Wednesday 15 June 2016

Hrolf Kraki's Saga

The narrator says that the Skjoldungs were believed to be descended from Odin of the Aesir whereas the Ynglings were descended from Frey of the Vanir and that one Yngling was an ancestor of Harald Fairhair, who is the father-in-law of the title character of Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings and the great-great-grandfather of the title character of Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy. I know that I keep emphasizing this historical interconnectedness of Anderson's works but that is because I like it.

Between the Skjoldungs and the Ynglings are the Gotar who include Beowulf, who appears in this book! Thus, Anderson's works connect not only with each other but also with other works of literature. Beginning to reread the ...Saga, I find a passage that recalls similar passages in Time Patrol and War Of The Gods but also find that I have remarked on it before here. The references are:

"...the Great King had given so much law to his dominions that it was said a virgin with a sack of gold could walk unmolested across all Persia."
-Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 65.

"At last a maiden could walk alone, mile after mile, without fear."
-War Of The Gods (New York, 1999), p. 218.

Early in ...Saga, we also find two princes in danger of assassination sheltered in humbler circumstances, a familiar story.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The endangered princes reminds me both of how the future Cyrus the Great had his life threatened by his grandfather King Astyages and the English Edward V and his brother Richard. And the three main candidates for their murderer were their uncle Richard III, Henry VII, and the Duke of Buckingham.

Sean