In Honor of Egil's Fight with the Frisians

I'm reading Egil's Saga...Yes, again! Each time I read it, I discover something new. This time, it was the magic used by Atli in his duel with Egil. For some reason, it simply didn't filter into my head that Atli, "skilled in magic arts," was blunting Egil's sword strokes with magic! Yet, the text is quite clear. Most marvelously and quite in character, Egil gets around the magic thus,

He threw down his sword and shield, ran for Atli and grabbed him with his hands. By his greater strength, Egil pushed Atli over backwards, then sprawled over him and bit through his throat. Atli died on the spot. -transl Bernard Scudder

This outrageous act is followed by Egil running over to the sacrificial bull and breaking its neck. He follows this up by, of all things, a poetic recitation of his own composition.

I'm so smitten with Egil and his feats that I wrote him a poem, In Honor of Egil's Fight with the Frisians.

Egil and his sea wolves chased the Frisians who fled

across a bridge over a ditch to a farther field.

Once over, the Frisians pulled the spanning planks

but Egil leapt running across the banks.

Too bad none of his band was as largely bred.

The Vikings left Egil forfeited,

but he fought eleven till the field ran red

then returned to the wolves who had thought him dead.

On Wearing a Corselet in a Fight

Readers and friends know I'm a fan of northern epic literature and the sagas, and I swoon over Beowulf--what a hottie!

Anyway, I'm occasionally caught reading yet another analysis of the symbolism, customs, yada, yada, you know the stuff master's theses are made of...within Beowulf, the poem.

The latest, not that current really, is one I've read before from a book call God's Handiwork, and I just had to share this statement made by Richard J. Schrader, the author. He's discussing Beowulf's struggle with Grendel's mother, and he writes, "He [Beowulf] is saved from her knife by God and his corselet as she seeks to avenge (wrecan) her son...."

Now, what I'm thinking here is that it's a fine thing to have God on your side in a fight, but it's a damn, fine thing, nonetheless, to be wearing a corselet!

Distaff

Frigga Spinning the Clouds

by J.C. Dollman

I learned something absolutely novel to me today. I googled the word "distaff" and was quite surprised to discover that, consistent with its domestic use as a noun, it is also an adjective, describing the female side of a family. It just goes to show how deeply interwoven was this activity of spinning and weaving in the role of women among my European ancestors.

A saga reader like myself knows how valuable the products of weaving were, because men used ells of cloth in trade in the same way they traded marks of gold. Cloth was even used for compensation at the death of a kinsman. A man who didn't have a wife to weave cloth for him was a poor man indeed. Farming, fishing and husbandry kept meat and bread on the table, but weaving represented wealth. In many ways, women, Germanic and Scandinavian in particular, ruled the roost, but weaving was their particular domain. A man, too, could run the farm as many women did, maybe even own the keys to the house, but only women spun and wove.

More than once I've run across the idea that it is a sign of a woman's favor if she produces a set of clothing for a man. Throughout the sagas, too, the quality and color of a person's clothing is indicative of his status. Red (or colored) duds represent a wealthy or high-born man. In one tale, a man's character is condemned because he cut away a soiled bit of his cloak and tossed it away. The Icelanders considered him a wasteful lout and vain.

When my ancestors contemplated the nature of their goddesses, they necessarily pictured them as spinners and weavers. Frigg, for example, spins the threads which the Norns weave into the fates of men. Frigg's symbol is the distaff. I learned something else new; I learned that another word for distaff is "rock." Frigg is the heavenly spinner, and the constellation Orion is named "Friggjar Rockr," Frigg's distaff. That puts a whole new spin on things, yes?