Cover image for Ep. 124, featuring an illustration, "Cormac sees Steingerd at the door" by W.G. Collingwood.

We inaugurate our first “Saga Summer” a bit late this year, but starting with an early poet’s saga, a tale of love and betrayal, duels and magic. This is Part 1 (of 4) of Kormak’s Saga.

Today’s Texts:

  • The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald. Translated by W.G. Collingwood and J. Stefansson. Viking Club Translation Series, no. 1., Wm Holmes, Ltd., 1902. Google Books.
  • Kormáks saga. Icelandic Saga Database, edited by Sveinbjorn Thordarson, 2007. https://www.sagadb.org/kormaks_saga.is.
  • Egil’s Saga. Translated by W.C. Green, 1893. Internet Sacred Texts Archive.
  • Egil’s Saga. Translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin, 1976.

Egil’s Saga. Translated by Bernard Skudder, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, Penguin, 2001, pp. 3-184.

References:

  • Andersson, T.M. “The Emergence of Vernacular Literature in Iceland.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 8, no. 4, Summer 1975, pp. 161-169. JSTOR.
  • Finlay, Alison. “Skalds, Troubadours and Sagas.” Saga-Book, vol. 24, 1994-1997, pp. 105-154. JSTOR.
  • Hollander, Lee. “The Case of the Skald Kormak.” Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht, vol. 35, no. 3/4, Mar.-Apr. 1943, pp. 107-115. JSTOR.
  • Jónas Kristjánsson. Eddas and Sagas. Translated by Peter Foote, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1997.
  • Malm, Mats. “Skalds, Runes, and Voice.” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, vol. 6, 2010, pp. 135-46. JSTOR.
  • O’Donoghue, Heather. Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction. Blackwell, 2005.
  • Poole, Russell. “Composition Transmission Performance: The First Ten lausavísur in Kormáks saga.” Alvíssmál, 7, 1997, pp. 37-60. https://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~alvismal/7kormak.pdf
  • Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings. Revised ed., translated by Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams, Penguin, 1998.
  • Edith Marold, editor. “Kormákr Ǫgmundarson.” The Skaldic Project.

Audio Credits:

  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, EMI Films, 1975.
  • “Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment.” Written by JOhn Swartzwelder. The Simpsons, season 8, episode 18, March 16, 1997.
  • “Kormak’s Theme” and “Harpish Improvisations” composed and performed by Patrick Lane.

Image Credit: Watercolor by W.G. Collingwood, “Sunset over Mel and Midfjord” (1897), reproduced in The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald (1902).