Viking Insights

The Sagas of Ketil Trout and Grim Hairy-cheek are two of the Sagas of the Men of Hrafnista, stories written in medieval Iceland about the legendary Norwegian ancestors of contemporary families. Like the rest of the Legendary Sagas, they are fantastic in tone, featuring trolls and other monsters. The Saga of Grim Hairy-cheek is in many ways a sequel to The Saga of Ketil Trout, as Grim Hairy-cheek is the son of Ketil Trout. He receives his unattractive epithet in his father’s saga when his mother Hrafnhild catches sight of a hairy Lapp while conceiving him with Ketil. Ketil Trout’s own nickname derives from his modesty or naivety when referring to a dragon he slays.Ketil Trout is of a common type of hero in Norse saga, and indeed in international folklore; the ‘coalbiter’ or male Cinderella, who lazes by the hearth rather than taking part in domestic tasks until spurred on to adventure and heroic deeds, from which he receives ‘a name that will never die beneath the heavens.’ The despair of his father, considered a fool by other people on Hrafnista (modern Ramsta in Norway), he proves himself on a series of expeditions into the North where he slays dragons and fights trolls. Along the way he meets and marries Hrafnhild, daughter of Bruni, brother of the Lapp king Gusir. He slays Gusir, Bruni’s rival, and obtains the magical arrows Flaug, Hremsa and Fifa and Dragvendill ‘best of swords.’ With these accomplishments he goes on to prove himself a hero among his own people, but he is faithless in love, and bad blood exists between his people and those of his abandoned wife Hrafnhild. Grim Hairy-cheek inherits his father’s lands and weapons, but also, it seems, something of his lucklessness in love and propensity for cohabiting with trolls. His saga is rather shorter, and episodic in nature; its most memorable episode contains elements reminiscent of Arthurian romance (the Loathly Lady motif) and later Scandinavian folklore (similar trolls appear in East of the Moon, West of the Sun). Grim himself is the father of Odd the Traveller, or Arrow-Odd, whose much longer saga is a sequel to his own story. ‘And this story shall also be told.’

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CLF18TQT
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (October 8, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 49 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8863790251
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.68 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.12 x 8 inches

Written as a kind of sequel to The Saga of the Volsungs, and following directly on from the former in some manuscripts, The Saga of Ragnar Shaggy-breeches exists in an uneasy half-and-half world between legend and history. Although some characters in The Saga of the Volsungs are based on historical persons, its central hero, Sigurd the Dragonslayer, is a mythic superhuman. Ragnar Shaggy-breeches, however, and his ambitious sons, Ivar the Boneless and his brothers, are identifiable as historical figures – although Ragnar himself is as much of a dragonslayer as Sigurd, and his sons fight even stranger monsters. The link between Sigurd and Ragnar is a little tenuous, and entirely unhistorical; Aslaug, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild becomes Ragnar’s second wife under bizarre circumstances. Ivar himself appears in English history as a Viking invader who killed various Anglo Saxon kings, including the St Edmund after whom Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk gets its name. In the saga, however, his transformed into a cunning trickster who uses a trick common to Germanic origin legends to become the founder of London. His father Ragnar is held to be based on a historical Viking leader who besieged Paris, while his murderer Ella is also historical – although there is no reason to believe they ever met, let alone that Ella consigned Ragnar to death in a snake pit. It is clear that the Christian Scandinavians of the High Middle Ages, the period during which the sagas achieved their written form, were ashamed of their heathen ancestors’ excesses, and Ivar’s character in particular receives a whitewash. In the end, he becomes a kind of saintly figure himself, whose uncorrupted body magically guards England from invasion until William the Conqueror disinters him.The saga itself is something of a hotchpotch, with its anonymous author apparently drawing upon writers such as the Dane Saxo Grammaticus and the Norman Dudo of San Quentin, and it has never had the literary acclaim of The Saga of the Volsungs. Nevertheless, it has been adapted on several occasions in recent decades, being the basis for the 1958 film The Vikings, and more recently the Vikings TV series. Both of these adaptations have been criticised on grounds of historic accuracy, but when their source is taken into account, with its wild and unlikely legendary narrative, they seem very sober in comparison. To do the saga justice would require the talents of more idiosyncratic filmmakers; a Ray Harryhausen, if not a Terry Gilliam, would be required to adequately realise Sibilia, the giant troll-cow whose frenzied mooing drives her enemies insane…

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CKS8C77T
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (October 8, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 138 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8863788999
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.32 x 8 inches