Kormáks saga

Kormáks saga ( listen ) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It tells of the tenth-century Icelandic poet, Kormákr Ögmundarson, and Steingerðr, the love of his life. The saga preserves a significant amount of poetry attributed to Kormákr, much of it dealing with his love for Steingerðr. Though the saga is believed to have been among the earliest sagas composed it is well preserved. The unknown author clearly relies on oral tradition and seems unwilling to add much of his own or even to fully integrate the different accounts he knew of Kormákr. Often he does little more than briefly set the scenes for Kormákr's stanzas.^[1]

The following stanzas represent some of Kormákr's love poetry. He tells us of the first time he met Steingerðr. Read aloud.

Brunnu beggja kinna	The bright lights of both	Brightly beamed the lights-of-
bjǫrt ljós á mik drósar,	her cheeks burned onto me	both-her-cheeks upon me—
oss hlœgir þat eigi,	from the fire-hall's felled wood;	e'er will I recall it—
eldhúss of við felldan;	no cause of mirth for me in that.	o'er the heaped-up wood-pile;
enn til ǫkkla svanna	By the threshold I gained a glance	and the instep saw I
ítrvaxins gatk líta,	at the ankles of this girl	of the shapely woman—
þrǫ́ muna oss of ævi	of glorious shape; yet while I live	no laughing matter, lo! my
eldask, hjá þreskeldi.	that longing will never leave me.	longing—by the threshold.
Brámáni skein brúna	The moon of her eyelash—that valkyrie	Brightly shone the beaming
brims und ljósum himni	adorned with linen, server of herb-surf—	brow-moons of the goodly
Hristar hǫrvi glæstrar	shone hawk-sharp upon me	lady linen-dight, how
haukfránn á mik lauka;	beneath her brows' bright sky;	like a hawk's, upon me;
en sá geisli sýslir	but that beam from the eyelid-moon	but that beam from forehead's-
síðan gullmens Fríðar	of the goddess of the golden torque	bright-hued-orbs, I fear me,
hvarmatungls ok hringa	will later bring trouble to me	of the Eir-of-gold doth
Hlínar óþurft mína.	and to the ring goddess herself.	ill spell for us later.
— Einar Ól. Sveinsson's edition	— Rory McTurk's translation	— Lee M. Hollander's adaptation

References

1. Kormáks saga (Store norske leksikon)

Other sources

• Einar Ól. Sveinsson (Ed.) (1939). Íslenzk fornrit VIII - Vatnsdœla saga. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag.
• Hollander, Lee M. (Ed.) (1949). The Sagas of Kormák and The Sworn Brothers. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Viðar Hreinsson (Ed.) (1997). The Complete Sagas of Icelanders - Volume I. Reykjavík: Leifur Eiríksson Publishing. ISBN 9979-9293-1-6.

External links

• Full text of the saga in the original language
• Full text and translations at the Icelandic Saga Database
• All of Kormákr's poetry in the original language
• W. G. Collingwood and Jón Stefánsson, The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald, Viking Club Translation Series, 1 ([Ulverston: Holmes, 1902]), available as a pdf at http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Cormac%20the%20Skald.pdf and as text at http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/epics/LifeandDeathofCormactheSkald/Chap1.html
• Russell Poole, "Composition Transmission Performance: The First Ten lausavísur in Kormáks saga", Alvíssmál 7 (1997): 37–60.