Ragnhild has murdered two husbands and outlived a third and is shunned. According to the author's Afterword, Ragnford is not heard of again after a battle described in the book and Gudrod was later killed trying to reconquer Norway.
"'Now they were all dead, the sons of Eirik and Gunnhild,' wrote Snorri."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Afterword, pp. 593-597 AT p. 597.
They not only set out to kill, conquer and rule but also did it in a way that made them few friends and many enemies, almost guaranteeing their failure, and also failed to learn anything from this experience - an object lesson in futility.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, Eirik Blood-ax, Gunnhild, and most of their children failed in their efforts to hold and rule Norway because the means and methods they used "made them few friends and many enemies, almost guaranteeing their failure." And worse of all, they failed to learn from this!
I would not include Rognvald, however, in this criticism. Unlike his brothers and sister, he never grew up to share in their foolishness, blundering, and crimes. Recall, this son of Eirik and Gunnhild was murdered by Egil Skallagrimsson when he was only eleven years old. True, he might have been just as disastrously foolish if he had lived to adulthood, but we can't know that.
Egil's murdering of Rognvald gives us an example of how some of their enemies could be just as ruthless as Eirik Blood-ax and Gunnhild.
Sean
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