Egil's Saga
Introduction
And now it will be seen that these various kennings present a double difficulty, first to understand, then to deal with in translation. Suppose them understood, still how shall they be rendered? When they are poetical figures appropriate to the passage they are fairly manageable, sometimes without change, sometimes by simile, sometimes as [xii] epithet, adding the noun. But where they do not fit the matter at hand, they are, if closely rendered, barely intelligible; to our notions they are unpoetical; they will often spoil the spirit and meaning of the whole verse to an English reader by calling off his attention to a puzzle. The substance of the entire passage will be lost by too much particularity. They are cumbrous, there is no room in the text to make them really clear, and to be continually putting down obscurities and claiming space elsewhere in notes to explain them seems undesirable. Therefore I elected to give up many of the far-fetched kennings, putting the answer instead of the riddle where the riddle seemed hardly worth keeping. For one thing seemed most important in translating these staves, to make each stave fairly plain to be understood by English readers as it was presumably by Icelandic hearers. That my renderings will satisfy all I do not suppose, either all learned Northern critics or all English readers. Many of the original staves cannot be made to satisfy modern taste, and, indeed, they are of very unequal merit. Some of Egil's verses are of great force and spirit; he had a true poetic vein, and depends less on artificialities than some of the Icelandic verse-writers; but the merit and attractiveness of the Saga does not rest on these detached verses. Were they omitted most readers would not miss much. But to omit them I could not venture, so I have dealt with them as best I might.
Besides these scattered stanzas the Egla contains Egil's three great poems. Jónsson, indeed, banishes these to an appendix. But there seems no doubt that they are genuine compositions of Egil, though perhaps not included in the Saga in its earliest form. It appeared, therefore, better to keep them in the place to which they have now by use a prescriptive right. I shall say no more of them here than that they are each remarkable in their way; 'Sonatorrek,' for depth of feeling and poetry, I should rank first; it is unlike the generality of Icelandic poems.
And now pass we to the actual matter and outline of the story, which naturally falls into three divisions.
I. The history of Kveldulf's family, especially of Thorolf, in Norway.
[xiv] II. The settlement of Skallagrim in Iceland, the birth of Thorolf the younger, then of Egil, whose adventures (all out of Iceland) are told up to his final return when fifty years old.
III. Egil's later uneventful years in Iceland, his old age and death, and a brief notice of his descendants. The outline of the story is this:
Kveldulf, a rich yeoman, marrying rather late in life, has two sons. The younger son, Skallagrim, stays at home with his father. Thorolf the elder goes freebooting. While these two are young men, Harold Fairhair is winning to himself the sole rule of Norway and putting down the petty kings. Kveldulf refuses to leave home and help in fight against Harold, yet will he not upon Harold's success take service under him. Thorolf, however, against his father's warning, does so, and wins favour and rank at court. Upon the death of his friend Bard he inherits his wealth and widow. Then two half-brothers of Bard's father claim part of the property. Being denied all share, they slander Thorolf to the king. Harold is by degrees brought to believe their charges; he deprives Thorolf of his honours and his inheritance from Bard, then seizes Thorolf's own ship and cargo. Whereupon Thorolf seizes Thorolf's own property. Then king Harold goes against him with a large force, burns his house, and in a desperate fight slays him.
After awhile Harold is willing to make some amends; but Kveldulf and Skallagrim refuse all overtures of reconciliation. They take what vengeance they can on some concerned in Thorolf's death, and resolve to seek Iceland. Kveldulf dies on the way, but his coffin is cast upon Iceland's near shore, and found by the rest soon after their landing. Near this spot on the Borgar Firth Skallagrim settles. He and his company thrive. Two sons are born to him: Thorolf, and about ten years later Egil. Thorolf grows to be like his namesake and uncle; he soon takes to roving; visits Norway, where at the house of Thorir, his father's friend, he meets a son of Harold Fairhair, Eric, then but a boy. They strike up a friendship, which continues when Eric Bloodaxe becomes king; and Thorolf is much with Eric and queen Gunnhilda. After some years he returns to Iceland.
[xv] Meanwhile Egil has been growing up. As a child he shows no common wit and strength, but is wilful, unmanageable, agrees ill with his father, breaks out in acts of violence. He goes out with Thorolf on his next voyage to Norway; he and Arinbjorn, Thorir's son, become friends. But Egil soon provokes the wrath of Eric and Gunnhilda; Gunnhilda attempts his life; Egil retaliates, and the brothers have to quit Norway. They seek England, serve under king Athelstan, win for him a battle in Northumberland, in which Thorold falls. Egil, though promised great honours with Athelstan, goes to Norway to see after Thorolf's widow; after a while he marries her and returns to Iceland. On tidings of his wife's father's death he goes to Norway to claim her inheritance, which is unjustly and violently kept from him. Egil narrowly escapes from Eric's ships, slays the man who holds the property, also slays a son of Eric, and after solemnly cursing the king and queen returns to Iceland. He finds his father ageing much; soon Skallagrim dies. And now Hacon, Eric's brother, foster-son of king Athelstan, is recalled to Norway as king, and Eric Bloodaxe is forced to flee. He with Arinbjorn goes to Scotland, then to Northumberland, of which he is made governor for Athelstan. Egil, resolving to revisit Athelstan in England, is wrecked at Humbermouth, within Eric's dominion. At once he rides to York, seeks out Arinbjorn, and they two go before Eric. Gunnhilda urges that Egil be put to death; but for Arinbjorn's sake, after recital of his poem, he is spared. Going on to Athelstan, he is well received, and urged to stay; but first he will go to Norway after his wife's property. From Hacon he wins a hearing, brings a suit against Earl Atli, the holder of the property: the matter is referred to wager of battle; Atli is slain, whereupon Egil returns to Iceland; he is there twelve years: sons and daughters are born to him. Athelstan dies soon after Egil's return to Iceland; some years later Eric is killed in battle. Arinbjorn is again in Norway; so Egil goes thither, is with him; they go harrying in Saxland and Friesland, after which Arinbjorn joins Eric's sons in Denmark; Egil returns to Thorstein, Arinbjorn's nephew, and he takes Thorstein's place in a winter expedition to [xvi] Vermaland to gather the king's tribute. From the perils of this he escapes; then in spring sails out to Iceland, where he lives without further adventure.
His daughters get husbands: of his sons, Gunnar dies young of sickness; Bodvar is drowned, aged about sixteen, on which loss Egil composes a poem; and later one on Arinbjorn. Upon the death of Asgerdr, his wife, he leaves Borg, and returns to live at Mossfell with Grim and Thordisa his niece and step-daughter. Thorstein, Egil's youngest son, has a lawsuit with an encroaching neighbour; the decision of this, referred to Egil, is about his last public act. But he lives on to be very old and blind, and dies of sickness.
Grim and Thorstein afterwards become Christians. Many famous men sprang from Skallagrim and Egil. Bones believed to be Egil's were found about a hundred and sixty years after his death, and removed to the churchyard at Mossfell.
Through the whole Saga, as a connecting thread, runs the family feud between the house of Kveldulf and the house of Harold. Old Kveldulf's prophecy that Harold will work scathe on his kin comes true by Thorolf's death. Vengeance for him is taken, and the feud sleeps awhile; nay, against his father Harold's warning, Eric accepts the younger Thorolf as a friend. But Egil, going to Norway, by his headstrong deeds reawakens the quarrel, being perhaps nothing loth to do so, and following Skallagrim's mood, who had scorned king Eric's gift sent by the hand of Thorolf. The enmity is bitter between Egil and Eric stirred by Gunnhilda; Egil however wins through all perils, and, even as Harold Fairhair, chief of the feud on the other side, had done, at last dies in his bed full of years.
SAGA OR CONNECTED WITH IT.
" 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.
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