The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue Read online

  beserk – a man who worked himself into an animal-like frenzy to increase his strength and make himself immune to blows from weapons.

  drapa – a heroic poem in a complicated metre, usually composed in honour of kings, earls and other prominent people, or in memory of a loved one.

  fetch – a personal spirit that often symbolized a person’s fate or signalled impending doom. It could take various forms, sometimes appearing in the shape of an animal.

  flokk – a short poem.

  hersir – a local leader in western and northern Norway.

  knorr – an ocean-going cargo vessel.

  shieling – a hut in the highland grazing pastures away from the farm, where shepherds and cowherds lived in summer.

  Winter Nights – the period of two days when winter began, around the middle of October. It was a particularly holy time of year, when sacrifices and social activities such as weddings took place.

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  This edition published in Penguin Classics 2015

  Translation copyright © Leifur Eiríksson Publishing Ltd, 1997

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  ISBN: 978-0-141-39787-0

  * The copyist has presumably skipped a section in his exemplar, where the names of Thorfinn’s four remaining sons were recorded.

  * The Borg is a high rocky outcrop immediately behind the site of Borg farm from which the farm takes its name.

  * Earl Hakon Sigurdsson was murdered by his servant Kark, while hiding from his enemy Olaf Tryggvason in a pigsty.

  lodgings-lord: man

  silver-grey wire: piece of silver

  flame: blood

  sea-serpent’s couch: gold

  god: warrior

  sword-spell: battle; its

  sword-point’s reddener: warrior, who reddens the sword’s point with blood

  shapers of war: kings

  point-goddess: valkyrie; her

  son: Ethelred

  serpent’s bed: gold

  sorceress’s steed: wolf

  flinger: generous man (Sigtrygg)

  Frodi’s (sea-king’s)

  flame: gold; its

  spear-sister: valkyrie; her

  staves:
warriors

  billow-steed: ship

  battle-bush: warrior

  shore-ski: ship

  gold-breaker: man

  god

  sword-storm: battle;

  its spark: sword;

  of the sword: warrior(Hrafn)

  played on the fingers: was her favourite (or caressed her)

  headlands: fingers;

  forearm’s fire: ring; its

  land-fishes: snakes; their

  beds: gold; gold-land: woman

  yew (twig): sword

  serpent’s dew: blood; its

  beer-bowl’s goddess: woman (Helga)

  drubbing-thorn: sword

  linden (tree) of herbs: woman

  mountains’ hall: sky

  wine-goddess: woman (Helga)

  land: woman

  flood-flame: gold; its

  band-goddess: woman wearing garments of woven bands (Helga)

  glorifier: warrior;

  battle-goddess: valkyrie; her

  god of the … weapon: warrior

  tunic-goddess: woman

  Slaughter-tree. warrior

  wave-steed: ship

  goddess: woman

  serpent’s day (i.e. brightness): gold; its

  pounding of steel: battle

  jewel-foe: generous man (Gunnlaug)

  hair-seat: head

  Helga’s kiss-gulper: her lover, Hrafn

  wound-sickles: swords

  thorns: brooch-pins, its

  tray: woman

  tree of the valkyrie: warrior (perhaps Hrafn, but more probably Thorstein)

  log of silver: woman

  ring-land: hand; its

  light: ring;

  goddess of the ring: woman

  moon: eye

  server: woman

  herb-surf: ale; its

  brow’s sky: forehead

  beam: gaze

  goddess of the golden

  torque: woman

  ring-goddess: woman

  valkyrie’s warm wind: battle

  god: seafarer, man

  wave-charger: ship; its

  sword-meeting: battle; its

  tree: warrior

  spears’ storm: battle

  stingers: spears;

  metal-flights: thrown weapons

  ring-birch: man

  protector of ranks: leader of an army, warrior

  fish: sword (with a hilt for fins)

  corpse-scorer: eagle, which carves up corpses with its beak

  mead of wounds: blood

  war-twig: sword

  valkyrie’s thorns: warriors; their

  Odin (god) of swords: warrior (Gunnlaug)

  shield-giants: enemies of shields, i.e. swords

  blood-goslings: ravens

  wound-river: blood

  arm-serpent: gold bracelet; its

  staff: woman

  linen-Lofn (goddess): woman

  river-flash: gold; its craver: man