Episode 23b – The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons

It’s time for the thrilling conclusion to The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons.  This episode begins with an ambush as Helgi Asbjarnarson finally catches up with Helgi Droplaugarson.  You won’t want to miss this epic battle.  It provides some of the more detailed descriptions of battle we’ve encountered on this podcast.  If you follow us on Twitter, then you already know something of who gets hit where.  Poor, poor, Thord Cormorant.  If you listen carefully, you can still hear the shrieking.

And if that’s not enough, we’ve also got Helgi D. doing his best impression of Lurtz, a secret resurrection,  and murder most foul.  And just because we love you, we’ll throw in some hnefatafl, a timely fart, meditations on the character of Vikings in the sagas, and John reading from the Middle English Geste of Robyn Hode.  Follow the link and scroll down to the bottom (lines 1787-1820) so you can follow along. Heck, we’ve even got an appearance by Don Knotts as Mr. Furley from Three’s Company.

While this episode doesn’t dwell on genealogies like the first part, you still may want to consult Andy’s handy Droplaugarsona saga genealogy to help keep things in order.

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Music Credits:

Intro Music – “Prelude and Action” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Episode Recap – “Perfect Rag” by Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton (1924)

Helgi’s Poem – “Drums of the Deep” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Grim’s Poem – “Bittersweet” 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 23a – The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons

In this episode, we continue our series of stories from the Northeast of Iceland.  This time around, Helgi Droplaugarson goes head to head with the powerful chieftain Helgi Asbjarnarson.  While Helgi D. makes life difficult for his rival by undercutting him at every chance he gets, Helgi A. takes it all with patience.  Does Helgi A. have a good reason for holding back?  Or is he just biding his time as he waits for the right moment to attack?  There’s only one way to find out.  Listen, as Saga Thing presents The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons!

The first part of this episode, much like the saga itself, is a bit heavy on social dynamics and genealogical connections.  To help you navigate these relationships, Andy has prepared this handy genealogy using Family Echo.  Be sure to click on different names in the genealogy to see where it takes you.  The connections are fascinating if you pay attention.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Music Credits:

Intro Music – “Prelude and Action” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Episode Summary – “All This” 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 Shorts 1 – Þættir Intro and The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck

Welcome to the first episode of Saga Shorts, a side project of Saga Thing where John and Andy review the þættir of medieval Iceland.  In this episode, we provide a brief introduction to þættir and the difficulties one faces when trying to define the genre.  If you’re not interested in those technical details, just skip ahead to 10:10, where we begin our review of Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs (The Tale of Thorstein Staff-struck).  This fun little tale tells the story of an old Viking’s son named Thorstein who gets into some trouble with Bjarni Brodd-Helgisson, the local goði, after killing 3 of his farmhands.

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Bibliography

Harris, Joseph. “Genre and Narrative Structure in Some Íslendinga þættir.” Scandinavian Studies 44 (1972): 1-27.

Harris, Joseph. “Þættir.” In Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol. 12, edited by Joseph R. Strayer, 1-6. New York: Charles Scribner, 1989.

Jakobsson, Ármann. “The Life and Death of the Medieval Icelandic Short Story.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 112 (2013): 257-91.

Kristjánsson, Jónas.  “Íslendinga þættir.” In Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature, translated by Peter Foote, 299-309. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1997.

Miller, William Ian. “A Case Study of the Sagas as Sources: Þorsteins Þáttr stangarhöggs and the Politics of Accident.” In Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland, 51-76. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman. “The Long and the Short of It.” In The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas, edited by Ármann Jakobsson, Sverrir Jakobsson, 151-63. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Rowe, Elizabeth Ashman and Joseph Harris. “Short Prose Narrative (þáttr).” In A Companion to Old-Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, edited by Rory McTurk, 462-78.  Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.

Music Credits:

Intro: From “Death Awaits” by Billy Malmstrom

Outro: From “Óðinn” by Krauka