"It kissed her. A sweet smell of haymaking flowed through it. The sun had gone low in the west. A few clouds began to glow, beyond reaches of heath already dusking. So did the mists that eddied ghostly above the mire. Closer to hand, the crowns of trees shone shadowful. Rooks, flocking black across heaven, cawed louder in her ears than the manifold noises of King Harald's steading."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings, Book Five, Chapter I, p. 410.
Gunnhild feels the breeze, smells hay, sees setting sun, glowing clouds, ghostly mists and shadowy trees and hears rooks and the steading. Taste is addressed less often although we had quite a long food thread a while back - although mostly thanks to another author.
While Gunnhild advises her sons, she knows that they are:
"...hearkening like the gods to that spaewife who foretold how the world shall end." (p. 408)
Her thoughts remain heathen and her conversion to Christianity is cynical:
"'...besides salvation, the Church opens a way to more power for kings than ever erenow in the Northlands. Look at England; look at the Empire.'" (p. 410)
Look indeed! Power is more important than salvation.
King Haakon died without a male heir and bequeathed Norway to his enemies, Gunnhild's sons. Thus, they lost every battle but won the war. Neat trick. Haakon says that, if he had lived longer, he would have sought forgiveness in Christendom. This dying intention suffices. At the same time, a skald places him in Valhalla. The Greeks regarded poets as divinely inspired authorities on theology and morality, which is why I think that "Homer and the poets" parallel "Moses and the prophets." (See here.) The Vedas, the Eddas, Homer and the poets and the Shinto Records and Chronicles comprise four polytheist canons. If indeed skalds are authorities, the Haakon is with Odin.
He should enter Valhalla because of his valorous deeds and death in battle but should also enter Heaven because he seeks forgiveness. Like Hamlet, Haakon is a man of the transition from paganism to Christianity.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I agree, King Haakon is a transitional figure, thinking and believing like a Christian (which he was, after all) and being revered by his pagan subjects as a hero who would be welcomed by Odin to Valhalla.
And I don't think Harald Greycloak and his brothers would have been accepted as kings in Norway if Haakon had left a son to succeed him. And I'll be interested in what you say about King Harald. My recollection is that of all the sons of Eirik Blood-ax and Queen Gunnhild, he was the most able and intelligent. Possibly even a good king?
Sean
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