User:Artemisia
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.'