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(Who is Egil Skallagrimsson?)
 
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Not everything we do fits neatly into categories like Awards, Events, or Laws.
 
Not everything we do fits neatly into categories like Awards, Events, or Laws.
 
The Egil Skalligramson Memorial Tourney is hosted each May in An Tir. One might rightfully ask, who was Egil Skalligramson? Here is some information I have compiled, which you might find useful. Egil Skallagrimsson (ca. 910-990) was a successful poet and warrior. We mainly know of Egil through an Icelandic saga bearing his name, Egil's Saga, again one of the very finest of the sagas. His family, like very many described in the sagas, had been forced to emigrate from Norway because of an ongoing feud with the family of Harald Finehair.
 
 
A translation of Egil’s story can be found at:
 
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/egil/
 
Translated by REV. W. C. GREEN, [1893]
 
Thanks to the Northvegr Foundation, for contributing this text. This text was transcribed by Jess Frazier, and the introduction by Hrappr Normansson.
 
 
In the book, AFTER THE JUDGEMENT. THE LOT OF THE BLESSED. THE STORY OF EGIL SKALLAGRIMSSON: BEING An Icelandic Family History of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC, BY REV. W. C. GREEN, LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; EDITOR OF 'ARISTOPHANES;' AUTHOR OF 'HOMERIC SIMILES,' ETC. is found a story of Egil's years in Iceland, his old age and death, and a brief notice of his descendants. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE CHIEF EVENTS IN THE SAGA OR CONNECTED WITH IT.
 
     
 
     
 
A.D. 850. Birth of Harold Fairhair.
 
"      860. Harold Fairhair comes to the throne.
 
"      870. He becomes sole king of Norway.
 
"      870 (circa). Thorolf, being about twenty-four years old, goes to Harold.
 
[xvii]
 
"      872. Battle of Hafrsfirth.
 
"      877. Death of Thorolf.
 
"      878. Skallagrim emigrates to Iceland.
 
"      886 (circa). Thorolf Skallagrimson born.
 
"      898-901 (circa). Egil born.
 
"      898-902. Bjorn's abduction of Thora, marriage, visit to Iceland.
 
"      903. Feast at Yngvar's. Thorolf and Bjorn go to Norway.
 
"      904-14. Thorof's freebootings. Among these is put Eric's
 
                        expedition to Bjarmaland, but this probably was in 918.
 
"      906. Bjorn's second marriage.
 
"      906-15. Egil's childhood and boyhood in Iceland.
 
"      914. Thorolf returns to Iceland.
 
"      915. Thorolf goes to Norway with Egil; twelve years pass
 
                  before Egil returns.
 
"      916-23. Freebootings of Thorolf and Egil.
 
"      923. Thorolf marries Asgerdr. Slaying of Bard.
 
"      924. Fight with Eyvind Skreyja. Thorolf and Egil go to England.
 
"      925. Battle of Vinheath, where Thorolf falls.
 
"      926. Egil goes to Norway. Marries Asgerdr next winter.
 
"      927. Returns to Iceland; is there several years, during which
 
                  probably his oldest daughter is born.
 
"      933. He goes to Norway. Harold Fairhair dies. Egil has a suit with
 
                  Bergonund; returns to Iceland. Skallagrim dies this winter.
 
"      935. Hacon now king in Norway. Eric is in Northumberland.
 
                  Egil wrecked there. Höfudlausn. Egil with Athelstan.
 
"      937. He goes to Norway; fights with Atli; returns to Iceland.
 
"      938-50. Egil is in Iceland. He has five children in all.
 
"      940. Death of king Athelstan.
 
"      950 (circa). Eric falls in battle. Arinbjorn is back in Norway;
 
                  Egil goes to him.
 
[xviii] A.D. 951. They harry eastwards; Arinbjorn then joins
 
                  Eric's sons. Egil next winter goes to Vermaland.
 
"      952-60. Marriages of Egil's step-daughter and daughters.
 
"      960. Bodvar's drowning. Sona-torrek.
 
"      961. Hacon's death.
 
"      962. Epic poem on Arinbjorn.
 
"      967 (circa). Thorstein's marriage.
 
"      973 (circa). Asgerdr dies. Egil retires to Mossfell. Thorstein lives at Borg.
 
"      975-8. Dispute between Thorstein and Steinar.
 
"      975. Earl Hacon becomes king. In his 'early days' Egil is past eighty.
 
"      983-8. Egil's death.
 
"      1000. Grim and Thorstein are baptized.
 
"      1143. Skapti priest. Egil's bones found.
 
 
 
For a recording of the Sonnatorek recited in Icelandic:
 
http://www.skolavefurinn.is/lok/almennt/ljodskald_man/Egill_Skallagrimsson/Ljod/Sonatorrek/Sonatorrek_ljod.htm
 
 
To see a 17th century painting of Egil:
 
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122294/3093_egilsidebar.html
 
 
Here is a version of the Sonnatorrek:
 
SONA-TORREK (SONS' LOSS).
 
 
                                                1.
 
                                'Much doth it task me
 
                                My tongue to move,
 
                                Through my throat to utter
 
                                The breath of song.
 
                                Poesy, prize of Odin,
 
                                Promise now I may not,
 
                                A draught drawn not lightly
 
                                From deep thought's dwelling.
 
 
                                                2.
 
                                'Forth it flows but hardly;
 
                                For within my breast
 
                                Heaving sobbing stifles
 
                                Hindered stream of song—
 
                                Blessed boon to mortals
 
                                Brought from Odin's kin,
 
                                Goodly treasure, stolen
 
                                From Giant-land of yore.
 
 
                                                3.
 
                                'He, who so blameless
 
                                Bore him in life,
 
                                O'erborne by billows
 
                                With boat was whelmed.
 
                                Sea-waves—flood that whilom
 
                                Welled from giant's wound—
 
                                Smite upon the grave-gate
 
                                Of my sire and son.
 
 
                                                4.
 
                                'Dwindling now my kindred
 
                                Draw near to their end,
 
                                Ev'n as forest-saplings
 
                                Felled or tempest-strown.
 
                                Not gay or gladsome
 
                                Goes he who beareth
 
                                Body of kinsman
 
                                On funeral bier.
 
                                                5.
 
                                'Of father fallen
 
                                First I may tell;
 
                                Of much-loved mother
 
                                Must mourn the loss.
 
                                Sad store hath memory
 
                                For minstrel skill,
 
                                A wood to bloom leafy
 
                                With words of song.
 
 
                                                6.
 
                                'Most woful the breach,
 
                                Where the wave in-brake
 
                                On the fenced hold
 
                                Of my father's kin.
 
                                Unfilled, as I wot,
 
                                And open doth stand
 
                                The gap of son rent
 
                                By the greedy surge.
 
 
                                                7.
 
                                'Me Ran, the sea-queen,
 
                                Roughly hath shaken:
 
                                I stand of beloved ones
 
                                Stript and all bare.
 
                                Cut hath the billow
 
                                The cord of my kin,
 
                                Strand of mine own twisting
 
                                So stout and strong.
 
 
                                                8.
 
                                'Sure, if sword could venge
 
                                Such cruel wrong,
 
                                Evil times would wait
 
                                Ægir, ocean-god.
 
                                That wind-giant's brother
 
                                Were I strong to slay,
 
                                'Gainst him and his sea-brood
 
                                Battling would I go.
 
 
 
                                                9.
 
                                'But I in no wise
 
                                Boast, as I ween,
 
                                Strength that may strive
 
                                With the stout ships' Bane.
 
                                For to eyes of all
 
                                Easy now 'tis seen
 
                                How the old man's lot
 
                                Helpless is and lone.
 
 
                                                10.
 
                                'Me hath the main
 
                                Of much bereaved;
 
                                Dire is the tale,
 
                                The deaths of kin:
 
                                Since he the shelter
 
                                And shield of my house
 
                                Hied him from life
 
                                To heaven's glad realm.
 
 
                                                11.
 
                                'Full surely I know,
 
                                In my son was waxing
 
                                The stuff and the strength
 
                                Of a stout-limbed wight:
 
                                Had he reached but ripeness
 
                                To raise his shield,
 
                                And Odin laid hand
 
                                On his liegeman true.
 
 
                                                12.
 
                                'Willing he followed
 
                                His father's word,
 
                                Though all opposing
 
                                Should thwart my rede:
 
                                He in mine household
 
                                Mine honour upheld,
 
                                Of my power and rule
 
                                The prop and the stay.
 
                                                13.
 
                                'Oft to my mind
 
                                My loss doth come,
 
                                How I brotherless bide
 
                                Bereaved and lone.
 
                                Thereon I bethink me,
 
                                When thickens the fight
 
                                Thereon with much searching
 
                                My soul doth muse:
 
 
                                                14.
 
                                'Who staunch stands by me
 
                                In stress of fight,
 
                                Shoulder to shoulder,
 
                                Side by side?
 
                                Such want doth weaken
 
                                In war's dread hour;
 
                                Weak-winged I fly,
 
                                Whom friends all fail.
 
 
                                                15.
 
                                'Son's place to his sire
 
                                (Saith a proverb true)
 
                                Another son born
 
                                Alone can fill.
 
                                Of kinsmen none
 
                                (Though ne'er so kind)
 
                                To brother can stand
 
                                In brother's stead.
 
 
                                                16.
 
                                'O'er all our ice-fields,
 
                                Our northern snows,
 
                                Few now I find
 
                                Faithful and true.
 
                                Dark deeds men love,
 
                                Doom death to their kin,
 
                                A brother's body
 
                                Barter for gold.
 
 
                                                17.
 
                                'Unpleasing to me
 
                                Our people's mood,
 
                                Each seeking his own
 
                                In selfish peace.
 
                                To the happier bees' home
 
                                Hath passed my son,
 
                                My good wife's child
 
                                To his glorious kin.
 
 
                                                18.
 
                                'Odin, mighty monarch,
 
                                Of minstrel mead the lord,
 
                                On me a heavy hand
 
                                Harmful doth lay.
 
                                Gloomy in unrest
 
                                Ever I grieve,
 
                                Sinks my drooping brow,
 
                                Seat of sight and thought.
 
 
                                                19.
 
                                'Fierce fire of sickness
 
                                First from my home
 
                                Swept off a son
 
                                With savage blow:
 
                                One who was heedful,
 
                                Harmless, I wot,
 
                                In deeds unblemished,
 
                                In words unblamed.
 
 
                                                20.
 
                                'Still do I mind me,
 
                                When the Friend of men
 
                                High uplifted
 
                                To the home of gods
 
                                That sapling stout
 
                                Of his father's stem,
 
                                Of my true wife born
 
                                A branch so fair.
 
 
                                                21.
 
                                'Once bare I goodwill
 
                                To the great spear-lord,
 
                                Him trusty and true
 
                                I trowed for friend:
 
                                Ere the giver of conquest,
 
                                The car-borne god,
 
                                Broke faith and friendship
 
                                False in my need.
 
 
                                                22.
 
                                'Now victim and worship
 
                                To Vilir's brother,
 
                                The god once honoured,
 
                                I give no more.
 
                                Yet the friend of Mimir
 
                                On me hath bestowed
 
                                Some boot for bale,
 
                                If all boons I tell.
 
 
                                                23.
 
                                'Yea he, the wolf-tamer,
 
                                The war-god skilful,
 
                                Gave poesy faultless
 
                                To fill my soul:
 
                                Gave wit to know well
 
                                Each wily trickster,
 
                                And force him to face me
 
                                As foeman in fight.
 
 
                                                24.
 
                                'Hard am I beset;
 
                                Whom Hela, the sister
 
                                Of Odin's fell captive,
 
                                On Digra-ness waits.
 
                                Yet shall I gladly
 
                                With right good welcome
 
                                Dauntless in bearing
 
                                Her death-blow bide.'
 

Latest revision as of 19:44, 15 January 2006

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