Burning And Burial

(Tomorrow, Sunday, I will drive from the North West to the South East of England, not to return until the following Sunday. I will take my lap top and expect to have Internet access but you never know.)

Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003).

"Kraka's death having been foreseen, the pyre was ready, the grave dug." (p. 25)

Pyre and grave? Is she to be burned or buried? Both, apparently. At the burial ground, beside "...the newest filled pit..." (ibid.), Gunnhild addresses:

"...her whose ashes lay here and who maybe listened." (p. 28)

The objects buried with Kraka's ashes include a distaff (p. 25). Afterwards, there is a three day "grave-ale" - not to be found easily by googling, but there was one in "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth."

"...Einar cut the blood eagle on the back of his father's killer..." (p. 26) (The Wikipedia article describes the case to which Anderson alludes.)

"...Hrolf, outlawed from Norway, who gathered a ship-host of Norse and Danes, roved and reaved widely, and won from the French king lordship over that land into which Northern settlers poured until it was now known as Normandy." (ibid.)

Really? Hrolf was Gunnhild's uncle. And the Duke of Normandy will conquer England when Harald Hardrada fails.

The Finns pay scot to King Harald. If each chapter yields historical and linguistic information, then it will take a long time to read through Mother Of Kings.