The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald: Being the Icelandic Kormáks-saga, Volume 1 |
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Common terms and phrases
alliteration ancient answered asked Asmund bade battle Bersi Bessatúnga Bitra brother called chap Cormac cried Drangey dróttkvćtt English Fafnir fell fight fiord Fliót fought Fródi gleaming Glúm Gnúpsdal goddess gold Gullfoss Hagbard Halldór Harald Fairhair healed Helga Helgafell holmgang Holmgang Bersi home to Mel horse Hrútafiord HÚNAFLÓI Hvamm Hvammsfiord Iceland Irish King Harald kisses lady land Landnáma Leidhólm Lindworm lived luck Melstadr metre Midfiord Múli Narfi never Norway Odin Ogmund Olaf Peacock ready Reykir rhyme riding rode Saga Saga-teller sang Saudafell Saurbć shield ship shore Skald Skeggi Sköfnung Snartartúnga song Spákonufell spear Steinar Steingerd Steinvör story Svínadal sword talk Thambardal thee things Thórarin Thórd Thorgils Thorkel Thorsness-thing Thorvald the Tinker Thorveig thou told took Toothgnasher Tósti translation Túnga turned Váli Váli's valley verse Viking W. G. COLLINGWOOD weapon wedding Whitting wilt words wounded
Popular passages
Page 31 - ... At the door of my soul she is standing, So sweet in the gleam of her garment: Her footfall awakens a fury, A fierceness of love that I knew not, Those feet of a wench in her wimple, Their weird is my sorrow and troubling, — Or naught may my knowledge avail me — Both now and for aye to endure.
Page 96 - Bersi had a halberd in one hand and a staff in the other, and Halldor had Whitting. As soon as Vali saw them he turned and hewed at Bersi. Halldor came at his back and fleshed Whitting in his hough-sinews. Thereupon he turned sharply and fell upon Halldor. Then Bersi set the halberd-point betwixt his shoulders. That was his death-wound. Then they set his shield at his feet and his sword at his head, and spread his cloak over him; and after that got on horseback and rode to five homesteads to make...
Page 35 - Tis the dart that adorneth her tresses, The deep, dewy grass of her forehead. So kind to my keeping she gave it, That good comb I shall ever remember! A stranger was I when I sought her — Sweet stem with the dragon's hoard shining —" With gold like the sea-dazzle gleaming — The girl I shall never forget.
Page 34 - The tree of my treasure and longing, It would take this whole Iceland to win her: She is dearer than far-away Denmark, And the doughty domain of the Hun-folk. With the gold she is combing, I count her More costly than England could ransom: So witty, so wealthy, my lady Is worth them, - and Ireland beside!
Page 83 - ... going to the place where the fight was to be, carrying a goose under her arm. He asked what it all meant, and she set down the goose, saying, "Why couldn't ye keep quiet?" So he lay down again, but held himself awake, for he wanted to know what she would be doing. Three times she came, and every time he tried to find out what she was after. The third time, just as he came out, she had killed two geese and let the blood run into a bowl, and she had taken up the third goose to kill it. "What means...
Page 104 - O shake me yon rime from the awning ; Your singer's a-cold in his berth ; For the hills are all hooded, dear Skardi, In the hoary white veil of the firth.. There's one they call Wielder of Thunder* I would were as chill and as cold ; But he leaves not the side of his lady As the lindworm forsakes not its gold."t "Always talking of her now!
Page 35 - She is dearer than far-away Denmark, And the doughty domain of the Hun-folk. With the gold she is combing, I count her More costly than England could ransom : So witty, so wealthy, my lady Is worth them, — and Ireland beside...
Page 9 - Glossary," by far the oldest attempt at a comparative vernacular dictionary made in any language in modern Europe, which has fortunately come down to us. " The Psalter of Cashel," now lost, was compiled by him, or under his direction.
Page 70 - They call him, and truly they tell it, A tree of the helmet right noble: But the master of manhood must bring me Three marks for his ransom and rescue. Though stout in the storm of the bucklers In the stress of the Valkyrie's tempest He will bid me no more to the battle, For the best of the struggle was ours." Steinar and Cormac rode from Ellidi and passed through Saurbae. They saw men riding towards them, and yonder came Bersi. He greeted Cormac and asked how the wound was getting on. Cormac said...
Page 100 - Skidingst they were called, — but little luck or liking. Now Thorvald the Tinker asked Steingerd to wife. Her folk were for it, and she said nothing against it ; and so she was wed to him in the very same summer in which she left Bersi. When Cormac heard the news he made as though he knew nothing whatever about the matter ; for a little earlier he had taken his goods aboard ship, meaning to go away with his brother. But one morning early he rode from the ship and went to see Steingerd ; and when...