Saga Thing

Episode 28 - The Saga of Ale-Hood

In this episode, Thorhall Ale-Hood burns down his woodlands making charcoal. Unfortunately for him, he also burns down the neighboring woods that belong to 6 of Iceland's most powerful chieftains. The woods aren't terribly important to them, but when Iceland's bully chieftains see a financial opportunity, they take it. This short saga tells the story of Ale-Hood's attempt to defend himself against the chieftains. If you liked Bandamanna Saga, then you'll love The "Saga" of Ale-Hood. It's a quick one, but it's full of laughs.
Thanks, as always, to Matt Smith for another original drawing. This one depicts Thorkel Fringe, one of the saga's bad guys, in a compromising position. Listen to the episode to find out more. You can visit Matt's webpage and follow him on Twitter to see more of his work.
We managed to do both the summary and the judgments for this one. It's been a while since that happened. Judgments start at 1:03:31.
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Summary Music - "Crowd Hammer" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
 
 

Episode 27d - Floamanna Saga (Judgments)

At long last, it's time to put Flóamanna saga on trial. In this episode we debate the literary merits of Flóamanna saga, trying to determine if there are any at all. Along the way, we highlight the saga's best moments, including some gems from little Thorfinn. There's also some of the usual bickering over the quality of our thingman selections. This was a fun one to record, probably because we were finally finished with this wacky saga once and for all. Is this the saga that sets the low bar for all the family sagas? Will John and Andy punish it with a final rating of 1 for the pain it inflicted upon them while trying to prepare the summaries? Listen now and all will be revealed!
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Saga Brief 15 - Ivar the Boneless

In this episode, we tackle the life of Ragnar’s fiercest and most complex son, Ivar the Boneless. We begin with an investigation into Ivar’s birth and enigmatic nickname. From there we trace the path of his illustrious military career. Our journey will take us from Denmark to Ireland, where Ivar conquers Dublin and goes head to head with the High King of Ireland, Mael Sechnaill. From Dublin, we’ll follow Ivar to Anglo-Saxon England with the Great Heathen Army. There Ivar and company topple kingdom after kingdom with ruthless efficiency. Join us as we dive deep into the medieval chronicles, legends, and tales to uncover the stories behind Vikings’ most compelling character, Ivar the Boneless, King of the Vikings in Ireland and Britain.
Previous Vikings Related Episode Links:
Saga Thing 7: The Saga of Ragnar Loðbrok and His Sons
Saga Brief 1: The Blood-Eagle
Saga Brief 3: Krákumál
Saga Brief 5: The Story of Rollo the Viking
Saga Brief 11: The Lesser Ragnarssons
Interested in learning more about Mael Sechnaill and the Irish side of the Viking invasions? Check out this episode of the Irish History Podcast – Vikings in 9th century Ireland.
Select Bibliography for this Episode:
Æthelweard. Chronicon Æthelweardi. Edited and Translated by Alistair Campbell. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated by Michael Swanton. New York: Routledge, 1998.
The Annals of Ulster. Edited and Translated by Pádraig Bambury and Stephen Beechinor. Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition. Cork: Ireland, 2000.
Asser, John. Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Edited and Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.
Brink, Stefan and Neil Price. The Viking World. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Clarke, Howard B. and Ruth Johnson. The Vikings in Ireland and Beyond: Before and After the Battle of Clontarf. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 2015.
Crawford, B. E. Scandinavian Scotland. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1987.
Downham, Clare. Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014. Edinburgh: Dunedin, 2007.
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland. Edited and Translated by Joan Newlon Radner. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.
Jones, Gwynn. A History of the Vikings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
McTurk, Rory. Studies in Ragnars Saga Loðbrokar and its Major Scandinavian Analogues. Medium Ævum Monographs. New Series XV. Exeter: Short Run Press,  1991.
Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes. Edited and Translated by Peter Fisher and H. R. Ellis Davidson. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996.
Smyth, Alfred P. Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles, 850-880. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Valante, Mary A. The Vikings in Ireland: Settlement, Trade, and Urbanization. Portland, OR: Four Courts Press, 2008.
Waggoner, Ben. The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok. New Haven, CT: 2009.
 
Episode Credits:
Intro - VioDance cover of "If I Had A Heart" by Fever Ray with Hardanger Violin
Closing Music - Logan Kendell's folk cover of "If I Had A Heart" by Fever Ray. To purchase a copy of the song, visit Logan Kendell's bandcamp page. Be sure to check out his other music while you're there. As a big fan of outlaws, I recommend his cover of "Not in Nottingham" from Disney's Robin Hood. 

Episode 27c - Floamanna Saga (Part 3)

In this episode we rejoin Thorgils Scar-Leg’s Step-son on the icy shores of Greenland. Of the 35 men and women who traveled with him to Greenland, his only companions are his son Thorleif and a pair of helpful brothers, Kol and Starkað. And then there’s the child, Thorfinn, nourished by his father’s love and bloody breast milk. Together these castaways must battle the elements on land and sea to make their way home again. Along the way they’ll encounter troll women, a polar bear, terrible Vikings, and more than one opportunity to duel. There’s even a guest appearance by everyone’s favorite grumpy pagan, Eirik the Red.
Nearly a decade after being shipwrecked in Greenland, Thorgils finally returns to Iceland. He’s greeted by his daughter Thorney, now grown into a beautiful young woman. In his absence, Thorny was married to Bjarni of Grof, an arrangement that Thorgils finds less than ideal. And when he attempts to take the lovely Helga as his own bride, Thorgils ends up feuding with a rival suitor, Asgrim Ellida-Grimsson, a familiar name from Njal’s Saga. This conflict threatens to disrupt the relative peace of the region and prompts one of John’s thingmen into action.
Will young Thorfinn survive the journey from Greenland? Does Thorstein the red-shirted Norwegian companion ever die? Will Thorgils manage to rearrange his daughter’s marriage to his liking? Does Helga choose Thorgils or Asgrim? Or is her opinion not worth a hill of beans? And which thingman emerges from John’s mead hall to settle the dispute over her hand?
Find out in the sometimes thrilling but poorly told conclusion to Floamanna Saga!
Thanks as always to Matt Smith for contributing another original drawing. Check out his webpage or Twitter account to keep up with Matt's latest projects.
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Review Music - "Some Smoke" by National Promenade Band
Summary Music - "Black Vortex" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
 

Episode 27b - Floamanna Saga (Part 2)

Just in time for Halloween, John and Andy return for the second part of Flóamanna saga. When last we left you, our hero, Thorgils had battled two restless spirits. This time around, he's taking on berserks, madmen, and everyone's favorite hammer-wielding deity. As if that wasn't scary enough for you, Thorgils also contends with a shipwreck in Greenland, starvation, the walking dead, and a hungry baby.
Along the way, we talk about keg duels, a lucky Norwegian companion, and male lactation. Check out some of our sources:
Oren Falk, "Bystanders and Hearsayers First: Reassessing the Role of the Audience in Duelling," in A Great Effusion of Blood: Interpreting Medieval Violence edited by Mark D. Meyerson, Daniel Thiery, and Oren Falk. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004: 98-130.
Caroline Walker Bynum. Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 1982.
Barbara Orland. "Why Could Early Modern Men Lactate? Gender Identity and Metabolic Narrations in Humoral Medicine" in Medieval and Renaissance Lactations: Images, Rhetorics, Practices edited by Jutta Gisela Sperling. Burlington: Ashgate, 2013: 37-54.
Nikhil Swaminathan. "Strange but True: Males Can Lactate" Scientific American September 6, 2007.
A special thank you to Matt Smith, aka Barbarian Lord on Twitter, for sharing his talents with us once again. This original drawing will make more sense once you listen to the episode.
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Review Music - "On the Mississippi" by Prince's Band
Summary Music - A blending of "Classic Horror 2" and "Unease" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 27a - Floamanna Saga (Part 1)

This is the saga of the hero Thorgils Scar-leg's Stepson. In this episode, you’ll encounter a number of Thorgils’ ancestors, starting with Atli the Slender, who was given charge of Sogn in Norway by Halfdan the Black. The story of Thorgil’s family is tied to this land and their claim of sovereignty over it despite the objections of several generations of Norwegian royalty.
You’ll also meet Thorgils’ great-grandfather, Hallstein Atlason, a noble chieftain who was forced to flee Norway due to rising tensions with King Harald Fair-hair and the results of a hastily made oath to be a fair-minded judge. But don’t worry about Hallstein. Things turn out well for him in Iceland, where he marries the lovely Thora Olvisdöttir and becomes both popular and quite powerful. After he dies happily in his old age, we’re introduced to his son, Atli, a meddlesome man who enjoys wielding power and influence. In the end, Atli gets caught up in a property dispute that proves fatal.
Fortunately, Atli’s young son, Thord proves a capable avenger. Young Thord survives just long enough to father our saga’s hero, Thorgils, before disappearing at sea.
Thorgils has a bit of a rough start in Iceland, but he’s soon off adventuring, making friends with Norwegian royalty, and wrestling with the walking dead. Yes, Thorgils is a monster killer. But he’s more than that. Learn all about his life, his adventures, and the miracles he performs as Saga Thing takes on Flóamanna Saga!
As always, a special thanks to our resident Saga Thing Artist, Matt Smith, for bringing these stories to life through his talents. This time around, we've got the restless corpse of Audun's mother, Gyda, popping out of her coffin to get one last hug from her baby boy.
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Summary Music - "Darkling" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
 

A Quick Chat in Reykholt from the Saga Conference 2018

Greetings from Iceland! In this episode, John and Andy sit down in the lobby of the beautiful Fosshotel in Reykholt to chat about the conference and Andy's travels around Iceland. 
Music Credits:
Intro: Corvus Corax - Bibit Aleum
Outro: Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Center of the Earth

Saga Brief 14 - Medieval Archery with Patricia Gonsalves and Stephen Fox

In this special episode of Saga Briefs, our side project here at Saga Thing, John and Andy sit down with Patricia Gonsalves and Stephen Fox for a chat about archery in the Viking world. But the conversation isn't limited to medieval Scandinavia. Patricia and Stephen, both experts in archery and its history, have travelled the world learning everything they can about the subject. We take full advantage of their expertise as we cover everything from Gunnar Hamundarson's request for a lock of hair to make a bowstring to cinema's best archers. Along the way, we learn about fletch mites and the last official kill by a longbow in wartime (hint: it involves dead Nazis). This is our longest interview yet, but it's an informative and fun one from beginning to end. We hope you enjoy Patricia and Stephen as much as we do.
Patricia currently works as the archery consultant for the popular television series Arrow and The Flash, among other shows. While she works behind the scenes, you'll have seen her work in the skilled and realistic approach to archery she's trained into every actor who draws an arrow on the shows. Patricia grew up imagining herself in the shoes of literature's most famous archer, Robin Hood. Today, she not only gets to play with bows and arrows every day, she gets to help make television's Robin Hood look cool. You can follow Patricia's adventures on her Facebook page, TheEpicArcher.
Stephen Fox studied Experimental Archaeology and Viking Archery at University College Dublin. If you want to know anything about how bows are made, Stephen is your guy. He's toured the world studying archery, working at excavation sites and Viking museums. An expert in Viking bow-making, Stephen spent two seasons working at the Lofotr Viking Museum in Norway, where he built his own workshop in the chieftain's longhouse and crafted bows from scratch. Stephen currently works with Patricia as an archery technician for Arrow.
If you're interested in getting some hands-on training in historical or traditional archery, you're in luck. Patricia is the founder and lead instructor at Lykopis Archery, located in Vancouver, Canada. Stephen also works there as an instructor and administrator. In addition to teaching introductory archery classes to youths and adults, Lykopis offers detailed instruction in the Four Disciplines of Archery, including:
The Lithics Discipline: This discipline concentrates on bows and arrows that were used in the Stone Age and throughout prehistory.
The Asiatic Composite Bow: Examines the composites of the Steppe, Eastern Asian bows and the styles used in Mounted Horseback Archery.
The Longbow: Studies the theory and application Viking Longbow and the Tudor/Welsh Warbow and and the heavy draw technique that allowed warriors to pull up to 100 lbs in draw weight.
The Flatbow: Focuses on First Nations and Native American bows, flatbows of the 20th Century and techniques applicable for stealth and for hunting.
Follow Lykopis Archery on Facebook for news and updates on programming.

Saga Short 3 - The Tale of Jokul Buason

In this special episode, we pick up right where Kjalnesinga saga left off. Bui Andridson is lying dead on the ground, his ribcage crushed from the wrestling match with his son. Ashamed of his dastardly deed, Jokul Buason flees Iceland. And while Kjalnesinga saga assures us that there are no other stories about Jokul, one grouping of manuscripts appends a fun þáttr (tale) about where Jokul went and what became of him.
Follow along as Jokul gets stranded at sea and then shipwrecked in strange lands. If you like trolls, then you'll want to tune in. If you like wrestling, this is the episode for you.  If you're a fan of silly voices, you're in the right place. Join John and Andy as they review Jökuls þáttr Búasonar.
Looking for a copy of The Tale of Jokul Buason so you can read about his adventures for yourself? If the 5 volume set of Sagas of Icelanders isn't in your budget, then grab a copy of Ben Waggoner's Sagas of Giants and Heroes.  In addition to this tale, you'll get Kjalnesinga Saga and several other great ones as well. I may have indicated in the conclusion to this episode that the volume also includes Floamanna Saga (our next saga). I was mistaken. But the other contents more than make up for my blunder. It has several sagas mentioned in our previous episode, like The Saga of Halfdan Brana's Fosterling.  And who could pass up the opportunity to read The Tale of Asmund Ogre-Lucky?
And thanks to Matt Smith, aka @barbarianlord, for contributing another brilliant original illustration. We think he captures Gnipa and Geit perfectly. Follow him on Twitter to see more of his work or visit his webpage, matt-illustrations.com.
References:
McKinnell, John. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005.
Music Credits:
Intro: From “Death Awaits” by Billy Malmstrom
Outro: From “Óðinn” by Krauka

Episode 26c - The Saga of the People of Kjalarnes (Judgments)

It's time to put The Saga of the People of Kjalarnes on trial. Listen in as Andy and John bicker over the severity of Bui's crimes. Will Bui be outlawed or redeemed and welcomed into the thingman group of one of your esteemed hosts? Will John find enough nicknames in the bare cupboards of this saga to fill his usual 20 minute lecture? And will Andy talk himself into another high score for a saga that no one has read? There's only one way to find out.
Be sure to check out the recommended reading for this episode:
Richard Cole's Racial Thinking in Old Norse Literature: The Case of the Blámaðr
Ármann Jakobsson The Troll Inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North
 
Music Credits:
Intro Music - "Prelude and Action" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Outro Music - "Stormfront" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Selections from music by Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/