The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nationsDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
History
The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations
“The Asar took the body of Baldr and carried it down to the sea.
Hringhorni was the name of Baldr’s ship; it was larger than any other
ship. The gods wanted to launch it for the _burning-voyage_ of Baldr,
but it did not move. Then the _gyg_ (Jötun-woman)[211] in Jötunheim,
named Hyrrokkin, was sent for. She came riding on a wolf, with snakes
for reins. She leapt from the steed, and Odin called to four Berserks to
take care of it, but they could not hold it except by throwing it down.
She went to the stem of the ship and pushed it forward at the first
attempt, so that fire issued from the rollers and the ground trembled.
Then Thor grew angry, seized his hammer, and would have broken her head
if the gods had not asked him to spare her. The body of Baldr was
carried out on the ship, and his wife Nanna, Nep’s daughter, on seeing
this died from grief. She was laid on the pyre and it was set on fire.
Thor went to it and consecrated it with _Mjölnir_. At his feet there ran
a Dverg named Lit. Thor pushed him with his foot into the fire, and he
was burned. To this burning came many kinds of people. First went Odin
and his ravens and Frigg, as well as the Valkyrias. Frey drove in a
carriage drawn by the boar called _Gullinbursti_ (gold bristle) or
_Slidrugtanni_ (the awful-tusked). Heimdal rode the horse _Gulltopp_
(gold tuft), and Freyja with her cats. There came also many Hrim Thursar
and Bergrisar. Odin laid on the pyre the gold ring _Draupnir_;
afterwards every ninth night there dropped from it eight equally heavy
gold rings. The horse of Baldr was led on the pyre in full harness”
(Gylfaginning, ch. 49).
“They carried him in the snowstorm to Naustanes, where a tent was put
over him at night. In the morning, at high water, Skallagrim was laid in
a ship, and they rowed to Digranes. Egil had a mound made near the end
of the ness (cape), and in this he was laid, with his horse, his
weapons, and smithying tools. It is not mentioned that loose property
was put in the mound with him. Egil took the inheritance, lands, and
loose property; he took care of the farm” (Egil’s Saga, c. 61).
Gudrun after having slain her husband Atli said:
I will buy a ship (knörr),[212]
And a painted coffin,
Wax well the sheets[213]
To wrap thy corpse with;
Think of every need,
As if we were friends.
“Geirmund died at Geirmundsstadir, and was laid in a ship in the woods
near the farm (gard).”
Of this Geirmund much is told of in Sturlunga as a great chief.
“Thórir, An’s brother, fell in a battle against king Lugjaldi of
Naumdœlafylki.
“An had a mound made and put a ship in it and placed Thórir in its
lypting, but the king’s men he placed along both sides of the ship that
it might look as if all served him” (An Bogsveigi’s Saga, ch. 6).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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