Norna-Gests þáttr

The Death of Nornagest
Gunnar Vidar Forssell
Die Nornen
Johannes Gehrts (1889)

Nornagests þáttr or the Story of Norna-Gest is a legendary saga about the Norse hero Nornagestr, sometimes called Gestr, and here anglicized as Norna-Gest. Nornagests þáttr is as an episode of the Longest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason in the medieval Icelandic manuscript Flateyjarbók.[1]

Summary

Norna-Gest is the son of a Danish man named Thord Thingbiter, who once dwelt on the estate of Grøning in Denmark. As he relates in the tale, when he was born, three Norns arrived and foretold the child's destiny. Two of them gave him good gifts. However Skuld, the youngest of the Norns, deeming that the two others made rather light of her, determined to render void their promises of good fortune for the child. So she prophesied that his life was to last no longer than that of a candle standing lit beside the cradle. The eldest Norn (Urðr) instantly extinguished the flame and asked his mother to hide it well.

When Norna-Gest has grown up he becomes the care-taker of the candle and he is said to have lived for three-hundred years. He reports that he took part in the battles of Sigurd the Völsung, spent time with Ragnar Lodbrok's son Björn Ironside and his brothers, with Starkad, with the Swedish king Sigurd Hring, with King Erik at Uppsala,[a] with King Harald Fairhair and he was prime-signed by King Hlöðver of Germany (Louis the Pious of the Frankish Empire[8][b])[10][11]

According to the tale, Norna-Gest visits the court of King Olaf Tryggvason at the time when Olaf is trying to convert the Norse to Christianity. In the third year of the reign of King Olaf, Norna-Gest comes into the presence of the king and asks to be admitted to his bodyguard. He is uncommonly tall and strong and somewhat stricken in years. After relating his life-story, Norna-Gest permits himself to be baptized at the king's desire, and lights the candle that the norn Skuld had prophesied about. In accordance with the prophecy, when the candle fails, Norna-Gest dies.

Analogues

The story of Nornagest and his candle has a counterpart in Greek mythology: the story of Meleager, who was prophesied to live only as long as a certain log was unburnt. The exhibited motif-index is "E 765.1.1 life bound up with candle"; or "765.1.2 (torch)".[12] The story is included in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The motif is also paralleled by the late romance of Ogier the Dane,[13] and the writer of Norna-Gests þáttr may have well fused portions of Ogier's legend, as had been suggested obliquely by Friedrich Panzer [de].[16]

Adaptations

Science fiction writer Poul Anderson incorporated the story of Nornagest in The Boat of a Million Years, a collection of short stories about immortals.

Notes

  1. ^ "Eirekr at Uppsölum" (normalized spelling: Eiríkr). This king is only vaguely annotated as a Swedish king of the second half of the 9th century, and coeval with Harald Fairhair.[2][3] This could refer to Erik Refilsson, Erik Björnsson, Erik Anundsson or Eric the Victorious.[citation needed] Erik Gustaf Geijer (1850) appears to favor "Eirikr Uppsali" of Hervarar saga,[4] presumably Erik Anundsson, complicated by the fact that the recension of this saga that records the genealogy is considered corrupt, and to have interchanged the name with the father Anund Uppsale and son., as P. A. Munch (1850) pointed out.[5] The emendation according to Munch is made in Bugge's edition (1873) of the saga,[6] so that the correction appears silently as "King Onund [of Upsala] had a son called Eric, and he succeeded to the throne at Upsala... In his days Harold the Fair-haired made himself King of Norway" in Kershaw's translation of Hervarar saga.[7]
  2. ^ Hlöðver is how Louis the Pious is spelt in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta as a whole,[9]

References

  1. ^ Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes (Peter A. Munch. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. 1926) Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Kershaw (1921), Notes, p. 228
  3. ^ Wilken (1877), text, p. 259; Glossar, "Eirekr at Uppsölum", 2: 206
  4. ^ Geijer, Erik Gustaf (1850). "Fortsättning af konungalängden till nionde århundradet". Samlade skrifter. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt. p. 447, n8.
  5. ^ Munch, Peter Andreas (1874). "Om den gamle vestfoldske Søhandelsplads i Skiringssal og de vestfoldske Konger af Ynglinge-Ætten (1850)". In Storm, Gustav (ed.). Samlade skrifter. Vol. 2. Christiana: A. Cammermeyer. pp. 417–418.
  6. ^ Bugge, Sophus ed (1873) Hervarar saga, p. 293
  7. ^ Kershaw (1921), p. 140.
  8. ^ Zernach (2013): Ludwig der Fromme ("über.. Ludwig den Frommen").
  9. ^ Ólafur Halldórsson [in Icelandic] (2006). "Danakonungatal in Copenhagen, Royal Library Barth. D. iii. fol. : an edition". In Doane, A. N.; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Beatus Vir: Studies in Early English and Norse Manuscripts : in Memory of Phillip Pulsiano. Tempe, Arizona: ACMRS (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies). ISBN 9780866983648.
  10. ^ Wilken (1877) Cap. X, p. 215, "Hlöðvi kionungi a Saxlandi ok þar var ek prímsigndr; und Glossar, Wilken (1877), 2: 215
  11. ^ Kershaw (1921), Ch. X, p. 35："Hlöthver in the land of Saxons" and Notes, Kershaw (1921), p. 228
  12. ^ Harris & Hill (1989), p. 196, n17.
  13. ^ Brednich, Rolf Wilhelm (1964). Volkserzählungen und Volksglaube von den Schicksalsfrauen. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. p. 31. Auch in späteren Handschriften des Romans von Ogier dem Dänen hat das Motiv vom Leben, das an eine Fackel gebunden wird
  14. ^ Panzer (1925), p. 31.
  15. ^ Harris & Hill (1989), pp. 117–118.
  16. ^ Panzer's observations are complicated by the fact he regards Gestr to be a sword-bearer (Waffenträger). The first Latin source he partly quotes concerns Ricardus (Richard) claiming to be the sword-bearer of "Oliver the Dacian", the second source regards "Ogier the Dacian" who revives in a later age.[14][15]

Bibliography

(primary sources)
  • Wilken, Ernst Heinrich, ed. (1877). "Sögu-þáttr af Nornagesti". Die prosaische Edda im Auszuge nebst Volsunga-saga und Nornagests-tháttr (in Old Norse). Paderborn: F. Schöningh. pp. 235–261.
(secondary sources)

Further reading

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norna-Gests_%C3%BE%C3%A1ttr