Kormak’s Saga (Part 2)

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We continue with Kormak’s Saga as a new lead character is introduced, Holmgang Bersi, who soon becomes ensnared in the drama of the cursed romance of Kormak and Steingerd. We also learn the basic of Viking duelling and its weapons, and also try to get a grip on the slippery terminology of Norse magic.

Today’s Text:

• 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.

References:

• Biel, William. “Memory of Iron: Object Rhetoric and Collective Memory in Laxdæla saga.” Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études Scandinaves au Canada, vol. 28, 2021, pp. 178-203, https://scancan.net/index.php/scancan/article/view/206/411.
• The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. Translated by Jesse Byock, Penguin, 1998.
• Jones, Gwyn. “Some Characteristics of the Icelandic ‘Hólmganga.'” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 32, no. 2, Apr. 1933, pp. 203-224. JSTOR.
• “Units of Measure and Relative Value in the Viking Age.” Ancient Finances, 12 Dec. 2017, https://ancientfinances.com/2017/12/04/units-of-measure-and-relative-value-in-the-viking-age/.

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