Harris, Joseph. Sacrifice and Guilt in Sonatorrek

• Author: Harris, Joseph
• Title: Sacrifice and Guilt in Sonatorrek
• Published in: Studien zum Altgermanischen. Festschrift für Heinrich Bech
• Editor: Heiko Uecker
• Place, Publisher: Bonn: W. de Gruyter
• Year: 1994
• Pages:173-96
• E-text: Google Books
• Reference: Harris, Joseph. "Sacrifice and Guilt in Sonatorrek." Studien zum Altgermanischen. Festschrift für Heinrich Bech, pp. 173-96. Ed. Heiko Uecker. Bonn: W. de Gruyter, 1994.

---

• Key words: poetry, characterization (kveðskapur, persónulýsingar)

Annotation

An exploration of the mythology and psychology of Sonatorrek. In Sonatorrek, Egill casts himself as Odin and his lost sons as Baldur. Harris argues that Egill also takes on the personas of King Aun, King Haraldur hilditönn and Starkaður the Old in the course of the poem, all of whom are sacrificers or would-be sacrificers of sons or near-kinsmen. Aun, Haraldur and Starkaður make deliberate requests of Odin – long life or poetic skill – in exchange for these sacrifices. Egill’s two sacrifices are involuntary, but Odin rewards him with long life and poetic skill for the death of two sons. For this, Egill expresses both a sense of gratitude for these rewards (bætr) and the guilt of the survivor-sacrificer.

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: