Stories & Soliloquies

Stories & Soliloquies
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    • Mini-Syllabus: Introduction to Viking Lore

      Posted at 12:30 pm by Michelle Joelle, on January 28, 2015

      Last year I wrote that I like to read books in coherent clumps. When I pick a book to read, I generally find myself seeking more like it, branching out step by step until I’ve completed what essentially becomes a miniature syllabus. I’ve decided to show off some of these syllabi. Some are more coherent than others, some built chronologically, others by theme, but all of them held together by a central set of questions.

      The starting question for today’s syllabus is pretty simple – I wanted to know all about Vikings and their tales. I’ve had a mild interest in Norse mythology and history in the past, but I’ve never given it any serious, dedicated study. My interest has always been in terms of something – Norse influence on Irish culture (major), Norse influence on Tolkien, Norse influence on language, on navigation, on colonialism, on storytelling, on pretty much everything under the sun (seriously, the North men went everywhere and touched everything) – but after my trip to L’Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland, I was ready to tackle it head on, particularly in terms of Vinland, and in terms of the Vikings as storytellers.

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      I waded in slowly, picking up a piece of historical fiction, but have since branched out into the major foundational texts behind Norse storytelling, some history, and an endless array of sagas. While this list will be terribly obvious for anyone with even the smallest interest in Norse history, I hope it will be helpful for anyone who is just getting started.

      Your Starting Point in Modern Fiction:

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      1) Eiriksdottir, by Joan Clark – I purchased this at The Norseman, a restaurant in L’Anse Aux Meadows, and it’s so well written. I had heard a little bit of Freydis’ tale during Sagas and Shadows (a storytelling hour in the longhouse), but the book can stand alone to introduce you to the tale. I admit that I enjoyed knowing the tale beforehand, as the details of it all are quite mysterious. Clark’s version is a dark and gritty speculation about those details.

      The Essentials:

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      2) The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology, by Snorri Sturluson – This is basically a manual to Norse mythology; it tells you a little bit about the stories and sagas, but it mainly gives you the content and tools you need to tell them yourself. My favorite takeaway device: the kenning.

      3) Poetic Edda, translated by Carolyne Larrington – This text gives you Icelandic verse and heroic poems, just as they are. The verses themselves lay out the world view of the Vikings, drawing heavily on references you learn about in the Prose Edda.

      Three Sagas:

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      While there are many sagas to choose from, I’d say that these three will give you the most payoff for your reading. Of course, you could just dive in and read them all, but this is just an introduction.

      4) The Vinland Sagas – Because these tell of Eirik the Red and Leif Eirikson, they tie directly to the tale of Freydis Eiriksdottir, and so are an absolute must if you’re starting out with Joan Clark’s book.

      5) King Harald’s Saga – Harald Fairhair is roughly the epitome of Vikings. He’s a bit less of a rogue than Eirik the Red (who was more of an outlaw), so he gives you a better insight into the workings of Norse society.

      6) The Saga of the Volsungs – This is the saga you want to read to get an understanding of the Germanic ring cycle that inspired Wagner. Because it has the most obvious connections to more modern stories, it really demonstrates the legacy of Viking storytelling.

      Audio Augmentation:

      7) LibriVox’s recording of Jennie Hall’s Viking Tales, a children’s version of King Harald’s Saga – Viking tales are better heard than read, and are meant to be not just recited, but retold. This is a great example, and it is free online.

      8) BBC In Our Time‘s Podcast on the Icelandic Sagas – This is effectively your course lecture on the rich Norse tradition of storytelling, featuring the incomparable Melvyn Bragg with academic speakers on Medieval literature, Scandinavian history, and Icelandic manuscripts.

      Bonus Background Reading:

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      If you’re not quite satisfied at this point, I recommend the following three non-fiction works to keep you going:

      9) Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, by H.R. Ellis Davidson – For an in-depth look at the tradition of myth-making and storytelling of the Vikings, this is an accessible bit of scholarship.

      10) The Vikings and Their Age, by Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald – This is a great historical textbook for getting to know the non-mythological components of the sagas, which helps to make sense of their complicated “sort of true” foundations.

      11) Vinland Revisited: The Norse World at the Turn of the First Millennium, edited by Shannon Lewis-Simpson – This is a wonderful collection of papers all focused on the history of the Viking voyages and settlements West of Europe, with a special focus, of course, on what led the Vikings to L’Anse aux Meadows (and why there’s good reason to think it’s part of the Vinland Sagas).

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      TL;DR: If this is all just a bit too much, and you’d like a contemporary and comprehensive introduction to Norse lore, The Norse Myths, by Kevin Crossley-Holland is great way to cover some of the material more quickly.

       

      Posted in Series | 10 Comments | Tagged book list, canada, harald fairhair, history, myths, newfoundland, norse mtyhology, reading list, sagas, storytelling, syllabus, viking sagas, vikings, vinland
    • The Blacksmith’s Apprentice: a Poem

      Posted at 12:00 pm by Michelle Joelle, on December 15, 2014

      When Norse legends include mentions of Vinland, the magical land where Leif Eiriksson found grapes and berries growing freely across the land and iron bubbled up from the bogs, it’s likely that they’re talking about the 11th-century Viking Settlement, L’anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Lots of Northern Atlantic islands claim to be Vinland, but the northern tip of Newfoundland is the only place archaeologists have found the remains of Northern European style buildings and artifacts. If you take a trip to Newfoundland, this is a must see.

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      This is Ragnar Redbeard, one of the friendly Viking reenactors on site, and the settlement’s blacksmith. He performs demonstrations of his work and makes replicas of the iron artifacts that visitors can pick up and experience. He also chooses a child from the audience to act as his apprentice, running the bellows while he works.

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      Naturally, my husband and I were keen to participate, so after the demonstration, we asked if we could perhaps, if it wasn’t too much trouble, take a turn at the bellows and ask him a few more questions. We wanted to know more about how the settlers harvested the iron ore and processed it, and then turned it into tools. We were ready for Ragnar to answer our questions but laugh off our request to help, but amazingly, he was thrilled that we wanted to join in the fun.

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      Because we were on our honeymoon, Ragnar let us help make two items that fit together – a nail and a hook. It’s our favorite souvenir from the trip, and is now proudly on display in our home.

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      It was a lot of fun, but I have to say – running the bellows is a lot of work, and it’s not easy to do. You can’t have any pauses in the airflow, and so you need to develop a musical rhythm to keep each bellow slightly offset from the other. You can’t just switch back and forth, or else you risk a gap in the airflow. To brag a little, I was almost a little too zealous – my bellow skills were so good and so pause-less that Ragnar had to ask me to slow down. It’s a delicate balance.

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      In thinking about that work, and the real apprentices who would have to keep that delicate rhythm for hours and hours, waiting for a chance to learn another skill, gain a little responsibility, and get the chance to make something from start to finish, I came up with a little poem. The smith in this poem is far less friendly than Ragnar, who I’m sure would never treat his apprentice this way, and the rhythm is more like a song than a poem. I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless.

      The Blacksmith’s Apprentice
      by Michelle Joelle

      Keep the rhythm of the bellows
      Keep the fire glowing red
      Never forget your place, good fellow
      Never you let the coals go dead.

      Watch the blacksmith stoke the fire
      Watch him making nails and tools
      Never shall you work the iron
      Never shape it as it cools.

      Hold the rhythm of the bellows
      Hold your tongue and earn your keep
      Never you boast among your fellows
      Never sow what you cannot reap.

      Make no promise past the fire
      Make no deals with any one
      Never shall your work the iron
      Never while you’re under thumb.

      Keep the rhythm of the bellows
      Keep your master’s fire red
      Never forget your place, good fellow
      Never you’ll rise ’til your master is dead.

      Posted in Poems | 10 Comments | Tagged apprentice, blacksmith, iron, my work, newfoundland, poem, poetry, vikings, vinland, writing
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