Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson. Religious Ideas in Sonatorrek

• Author: Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson
• Title: Religious ideas in Sonatorrek
• Published in: Saga-book 25/2
• Place, Publisher: n/a
• Year: 1999
• Pages:159-78
• E-text:
• Reference: Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson. "Religious ideas in Sonatorrek." Saga-book 25/2 (1999):

159-78.

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• Key words:

Annotation

Aðalsteinsson analyses Sonatorrek to argue three points. First, he suggests that the poet must have had three sons, and not just the two that are mentioned in the saga but an unmentioned son that died in battle. This is the son that, according to the poem, ended up with Óðinn. Secondly, Aðalsteinsson examines the poet’s religious or spiritual views. By using alternate words found throughout Scandinavia, Aðalsteinsson reinterprets the meaning of some passages of Sonatorrek and argues that the poet believed in traditional religious practices. Finally, Aðalsteinsson argues that the poem connects with traditional understandings of Scandinavian religion and religious beliefs. In it Óðinn is depicted as a personal god, one that can trusted and leaned upon in times of need, which is evidently based on the spiritual belief of the writer. Also, the god Rán is humanized and shown as a god on the same level of power and personal understanding as Óðinn, creating a god of death with the same power to rule over those souls lost at sea as the god of those who die in battle.

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• Written by: Ashlie McDougall
• Icelandic/English translation: