North, Richard. The Pagan Inheritance of Egill’s Sonatorrek

• Author: North, Richard
• Title: The Pagan Inheritance of Egill’s Sonatorrek Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages
• Published in: The Seventh International Saga Conference Spoleto, 4-10 September 1988
• Place, Publisher: Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro studi
• Year: 1988
• Pages: 147-67
• E-text:
• Reference: North, Richard. "The Pagan Inheritance of Egill’s Sonatorrek Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages". The Seventh International Saga Conference Spoleto, 4-10 September 1988, pp. 147-67. Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro studi, 1988.

---

• Key words: poetry, intertextuality (kveðskapur, textatengsl)

Annotation

An analysis of Sonatorrek as Egil’s personal expression of grief following his son Bodvar’s death and its significance in terms of Egil’s beliefs and of his relationship with Óðinn. North suggests that the poem belongs to a “Germanic genre of male elegy” (158), and parallels are drawn between Egil and King Hreðel in Beowulf (2446-67) and the Vandal king Gelimar. Egil does not face a religious crisis in Sonatorrek; rather, Egil is making resort to the “catharsis of elegy... as an alternative to revenge” (161). North concludes his paper with an excursus comparing Hreðel’s elegy with Sonatorrek, focusing on parallels between Hreðel’s giedd wrecan and geð, reka and -rek as found in Sonatorrek.

Lýsing

Í greininni er Sonatorrek túlkað sem persónuleg tjáning Egils á sorg sinni í kjölfar dauða Böðvars, sonar hans, en jafnframt sem vitnisburður um trú Egils og samband hans við Óðinn. North setur fram þá kenningu að kvæðið tilheyri germanskri elegíuhefð karlskálda og ber í því sambandi Egil saman við Hreðel konung í Bjólfskviðu (2446-67) og Gelimar konung Vandala. Sonatorrek ber ekki vott um trúarlega kreppu Egils heldur kemur harmljóð hans í stað hefndar (161). Í lok greinarinnar ber North elegíu Hreðels saman við Sonatorrek.

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason