Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Egill Skalla-Grímsson

• Author: Turville-Petre, Gabriel
• Title: Egill Skalla-Grímsson
• Published in: Scaldic Poetry
• Place, Publisher: Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Year: 1976
• Pages: 15-41
• E-text:
• Reference: Turville-Petre, Gabriel. "Egill Skalla-Grímsson." Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976, pp. 15–41.

---

• Key words:

Annotation

The article deals with Egill Skalla-Grímsson as a poet and discusses and examines a selection of his works. Höfuðlausn, Arinbjarnakviða and Sonatorrek are the most famous poems among Egil‘s oeuvre which includes more than 40 verses. Turville-Petre discusses ten shorter verses from Egils saga which are important elements of the story and then examines Egil‘s most famous poem: Sonatorrek. He explains the context of Sonatorrek which gives the reader an insight into Egil‘s state of mind after the death of two of his sons. The poem depicts Egil‘s religious opinion and ideas very well. The article examines furthermore the structure of the poem which is divided into seven parts and it‘s important role within Egils saga.

Lýsing

Greinin fjallar um Egil Skalla-Grímsson sem skáld. Það eru rúmlega 40 lausavísur og ljóð eftir Egil í Egils sögu, þar á meðal Höfuðlausn, Arinbjarnakviða og Sonatorrek. Turville-Petre fjallar um tíu styttri lausavísur sem skipta máli í sögunni og svo greinir hann þekktasta kvæði Egils: Sonatorrek. Turville-Petre útskýrir samhengi og mikilvægi kvæðisins í sögunni. Auk þess greinir hann formgerð þess sem er skiptist í sjö hluta. Ljóðið er afar áhrifamikið af því að lesandinn fær innsýn í sálarástand Egils eftir að Böðvar og Gunnar, synir hans, deyja. Enn fremur lýsir Sonatorrek trúarlegri skoðun Egils afar vel, enda eru þar margar vísanir til norrænna guða.

References

Chapter 80: fagnafundr: „The Sonatorrek, perhaps better than any other poem, illustrates the religious outlook of a man of Egill¬‘s time – even though he was a far from ordinary man. In its twenty-five strophes the Sonatorrek contains about twenty allusions to gods or myths, some of which are obscure to us. [...] Poetry, for pagans, was sacred, and in the Sonatorrek Egill several times alludes to the story of its origin. It is the joyful find of Frigg‘s kinsmen, brought long ago from the world of giants (2); it is the theft of Óðinn (1), and Óðinn‘s gift to Egill (24)“ (pp. 25-26).

Links

• Written by: Simone Kölbl
• English translation: Simone Kölbl