Skuld And Dahut

Skuld and Dahut are opposites. Dahut wound up in the sea whereas Skuld was born there. She remembers:

a huge green coolness;
flitting shapes;
tides pulsing like music;
songs;
plucked strings;
shivering silver pipes -

- or sea birds or a dream.

Because of her earliest experiences, her dreams are unlike anyone else's. Imagine having early memories that you had never learned words for.

Skuld and Dahut are in some ways similar. Skuld tries to destroy her brother, King Hrolf, as Dahut tries to destroy her father, King Gratillonius. Both express the revenge of personified natural forces against the encroachments of civilization. The Gods of Ys tolerated a city as long as they retained the power to destroy it. With rising sea levels, maybe they will destroy London and New York?

Like Sea-Waves

Supernatural beings are personifications of natural forces. When a god speaks, it sounds as if the wind does. See here, here and especially here. Or when the wind blows, it sounds as if a god speaks?

Hrolf Kraki's half-sister, Skuld, was born undersea to an elven woman descended from Ran. So Skuld is partly a personification of the sea? And, sure enough:

"...mostly one saw the eyes, large and long-lashed, a changeable green which could shift from almost blue to almost golden, like sea-waves." (Hrolf Kraki, pp. 125-126)

Not just blue eyes but eyes changeable in color like the waves of the sea. What could be more appropriate? Skuld's body expresses the medium from and within which she was born. But, probably at this point in the text, we hasten past the descriptive passage because we are keen to read the dialogue between King Hrolf and Skuld and to learn how he will tackle the tricky question of her alleged witchcraft - which also fits with her having an elven mother. Every word matters here, not just those inside inverted commas.

Addendum: In fact, see also here.

Bright Firelight

I have quoted many passages describing natural beauty in Poul Anderson's works. People in past ages not only lived directly with nature but also made for themselves a comfortable indoor environment when it was necessary to shelter against winter nights:

"By bright firelight, in a room warm and full of the smells of woodsmoke, roast meat, rushes on the floor, where flames crackled and talk and laughter rang...'" (Hrolf Kraki's Saga, p. 125)

Firelight has replaced sunlight. Here we have:

light;
warmth;
pleasant smells;
sounds of crackling, talk and laughter;
by implication also, the taste of roast meat.

Thus, four (or five) senses in less than a single sentence.

Witchcraft

In this post, I discuss a religious issue, then show how this issue, like many others, manifests in works by Poul Anderson.

Christians distinguish between wholesome religious practices and unwholesome witchcraft. Of course, they disagree as to what is wholesome. Someone on the Protestant side of the argument coined the term "priestcraft." To an Evangelical, Zen meditation is unwholesome because it is not focused on Christ whereas some Christians might instead regard Zen as the Logos, which enlightens everyone, manifesting in human minds and drawing them nearer to the Truth.

(What constitutes "respect for the Lord" is entirely a matter of which tradition we practice in. Someone familiar only with Pure Land Buddhism was shocked on entering our zendo to see people sitting for meditation with their backs to the Buddha.)

Although Christians anathematize all pagan practices, pagans themselves apparently distinguished between the wholesome and the unwholesome. See seid, Ahdils and Skuld.

Hrolf's half-sister, Skuld, named after a Norn by her elven mother who was descended from the sea giantess, Ran, frequents:

"'...barrows where heatless fires and walking shapes are seen after dark...'" (Hrolf Kraki's Saga, p. 124)

- and where:

"'...hoof-beats and hound-howlings go through the night air.'" (ibid.)

Skuld:

mutters;
makes passes;
kills birds before dolmens;
runs into the woods unafraid of wolves, outlaws or trolls;
has signs carved on her shoulder blade.

Eerie and troubling for her foster-parents.

I suppose that gods and trolls were approximate equivalents of God and the Devil. Those who sought power not from gods or God but from trolls or the Devil were regarded as unwholesome - and destined to fight against Asgard at the Ragnarok or against Heaven at Armageddon.

Grukking

Sometime later I was awakened by loud grukking. The sound resembled off-key music made by a sharp-toothed orangutan blowing spit through a twisted copper pipe. In other words, indescribable unless you hear it yourself.
-copied from here.

I copied this passage because it explains a word used by Poul Anderson:

"This was a chilly fall day. Wind boomed across stubblefields and the grey heath beyond them. Clouds hastened through an ice-pale sky where a flight of storks was outward bound, high and high above. Close down, some ravens flapped black and grukking. Off on one side lifted a wood, leaves ablaze in red, russet, brass, bronze, ripped loose and whirled away by the blast. Afar northward, a steel glimmer bespoke the sea." (Hrolf Kraki's Saga, p. 124)

Only three senses here but a vivid descriptive passage nevertheless.

The Tale Of Svipdag!

Now all is clear to us. See here. In section II, a yeoman's son hight Svipdag, seeking service with the Swedish King Adhils, kills four of Adhils' berserkers in single combat (holmgang) and a fifth when the remaining eight ambush him later. Adhils banishes the surviving seven and makes Svipdag, who is favored by Queen Yrsa, his sole bodyguard. Clearly there will be more to be told about Svipdag.

Meanwhile, however, section III at last begins the story of the Danish King Hrolf who rules from the age of sixteen. Everything that has gone before has led to this:

Frodhi ruled but was overthrown by Hroar and Helgi;
Helgi raped Olof who bore Yrsa;
Helgi married Yrsa who bore Hrolf;
Olof told Yrsa of her parentage;
Yrsa married Adhils who had Helgi killed;
Hroar died and was succeeded by his son, Hrorik;
Hrorik fell in battle and Hrolf succeeded.

Now what will happen between Hrolf, Adhils, Yrsa and Svipdag? Only further reading will tell but not tonight.

The Tale Of Svipdag?

For other blogging done today, see here.

I am getting to grips with the structure of Hrolf Kraki's Saga:

Part II, The Tale Of Frodhi, is about the kingship of Frodhi who is killed by the brothers, Hroar and Helgi;

Part III, The Tale Of The Brothers, is about the joint kingship of Hroar and Helgi and ends with the death of Helgi;

Part IV, The Tale Of Svipdag, is divided into sections I-VI;

in section I, Hroar dies, his son Hrorik succeeds but is unacceptable and falls in battle and Helgi's son, Hrolf, becomes king.

Hrolf is the title character of the saga but who is Svipdag? Only further reading will tell.

One passage struck me as humorous. When Hrorik succeeded:

"The headmen had no faith in an overlord known for his sloth and miserliness...'Not being fools,' they said, 'henceforward we look to ourselves.'" (p. 112)

Well, they did not literally say that. A historical comedy film might show a bunch of guys around a council table, then solemnly intoning in unison, "Not being fools, henceforward we look to ourselves!" But the narrator of the saga puts words into the Danish headmen's mouths in order to convey to her audience how those headmen felt about Hrorik.

The story is complicated but I am getting some sense of it by summarizing episodes for blogging purposes.

A Sound Of Thunder

My attention is divided because I have got into analyzing a newer novel over on the Science Fiction blog and I also want to start watching Smallville Season 7 on dvd! However, Hrolf Kraki also demands continued attention and what better way to say goodbye to Hrolf's father, Helgi, than to celebrate his last ride?

"Helgi rode on at the head of his own troop. The river murmured and blinked in sunlight. Tree shadows dappled it. A kingfisher darted, blue as the hovering dragonflies. Hoofs plopped, leather squeaked, metal clinked. The air was thick and hot; men sweated and swatted at bugs. Westward above the leaves was piling a violet wall of clouds, and thunder rolled across miles."
-Poul Anderson, Hrolf Kraki's Saga (New York, 1973), p. 105.

I had to quote that paragraph in full. Each new description of nature seems better than its predecessors. The river gives us sound and reflected sunlight. Colors are blue and violet. There are three sounds associated with riding. Heat is a fourth kind of physical sensation; "...sweated and swatted..." is good alliteration. And we end with the sound of thunder - a warning of Helgi's imminent death?

Immediately after the thunder:

"Suddenly clangor awoke. Scrambling from the brush to take stance across the ruts came a host of armed men." (ibid.)

Dying, Helgi quotes the Edda:

"'Garm breaks loose. He has swallowed the moon -'" (p. 107)

A Biblical passage is also appropriate:

"...all who draw the sword will die by the sword." (Mt. 26:52) See also here.

Uppsala II

See Uppsala.

In the shaw behind the temple, King Adhils makes conventional offerings of men and animals hanged, speared and left for Odin's ravens and also practices unorthodox witchcraft.

In the center of the city, Adhils has a wide stockaded square of buildings around a flagged courtyard. A gallery on one of these buildings gives a view of:

the royal garth;
the town;
grainfields;
the River Fyris;
woods to the south.

Adhils is an Yngling and rules Svithjodh. The Gota-King Bjovulf/Beowulf helped Adhils to gain his kingship. It is good to read of Beowulf's deeds other than those in Beowulf. After everything, Helgi made a good end. Having failed to persuade Yrsa to leave Adhils and return to Denmark with him, he set off on the return journey only to be treacherously attacked and killed by Adhil's men.

Now I must read more of a novel that will be discussed on Science Fiction.

Uppsala

Poul Anderson, Hrolf Kraki's Saga (New York, 1973), p. 98.

As Helgi enters Uppsala, lur horns low. It is a big, sprawling, busy town with timber houses usually two stories high. The gloomy ways between are full of people and swine. On a hill outside the town, the biggest temple in Northern Europe has piled roofs with gold-sheathed gables and monster-headed beam-ends and tall wooden images of twelve high gods although Anderson names only seven and includes Aegir of the Sea who I thought was a giant although he clearly deserves honor as the equivalent of Lir or Poseidon/Neptune.

Four gods are accompanied by their symbol:

Odin with the Spear;
Thor with the Hammer;
Frey on his boar;
Heimdall with the Gjallar Horn.

Frey also has something else which I prefer not to mention. The other two gods are Baldr and Tyr.