#Norsebinge

[nimblermortal]

The current pair of kings in Norway is Ingi and Sigurth, and they inherited on the death of their father when they were two and four, respectively. And then I'm supposed to believe that Ingi led battles and planned strategies and defended the country and wrote fair missives shaming his brother for not doing the same, and I just.

I'm kinda hung up on the guy who put the two-year-old king on his lap and rode into battle with him.

#Norsebinge #I am NOT so hung up on the idea that this led to the poor kid being injured and disabled for life #YOU DON'T SAY

[nimblermortal]

It is time for MY BOY, Harald Hardradi, also known this night as That Little Bitch

So he makes his way to Constantinople - and I was hoping for more detail on how he won Jarizleif's favor, but at least 'led the defense of the country' nods in that direction - where Gyrgir is leading the Varangian Guard, but of course my boy Harald quickly wins their loyalty.

They're sent into the field, and the Varangians arrive first and get their tents set up in the best (highest, non-swampy) ground. Then Gyrgir rides up LATE and demands they move so he can have the nice spot. My boy Harald declares, "Naw, son, we got dibs."

It nearly comes to blows for some reason, so the wiser, greyer heads step in and say, let's draw lots for it. Both parties agree. Now my boy Harald, he's no fool, so he asks Gyrgir to show him his lot so that they don't make the same mark on it. Gyrgir does, Harald marks his, they both put 'em in the bag. Graybeard draws a lot out and says, "These shall be first to ride, to row, to choose a berth in harbor, and to select a place for pitching their tents."

He does not get any further before my boy Harald swats the thing out of his hand and throws it into the sea, declaring it's his lot.

Gyrgir goes, "If that's so, why didn't you let others see it?"

and of course my boy Harald's response is, "If you're so suspicious, check what's left in the bag - it's got your mark on it."

Which of course it does.

#MY BOY HARALD HARDRADI #THAT LITTLE BITCH #I should tell you about Eadward but. IT'S MY BOY! #icy sagas #Norsebinge

[nimblermortal]

What is this word?

Ormar fleiri liggja und aski Yggdrasils en that of hyggi hverr ósvi∂ra apa.

apa: Not in my dictionary, I’ve checked under every vowel. It’s a genitive plural noun?

Is there an online dictionary I can check, or anybody got recommendations for a supplemental dictionary? I’ve been meaning to get one anyway.

#Old Norse #Norsebinge #I'd guess 'ape' but there's no reason for the Norse to have a word for monkey much less ape #and certainly not to identify humans with them #insultingly or not #that seems like a very modern bias guess #I'm guessing it starts with either a or uhhh o ogonek I can't type that vowel #as you can see I also can't type thorn #and I haven't figured out how to do a proper eth so that's kind of just derivative notation

[nimblermortal]

@drelmurn I filked this a few years ago. It's Norse now.

#replies #Norsebinge #Youtube

[nimblermortal]

Grarrrgh I know it's just terminology but viking boat burials were done in earth, not fire, and Neil Gaiman should know better.

There's actually a really interesting bit of the Heimskringla that I should reread where it breaks down the ages of humanity into elements based on how they were disposing of their dead.

#Norsebinge #I KNOW that we all misuse the term viking and it's a shortcut reference to a common understood concept #I am as guilty as anyone #BUT! this isn't a real thing and I think most people don't know that #do most people know that? maybe I should make a poll #and request people reblog it so people not on my blog participate #y'all are a BIASED SAMPLE

[nimblermortal]

This is a nice iteration of a trope. Context: King Magnús is fleeing a battle that is going poorly.

King Magnús was easily recognizable, being of unusual height. He wore a red doublet over his coat of mail, and his long hair, as pale as silk, fell down over his shoulders. Ogmund, the sun of Skopti, rode by the side of the king. He too was exceedingly tall and handsome. He said, "Give me your doublet, king!" The king answered, "Of what use to you would be my doublet?" "I wish to have it," he said. "You have given me greater gifts."

And then of course they pull the ol' royal decoy trick, but I like that Ogmund's explanation is just, "I want it, bitch"

#Norsebinge

[nimblermortal]

Things That Are Definitely Not Lies

-Harald Hardradi laid waste to 80 cities in Africa/the Middle East

-The niece of the Empress of the Byzantine Empire was in love with him

-The Empress forbade Harald to marry said niece because she, the Empress, was in love with him

-The lady who freed Harald from prison was neither of the above and just some devotee piously healed by Saint King Olaf, Harald's half-brother

-Harald put out the eyes of the Emperor of the Greeks himself

-He also stole the imperial niece for a night while making his escape, just so he could send her back to the Empress to say, "Nyah nyah you couldn't stop me"

-It's the custom in Greece that when the emperor dies the Varangians are allowed to help themselves to whatever they want from his palace (pólútasvarf)

-We know all of this because Harald said it himself and he wouldn't lie

#Norsebinge #icy sagas #I am never going to sleep tonight I am just going to read about my boy and tell all of you <3

[nimblermortal]

Me: My boy Harald Hardradi - Icelandic skalds, laying their hands gently over mine: OUR boy

#Norsebinge #icy sagas #piss off he's MY boy you'll write poems for any king alive in your time #you think I would write poems for BIDEN?

[nimblermortal]

Fine we can talk about the English

So. King Knut (Canute) was ruling in England, at least the York area. He conquered him some Denmark. He conquered him some Norway too, and drove Olaf and son Magnus to outlawry. Olaf made a bid to reclaim his kingdom, failed. Knut installed his sons as kings in England, Denmark, and Norway, and, being an old man, promptly died. (Charles take note.)

So in England, Knut's son Harald takes over, but then he dies and Knut's next son Hortha-Knut comes back from Scandinavia to rule, and he sticks around for a few years. Long enough for Magnus Olafsson to come back from Kiev and retake his country, and make a deal with Hortha-Knut that they are such good buddies that if one of them dies without a male heir, the other will inherit.

Ynglings are. Very accustomed to sharing crowns, I have discovered.

So Hortha-Knut dies. Magnus is a bit busy with this dude Svein who keeps trying to conquer Denmark on the grounds that Magnus gave it to him as jarl and who cares if Svein declares himself king and independent, it's his now, don't you know who his father is?? Anyway Edward (Eadward) takes over in England.

Magnus gets shut of Svein, finally, largely by inspiring his army with stories of how Svein's daddy might be a king but Magnus's daddy is a saint, and God is on their side, the daddy of all daddies. So once he's feeling confident in his hold over Norway and Denmark, he sends a message back to England all, "Hey, remember this deal I had with Hortha-Knut?"

And Eadward, that badass pushover, sends a message back, saying, "Look. My dad was king of England, and I was well. When he died my eldest brother Eadmund was king, and I was well. After him my stepfather Knut ruled England, and I was well. And when he died my brother Harald ruled, and I was well. And when he died my brother Hortha-Knut ruled, and I stood by, and all was well, but let me remind you that I yet of the brothers had no kingdom to govern.

"So now you want to come over here and declare yourself king? Let me just say, over my dead body.

"And I will make it easy for you. If you come, I will not raise an army, you can march right in. But you will very much have to kill me with your own hands."

Which Magnus abstains to do.

#it's a very Much Adooooo sort of a message #one woman is fair yet I am well #that she raised me I likewise give her most humble praise #but that I WILL RAISE MY BUGLE --- #Norsebinge #icy sagas #while I'm at it: my word choice in that last line is a deliberate reference to Donne's “Woman's Constancy”

[nimblermortal]

godddddd they miiiisssseeddd itttt!

They’re busy arguing about whether Kjartan and Bolli deserve the pathos of Kjartan’s death scene, when that’s as irrelevant as whether Romeo and Juliet deserve the tragedy of theirs. And I make that comparison deliberately! The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is that their society worked them into this position such that they had nowhere to go but die; the tragedy of Kjartan and Bolli is similarly that their society puts them in this position, but also that it was so avoidable.

They were children! They were young men making very stupid mistakes! Kjartan’s trying to live up to an idea of a hero that he doesn’t understand; Bolli’s trying to quash his own desires to be fully subservient to everyone around him. They had so much potential, and they walk right into this, and it means the death of both of them. That’s what tragedy is!

Of course if Kjartan had been wiser this wouldn’t have happened. If Hamlet had been more decisive the body count would have been one! But he wasn’t, he was the man in that scenario and here we are.

If they had had the ability to see around their ideas of who they ought to be - if someone had told them they could be a polycule, told Bolli he could stand up to Kjartan like Kjartan did when the king asked about burning his house down, if if if... it very much is the sins of their forebears coming down on them, there’s all the prophecies and curses leading up to this to prove it (Leg-Biter). If the shepherd had been allowed to ride down and warn Kjartan!

But they didn’t. And that means one brother bleeding out in the other’s arms.

#icy sagas #laxdaelasaga #Norsebinge #Saga Thing #they got the headdress scene which is good 'cause I would have rioted #they got it in like one sentence tossed aside like it was nothing but they did SAY #but they missed this one

[nimblermortal]

Would you believe translating poetry... is difficult?

I saw a short section and went, “Oh, I’ll try that!” and then did the previous two retroactively trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Here’s the best I’ve got so far:

It was an immensity of winters before the earth was shaped, then Bergelmir was born; it drove the first to be remembered [Bergelmir] - he who the wise jotunn saw - to the box of lying down.

Context: Bergelmir is a jotun, one of the first race of jotnar. When Odin and his brothers slew Ymir (still not sure when or why they decided to do this), the blood from his wounds gushed so freely that it drowned the entire race of jotnar except for Bergelmir, who “fór upp á lú∂r,” went up in a lú∂r.

What is a lú∂r? A trumpet. A wooden box. A wooden box specifically for holding a hand mill (quern). From poetic context, possibly a coffin.

So, interesting things about this!

(I should be clear that these are all wild theories that are for playing with.)

The Tragic Backstory: Bergelmir watched his entire generation (except his family/household/just his wife?) drown in the blood of his ancestor. While floating in a coffin, the only thing he could take refuge in? (Are coffins even a thing in this time period?)

The Psychopomp: Immediately after this line it says “ok hélzk thar” (with a thorn, sorry) - “and stayed there.” So probably the best translation is that he stayed there until the flooding went down, but while I was translating it I went through an iteration of thinking it meant he stayed in this connection to death - but he’s clearly still alive, he’s named as an exception and the remaining jotnar are descended from him. So: Psychopomp Bergelmir? And psychopomps are always interesting.

(Because I always forget this word: a psychopomp is someone who guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Charon is one; Discworld’s Death is another.)

The Flood Archetype: This is a flood story! Flood stories are really common in mythology, in the Christian-dominated world it’s Noah and his ark. Usually, to my understanding, the single man or family or ship or whatever survives the flood, and all of mankind is descended from them; in this case, it’s not mankind but the antagonists (well... often) of the gods who do. Mankind hasn’t been created yet.

Which brings us to the interpretation of mythology in which the Earth used to be populated with many different species of human, or at least that humans and Neanderthals coexisted, and this is where the idea of fairies and dwarves and trolls and etc comes from; we miss our sister-species. By that interpretation, this is a Sole Survivor Flood Story for the Neanderthals.

(I use this word as liberally as I use ‘viking’ - that is, not at all what it actually means, but in line with the popular conception.)

(Also I can’t take credit for this last observation, that was Tea’s synthesis.)

Anyway, Bergelmir joining Hymir at my high table for minor figures who are a lot more interesting and compelling than they seem initially.

#Norsebinge #ON has. a lot more conjunctions and pronouns than I am accustomed to #sometimes there is a whole line of them including homonyms with verbs #which just makes this whole adventure that much more exciting

[nimblermortal]

I miss you, Harald anon. I still have one of your messages in my inbox to treasure you by. I - oh shoot, I have a list of Grágás things to liveblog!

I kept track of these by texting with Tea, so there are some ah. Autocorrect funsies. Starting with -

People may travel on a Subaru and each person may have with him forty pounds of baggage, but if one person has more and another less, the latter may not help the former

Y'all may be shocked to learn there were no Subarus in medieval Iceland. (I though this was interesting because it sounded like people were being dicks making it illegal to help one another, but it's actually about not allowing people to get around the forty pounds rule by getting a friend to walk with them.)

It is also lawful to pick berries and take them home, but no more than can be carried in one's hands

Berry picking :) (This is about work one is allowed to do on Sundays/feast days.)

When a man moves house on a Sunday in the moving days, it is lawful for him to drive his dairy stock to the farm where he is going to live in the coming year* but he is not to ferry it over water or carry it by other means**

*fair *???

If a man finds his sheep in the common fold in the autumn, it is lawful for him to take it home, whether he prefers to carry it or take it by other means

We're still on Sundays. Apparently sheep do not count as cattle, or indeed work. (All of the exceptions are basically trying to enumerate every possible situation in which you would absolutely have to do work or lose life, health, or ability to make it through the winter. This exception is about feckin' cattle thieves - or possibly just that sheep are slow.)

You are also allowed to save your life on a Sunday, but you have to give wool to charity to do so.

Fishing is okay, but only after mass, and you gotta give 20% to the poor

NO ROAD WORK ON SUNDAYS IF YOU DO ROAD WORK ON SUNDAYS, ANYONE IS ALLOWED TO JOY RIDE THROUGH YOUR CONSTRUCTION CONES, AND ALSO YOU MUST PAY A FINE NO. CLOSED. ROADS. ON. SUNDAYS. Freeeedooommmmmmm 'Muriciceland

Eykt is the time when, if the southwest eighth of the sky is divided into three, the sun has passed through two parts and has one part still to pass.

I love the descriptions of how to tell/manage time when nobody has a clock. The one after this involved imagining a spear of standard length viewed from 9 paces away.

For this particular description, of eykt as a time past which you can do no work, there are exceptions if you can't see the sun, and for continuing work after eykt if you've done fuck-all so far and are liable to get in trouble for it.

#Gragas #Norsebinge

[nimblermortal]

Priests, Priestlings, and Commitment to the Church

A priest can go into contract with a boy for him to become an apprentice priest, in which case he is called a priestling, priestling is a word, isn't that great! (If the boy is a minor, it has to be an agreement with his legal administrator.)

If the boy goes, "This sucks, I'm not doing it" then he has to be put to other work without being, ah, "chastised such that he suffers illness or lasting injury." He is then allowed to change his mind and go back to studying for the priesthood. The priest has to provide him with all the tools of the trade (go apprenticeships!).

If a priest decides to just skive off, he gets full outlawry, anyone who shelters him gets full outlawry, and he is to be "claimed in the same way as slaves." I am fairly confident this is not the punishment for people skiving off other work.

#Norsebinge #Gragas #the next section is on bishops #of which there is one for the South East and West districts #and one for the North #which. South and West are pretty small #West is my beloved Breidafjord #but North and East are. each quite large. #and I don't think the North has any particular extra population #although I'll grant that Akureyri is in the North and it's really the only city Iceland has other than Reykjavik

[nimblermortal]

Church Upkeep

Whoever owns the land a church is built on is responsible for both upkeep of the church and feeding the priest (provided the priest provides priestly services). And it's kinda dictated by the bishop where the church will be, so - sucks to be you if the bishop likes/doesn't like you.

If a tenant of the church-farm declares the church has to be repaired, it's the responsibility of the landowner to repair it... but only if it's a repair such that the church could not otherwise have a service held in it. Otherwise, "the tenant has God's gratitude for his trouble." Sucks to be you!

The age of majority appears to be 16 for men, 20 for women, at least as applies to upkeep of a church.

#Norsebinge #Gragas

[nimblermortal]

Every church shall remain on the site where it was consecrated if it may on account of landslips or snowslips or flooding or fire or tempest or unless there is a desolation of districts in remote valleys or on ocean coasts.

#Gragas #Norsebinge #the sheer list of natural disasters endemic to Iceland #it's hilarious

[nimblermortal]

So basically, if someone dies he's got to be buried, in a churchyard if eligible. It's up to the fellow's family to get him there, or if for whatever reason they can't do it, whoever is closest. Insert several pages of various exceptions for who might not follow the standard rules or where a body might be found, including 'in the mountains, with responsibility determined by watershed'.

(I have a long history with liking the idea of government by watershed.)

There are several types people who cannot be buried in churchyards, including the unbaptized (the first chapter was literally about how to make sure this is impossible), full outlaws not pardoned by the bishop, suicides (see below), and people the bishop doesn't like.

On suicides:

The third corpse not to be buried at church is of someone who willfully inflicts on himself the injuries that cause his death, unless he afterwards repents and confesses to a priest, and then he is to be buried at church. Even if he is not able to reach a priest, but tells a layman that he repents, and even if he is not able to speak but makes such signs that men perceive that he repents at heart even though he cannot tell it with his tongue, then he is nevertheless to be buried at church.

Mormons rejoice

A body with no right to church burial is to be buried at a place beyond bowshot of anyone's homefield wall, where there is neither arable land nor meadow land and from where no water flows to farms, and no funeral service is to be sung for it.

This is apparently a common legal definition of a no-man's-land

Dat watershed

The 'no service to be sung,' specifically the word 'sung,' immediately triggers my author brain. Somewhere there is a girl weeping dry for a father who, for whatever reason listed above, could not be buried in church, and as such she is forbidden from singing the funeral...

One of the common exceptions is what do you do with people who were moving? And there is a legal definition of vagrant that comes up much later in the book:

If a man moves about on pointless journeys within a Quarter for half a month or more, the penalty for it is a fine, and similarly if (p. 140) he does ir for a month in all and leaves the Quarter with no purpose except to relieve his own household or the one he is attached to. If a man moves about and accepts charity for half a month or more and takes night lodgings where he can get them, he is a vagrant. If a man turns into a tramp - a healthy man and so able-bodied that he could get lodging for a whole year if he would do the work he is capable of - his penalty is full outlawry, and it is lawful to summon him at the place where he is last known to have spent the night and call nine neighbors of the place of summoning at the assembly.

I have no idea what that p. 140 means; page 140 is about striking blows, and doesn't have anything to do with travel. If anyone can give me a clue here, I'd appreciate it, this comes up repeatedly.

The paragraph as a whole strikes me as tragic in a variety of ways - no Travelers, no Couchsurfers, Kidbro would be at a bit of a loss. And there's just the hopelessness of punishing a man who tries to relieve the poverty of his family by eating at another man's table for a few weeks. I get why a medieval Scandinavian code would, ah, strongly discourage such behavior, it's just sad.

#Norsebinge #Gragas #I don't think I'm going to put this under Nimblermortal liveblogs sorry folks #but if you guys are actually using this for blacklisting as intended and I'm messing you up do let me know #it's easy enough to change my tagging system