Death at the Dragon’s Prow

If there’s one thing you can say about Medieval Scandinavian poetry, is that much of it is haunting in its sorrowful beauty. This piece of poetry forms part of the Sturlungasaga. Read only in this context, its first two lines immediately brought to mind the carved dragon prows found on some of the Viking ships.

You must climb up on to the keel,

cold is the sea-spray’s feel;

From the Oseberg ship. Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra.

let not your courage bend:

here your life must end.

Old man, keep your upper lip firm

though your head be bowed by the storm.

You have had girls’ love in the past ;

death comes to all at last.

This is the original text in Old Norse:

Upp skaltu á kjöl klífa,

köld er sævar drífa;

kostaðu hug þinn herða,

hér skaltu lífit verða.

Skafl beygjattu skalli

Þótt skúr á þik falli.

Ást hafðir þú meyja;

eitt sinn skal hver deyja.*

This poem is actually recited by Þórir jökull Steinfinnsson just before his execution. But that would not have made a very attractive title for the post, now would it?

*Both English and Old Norse texts quoted from What Was Viking Poetry For? by Anthony Faulkes.

And there’s more!

Visit www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk for some other great texts and tales (most scholarly).

The website www.heimskringla.no also has a wide variety of texts dealing with Medieval Icelandic literature and Norse mythology in various languages.

The Anglo-Saxon (Old English) manuscript of Beowulf can now be viewed for free on the British Library website,over here.

Sources:

Faulkes, Anthony. 1993. What Was Viking Poetry For? Inaugural lecture delivered on 27th April 1993 in the University of Birmingham. ISBN: 0704413957

Photo: From the Oseberg ship. Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra.. Click here for the link to his beautiful gallery at Flickr.