The Man on the Gallows, the Man on the Cross, the Man with the Drum. All had she known, but never altogether. Had any of them ever truly known her?
The seeing lost itself again in the moonlight.
Waves ran dark, backs ashimmer, crests fleetingly agleam. Where they broke moon-white under the cliffs, their rushing rose to a roar. That song would go on till the ending of the world.
Gunnhild halted. Her gaze went left, southward, toward unseen England and Eirik’s bones, before she looked west, out to sea. If his soul was anywhere tonight, it might well be roaming yonder. Did she see something beckon?
Her awareness flickered to and fro, as in dream. She had lost everything, she thought; yet in a way she had won everything, she who wrought mightily and never yielded. Men would remember her and her man.
Her strength ebbed into the wind. She sat down, then lay down, her face turned seaward. It felt as if the moonlight streamed through her.
XXXIII
The news reached Egil in Iceland on his farmstead at Borg. Although he was still one whom everybody must reckon with, he knew himself for an elder.
He sat on a bench outdoors, leaned back against the wall of the house, drinking summer’s warmth while he drank from a horn in his hand. Meadows sloped to the fjord. He could no longer quite make out the glimmer off it. A thin haze brooded over their green.
After a while he nodded a head that was getting heavy. “Well,” he said, “wicked she was, but who had ever a worthier foe? Should we somehow, sometime, in the elsewhere and elsewhen, find one another, I wonder if we might not become friends.”
Afterword
Vikingetidens Fylgje—the embodied female spirit of the Viking Age. So did the Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen title Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, in his book on the women of that time.
She really lived. Likewise did most of the persons in this novel, and their lives went very much as it tells. Among them she loomed so large that she became a figure of legend, even of myth.
In all probability, the historical Gunnhild was a Danish princess, sister or half-sister of Harald Bluetooth, married to Eirik Blood-ax for the usual political reasons. There is no good evidence that husband and wife were more ruthless than was common then, among both Christians and pagans, or that she practiced witchcraft. Indeed, their affection and close partnership, and the way she raised their sons after his death, speak rather well for them.
However, inevitably they made enemies. Among these was Egil Skallagrims-son, greatest of the skaldic poets. His influence doubtless had much to do with the Icelanders coming to imagine her as the daughter of a chieftain in northern Norway, the pupil of two Finnish magicians, and a sinister enchantress.
By “Finns” they meant the people we know today as Lapps or, better, Saami. Besides oppressing and exploiting these nomads, the Scandinavians laid on them, quite unjustly, a reputation for sorcery, which in some areas persisted into the nineteenth century. We have little information about their lives and religion a thousand years ago. My conjectures deal less with that than with what Gunnhild’s folk supposed she had experienced among them.
It is, after all, this tale of her, which later generations believed, that I have tried to bring together, flesh out where the original accounts are sparse, and tell from her viewpoint. Although I would not otherwise compare myself to Shakespeare, his treatment of Macbeth is analogous.
Apart from the mythic element, I have stayed as close to history as was possible. The principal literary source is Snorri Sturluson’s thirteenth-century Heimskringla. Egil’s saga, one of the finest biographical novels ever written, is hardly less important. Sidelights occur in others, notably those of Burnt Njaal, the Orkney jarls, and the Faeroe dwellers. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is especially valuable in providing tenth-century dates. Of course, we also have such modern authorities as Brøndsted, Foote and Wilson, and Gwyn Jones, together with a wealth of archeological material. But a bibliography would be out of place in a book like this.
So would a historiographical essay be. Much detail is lacking in the sources and must be guessed at. Sometimes they contradict each other or even, when closely read, themselves. To give a single example, Egil’s saga has King Aethelstan of England living considerably longer than he actually did. I made this emendation with fewer qualms than elsewhere. If I’ve nevertheless gotten the chronology wrong now and then, that hasn’t been for lack of trying.
As said, the principal characters here are historical. Fictitious ones generally stand in for real persons who must have done more or less the same things but are not recorded. (The main exception is Brihtnoth, but King Haakon may well have had such a friend.) Dag the skald is imaginary, and the first two poems of his that we see in part are my own, meant to give an idea of the role and the art in viking society. The memorial poem for Eirik is attributed to Dag because its authorship is unknown; but somebody back then did compose it. This English version is mine, as are the translations of all other verse.
They’re pretty free. Not only is Old Norse a highly inflected language, but the skalds went in for intricate tropes, “kennings,” with layer upon layer or reference. For example, one phrase for “battle” is “the storm of the moons of the ships.” That is, a battle was the storm of shields, which were usually round in shape and hung like moons along the sides of a warship when show was desired. Egil makes Odin “the speech-friend of the Goths,” “the lord of the spear,” “the brother of Vili,” “the foe of the wolf” (i.e. the Fenris wolf), and more. Snorri’s Younger Edda is devoted mainly to explication of many kennings. The prosody can get nearly as complex. Most translators have taken different approaches to the problem from mine, which is frankly impressionistic.
The Old Norse alphabet includes letters not in ours, as well as diacritical marks. I have often done violence to spelling and occasionally to grammar in the interest of clarity for the general reader, and hope that scholars will bear with this and other liberties. As for pronunciations, stress is on the first syllable. A double consonant indicates that the preceding vowel is short. The renditions aa and ae are sounded, respectively and approximately, as about midway between aw and oh and as eh; ei is as in rein; j equals y in English yet; y itself is like German ü. The umlauted ö represents two different non-English letters, one equivalent to the German, the other sometimes given as au, sometimes as a simple o, sometimes as it is here. The letter d does not always indicate the sound of ours, but may stand for edh, pronounced like th in that: for example, in Odin and Sigurd. Readers need not worry about all of this any more than they care to.
While regretting that so many names are similar or identical, I could do nothing about it other than work to keep clear who’s who. Toward this end of minimizing confusion, the nominative ending -r, otherwise omitted, is retained in “Thori,” which thus appears as “Thorir.” Likewise, “Egil” properly has two l’s, but that would suggest an incorrect placement of stress. The meanings of some nicknames, such as “Toti” and “Sleva,” are uncertain; I have had to choose among suggestions made by scholars (in these cases, “Dapplebeard” and “Loudmouth”).
Names of people are, more or less, in their Old Norse and Old English forms. Names of the gods are in their modern English forms.
Place names outside of Norway are, as much as possible, also modern English. So are geographical names in general, the chief exception being “Thraandheimsfjord” because of the importance of the stem. (It’s “Trondheimsfjord” now, but the city did not then exist.) Political names within Norway, usually those of districts, are mostly—and approximately—Old Norse. After all, much of the story turns on them and their relationships. Even those whose names and boundaries today are somewhat the same were in the tenth century not mere counties. Most of them had, not so long ago, been independent, and had not forgotten it. I have, though, avoided the intricacies and, in general, simplified by lumping some terms with distinct meanings together in such words as “shire”—admittedly a loose usage of the English too.
Likewise for most societal words, such as those for rank and role. But it seemed especially necessary to keep “jarl.” While it is cognate with English “earl,” in those days it meant a man of far higher standing, second only to a king.
Aftermath: The thoroughly unreliable saga of the Jom vikings has King Harald Bluetooth lure Gunnhild to her death in Denmark. This assumes, among other things, that she had lost her mind. We had better stay with Snorri, who says that she and her last two sons withdrew to Orkney.
When the Emperor Otto invaded Denmark, Haakon Jarl went to the aid of Harald Bluetooth as promised. They were defeated. The peace terms included the baptism of Haakon and his men and their conveyance of Christian missionaries back with them. As soon as he was safely away, Haakon set those priests ashore. Once home, he went on encouraging paganism and no longer acknowledged Harald’s suzerainty. The Dane sent an expedition against him, but Haakon won that fight and remained king of Norway in all but name.
Meanwhile Olaf Tryggvason had been bought as a slave in Estonia, by a family who treated him kindly. Eventually his mother’s brother happened by, learned who he was, redeemed him, and took him to Russia, where he avenged his foster father and rose to high esteem at the court in Novgorod. There followed a career as a viking, with an impact on England that is in the chronicles. Converted to Christianity, at last he looked toward the heritage in his motherland.
Popular at first, in the course of years Haakon Jarl had antagonized many by his ever-increasing harshness and lust, which led him to disgrace men’s wives and daughters. When Olaf landed, he was welcomed. Haakon must flee from his own folk, to suffer an ignominious death. This was in 995.
Ragnfröd presumably died about then or earlier, because we find no reference to him after the battle at the Sognefjord. In 999 Gudröd made another attempt on Norway, but was killed. “Now they were all dead, the sons of Eirik and Gunnhild,” wrote Snorri.
Fanatical as King Haakon Aethelstan’s-foster had not been, nor yet those brothers, King Olaf set about destroying paganism and establishing the Church. The work was completed by his successor—after an interregnum—and namesake Olaf the Saint, a son of Harald Grenska. Where persuasion failed, they did it by the sword.
The line of Harald Fairhair and Snaefrid—or whoever she was in reality—did not continue sitting quietly on its estates. Their great-great-grandson was Harald Sigurdarson, nicknamed Hardrede (1015-1066), whose wildly adventurous career took him through Russia to Constantinople and then back home to become sole king of Norway. After warring for long years in an unsuccessful effort to win the crown of Denmark too, he fell in battle while invading England, three days before his distant kinsman William of Normandy landed at Pevensey.
For good advice and encouragement in what proved to be a big undertaking I am indebted to Karen Anderson, Ted Chichak, Randi Eldevik, and Robert Gleason. They are not in any way responsible for my errors, omissions, and other blunders. As Sherlock Holmes said, “We can but try.”
Dedication
To
Astrid Hertz Anderson (in memoriam)
Karen Kruse Anderson
and
Astrid Anderson Bear
mothers and queens
Index to Maps
EACH PLACE NAME IS LISTED FOR THE MAP ON WHICH IT FIRST APPEARS.
Section 1
Aachen
World
Aalborg
Denmark
Aarhus
Denmark
Agdir
Norway
Aldeigjuborg
World
Alps
World
Anglesey
Britain
Arabs
World
Aral Sea
World
Armenia
World
Atley
Norway
Baghdad
World
Balearic Is.
World
Baltic Sea
World
Bamburh
Britain
Berezany
World
Bernicia
Britain
Bjarmaland
World
Black Sea
World
Bleking
Denmark
Boknafjord
Norway
Bordeaux
World
Borg
Iceland
Borgarfjord
Iceland
Bornholm
Denmark
Bremen
Denmark
Britain
World
Brittany
World
Broad Firth
Iceland
Brunanburh
Britain
Bulgar
World
Burray
Orkney
Bury St. Edmunds
Britain
Section 2
Byfjord
Norway
Byzantine Empire
World
Caithness
Britain
Caspian Sea
World
Chester
Britain
Chesterford
Britain
Córdoba
World
Cornwall
Britain
Corsica
World
Crete
World
Crow Ness
Orkney
Cumbria
Britain
Cyprus
World
Danework
Denmark
Danish Mercia
Britain
Danube
World
Deira
Britain
Denmark
World
Derby
Britain
Digra Ness
Iceland
Dinganess
Norway
Dnepr
World
Don
World
Drevlyans
World
Dublin
Britain
Dvina
World
East Anglia
Britain
East Bulgars
World
Ebro
World
Eday
Orkney
Eden
Britain
Eidskog
Norway
Eidsvold
Norway
Section 3
Elbe
World
Emirate of Córdoba
World
English Mercia
Britain
Estonia
World
Euphrates
World
Faeroe Is.
World
Finnmörk
World
Firth of Forth
Britain
Flanders
World
Flotta
Orkney
Foss
York
Fraedi
Norway
Frankland
World
Friesland
World
Frosta
Norway
Fyn
Denmark
Gairsay
Orkney
Galloway
Britain
Gardariki
World
Garonne
World
Göta
Norway
Graemsay
Orkney
Greece
World
Grenland
Norway
Gula
Norway
Haals
Denmark
Hadaland
Norway
Haddingjadalar
Norway
Hafrsfjord
Norway
Halland
Denmark
Hambu
rg
World
Haugar
Norway
Hebrides
World
Hedeby
Denmark
Heidmörk
Norway
Hising
Norway
Hjardarholt
Iceland
Hladi
Norway
Hlesey
Denmark
Holmgard
World
Holy Roman Empire
World
Hördafylki
Norway
Hoy
Orkney
Hoy Sound
Orkney
Section 4
Hringariki
Norway
Humber
Britain
Iceland
World
Ireland
World
Irish Kingdoms
Mother of Kings Page 61