep-thorn (svefnþorn) is mentioned in Sigrdrífumál in the Poetic Edda (transl. Orchard,
The Elder Edda, p. 170) and Völsunga saga (ch. 20), in Hrólfs saga kraka (ch. 8), in as well as in later Icelandic folklore—and, of course, in “Sleeping Beauty” and allied tales (Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 1, p. 419).
[51] This method of keping severed body parts alive appears in several sagas. In Ynglingasaga ch. 4, Odin preserves Mimir’s head with herbs to keep it alive; in Egils saga ok Asmundar, a troll-woman keeps the hero’s severed hand alive in a linen cloth with herbs; and in Völsa þáttr, a severed horse penis is preserved in the same way.
[52] The combination of blue color and a swollen body is typical of decaying corpses, and several undead in the sagas show this combination of features (Þórólfr bægifótr in Eyrbyggja saga ch. 63; Glámr in Grettis saga ch. 32). Ingibjorg is not merely sick and deranged; she is essentially a draugr, an undead corpse.
[53] Hollander (“The ‘Faithless Wife’ Motif,” pp. 71-73) points out similarities of this episode with medieval German stories of Salman and Morolf, and German and Slavic references to the hero Walther—all of these contain the “Faithless Wife” motif, in which a man is forced to witness his own wife’s infidelity. In the stories of Salman and Morolf the seducer uses herbs to put the wife into a swoon. See also AT 1511, “The Faithless Queen,” in Aarne, The Types of the Folktale, p. 430.
[54] The ability to both heal and cause illness is universal for Germanic dwarves, even more so than their skill as smiths; it appears in Old English medical texts, in medieval German romances, and in Norse sagas. (Battles, “Dwarfs in Germanic Literature,” pp. 74-75)
[55] “Master Galterus” is Walter of Châtillon, or Galterus de Castellione, author of the 12th-century Latin epic Alexandreis. The poem was known in Iceland in a prose translation, Alexanders saga, made in 1262–3. (Wolf, “Alexanders saga”, pp. 7-8)
[56] A similar incident appears in Hrólfs saga kraka ch. 34, in which the hero Böðvarr-Bjarki defends the timid Höttr from a flung bone by catching it and throwing it right through the man who flung it, terrifying everyone in the hall. Some of the legendary material in Hrólfs saga is very old, but the surviving saga text dates from the 17th century, and it’s not clear which saga might have borrowed this episode, assuming that it was borrowed at all.
[57] Literally hvern dauðadag hann skyldi helzt hafa, “what death-day he should have most,” but the sense seems clear from the following sentence.
[58] The Winternights (Vetrnætr) were several days in mid-October marking the start of the winter season. An important holiday in pagan times, they continued to be marked as secular holidays after Christianization of Iceland.
[59] An evil sorceror takes the form of a huge walrus in Hjálmþes saga ch. 11, while a witch appears as a walrus and attacks a ship while her body lies on land in Kormáks saga ch. 18.
[60] Seiðr (translated as “sorcery” here) could encompass several kinds of magical effect, but often it involved altering others’ mental states, creating illusions or desires. Seiðr usually has a wicked reputation in the sagas, and it is said to be especially degrading for men to use (Ynglinga saga ch. 7 in Hollander, Heimskringla, pp. 10-11). Thus the presence of no fewer than twelve male seiðmenn in this episode is especially outrageous.
[61] Seiðr is commonly worked from a high place, sometimes a roof, but often a specially-built platform or scaffolding, the seiðhjallr or hásæti (e.g. Eiríks saga rauða ch. 4; Friðþjófs saga ch. 5). See Heide, “Spinning Seiðr,” p. 166.
[62] In the Eddic poem Hávamál (stanza 151; transl. Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 37), the god Odin states that if someone tries to cast a harmful spell on him, he can turn the spell to strike its caster. The poem implies that Odin carves rune letters to work this and other magic spells that he knows; evidently Mondul is doing much the same thing.
[63] The Norse is kómu í opna skjöldu, literally “they came into open (hollow) shields”. An attack from behind and to the left would be directed against the rear of a shield held by a right-handed opponent, and would be especially dangerous to him.
[64] A similar buttock amputation appears in Örvar-Odds saga ch. 23. Aside from the gross humor of the situation, a blow on the buttocks (klámhögg) was considered shameful; it was symbolically equated with forcing the recipient to submit to sexual penetration and loss of manhood. See Meulengracht Sørensen, The Unmanly Man, pp. 68-70, and note 11 to Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.
[65] Legendary and historical sagas usually depict berserks in groups of twelve, especially when they form part of a royal household (e.g. Hervarar saga chs. 1-3; Hrólfs saga kraka chs. 16, 37; Grettis saga ch. 19; Egils saga ch. 9).
[66] According to Cleasby and Vigfusson’s dictionary, a “bonejack” (beinserkr, literally “bone shirt”) is an abnormal bone growth between the lower ribs and the spine.
[67] The text has Herkir here, presumably an error for Haki.
[68] Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar (ch. 23) also depicts dwarves helping a hero in battle by shooting arrows from a distance.
[69] At least three riddarasögur mention a coat or other garment that is impervious to poison (see Matyushina, “Magic Mirrors, Monsters, Maiden-Kings”, for an overview).
[70] Snákr means “snake”; unlike its English cognate, it’s a poetic term not used in ordinary speech.
[71] A sorceress raises those killed in battle to fight in Hrólfs saga kraka (ch. 51) and in Sörla þáttr; this is evidnetly what Grim has in mind.
[72] The motif of a magic bag of winds or gases is common in folklore, best known from the Odyssey. Magic bags with various properties appear in the riddarasögur; see Matyushina, “Magic Mirrors, Monsters, Maiden-Kings”, for an overview.
[73] A similar archery duel in which the arrows hit each other in midair appears in Ketils saga hængs (ch. 3).
[74] A proverb; see Njáls saga ch. 37; Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs.
[75] This seems a rather strange thing to say, but a similar comment turns up in some manuscripts of Jómsvíkinga saga; when the Jómsvíking leader Bui gets his lips and chin chopped off, he wryly comments that the Danish girls on Bornholm won’t much care for kissing him now (ch. 33; ed. Blake, The Saga of the Jomsvikings, p. 37). Tearing off the face of a trollish or sorcerous opponent appears in Örvar-Odds saga (ch. 23) and Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar (ch. 8).
[76] The idea that a dying man can put a curse on his adversary with his last words is a common trope in Norse romances (Schauch, Romance in Iceland, pp. 129-130). Thorstein stops the dying ogre Faxi from speaking his last words in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar ch. 23, probably to stop him from speaking a curse.
[77] Note that Mondul’s first and last appearances in this saga both show him lusting after human women, a trait also shown by the dwarves in the Eddic poem Alvíssmál (Orchard, The Elder Edda, pp. 108-113) and the tale Sörla þáttr (although in these two the women are in fact goddesses), and in several Middle High German romances, notably König Laurin. (Battles, “Dwarfs in Germanic Literature,” pp. 47, 57-65, 79).
[78] Most of the English place names in this part of the saga can be found mentioned by name in the section of Knýtlinga saga that deals with Knut’s invasion of England in 1016 (chs. 8-12). Knýtlinga saga is the probable source of two later passages in this saga (see note 90 below), and it’s likely that the author of Göngu-Hrólfs saga inserted place names from this source, or a related one—possibly Óttarr the Black’s praise-poem on Knutr, which is quoted in Knýtlinga saga and includes every English place name seen here. The names don’t make geographical sense and cannot be based on any first-hand knowledge. The phrase “the fortress called Brentford” (borg þá, er Brandfurða heitir) is identical with a phrase in Knýtlinga saga ch. 12 (ed. Bjarni Guðnason, Danakon
unga Sögur, p. 112).
[79] The saga gives his name as Dungall and the place as Dungalsbær; in other manuscripts it appears as Dungansbær or Dungaðsbær. Located at the northeastern tip of Scotland, Duncansby appears in Orkneyinga saga and Njáls saga. The name Melans may be a variant of Moldan (original Gaelic possibly Modudhan), a Scot from Duncansby who is also mentioned in Njáls saga. (Brennu-Njáls saga ch. 83; ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson, p. 202 n5)
[80] Lindsey (Lindisey) is not technically an island, although it was surrounded by fenlands at the time; it is now the northern part of Lincolnshire. It is also referred to in Knýtlinga saga (ch. 8) because this is where Knut fights his first battle (ch. 8; ed. Bjarni Guðnason, Danakonunga Sögur, p. 106)
[81] Marking a field with hazel stakes was traditionally done before hólmganga, judicial single combat (e.g. Kormaks saga ch. 10), but there are some references to marking an entire battlefield with hazel stakes (Hervarar saga ch. 10; Egils saga ch. 52; Hákonar saga góða ch. 24 and Óláfs saga Tryggvassonar ch. 18, in Heimskringla). Possibly this was done to indicate ritually that the battle’s outcome was meant to be the final and just resolution of the conflict.
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