#Icelandic Sagas

[moncuries]

hello dearest followers and gay people. i am hoping u guys can help me find some things for an essay. do any of you have some great texts, quotes or things that relate to one or more of these things:

-gender in The Hobbit (not lotr)

-femininity in old english texts (transgressive) or sagas

-femininity in MEN or transgressive gender in old english text

-domesticity and men/women in the UK in 1930s

-tolkien on gender

ANYTHING IS GOOD! if u think it may be helpful, sens me the name of what ur thinking of and ill look!

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 24: Lost World Literature

[poeticnorth]

Wrote more things.

[upon-a-fairy-tale]

Worldbuilding your world's Mythology:

"That is well composed," said the king, "and now compose another verse and make one into Thor and the other into the giant Geirrod, and nevertheless clarify each one's trade."

– From 'The Tale of Sarcastic Halli', in 'The Sagas of Icelanders', published by Penguin Books

This was in response to King Harold walking past a quarrel between a blacksmith and a tanner in an inn with his poet Thjodolf.

I do not have nearly enough qualifications to comment on how this relates to the construction of Icelandic poetry in general, but it struck me as a really simple and powerful technique for world-building.

If you make some of your world's mythology stories of:

mundane squabbles composed in this manner

tales traced back to real people who did heroic deeds long ago

stories that personify how the natural world works around them

Then you'll have a really compelling framework for drawing the reader in by having them wonder what your gods really are: long-dead heroes people have mythologised and raised up to the sky, parts of the sky people have humanised and drawn down to them, or something out there lurking behind the stories after all...

[deadgoatproject]

[gennsoup]

"It is horrible now To look around, As a blood-red cloud Darkens the sky. The heavens are stained With the blood of men, As the Valkyries Sing their song."

Magnus Magnusson (trans.), Njal's Saga

[thorraborinn]

Hey there, I was curious if you had any recommendations for what English translation to read in regards to the "Hallfreðar saga vandræðaskálds". The bigger focus on religious dilemma/turbulence of the skald instead of the more typical romantic parts seems very interesting to me.

This is quite a niche ask I think and no worries if it is outside of your wheelhouse. I've seen quite a lot of icelandic stuff in your tumblr and just figured I could ask. Thanks in advance!

I haven't read that one, but there's a translation by Diana Whaley who is a reputable and accomplished scholar. It looks like it's been published twice, once as part of a massive project to translate all the sagas into English, and separately in a smaller collection called Sagas of Warrior-Poets.

Any time anyone is looking for a translation of a saga (or related stuff, like the Eddas, or individual skaldic poems), into any language, they can check https://sagas.landsbokasafn.is/sagas. It's a database of saga translations maintained by the National Library of Iceland.

It's very often the case that the whatever the most recent one is is best, especially in a case where there's like, a saga has two translations, one from 1880 and one from 1999.

[kivutark]

[thecreaturecodex]

Afturganga

“Draugr” © Sune Reinhardt, accessed at ArtStation here

[This is the first of several European monsters on the World Tour that double as “If I Ran The Zoo”. The PFRPG draugr is a perfectly suitable low level undead, for when you want something smarter than a zombie but don’t want to deal with ability damage or negative levels. But they owe more to the skeletal sailors in Pirates of the Caribbean than they do to actual Scandinavian folkloric draugr, which tend to be big, magical and associated with curses. The obscuring of the genuine draugr is pretty much complete post Skyrim, with them almost universally being depicted as skeletal these days.

This stat block is based primarily on Glam, the murderous revenant who appears in Grettir’s Saga (which is why I went with an Icelandic alternate name instead of a Nordic or Swedish one). A lot of hay is made about how terrible his eyes are, which is why I gave mine mesmerist abilities. And as Grettir kills Glam, Glam curses him to outlawry, hence the death curse (which is mechanically based on the curse of the outcast spell from Ultimate Intrigue) ]

Afturganga CR 8 CE Undead This enormous creature might once has been human, but is swollen and stretched to half again normal human size. They are clearly dead, with discolored skin, open wounds, and a stink like rancid butter. Their eyes possess a terrible haunting stare.

An afturganga, or draugr lord, is an undead creature animated by pure malice. If someone who is especially greedy, envious or spiteful dies, particularly in an area infused with negative energy, they may rise again as an afturganga. Such creatures go out of their way to rob and murder, and particularly relish tormenting their former neighbors and family. These attacks tend to build, first with the afturganga targeting their victims with nightmares, then attacking their livestock and crops, and finally culminating in lethal assaults on them personally.

Most draugr lords eschew weapons, as their bodies have swollen so much that they have a difficult time wielding the tools they did in life. Instead they grab and tear with their hands and broken teeth. The gaze of an afturganga is particularly piercing, and it saps the will and abilities of those it targets. Only cold iron weapons can pierce its damage reduction as far as manufactured weapons go, but those that have the courage to match its barehanded combat style can also deal grievous damage. The last spiteful act of an afturganga is its death curse—the one who slays an afturganga is supernaturally marked as an outcast, shunned and rejected, and often turns to crime or self imposed exile.

Some afturganga are wanderers, roaming the countryside to find more prey. Others remain in their burial mounds or squatting in dungeons, guarding treasuries either buried as grave goods with them, or collected from banditry and murder. Some afturganga act as leaders for lesser intelligent undead, such as draugr and wights. Legends tell of even more powerful afturganga, with abilities such as breathing fire, shapeshifting into grim undead animals, or raising their victims as draugr themselves.

An afturganga is usually either a livid pale color or blue-black with decomposition. They typically stand between 8 and 10 feet tall.

Afturganga         CR 8 XP 4,800 CE Large undead Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., mistsight, Perception +17 Aura stench (20 ft., Fort DC 19) Defense AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 20 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +11 natural) hp 104 (11d8+55) Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +10; channel resistance +2 DR 10/cold iron or unarmed; Immune curse effects, undead traits; Resist cold 10, fire 10 Offense Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft. Melee 2 slams +12 (2d6+5 plus grab), bite +12 (1d8+5) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks death curse, hypnotic stare (-3, sapped magic, sluggishness, timidity) Spell-like Abilities CL 8th, concentration +13 3/day—faerie fire, fog cloud 1/day—nightmare (DC 19) Statistics Str 21, Dex 13, Con -, Int 13, Wis 16, Cha 18 Base Atk +8; CMB +13 (+17 grapple); CMD 24 Feats Intimidating Prowess, Intimidating Stare, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Stealthy, Toughness Skills Climb +19, Escape Artist +16, Intimidate +24, Perception +17, Stealth +15, Swim +13 Languages Common, Necril Ecology Environment any Organization solitary, gang (2-5) or army (1-4 plus 2-20 draugr and wights) Treasure double standard Special Abilities Damage Reduction (Su) Cold iron weapons or unarmed strikes overcome an afturganga’s damage reduction. Natural weapon attacks do not overcome this DR. Death Curse (Su) When a creature slays an afturganga, that creature is affected by its curse. Curse; save Will DC 19; effect must roll twice for all Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Perform checks and take the worse result; all creatures have initial attitude towards the cursed reduced by one step; duration permanent. The save DC is Charisma based. Hypnotic Stare (Su) An afturganga gains the hypnotic stare and bold stare abilities of a mesmerist with a class level equal to its Hit Dice. Mesmerist levels stack with afturganga HD for the purposes of determining the stare’s effects.

[bonepile-shieldwall]

To explain the historical accuracy of Icelandic Sagas my teacher put on the theme to the 1935 pirate movie Captain Blood and did a dramatic reading of Njáls Saga over it and I wish so badly he recorded his lectures for just,,, a reminder of the most joyus 3 minutes of my life

[ashingtongreen]

[the-grey-hunt]

time to inflict myself on the internet

there IS a correct answer. do not pick leif just because you heard his name on spongebob that one time

[lasagras]

Me seeing anything with a love triangle: this is so Laxdæla coded

[laurenintheskyy]

I love norse/Icelandic sagas so much because the concept of a hero the way we think of it now in western culture essentially does not exist. Main characters do evil, vile, murderous deeds and you're still expected to root for them later on when they're fighting the big fight. There aren't the same kinds of narrative consequences for bad behavior the way we see in stories now (ie. Things like the trope of "only the pure of heart can defeat the great evil and save everyone") and because of that the plot is unpredictable and feels more true to the patterns of real life somehow.

It's nice to read stories that are not bound by the same rules of morality that we have, it makes you realize that those tropes and rules aren't "the human experience" but a very specific set of cultural signifiers.