As those who’ve been hanging out here during my Thief Eyes writing journey know, this book is ultimately a work of Icelandic saga fanfic, inspired by Njal’s Saga, which caught my attention from the very first page, when Hrútur, asked to comment on the beauty of his niece Hallgerður, responds with words to the effect […]
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This. Is Awesome: Tattúínárdœla saga: If Star Wars Were an Icelandic Saga.Víga-Óbívan commends Leia to the care of a local goði and Lúkr to a man whom he believes to be Anakinn’s brother, but who is probably a disguised Óðinn. Déor speaks of the son of “Anacan” as having been raised by “Owen,” which may
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So french_teacher pointed me to the proceedings of a conference on the sagas, and in skimming them, I came across this fascinating side note in a paper by one Torfi H. Tulinius, describing Hallgerður and Gunnar’s marriage: Hrútr calls it a “girndarráð” (87: “decision based on lust”) and this seems to be the opinion of
One interesting thing about the bowstring incident in Njal’s Saga is how differently men and women tend to react to it:At this moment Thorbrand Thorleiksson leaped up on the roof and cut through Gunnar’s bow string … By this time Gunnar had wounded eight men and killed two. Then he received two wounds, and everyone
Does anything depend on it? Read More »
So last week, lnhammer and I dropped in on dancinghorse‘s Camp Lipizzan, where sartorias, coraa, metteharrison, rachelmanija, and tcastleb were happily riding and critiquing together for the week. Somehow discussion turned to the sagas, then drifted away to other more fannish things, then drifted back to the sagas. Along the way someone said, hey, wouldn’t
Just stumbled upon this bit of (not uncommon) sentiment about Hallgerður–from the 1922 Literature of the World, by William Lee Richardson, Jesse M. Owen, but expressing a sentiment that can still be found echoed in college papers online today:It does not surprise us that when Gunnar, her husband, infinitely her superior in every way, is
Continuing my first revision pass through the manuscript of TE, trying to cut some things and make others make more sense. What are you all doing this Sunday afternoon?As always midway through a revision pass, many things I once liked are making me frown (this will change again as I get toward the end), but
So via incandragon I found mention of a series of very old-school-looking romances about vikings and navy seals and time travelers. And I thought, this could be the sort of stuff that’s so bad it’s fun, and I began looking them up.I could just get past the covers, which involved half-naked men draped in furs
… don’t steal a horse unless you’re a really good poet. Good poetry is the only thing that will keep it from going badly for you if the owner finds you.Am reading the Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue (Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu) and enjoying it more than Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi.Interesting to watch how I feel about the
Things the sagas taught me … Read More »
Right. When unsure what to read next, it’s clearly time for another Icelandic saga. 🙂This one is Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða—The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi–which gets brought up a lot when reading about the sagas. I can see why–it’s both short and very neatly constructed, a sort of textbook case of how blood feuds work
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