The Saga of the Jómsvikings

A Translation with Full Introduction

Alison Finlay, Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir, Alison Finlay, Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir

• Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783110625455
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Unique among the Icelandic sagas, part-history, part-fiction, the Saga of the Jomsvikings tells of a legendary band of vikings, originally Danish, who established an island fortress of the Baltic coast, launched and ultimately lost their heroic attack on the pagan ruler of Norway in the late tenth century. The saga's account of their stringent warrior code, fatalistic adherence to their own reckless vows and declarations of extreme courage as they face execution articulates a remarkable account of what it meant to be a viking. This translation presents the longest and earliest text of the saga, never before published in English, with a full literary and historical introduction to this remarkable work.

The Saga of the Jómsvikings

F

Chapter 1

Gormr10 was the name of a king who ruled over Denmark, who was called “the Childless”; he was a powerful king, and popular with his people. He had ruled the land for a long time when these events took place.

Two men are named who were at the king’s court; one was called Hallvarðr, the other Hávarðr.

Arnfinnr was the name of a jarl who was then in Saxland and had power under King Karlamagnús (Charlemagne). He and King Gormr were good friends; they had been together on Viking expeditions. The jarl had a beautiful sister, and so it happened that he devoted more affection to her than he should have; then she became pregnant, although it was kept very secret. He sent her away with people he trusted, and told them not to leave her before they knew what had become of the child. They did so; they arrived in the place that King Gormr ruled over, stopped by the forest called Myrkviðr, and put the child under some tree roots, and ran away into the forest and remained there.

It is told that it came about that same autumn that King Gormr went to the forest with all his court in very fine weather, and they went after wild animals, wild fruits, and birds all that day, and thus they amused themselves. But in the evening the king and all the court went home, except the two brothers Hallvarðr and Hávarðr; they stayed behind in the forest and then went widely through the woods to entertain themselves. But because of the dark, they could not find the way home, and turned in the direction of the sea, thinking they would be able to find the way home if they followed the sea shore, for the king’s castle was a short way from the sea, where the forest went all the way down to the shore.

291

And when they were walking along the sea shore and towards some sandbanks, they heard a child’s crying, and went towards it and had no idea what the reason for it would be. There they found a baby boy; he was laid under tree roots and a big knot was tied around his forehead in a silk ribbon which he had around his head. In it was a gold ring worth a third of an ounce. The child was wrapped in a finely woven cloth. They picked up the child and took it home with them and got back when the king and the court were sitting over the drinking tables, and blamed themselves11 that they had not taken care to go home with the king, but the king responded and said that he would not be angry with them for that.

And now they told the king what events had happened on their way, and the king asked to see the boy and to have him brought to him. The king looked closely at the boy and said:

“This will be one of the greater men, and is better found than not,” and then he had the boy sprinkled with water and given a name, calling him Knútr (knot). And that was because the gold ring had been knotted to the boy’s forehead when he was found, and the king took from that the name that he gave the boy. He had him fostered where it was fitting and called him his son and treated him well and loved him greatly.

And now as King Gormr’s life was at an end and he had become old, he took an illness that brought about his death. And before he died he invited to see him his friends and kinsmen, wanting to see how it would go with his authority. He asked them that he should decide to whom he should make over land and subjects after his day, and he wanted to get their agreement to that, and he declared that he wanted to give to Knútr all his kingdom and all those things that would make him a greater man than before, after his own day. And now because of his popularity and because he was beloved of his men, they agreed that the king should decide, and now this was done.

And after this the king gives up his life.

Now Knútr takes over land and subjects and all the authority that Gormr had had, and is popular with his men.

Knútr fostered the son of Sigurðr ormr-í-auga (Snake-in-eye) and gave him his own name, calling him Hǫrða-Knútr. And the son of Hǫrða-Knútr was Gormr, who was called Gormr inn gamli (the Old) or inn ríki (the Great).

Chapter 2

Haraldr is the name of a jarl who ruled over Holtsetuland; he was called Klakk-Haraldr. He was a clever man. He had one daughter who was called Þyri; she was the wisest of all women and interpreted dreams better than other people. She was also beautiful.

The jarl thought all the government of the land depended on his daughter, and he allowed her to decide everything together with himself, and he loved her very greatly.

And now when Gormr was fully grown and had taken over the kingdom, he went out of the land and intended a match for himself, to ask for the daughter of Jarl Haraldr, and if he would not marry the woman to him, he thought the jarl would have to suffer war from him.

And now when Jarl Haraldr and his daughter Þyri hear of King Gormr’s expedition and his intention, they send men to meet him and invite him to a splendid feast, and he accepts that, and he is sitting there at his meal with honor. And when he has explained his business to the jarl, he gave him the answer that she herself had to decide it, “because she is much wiser than I.” And now when the king urges the case with her, she answers thus:

“This will not be decided on this occasion, and you must now go home on these terms with fine and honorable gifts, and if this match with me means much to you, as soon as you get home you must have a building built big enough that it is suitable for you to sleep in. The building shall be placed where no building has been built before. And you must sleep there on the first winter nights and three nights altogether, and you must remember clearly afterwards whether you dreamed something, and then send men to see me to tell me your dreams, if there are any, and then I will declare to them whether you shall make this match or not. Now, you will have no need to pursue this match if you have no dreams.”

And after this exchange of theirs, Gormr stays at this feast for a short time and then goes home and was quick to put to the test this wisdom and arrangement of hers, and he now went home with great honor and valuable gifts. And when he had come home he did in every respect what she had told him to do: he now had the building made and then went into it, as has been explained. He arranged to have outside the building three hundred (360)12 fully armed men and told them to stay awake and keep guard, for it occurred to him that it might be a trap. And now he lay down in the bed that had been put in the building and slept, and after that he dreamed. And there in the building he slept for three nights.

And now the king sends his men to see Jarl Haraldr and his daughter Þyri, and had her told his dreams. And when they came into the presence of the jarl and his daughter they were well greeted; and then they presented the king’s dreams to the jarl’s daughter. And when she had heard the dreams, she said:

“Now you shall stay here for as long as you yourselves wish. And you can tell your king that I will go to him.”

And when they come home they tell the king this news. At that the king becomes light-hearted and cheerful.

And soon after that the king sets out from home with a great company to claim the match and his wedding, and it goes well for him until he comes to Holtsetuland. Jarl Haraldr had learned of his journey and he had Þyri prepare a magnificent feast and a great welcome for him, and now their marriage and great love between them began. And it was used as entertainment at the feast that Gormr relates his dreams, and she interpreted them afterwards.

The king told what he had dreamed on the first winter night and the three nights when he had slept in the building. He dreamed that he thought he was standing outside looking over his whole kingdom; he saw that a sea spread out from the land so far that he could not cast his eyes over it anywhere, and the tide was so great that all the islands and fjords were dry. And after this event, he saw that three white oxen came up out of the sea and ran up onto the land near where he was and bit off all the grass close to the ground wherever they went. And after that they went away.

There was a second dream that is very similar to this, that it seems to him again that three oxen walk up from the sea; they were red in color with large horns. They also cropped all the grass from the ground, just like the earlier ones. And when they had been there for some time they went back into the sea again.

He dreamed the third dream further, and that was also like the others. The king again thought he saw three oxen walking up from the sea; they were all black in color and with enormous horns, and again stayed for a while and then left in the same way and walked back into the sea. And after that he thought he heard such a great crash that he thought it could be heard all over Denmark, and he saw that that came from the crashing of the sea as it went onto the land.

“And now I wish, Queen,” he said, “that you interpret the dreams to entertain people, and show your wisdom by it.”

She did not refuse, and interprets the dreams. And she began first to explain the dream that happened first, and said thus:

“Where the oxen walked up from the sea to the land, white in color, there will be three great winters, and such heavy snow will fall that famine will result all over Denmark. And where you thought the second three oxen walked up from the sea and they were red, there will come a second three winters of little snow, and yet not little, since you thought the oxen bit all the grass from the ground. And where three oxen, black in color, walked up out of the sea, there will come the third three winters. They will be so bad that everyone will say that none such shall be, and that such black dearth and need will come over the land that hardly another example can be found. And the fact that you thought the oxen had large horns signifies that many men will be stripped of everything they own. And the fact that they, the oxen, all went back into the sea as they had come out of it, and that you heard a great crash as the sea broke onto the land, signifies the strife of men of importance, and they will confront each other in Denmark and have great battles and fights here. I also expect that some of these men who will be present in this conflict will be closely related to you. And if you had dreamed on the first night what was in the last dream, the conflict would have happened in your lifetime. But there will be no harm now; I would not have gone with you if your dreams had been as I supposed earlier. But I will be able to do something to oppose all these dreams you have had about the famine.”

And now after this feast, King Gormr and Queen Þyri made ready to go back to Denmark, and they had many ships laden with corn and other goods, and taken that year to Denmark, and the same every season from then on, until the time of the famine that she had predicted.

And when the famine comes they were short of nothing because of these preparations, and also those people in their vicinity in Denmark, for they shared from there many good things among their countrymen. And Þyri was considered to be the wisest woman ever to have come to Denmark, and was called the Bettering of Denmark (Danmarkarbót).

Gormr and Þyri had two sons, and the elder was called Knútr, and the younger Haraldr. They were both promising men, and Knútr was considered the wiser in their youth, and he was in advance of most people for good looks and skills and all the accomplishments that were considered important at that time. He was fair-haired and more accomplished than anyone else. He grew up with his grandfather Klakk-Haraldr, and he fostered Knútr and loved him very much. He was also popular as he grew older. Haraldr was brought up at home in his father’s court. He was much the younger of the brothers, and was early fierce and vicious and difficult to get on with, and therefore he was unpopular as he grew up.

It is now said that on one occasion King Gormr sends men to see his father-in-law Jarl Haraldr with the errand of inviting him to the Yule feast. The jarl welcomed the invitation and promised to come to the feast in the winter.

And when the time came that the jarl had to leave home, he chose such companions as he wished to go to the feast. But it is not said how many men he took with him.

They go on their way until they come to Limafjǫrðr. Then they saw a tree standing there that seemed to them to be of a remarkable kind: it had small apples growing on it, and they were green and blooming, and under the tree were more apples; they were both old and large. They were very surprised, and the jarl said that he thought it a great wonder that the apples were green at that time of year, as they were there, while those that had grown over the summer lay beside the tree, “and we will turn back,” said the jarl, “and go no further.”

And it is now told that he now turns back with all his company and traveled till they came home, and the jarl stayed at home that year quietly with his court.

Now the king thinks it strange that the jarl did not come, and yet he supposed that some necessity had caused it.

Now it is quiet for a time, and for that summer.

And when the second winter comes, the king again sends his men to Holtsetuland to invite his father-in-law the jarl to the Yule feast, just like the last time, and now there is no need to draw out the story further than to say that the jarl again promises to come, and now the messengers go home and tell the king how it was.

And now the time comes for the jarl to set out from home with his company, and they travel till they come to Limafjǫ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Saga of the Jómsvikings
• Bibliography
• Index of Persons and Places