Picture of Egil in a 17th century manuscript of
Egils Saga (c.910-c.990) was an
Icelandic skald and the great
anti-hero of
Icelandic literature.
Several accounts tell of him slaughtering as many as 20 or more armed men single-handedly and even dispatching a feared
berserker with relative ease. In spite of this, he was considered a healer, and his saga tells of him curing a girl who had been ill for quite some time where all other efforts had proven futile. In some ways he resembled his god
Odin: breaking his oaths, killing for trifles, and practicing sorcery.
Life
The following is based on the Icelandic saga "Egils saga"; like many sagas, it can be unreliable as a source of historical fact. Egill was born in Iceland, the son of
Skalla-Grímr Kveldúlfsson and Bera Yngvarsdóttir, and the grandson of
Kveld-Úlfr ("Evening Wolf"). When Grímr arrived in Iceland, he settled at
Borg, the place where his father's coffin landed. Grímr was a famous warrior and an enemy of
Harald Fairhair of
Norway.
Egill wrote his first poem at the age of three years. He exhibited
berserk behaviour, and this, together with the description of his large and unattractive head, has led to the theory that he might have suffered from
Paget's disease. This is corroborated by an archeological find of a head from the Viking era which is likely to be Egill's.
At the age of seven, Egill was cheated in a game with local boys. Enraged, he went home and procured an axe, and returning to the boys, split the skull of the one who cheated him, to the teeth. After Berg-Önundr refused to allow Egill to claim his wife Ásgerðr's share of her father's inheritance, he challenged Önundr to a
holmgang. Egill killed Bárðr of Atley, one of the king's retainers, thus making an enemy of Queen Gunnhildr, who never forgave him and did everything within her power to take revenge. Gunnhildr ordered her two brothers to kill Egill and Egill's older brother Þórólfr, who had been on good terms with both her and the king before. However, this plan did not go well, as Egill killed the pair when they confronted him.
That same summer,
Harald Fairhair died, and in order to secure his place on the throne,
Eirik Bloodaxe killed his two brothers. He then declared Egill an outlaw in Norway. Berg-Önundr gathered a company of men to capture Egill, but was killed in his attempt to do so. Escaping from Norway, Egill killed Rögnvaldr Eiríksson and then cursed his parents, setting a horse's head on a pole (
níðstöng) and saying,
"Here I set up a níð-pole, and declare this níð against King Eiríkr and Queen Gunnhildr," — he turned the horse-head to face the mainland — "I declare this níð at the land-spirits there, and the land itself, so that all will fare astray, not to hold nor find their places, not until they wreak King Eiríkr and Gunnhildr from the land." He set up the pole of níð in the cliff-face and left it standing; he faced the horse's eyes on the land, and he rist runes upon the pole, and said all the formal words of the curse. (ch. 57) ('níð' has been translated as 'scorn' or 'curse')
Gunnhildr also put a spell on Egill, which made him feel restless and depressed until they met again.
Soon afterwards, Eiríkr and Gunnhildr were forced to flee to
Northumbria by Eiríkr's brother
Hakon, where he was granted land by King
Aðalsteinn. Egill was shipwrecked on a nearby shore and came before Eiríkr, who sentenced him to death. But Egill composed a
drápa in Eiríkr's praise in the dungeon during the night, and when he recited it in the morning, Eiríkr gave him his freedom and forgave any vengeance or settlement for the killing of Rögnvaldr (see "Head Ransom", below).
Egill bringing his son Böðvar to the gravehill of his father Skalla-Grímur.
Egill had five children with Ásgerðr Björnsdóttir:
Þorgerðr Egilsdóttir, Bera Egilsdóttir, Böðvar Egilsson, Gunnar Egilsson and Þorsteinn Egilsson. Before Egill died he concealed his
silver treasure near
Mosfellsbær. Interestingly, Egill lived into his eighties which was very unusual for that time.
Poems
Apart from being a warrior of immense might in literary sources, Egill is also celebrated for his poetry, considered by many historians to be the finest of the ancient Scandinavian poetry. His poems were also the first Old Norse verses to use
end rhyme.
[Jansson 1980:26-27] The following works are attributed to Egill:
- Höfuðlausn ("The Head-Loosening", sometimes referred to as "Head-Ransom"), with which Egill bought his life from Eiríkr Bloodaxe, who had sentenced him to death in England.
- Sonatorrek ("Son's loss"). After the death of his son Böðvar who drowned during a storm.
The following is one of Egill's
Lausavísur (no. 3), found in chapter 40 of
Egils Saga:
