Iceland and The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow

The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow has long been one of my favorite books. Allen French did a wonderful job when he wrote this book for just as The Secret of Kells really captures Irish history and lore, so this book captures many elements of Icelandic history, culture, and lore.

Just some notes on Icelandic letters that are not in our alphabet and on the Alþingi:

þ makes the "th" sound in "thing" (unvocalized "th").
ð makes the "th" sound in "that" (vocalized "th").
The Alþingi is the Icelandic parliament. It began in 930 A.D. and it was in session for many years until Iceland came under foreign powers. It was started again after WWII and is currently functioning, though it is now located in Reykjavik.
Þingvellir is a plain that is its historic location. 
 
Here is a list of common elements between the book and things I've learned about Iceland or experienced on my trip.

1. The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow was written in a saga style. Iceland has a collection of sagas called Íslendingasögur, and I am guessing that Allen French read those for he mentions some of the characters in his book. Grettir the Strong, and Njal, namely.

2. The names of at least two of the characters are/have been used recently. In the flea market I saw the name "Einar" as an author's name on a book. "Snorri" appeared on a building from the 18 or 1900s.

Location of Snorri's booth. The wall remnants date from a later time.

3. Snorri the Priest from the book was a real man. I saw the ruins of his booth at Þingvellir (the location of the Alþingi at the time of the story.) In the story, Rolf goes to the Alþingi at Þingvellir, and also to Snorri's booth there.
(See my next post for more on the Alþingi and what Allen French has to say about it.)

Allen French's description of 
Þingvellir fits with what I saw there. 

4. Rolf's family owned sheep. Woolen goods are a hot commodity in Iceland these days. They are in every tourist shop and the Icelanders themselves frequently wear woolen sweaters.

5. In the story the sheep were marked by cuts on the ears, and had to be sorted when they were brought down from summer pastures for the winter. This is still done today. Their ears are marked, the sheep are brought down according to customs set by the Alþingi (Althingi) long ago, and they are sorted using a sheep sorter.

Icelandic cliffs

6.  We are told that there was a great number of birds and that Rolf climbed the craggy cliffs for eggs and young birds. He also shot the adults with his bow. Iceland is still known for its abundance of bird colonies.

7. "Heimskur" is the Icelandic word for stupid and contains the image of one who sits at home and doesn't travel. In the book it mentions that young men would travel abroad and that it was an important part of their passage into adulthood.

8. Ghosts were treated as real in the book. Many Icelanders are a bit into mysticism and believe in ghosts or elves (short, invisible beings).

9. According to French, it was customary for men to keep whatever wealth the sea washed ashore from ship wrecks off the rugged coast. The Icelanders in Rolf's day were delighted with the goods that washed ashore. The same was true in the 1800s. People were glad to get the timbers and things from the shipwrecks, even though it was too bad about the sailors who drowned in the wreck.

One man in Reykjavik collects odds and ends from the sea and has quite a stash of large metal contraptions. The large silver object looks like a space escape pod, other objects stick up like odd towers and are gray and rusty.

What the sea brought

10. Icelanders have traditionally been farmers. Rolf and his family were farmers. Characters in the sagas and folklore were farmers too, even if they were also great warriors.

11. Fishing is also important to Iceland. In addition to his other skills, Rolf knew how to fish. In current day Iceland, dried fish is sold at the flea market and the grocery store. The story speaks of racks for drying fish in the Orkneys and also Icelanders having dried fish on hand.  They still use wooden racks for drying fish.

12. In the book, Grettir cooked his food in the geysers. A tourism video showed some people cooking food in a geyser for amusement.

Geysir (the geyser from whose name the word "geyser" is from.)

All photos are my own except the photo of the book.

"Big as a house, gray as a mouse," and very loud!

The Song of Roland is an old French epic poem in which the knights of Charlemagne battle Saracen forces.
The leading knight, Roland, has a horn that they refer to as an "olifant."

Olifant

 "Olifant" is the Old French word for "elephant." In fact, the present day English word is derived from the French (The American Heritage Dictionary). What is an elephants tusk? Ivory. Roland's horn was probably made of ivory.

In The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, there are some large elephant-like creatures called, "Oliphaunts."  (The title of this post comes from a poem about Oliphaunts in the book.)

Boromir also had an important horn.  It is mentioned in his first appearance in the book, "on a baldric he wore a great horn tipped in silver that now was laid upon his knees." He blew it as he defended Merry and Pippin from the Orcs, calling his companions: "Then suddenly with a deep-throated call a great horn blew, and the blasts of it smote the hills and echoed in the hollows, rising in a mighty shout above the roaring of the falls."  As Aragorn raced towards the scene, the horn sounded "desperately" and then ceased abruptly. He arrived too late: the Orcs had already run off with the hobbits. Aragorn found Boromir sitting against a tree, dieing. His horn, symbolic of his life, lay broken at his side. "But Aragorn saw that he was pierced with many black-feathered arrows; his sword was still in his hand, but it was broken near the hilt; his horn cloven in two was at his side. Many Orcs lay slain, piled all around him and at his feet."

As Roland fought the attacking Saracens, his friend Olivier told him to blow the horn and call for the help of Charlemagne's army.  Roland refused, and as a result the entire rear guard was wiped out, including himself and Olivier. However, before the battle was completely over, Roland blew the horn long and loud and called the army back after there was no more hope of survival. Before they arrived, Roland blew his horn again, but much weaker this time and Charlemagne knew that Roland was scarcely alive. Before he died, the warrior placed his sword and horn beneath him lest they fall into enemy hands. Charlemagne and his knights found the battlefield covered in bodies.

Cu Chulainn and Achilles: Famous but Dead

Cu Chulainn (pronounced "Coo Chullen," ch as in loch) is the greatest hero in Irish lore. He is from the Ulster cycle of Irish lore/mythology and has some surprising similarities with Achilles, the Greek hero. In fact, David Greene's An Anthology of Irish Literature calls him "the Achilles of the Ulster cycle."

Both Achilles and Cu Chulainn were sons of a god and a royal human. Thetis (goddess) and Prince Peleus (mortal) were Achilles' parents. Cu Chulainn's mother was Deichtire, sister to King Conchubar. Some say his father was Lug, the Celtic god of light, while others say his father was an Irish chieftain.

Cu Chulainn

At any rate, he was not a normal human. The Boyhood Deeds of  Cuchulain says, "Now the stripling who by the time seven years were completed since his birth, had done such deeds: had destroyed the champions by whom two-thirds of the Ulstermen had fallen unavenged." 

Both had special horses.  As a wedding gift, Peleus and Thetis received two immortal horses named Balius and Xanthus. They came to be Achilles' horses.  Xanthus spoke to Achilles before his death. 

Cu Chulainn was found as a baby by the men of Ulster, and as they were taking him home, they heard a horse whinnying nearby. They stopped to check it out and found a mare who had just dropped her foal.  They took the newborn  horse, saying he was meant for the special baby.  The Gray of Macha, as the horse came to be called, served the warrior well in battle and was cognizant on an almost human level. Born the same day, they died the same day.

And now, moving on to the most important part. The greatest similarity between the warriors is their mindset and their fates.

In History 261, I learned that Achilles had a choice. He could become the greatest and most renowned warrior ever and live a short life, or live a peaceful, normal, and long life.  He chose renown and died in the Trojan War.  The funny things is, Cu Chulainn had the same choice.

When Cu Chulainn was just seven years old, he heard Cathbad the Druid tell his pupils that whoever took up arms that day would become the greatest warrior ever but lead a short life. Immediately he took up arms.

Cu Chulainn explained,  "For when they asked him what special virtue lay in this day, he told them that the name of whatsoever youth should therein for the first time take arms, would top the fame of all Erin's men; nor thereby should he suffer resulting disadvantage, save that his life must be fleeting short."

Cathbad confirmed his words, "noble and famous indeed thou shalt be, but transitory, soon gone."

"Little care I," said Cu chulainn, "nor though I were but one day or one night in being, so long as after me the history of myself and doings may endure."  The quotes are from The Boyhood Deeds of Cu Chulainn.

And so, the great Greek warrior Achilles and the great Celtic warrior Cu Chulainn faced the same decision, made the same choice, and died young but are still remembered today.

Sources:

The Cu Chulainn stories (except the story of Cu Chulainn's birth) are from David Greene's An Anthology of Irish Literature, vol. 1 
James Hunter's Achilles article
Thetis and Peleus
Xanthus
The picture of Cu Chulainn was cropped by Edana A. Click on the caption to see the original.

It's a Marvel! Good movies do still exist!

This past year I have had the pleasure of seeing both Thor and Captain America in theatres! Thor appealed to me before I even saw it due to its connection with Norse mythology, and I must say I was not disappointed in the film.  Both of these films turned out to be quite good though not for young children. Unfortunately both had swearing. Captain America is more graphic and there are a few scenes of girls dancing in short skirts (Ladies, have the remote on hand and tell your man when to cover his eyes).  In Thor all the women are dressed fairly modestly, nothing too low or too short.
Both stories contain true heroism and the lead characters are sacrificial with their lives and their personal desires.  Thor grows from a proud, cocky, and defiant "boy" to a humble, loving, self-sacrificing young man. 
Captain America is the story of a scrawny, weak young man with great character, guts, and tenacity.  With a serum he becomes very tall and strong. I feared that this change would be detrimental to his character but he doesn't become proud or cocky. He is meek, especially with women. He doesn't use his physic to attract women and abuse them.  Instead he remains faithful in his love for one woman for all but one minute when this other gal comes up and kisses him.
Both films emphasize character in addition to strength and the portrayal of men as warriors.  They show that being strong does not give one great character but that great character makes strong men better. Both men face the feeling of weakness and incompetency and through these trials learn lessons and develop character.  When Thor could not lift his hammer because he was unworthy, he finally realizes that he had been wrong in his defiance of his father and becomes a real hero from that moment on.  Captain America grew up a pip-squeak and a weakling but choose to persevere in his attempts to join the army despite his weak body.  The German scientist chose to infuse him with power because he understood weakness and would then appreciate his power unlike some of the other candidates for the science project.  Similarly, God takes our poor weak selves, teaches us lessons and infuses us with his strength to do what we would never have dreamed possible. 
In my Survey of Mass Communication class this semester we have studied media's portrayal of men and women. Through media, girls are sadly taught that they should flaunt their bodies and portray themselves as sexual objects. Boys are taught to domineer, use, and abuse women as womanizers. They are not taught fidelity, chivalry, and protection of women. They are like the male lions in a pride whom the females cluster around and serve.
These films are a bright spark in the media industry, presenting strong attractive men with moral character who are not womanizers despite their physical attractiveness.  (Plus, all the fight scenes and adventure are lots of fun and appeal to guys and gals alike!)  I am looking forward to seeing these two heroes again in The Avengers! I hope Marvel maintains continuity and makes another great film with this same set of values. 

Lamenting the Bygone Days

I'm not the first to notice the strong similarities between The Lord of the Rings and The Wanderer.  The latter is a beautiful Old English poem.  The Lord of the Rings contains many poems and songs, and one of them has lines that are very close to those in The Wanderer.  Both use the ubi sunt motif, which basicially means, "where are?" and laments the passing of the days done by.
The beginning lines of these poems are quite close. The LOTR poem is a song of a race called the Rohirrim and begins, "Where now the horse and rider?" The section of The Wanderer that I am talking about is an imagined speech by a man looking back and begins, "Where has the horse gone? Where the young warrior?"
The structure of these poems is similar too. They both begin with "where are?" questions and move into a discussion of the passage of time: it flows of time and how everything is fleeting in the context of time.
The imagery is similar too, they seem like they could have both been written by Anglo-Saxons. Both conjure up images of the hall and war near the beginning and darkness and shadow near the end.  The wanderer asks, "What has become of the feasting seats? Where are the joys of the hall? Alas, the bright cup!" The Rohirrim song asks, "Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?" Although this does not directly indicate the hall, we know from reading the book that the Rohirrim kings did live in a hall and where simila. The "harpstring" could indicate a bard who would perform in the hall before an audience.  On the other hand, it could denote a smaller intimate setting.  For the war imagery, The Wanderer has, "Where the young warrior?" and "Alas, the mailed warrior!"  while LOTR asks, "Where the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?"
Both poems mention the flow of time, how time is fleeting, and that glory days are no more. "How that time has gone, vanished beneath night's cover, just as if it never has been!" says the wanderer.  "They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;" are the lines from LOTR. In fact these lines of the poems blend together easily and seem like they could be from the same poem!
When reading The Wanderer I am also reminded of "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" (Ballad of the women of yore) by Francois Villon.  He was a French poet of the 1500s and he asks where the great women of history have gone.  Like The Wanderer and the Rohirrim poem, the passage of time is highlighted and the glorious past lamented.