Episodes
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
Saga Short 11 - The Tale of Bolli Bollason
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
With Laxdaela Saga behind us, we turn to the Tale of Bolli Bollason to bring the journey to a proper end. In this fun little story, Bolli Bollason finds himself swept into more than one conflict up in northern Iceland. Does he have the social and political (and warrior) savvy to go there and back again without a scratch? Listen and find out!
Warning: Andy goes a bit crazy with the maps and topography in this one.
Music Credits:
Intro: from “Death Awaits” by Billy Malmstrom
Outro: From “Óðinn” by Krauka
Monday Jun 05, 2023
Episode 36o - Laxdaela Saga (Judgments)
Monday Jun 05, 2023
Monday Jun 05, 2023
After a very close inspection and lengthy investigation, we are finally ready to put Laxdaela Saga on trial. As it's been over a year since we started, John and I take our time reviewing the candidates for our usual Saga Thing categories:
- Best Bloodshed
- Body Count
- Nicknames
- Notable Witticisms
- Outlawry
- Thingmen
- Final Ratings
Our thanks to all of you out there who have listened, commented, and engaged with us as we worked our way through this massive and entertaining saga. We're especially grateful to all of you who've been interacting over on our Official Unofficial Saga Thing Discord page. If you're not involved over there, at least sign up and lurk. It's pretty interesting stuff.
A very special thanks to Jacob for sticking with us through a whole year of illustrating for Saga Thing. It was a monumental effort and a pleasure to see his art evolve across the saga. Many thanks, Jacob! Check out more of his work on Instagram where he's @skarphedin_illustrator.
Music Credits
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4236-prelude-and-action
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4421-stormfront
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Tuesday May 09, 2023
Episode 36n - Laxdaela Saga (chapters 72-78)
Tuesday May 09, 2023
Tuesday May 09, 2023
We began our journey through Laxdaela Saga in April of 2022. A year and many many episodes later, we finally come to the end. Please join us as we discuss the final few chapters of the saga. It may be a little difficult to find the narrative thread if you're expecting to follow Bolli or Gudrun through these last pages of the text. They're certainly there, but the saga's ending is designed to wrap up the story of Gudrun's husbands and to look forward toward the genealogical connections to future generations.
Of course, Bolli and Gudrun get their moments in this conclusion, including Gudrun's brief but riddling confession of who she loved most.
We wrap it all up with a lengthy summons of Gudrun and a detailed discussion of her character, something we've been waiting for a long time to do. I argued that we should devote a whole episode to Gudrun, but John reminded me that we've spent half a year commenting on her. Think of our summons as an invitation for further discussion, which you can do on our various social media platforms:
The Unofficial Official Saga Thing Discord
Sagathingpodcast on Facebook and Instagram
We appreciate your patience as we worked through this amazing saga across the last year. We'll be back soon with the Bolli Bollason's Tale and the Judgments.
Music Credits
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4236-prelude-and-action
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Review Music - "The Royal Vagabond Medley" by Jocker's Dance Orchestra
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4421-stormfront
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Monday Apr 10, 2023
We were recently invited to speak at the University of Connecticut's Annual Medieval Studies/ECE Outreach Seminar on a variety of subjects related to the Viking Age. We prepared and recorded our morning presentation on Slavery in the Viking Age as a Saga Brief so that everyone in our listening audience could enjoy. It's a subject Andy's been thinking about a lot as we've been working our way through Laxdaela Saga, which is why he took the lead on this topic. Later in the day, John presented on Viking Age board games, focusing on Nine Men's Morris and Hneftafl. We then led a conversation on the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and his Sons among other topics. Sadly, these afternoon sessions were workshops and thus not recorded.
We hope you enjoy this little attempt at a live Saga Brief. The audio is not pristine, but it is pretty decent for a live recording. The questions from Q&A are a bit difficult to hear and had to be edited slightly. Apologies for the poor quality there. We'll use two mics next time.
For those interested in learning more, here is a list of valuable research on the subject Andy used to prepare the Saga Brief:
Brink, Stefan. "Slavery in the Viking Age." In The Viking World, edited by Stefan Brink and Neil Price, 246-257. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Brink, Stefan. Thraldom: The Viking Age Slave Trade. Uppsala: Swedish Science Press, 2018.
Byock, Jesse L. Viking Age Iceland. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
Gelsinger, Paul. Icelandic Enterprise: Commerce and Economy in the Middle Ages. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981.
Gustin, Ingrid, and Sven Kalmring (eds.). Viking Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2013.
Heebøll-Holm, Thomas. "Piratical Slave-Raiding: A New Perspective on Viking Age Maritime Violence." In Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland, edited by Ingrid Gustin and Sven Kalmring, 219-240. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2013.
Jarman, Cat. River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.
Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. "Concubinage and Slavery in the Viking Age." Scandinavian Studies 79, no. 4 (2007): 403-422.
Naumann, Elise, Maja Krzewińska, Anders Götherström, and Gunilla Eriksson. "Slaves as Burial Gifts in Viking Age Norway? Evidence from Stable Isotope and Ancient DNA Analyses." Journal of Archaeological Science 41, (2014): 533-540.
Price, Neil. Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. London: Allen Lane, 2020.
Raffield, Ben. "The Slave Markets of the Viking World." History Today 66, no. 4 (2016): 12-19.
Music Credits
Opening song – Icelandic Folk Music: Tröllaslagur
Outro – Ólafur Liljurós
Sunday Mar 19, 2023
Episode 36m - Laxdaela Saga (chapters 65-71)
Sunday Mar 19, 2023
Sunday Mar 19, 2023
In this episode, Guðrún Ósvífsdóttir teaches Helgi Harðbeinsson all about loopholes in betrothal oaths. And if Helgi was feeling bad after getting let down by Guðrún, he feels that much worse when he sees his fylgja walking the opposite direction as he approaches the Althing. This episode also features a mysterious talking black cloak, Guðrún's fourth wedding, and more machinations by Snorri goði.
We top it all off with a quick Saga Brief on the history of the famous sword known as Skofnung and an argument about how saga authors came up with the idiosyncratic rules for wielding Skofnung successfully.
Music Credits
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4236-prelude-and-action
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Review Music - "The Royal Vagabond Medley" by Jocker's Dance Orchestra
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4421-stormfront
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license