Warriors, Poets & Outlaws
Gunnlaug Worm-Tongue
The dream of the eagles
The saga opens, as the best tragedies do, by telling you the end. Þorsteinn, son of Egil Skallagrímsson and master of Borg, dreams of a lovely swan on his rooftop — and of two eagles that come to her, one from the mountains and one from the south, and fight each other to the death over her, until both lie dead; then a third bird comes and carries the swan away.[1]
A wise guest reads the dream without mercy: a peerless daughter will be born to Thorstein, two noble suitors will destroy each other over her, and a third man will take her in the end. Thorstein, troubled, orders the coming child exposed if it is a girl — but the order is quietly disobeyed, and so Helga the Fair is born and raised, the most beautiful woman in Iceland, with her fate already spoken over her cradle.
The source text · 1
Then Thorstein said: This was my dream; for methought I was at home at Burg, standing outside the men's-door, and I looked up at the house-roof, and on the ridge I saw a swan, goodly and fair, and I thought it was mine own, and deemed it good beyond all things. Then I saw a great eagle sweep down from the mountains, and fly thitherward and alight beside the swan, and chuckle over her lovingly; and methought the swan seemed well content thereat; but I noted that the eagle was black-eyed, and that on him were iron claws: valiant he seemed to me.— gunnlaugs saga
Þorstein tells his dream of the swan and the two eagles (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
The betrothal and the sharp tongue
Gunnlaug, son of a neighbouring chief, grew up brilliant and difficult — a gifted poet with a tongue so cutting he was nicknamed ormstunga, Worm-Tongue. He and Helga loved each other, and Helga was vowed to him; but Gunnlaug was restless for fame, and would go abroad first to win renown at the courts of kings.[1]
A bargain was struck: Helga would wait three years for him. It is the same shape as a dozen saga partings — the young man who must have glory before he has the woman — and the same trap. Gunnlaug rode for the ship, leaving the fairest woman in Iceland promised but unwed, and a clock running that he would not respect.
The source text · 1
Gunnlaug Worm-Tongue was, as is aforesaid, whiles at Burg with Thorstein, whiles with his father Illugi at Gilsbank, three winters together, and was by now eighteen winters old; and father and son were now much more of a mind.— gunnlaugs saga
Helga vowed to Gunnlaug; he fares abroad for fame (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
Fame at the courts of kings
Abroad, Gunnlaug shone. He went to the courts of Norway, England, Ireland, the Orkneys and Sweden, and everywhere his poetry won him honour and rich gifts — among them a splendid scarlet cloak from a king, the cloak that will matter terribly later. He was, by the saga's account, one of the great court-poets of his age.[1]
It was at the Swedish king's court that the trap sprang shut. There Gunnlaug met Hrafn — Raven — another Icelander and another fine skald, and the two proud poets quarrelled bitterly over which should recite to the king first, and over the worth of each other's verse.[2] They parted enemies, and Hrafn, sailing home to Iceland ahead of Gunnlaug, carried his grudge with him — and an idea.
The source text · 2
In those days Earl Eric, the son of Hakon, and his brother Svein, ruled in Norway. Earl Eric abode as then at Hladir, which was left to him by his father, and a mighty lord he was. Skuli, the son of Thorstein, was with the earl at that time, and was one of his court, and well esteemed.— gunnlaugs saga
Gunnlaug wins fame at the kings' courts (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
In those days King Olaf the Swede, son of King Eric the Victorious, and Sigrid the High-counselled, daughter of Skogul Tosti, ruled over Sweden. He was a mighty king and renowned, and full fain of fame.— gunnlaugs saga
Gunnlaug and Hrafn quarrel before the Swedish king.
Too long away
Gunnlaug lingered. Honoured and detained at the Norwegian court, he let the three years run out and then overstayed them — and back in Iceland the betrothal, by its own terms, lapsed.[1]
Hrafn seized the opening. He went to Thorstein at Borg and asked for Helga, and though Helga was utterly unwilling, the match was pressed and made, the wedding set. Helga, who loved only Gunnlaug, was given to the rival who had quarrelled with him before a king. When Gunnlaug at last came home — too late by a season — he landed to find the woman he had been promised married to his enemy.[2] The delay that was meant to win him glory had cost him everything glory was for.
The source text · 2
Now it is to be told of Gunnlaug that he went from Sweden the same summer that Raven went to Iceland, and good gifts he had from King Olaf at parting.— gunnlaugs saga
Gunnlaug detained abroad past the three years (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
Thy dealings with Raven, if he wed Helga the Fair at winter-nights. I was anigh at the Thing when that was settled last summer.— gunnlaugs saga
Gunnlaug lands to find Helga wedded to Hrafn (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
The cloak, and the banned holmgang
At a winter wedding the two men met, and Gunnlaug made his grief into a gesture: he gave Helga the king's scarlet cloak, his most precious possession, before her husband's face — a poet's way of saying she was still his.[1] The insult could end only one way.
They challenged each other to holmgang — the formal duel — and fought at the Alþingi; but the fight was broken up inconclusively, and immediately afterward the Althing outlawed duelling in Iceland forever. Denied a lawful end at home, the two skalds agreed to settle it the old way, abroad: they would both sail to Norway and meet there, beyond the reach of the new law.[2] Helga, married and grieving, could only wait for news of which of the men she was bound to would kill the man she loved.
The source text · 2
Tells the tale of Raven, that he sat at his wedding-feast at Burg, and it was the talk of most men that the bridge was but drooping; for true is the saw that saith, Long we remember what youth gained us, and even so it was with her now.— gunnlaugs saga
Gunnlaug gives Helga the king's cloak (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
Now in summer men ride a very many to the Althing: Illugi the Black, and his sons with him, Gunnlaug and Hermund; Thorstein Egilson and Kolsvein his son; Onund, of Mossfell, and his sons all, and Sverting, Hafr-Biorn's son. Skapti yet held the spokesmanship-at-law.— gunnlaugs saga
The holmgang at the Alþingi; duelling then banned.
The duel at Dingnes
They met in Norway at Dingnes, and fought a long and terrible duel. Both were grievously wounded — and then came the moment the saga is remembered for. Hrafn, his leg cut from under him, said he could fight on if he might have water to drink. Gunnlaug fetched water in his helmet and held it out to his enemy — and as Hrafn took it, he struck Gunnlaug treacherously in the head with his sword.[1]
“Ill hast thou beguiled me,” Gunnlaug said, “and done a dastard's deed, when I trusted thee.” Hrafn answered that it was true, but he had done it because he could not bear to give up Helga the Fair to another man. They fought on, and Gunnlaug killed Hrafn — but his own head-wound was mortal, and he died of it a few days later.[2] Thorstein's dream was fulfilled to the letter: the two eagles had destroyed each other over the swan.
The source text · 2
But on a day in spring Gunnlaug was walking abroad, and his kinsman Thorkel with him; they walked away from the town, till on the meads before them they saw a ring of men, and in that ring were two men with weapons fencing; but one was named Raven, the other Gunnlaug, while they who stood by said that Icelanders smote light, and were slow to remember their words.— gunnlaugs saga
The duel at Dingnes; the water and the treacherous blow (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
Now this summer, before these tidings were brought out hither to Iceland, Illugi the Black, being at home at Gilsbank, dreamed a dream: he thought that Gunnlaug came to him in his sleep, all bloody, and he sang in the dream this stave before him; and Illugi remembered the song when he woke, and sang it before others:— gunnlaugs saga
News of the fight; both poets dead.
The death of Helga the Fair
Both poets dead, Helga was married a third time, to a worthy man she could not love — the third bird of the dream, carrying the swan away. She bore him children and kept his house, but her heart never left Gunnlaug.[1]
Her one comfort was the scarlet cloak Gunnlaug had given her; she would sit and pluck at its threads and gaze at it for hours. When a great sickness came on the household, Helga fell ill — and one evening, sitting in the firehall with her head on her husband's knees, she had the cloak brought to her, sat up and looked at it a long while, then sank back and died.[2] It is among the gentlest and most heartbreaking deaths in the sagas: not by sword or feud, but of a grief that simply outlasted her, with the gift of the man she loved in her hands. And there, the saga says, the story ends.
The source text · 2
As time went on, Thorstein Egilson married his daughter Helga to a man called Thorkel, son of Hallkel, who lived west in Hraundale. Helga went to his house with him, but loved him little, for she cannot cease to think of Gunnlaug, though he be dead. Yet was Thorkel a doughty man, and wealthy of goods, and a good skald.— gunnlaugs saga
Helga married a third time, still grieving Gunnlaug (Morris & Magnússon 1901).
So one Saturday evening Helga sat in the firehall, and leaned her head upon her husband's knees, and had the cloak Gunnlaug's-gift sent for; and when the cloak came to her she sat up and plucked at it, and gazed thereon awhile, and then sank back upon her husband's bosom, and was dead. Then Thorkel sang this:— gunnlaugs saga
Helga dies gazing at Gunnlaug's cloak.
4 connection questions mark the end of this journey — and earn its keepable artifact.
More journeys → Follow a thread →