I had a chat with Tim Dawson earlier today when he suddenly aparated at a LH-show we had at Gamla Uppsala (life's strange sometimes - nice Aussies popping up just like that...)
We came to speak about armour (as one always do, sooner or later) and once again the subject of Harald Sigurdsson's choice of armour came up. We both reflected over the fact that we've heard about it and read about it several times, but neither of us had ever seen the original source.
Hence my question: Have anyone here on the AA ever seen/read the fabled piece where it is stated that old Hardrada preferred Mail before Lamellar? Does it really exist or is it yet another piece of re-enactor's folklore?
Cheers
/N B
On Hardradas choice of armour
Moderator: Glen K
I have seen somewhere that Harald preffered mail, I think there is a passage about it reaching to mid thigh and being so strong that nothing ever pierced it. I think it may even have had a name. I can't recall anything about lamellar and I think if there was reenactors would have been spouting more info on it by now. The Birka plates are really the only source for lamellar I have seem on Vikings or Saxons, besides a case for returning Vangrians.
-
Egfroth
- Archive Member
- Posts: 4577
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- Contact:
This was discussed some time ago on, I think, the Sword Forum International, and nobody could come up with any primary source report on Harald supposedly preferring mail to lamellar. On the contrary, it seems to be one of those legends that grow up based on almost nothing and a lot of assumption. Like Harold Godwinson supposedly having "Edith" tatooed on his body (see tattoo thread).
Oh and say hullo to Tim for me, and convey my hopes that we meet in Rome - Oct 5.
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
Oh and say hullo to Tim for me, and convey my hopes that we meet in Rome - Oct 5.
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
-
Egfroth
- Archive Member
- Posts: 4577
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Oh, and the mailshirt's name was "Emma".
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
That should be Heimskringla, Harald Hardradas saga, chapter 91.
(Or 94, depending on the version...
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/hardrade2.html )
/R
[This message has been edited by Raymund (edited 08-11-2003).]
(Or 94, depending on the version...
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/hardrade2.html )
/R
[This message has been edited by Raymund (edited 08-11-2003).]
-
Egfroth
- Archive Member
- Posts: 4577
- Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2001 1:01 am
- Location: Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
- Contact:
I found the SFI thread about Harald and lamellar. It's at http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=64dd5b542cd390319c7bb3905749e656&threadid=13315
As you can see - the source is a single reference in an unknown book by an unknown author. I'd very much like to find it, if only to either confirm or scotch the rumour.
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
As you can see - the source is a single reference in an unknown book by an unknown author. I'd very much like to find it, if only to either confirm or scotch the rumour.
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
-
Egfroth
- Archive Member
- Posts: 4577
- Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2001 1:01 am
- Location: Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
- Contact:
I look forward to it.
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
------------------
Egfroth
"Pig, sit still in the strainer.
Pig, sit still in the strainer!
I must have my pig tea!"
Egfroth
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos
Egfroth, I noticed you were wondering on the Sword Forum thread where the reference for the elk hide armour was. I'm 99% sure I ran across it in Olaf Trygvasson's Saga, and that the elk hide coats were from Lappland, not Finnland. I'm not doing anything today, so I'll stretch out with an iced coffee and skim the saga for you.
~Wil
~Wil
as I had a few minutes I did a very basic search of OLAF TRYGGVASON'S SAGA
(at http://www.gersey.org/heathenry/lore/heimskringla/olaf_tryggvason/english.html#38 )
I used the words
elk
reindeer
hide
armour
other that a few unrealted hits on armour I came up with nothing.
Halvgrimr
(at http://www.gersey.org/heathenry/lore/heimskringla/olaf_tryggvason/english.html#38 )
I used the words
elk
reindeer
hide
armour
other that a few unrealted hits on armour I came up with nothing.
Halvgrimr
ok
now this is killing me
all production at work has stopped in my area
i am yahooing and googling away!
I have found this reference and will be looking into it:
OK, in _ Heimskringla _ St. Olafr is given 13 sets of reindeer hide
armour, which are said to be more resistant to blows than mail. An
exact reference will vary with which version of the saga/translation
you have.
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
now this is killing me
all production at work has stopped in my area
i am yahooing and googling away!
I have found this reference and will be looking into it:
OK, in _ Heimskringla _ St. Olafr is given 13 sets of reindeer hide
armour, which are said to be more resistant to blows than mail. An
exact reference will vary with which version of the saga/translation
you have.
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
ah ha, ive found the reference!
and it does seem to be Finnish in origin after all.
Heimskringla
Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf) Part VIII
which can be found online at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/
240. KING OLAF'S FALL.
On the one side of Kalf Arnason stood his two relations, Olaf and Kalf, with many other brave and stout men. Kalf was a son of Arnfin Arnmodson, and a brother's son of Arne Arnmodson. On the other side of Kalf Arnason stood Thorer Hund. King Olaf hewed at Thorer Hund, and struck him across the shoulders; but the sword would not cut, and it was as if dust flew from his reindeer-skin coat. So says Sigvat:
"The king himself now proved the power
Of Fin-folk's craft in magic hour,
With magic song; for stroke of steel
Thor's reindeer coat would never feel,
Bewitched by them it turned the stroke
Of the king's sword, -- a dust-like smoke
Rose from Thor's shoulders from the blow
Which the king though would end his foe."
Thorer struck at the king, and they exchanged some blows; but the
king's sword would not cut where it met the reindeer skin,
although Thorer was wounded in the hands. Sigvat sang thus of
it: --
"Some say that Thorer's not right bold;
Why never yet have I been told
Of one who did a bolder thing
Than to change blows with his true king.
Against his king his sword to wield,
Leaping across the shield on shield
Which fenced the king round in the fight,
Shows the dog's (1) courage -- brave, not bright."
The king said to Bjorn the marshal, "Do thou kill the dog on whom
steel will not bite." Bjorn turned round the axe in his hands,
and gave Thorer a blow with the hammer of it on the shoulder so
hard that he tottered. The king at the same moment turned
against Kalf and his relations, and gave Olaf his death-wound.
Thorer Hund struck his spear right through the body of Marshal
Bjorn, and killed him outright; and Thorer said, "It is thus we
hunt the bear." (2) Thorstein Knarrarsmid struck at King Olaf
with his axe, and the blow hit his left leg above the knee. Fin
Arnason instantly killed Thorstein. The king after the wound
staggered towards a stone, threw down his sword, and prayed God
to help him. Then Thorer Hund struck at him with his spear, and
the stroke went in under his mail-coat and into his belly. Then
Kalf struck at him on the left side of the neck. But all are not
agreed upon Kalf having been the man who gave him the wound in
the neck. These three wounds were King Olaf's death; and after
the king's death the greater part of the forces which had
advanced with him fell with the king. Bjarne Gullbrarskald sang
these verses about Kalf Arnason: --
am i reading that right? is the armor only proof agaisnt steel, if so then this would be totally useless for SCA combat
--whew, now i can get back to work!
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
and it does seem to be Finnish in origin after all.
Heimskringla
Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf) Part VIII
which can be found online at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/
240. KING OLAF'S FALL.
On the one side of Kalf Arnason stood his two relations, Olaf and Kalf, with many other brave and stout men. Kalf was a son of Arnfin Arnmodson, and a brother's son of Arne Arnmodson. On the other side of Kalf Arnason stood Thorer Hund. King Olaf hewed at Thorer Hund, and struck him across the shoulders; but the sword would not cut, and it was as if dust flew from his reindeer-skin coat. So says Sigvat:
"The king himself now proved the power
Of Fin-folk's craft in magic hour,
With magic song; for stroke of steel
Thor's reindeer coat would never feel,
Bewitched by them it turned the stroke
Of the king's sword, -- a dust-like smoke
Rose from Thor's shoulders from the blow
Which the king though would end his foe."
Thorer struck at the king, and they exchanged some blows; but the
king's sword would not cut where it met the reindeer skin,
although Thorer was wounded in the hands. Sigvat sang thus of
it: --
"Some say that Thorer's not right bold;
Why never yet have I been told
Of one who did a bolder thing
Than to change blows with his true king.
Against his king his sword to wield,
Leaping across the shield on shield
Which fenced the king round in the fight,
Shows the dog's (1) courage -- brave, not bright."
The king said to Bjorn the marshal, "Do thou kill the dog on whom
steel will not bite." Bjorn turned round the axe in his hands,
and gave Thorer a blow with the hammer of it on the shoulder so
hard that he tottered. The king at the same moment turned
against Kalf and his relations, and gave Olaf his death-wound.
Thorer Hund struck his spear right through the body of Marshal
Bjorn, and killed him outright; and Thorer said, "It is thus we
hunt the bear." (2) Thorstein Knarrarsmid struck at King Olaf
with his axe, and the blow hit his left leg above the knee. Fin
Arnason instantly killed Thorstein. The king after the wound
staggered towards a stone, threw down his sword, and prayed God
to help him. Then Thorer Hund struck at him with his spear, and
the stroke went in under his mail-coat and into his belly. Then
Kalf struck at him on the left side of the neck. But all are not
agreed upon Kalf having been the man who gave him the wound in
the neck. These three wounds were King Olaf's death; and after
the king's death the greater part of the forces which had
advanced with him fell with the king. Bjarne Gullbrarskald sang
these verses about Kalf Arnason: --
am i reading that right? is the armor only proof agaisnt steel, if so then this would be totally useless for SCA combat
--whew, now i can get back to work!
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
ok, one more reference from the same saga (Saga of Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf) but Part VII):
204. OF THE LENDERMEN IN NORWAY.
Now we must relate what, in the meantime, was going on in Norway. Thorer Hund, in these two winters (A.D. 1029-1030), had made a Lapland journey, and each winter had been a long time on the mountains, and had gathered to himself great wealth by trading in various wares with the Laplanders. He had twelve large coats of reindeer-skin made for him, with so much Lapland witchcraft that no weapon could cut or pierce them any more than if they were armour of ring-mail, nor so much.
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
204. OF THE LENDERMEN IN NORWAY.
Now we must relate what, in the meantime, was going on in Norway. Thorer Hund, in these two winters (A.D. 1029-1030), had made a Lapland journey, and each winter had been a long time on the mountains, and had gathered to himself great wealth by trading in various wares with the Laplanders. He had twelve large coats of reindeer-skin made for him, with so much Lapland witchcraft that no weapon could cut or pierce them any more than if they were armour of ring-mail, nor so much.
Halvgrimr
[This message has been edited by Halvgrim (edited 08-13-2003).]
Well, HALVGRIM, I just got up off the bed after an afternoon of saga-surfing, prepared to post that I'd found the passage not in Olaf Trygvasson, but in St. Olaf.
I then noticed you had already posted the saga excerpts to damn near every bulletin board and email list in existence.
Excitable lil' bugger, aren't you?
~Wil
I then noticed you had already posted the saga excerpts to damn near every bulletin board and email list in existence.
Excitable lil' bugger, aren't you?
~Wil
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Brodir:
<B>
I then noticed you had already posted the saga excerpts to damn near every bulletin board and email list in existence.</B>
--hehehe, yeah i wanted to get that out as far as possible
i forgot to send out the smoke signals thought
<B>
Excitable lil' bugger, aren't you?
~Wil</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
--yeah, i cant stand it when something like that borrows in like a chigger, i get all itchy like and explode
besides, i gave you credit for my find
also, as Mikael said the mention of two seperate folks are the same people after all!
Gunnvor (aka Gunnora, the Viking Answer Lady) said the following
Nope, two Sámi... When you encounter the word "finnr" as a common
noun in Old Norse, you're talking about Sámi. I think usually
Biamians or Permians in the sagas are actually the people we'd
recognize today as inhabitants of Finland.
Halvgrimr
<B>
I then noticed you had already posted the saga excerpts to damn near every bulletin board and email list in existence.</B>
--hehehe, yeah i wanted to get that out as far as possible
i forgot to send out the smoke signals thought
<B>
Excitable lil' bugger, aren't you?
~Wil</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
--yeah, i cant stand it when something like that borrows in like a chigger, i get all itchy like and explode
besides, i gave you credit for my find
also, as Mikael said the mention of two seperate folks are the same people after all!
Gunnvor (aka Gunnora, the Viking Answer Lady) said the following
Nope, two Sámi... When you encounter the word "finnr" as a common
noun in Old Norse, you're talking about Sámi. I think usually
Biamians or Permians in the sagas are actually the people we'd
recognize today as inhabitants of Finland.
Halvgrimr
Gunnvor also had this to say about the differences between armour and hide coats:
Halvgrimr,
I think these specific mentions of "reindeer armor" go along with the
whole "magical shirt" folklore theme that's found all across Northern
Europe. Dr. Ellis-Davidson discusses this some in:
Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London:
George Allen & Unwin. 1976.
She points out that folklore aside, the Byzantines had been
experimenting with various ways to achive sword-proof, low cost, low-
tech armor for their armies, including such fab ideas as shirts
impregnated with pitch and some other variants (shudder... pitch-
impregnated armor and Greek fire. Don't want to have those too close
together!)
If you start looking at the vast compenium of Finnish runos, there's
a lot of charms or magical spells intended to enchant a shirt
specifically against iron or steel, both of which were believed to
cause much worse, non-healing wounds than could be gotten from, say,
bronze weapons.
All of these ideas get rolled together in the whole "magic shirt"
theme.
::GUNNVOR::
--so maybe this isnt any sort of proof/documentation for hide armour at all
Halvgrimr
Halvgrimr,
I think these specific mentions of "reindeer armor" go along with the
whole "magical shirt" folklore theme that's found all across Northern
Europe. Dr. Ellis-Davidson discusses this some in:
Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London:
George Allen & Unwin. 1976.
She points out that folklore aside, the Byzantines had been
experimenting with various ways to achive sword-proof, low cost, low-
tech armor for their armies, including such fab ideas as shirts
impregnated with pitch and some other variants (shudder... pitch-
impregnated armor and Greek fire. Don't want to have those too close
together!)
If you start looking at the vast compenium of Finnish runos, there's
a lot of charms or magical spells intended to enchant a shirt
specifically against iron or steel, both of which were believed to
cause much worse, non-healing wounds than could be gotten from, say,
bronze weapons.
All of these ideas get rolled together in the whole "magic shirt"
theme.
::GUNNVOR::
--so maybe this isnt any sort of proof/documentation for hide armour at all
Halvgrimr
one last thing from Gunnvor.
Halvgrimr
------------------------------------
Halvgrimr asked:
>> you are saying there is a difference
>> between armour and the hide coats, right?
Yes. In the accounts you quoted, Thórir hundr is wearing a type of
garment, cloak, coat, or armor made of reindeer skin... what exactly
the shape and nature of the item worn is, is not mentioned, apart
from the material. Whatever it is, it is explicitly fashioned by
the "finnar", which are the Sámi reknowned in Norse literature for
their magical skills.
Looking at the O.N. text of Ólafs saga helga:
Ch. 193:
Þórir hundur hafði Finnferð haft þessa tvo vetur og hafði hann verið
hvorntveggja vetur lengi á fjalli og fengið óf fjár. Hann átti margs
konar kaup við Finna. Hann lét þar gera sér tólf hreinbjálfa með svo
mikilli fjölkynngi að ekki vopn festi á og sÃður miklu en á
hringabrynju.
Instead of me wading through the translation, let me give Lee
Hollander's translation, into which I have inserted into (parens)
either the correct term Sámi in place of Hollander's "Lapp" or I've
shown what the O.N. word is that was just rendered previous:
Ch. 193:
Thórir the Hound had the privilege of trading with the Finns (Sámi),
those two years, and had been in the mountains for a long time during
both winters, acquiring a great wealth [of furs]. He had many kinds
of dealings with the Sámi. He had there made for him twelve cloaks
(tólf) of reindeer (hrein) skin (bjálfa) charged with so much
witchcraft (svo mikilli fjölkynngi) that no weapon (vopn) could
penetrate them, less even than a coat of chain mail
(hringabrynju, "ring-byrnie").
Ch. 228:
Ólafur konungur hjó til Þóris hunds um herðarnar. Sverðið beit ekki
en svo sýndist sem dust ryki úr hreinbjálfanum.
Þessa getur Sighvatur:
Mildr fann gerst, hve galdrar,
gramr sjálfr, meginrammir
fjölkunnigra Finna
fullstórum barg Þóri,
þá er hyrsendir hundi
húna gulli búnu,
slætt réð sÃst að bÃta,
sverði laust um herðar.
From Hollander again:
Ch. 228:
King Ólafr hewed across Thórir the Hound's the shoulders. The sword
would not bite and it seemed that dust rose from the reindeer hide
(hreinbjálfanum).
Sigvat makes mention of this:
The free-handed king found out
full clearly himself, how
the mighty magic of Finns (Sámi) from
maim protected Thórir,
when with slaughterous sword he
slashed across the shoulders
of the Hound, but blunted,
bit not gold-dight Hneitir.
Note that there isn't any word about it being a reindeer anything in
the Old Norse of the skaldic poem included.
Always be very suspicious of any rhymed translation of skaldic
poetry - it was very common in Victorian translations to remake the
poem into something that seemed poem-like to the translator. The
more one pays attention to accuracy in word choice in translation a
poem, usually the less like poetry the result, and conversely, if the
translator is trying to make a "modern" poem out of the poem they're
translating, then accuracy gets tossed out the window in favor of the
form and rhyme of the new poem.
In the first quote, the "twelve cloaks" is not perfectly accurate.
The O.N. says: "Hann lét þar gera sér tólf hreinbjálfa..." [He had
there made for him twelve reindeer-furs/reindeer-skins...]
As an additional note, whilst looking up words to check vs.
translations, hreinbjálfi or hreinbjálbi (both forms of the same
word), the Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionary notes that this term is also
found in Færyinga saga:
Ch. 10:
Nú vaknar Sigmundur við það að maður kemur inn, mikill vexti og Ã
hreinbjálfa og hafði hreindýri á baki. ["Now Sigmundr wakened as a
man came in, great of growth, in a reindeer-hide and carrying a
reindeer across his back."]
I have to say that at first glance this looks like the fellow is
wearing a waxed reindeer skin, but "mikill vexti" is "waxed large",
i.e., waxing in terms of getting bigger, not the type that involves
impregating or coating something with wax. I was all excited there
for a minute, thinking this was cuir boulli armor or something
Here's the section I was remembering from Dr. Ellis-Davidson
(below). There's a bunch of stuff written on the whole "magic shirt"
folkloric theme as well, and I'd have to go digging to find even a
bibliography for it, since I haven't done much in-depth research on
it in the past. But if you start watching for it in the sagas, you
run into accounts of similar magic wound-repelling shirts all over
the place. I think the extra detail in the Heimskringla account of
the magic garments being "reindeer" is just ornamentation, since
the "finnar" made them.
Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London:
George Allen & Unwin. 1976.
p. 279
The techniques employed against incindiary devices may also have
added to the reputation of the wise men of Byzantium. Use of asbestos
fabrics was apparently known in the ancient world, since Strabo,
Pliny and other writers refer to napkins made from it which could be
cleansed in fire. Pliny claims that this special cloth was used to
wrap the bodies of the dead before cremation, so that
p. 280
the calcined bones would be kept togethert. Asbestos carpets were
used by the Arabs in the Viking Age, and soldiers trained to hurl
petroleum wore asbestos coats for protection. Ploss discusses the
widespread tradition of garments of invulnerability in medieval
Germanic literature, and offers as an analogy the tunics worn by
American soldiers in the Korean War, made of glass fibres woven with
nylon; although a single fiber is fragile, many heated together form
a material which is both flexible and virtually impenatrable. If
asbestos and silk were woven together in medieval times, this would
form a protective garment against fire and weapons, and Ploss quotes
Anna Comnena's reference to mailcoats and helmets of grey silk
resembling metal in colour, worn by Alexius' soldiers at the battle
of Leunion in 1191, when there was insufficient iron for all.
The shirt of invulnerability is a favorite motif in Norse literature.
In the account of the dead of the hero Ragnar Lodbrok, he wore a
shirt which weapons could not pierce, and this protected him a while
in the snake-pit. When, however, he went out earlier in his career
to slay the dragon, he took practical measures to guard against its
firey breath: he chose woolen cloth of coarse quality, heated it in
tar until it was matted and impregnated with resis, and then rolled
it in sand to give it a hard surface. In Saxo's account we are told
that the hero intended "...to use a dress stuffed with hair to
protect himself, and also took one that was not unweildy that he
might move nimbly." Here, however, the point of the protection
against fire is lost, since only the poison of the dragon is
mentioned, and Ragnar's method of hardening the cloth by plunging it
into cold water and letting it freeze on his body is not a sensible
one. In Beowulf the aged king prepared a protection against the fire
of the dragon by having a huge iron shield made, large enough for two
men to shelter behind; while at the same time he wore his
special "battle-shirt," which Grendel's mother had been unable to
pierce with her knife. The emphasis in the poem
p. 281
on the fire raining from the air and flowing in a liquid stream out
of the dargon's lair, "hot with battle-fire," as well as on the
terrible effects of burning on the warriors who encounter the
monster, raises the question of whether here we may discern Swedish
influence, based on some knowledge of Greek fire used in warfare.
Ploss noted that Ragnar's protective shirt was obtained from Aslaug,
the daughter of Sigurd the Volsung, who foungt as a valkyrie, and
that it is described as a grey garment, the gift of the gods. Such a
garment is found in a number of stories connected with the Volsung
cycle, and is associated with Brynhild, Dietrich and Wolfdietrich in
Germanic tradition. The earliest mention of this tunic is in the
Icelandic poem Hamðismál, when Hamdir and Sorli wear garments to
protect them from wounds, and Jormunrek accordingly calls on his men
to stone them. They are said to pull on their "well-woven" garments
as they draw near the hall of the King. In another account of this
tragic expedition, in Guðrúnarhvöt, Gudrun is said to provide her
sons with "ample mailcoats" when they set out. Ursula Dronke doubts
whether the idea of the coat which protected the wearer from wounds
formed part of the original story, although the point is emphasized
both in the Prose Edda and Völsunga Saga. But she also notes a hint
in the earliest source, a ninth-century poem by Bragi, which
describes the heroes as hrafnblair, apparently referring to the dark
clothes or armor which they wore, and uses the term saums
andvanar, "without a join," suggesting a protective garment with no
weak places. Thus it is possible that in the earliest tradition
Gudrun's sons wore tunics of outstanding quality, giving protection
against wounds, and that later on the story of a magic garment
inevitably crept into the account. Emphasis on the dark colour of
such garments recalls Anna Comnena's mention of the silk tunics of
metallic shade worn by the soliders, and it is interesting that in
the Icelandic Sagas we find the convention that men going out to kill
wear a drak garment. One further example of strengthened silk is
found by Ploss in the realm of myth: the cord Gleipnir used to bind
the wolf is said in the Prose Edda to be a smooth silk ribbon
impossible to break.
::GUNNVOR::
Halvgrimr
------------------------------------
Halvgrimr asked:
>> you are saying there is a difference
>> between armour and the hide coats, right?
Yes. In the accounts you quoted, Thórir hundr is wearing a type of
garment, cloak, coat, or armor made of reindeer skin... what exactly
the shape and nature of the item worn is, is not mentioned, apart
from the material. Whatever it is, it is explicitly fashioned by
the "finnar", which are the Sámi reknowned in Norse literature for
their magical skills.
Looking at the O.N. text of Ólafs saga helga:
Ch. 193:
Þórir hundur hafði Finnferð haft þessa tvo vetur og hafði hann verið
hvorntveggja vetur lengi á fjalli og fengið óf fjár. Hann átti margs
konar kaup við Finna. Hann lét þar gera sér tólf hreinbjálfa með svo
mikilli fjölkynngi að ekki vopn festi á og sÃður miklu en á
hringabrynju.
Instead of me wading through the translation, let me give Lee
Hollander's translation, into which I have inserted into (parens)
either the correct term Sámi in place of Hollander's "Lapp" or I've
shown what the O.N. word is that was just rendered previous:
Ch. 193:
Thórir the Hound had the privilege of trading with the Finns (Sámi),
those two years, and had been in the mountains for a long time during
both winters, acquiring a great wealth [of furs]. He had many kinds
of dealings with the Sámi. He had there made for him twelve cloaks
(tólf) of reindeer (hrein) skin (bjálfa) charged with so much
witchcraft (svo mikilli fjölkynngi) that no weapon (vopn) could
penetrate them, less even than a coat of chain mail
(hringabrynju, "ring-byrnie").
Ch. 228:
Ólafur konungur hjó til Þóris hunds um herðarnar. Sverðið beit ekki
en svo sýndist sem dust ryki úr hreinbjálfanum.
Þessa getur Sighvatur:
Mildr fann gerst, hve galdrar,
gramr sjálfr, meginrammir
fjölkunnigra Finna
fullstórum barg Þóri,
þá er hyrsendir hundi
húna gulli búnu,
slætt réð sÃst að bÃta,
sverði laust um herðar.
From Hollander again:
Ch. 228:
King Ólafr hewed across Thórir the Hound's the shoulders. The sword
would not bite and it seemed that dust rose from the reindeer hide
(hreinbjálfanum).
Sigvat makes mention of this:
The free-handed king found out
full clearly himself, how
the mighty magic of Finns (Sámi) from
maim protected Thórir,
when with slaughterous sword he
slashed across the shoulders
of the Hound, but blunted,
bit not gold-dight Hneitir.
Note that there isn't any word about it being a reindeer anything in
the Old Norse of the skaldic poem included.
Always be very suspicious of any rhymed translation of skaldic
poetry - it was very common in Victorian translations to remake the
poem into something that seemed poem-like to the translator. The
more one pays attention to accuracy in word choice in translation a
poem, usually the less like poetry the result, and conversely, if the
translator is trying to make a "modern" poem out of the poem they're
translating, then accuracy gets tossed out the window in favor of the
form and rhyme of the new poem.
In the first quote, the "twelve cloaks" is not perfectly accurate.
The O.N. says: "Hann lét þar gera sér tólf hreinbjálfa..." [He had
there made for him twelve reindeer-furs/reindeer-skins...]
As an additional note, whilst looking up words to check vs.
translations, hreinbjálfi or hreinbjálbi (both forms of the same
word), the Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionary notes that this term is also
found in Færyinga saga:
Ch. 10:
Nú vaknar Sigmundur við það að maður kemur inn, mikill vexti og Ã
hreinbjálfa og hafði hreindýri á baki. ["Now Sigmundr wakened as a
man came in, great of growth, in a reindeer-hide and carrying a
reindeer across his back."]
I have to say that at first glance this looks like the fellow is
wearing a waxed reindeer skin, but "mikill vexti" is "waxed large",
i.e., waxing in terms of getting bigger, not the type that involves
impregating or coating something with wax. I was all excited there
for a minute, thinking this was cuir boulli armor or something
Here's the section I was remembering from Dr. Ellis-Davidson
(below). There's a bunch of stuff written on the whole "magic shirt"
folkloric theme as well, and I'd have to go digging to find even a
bibliography for it, since I haven't done much in-depth research on
it in the past. But if you start watching for it in the sagas, you
run into accounts of similar magic wound-repelling shirts all over
the place. I think the extra detail in the Heimskringla account of
the magic garments being "reindeer" is just ornamentation, since
the "finnar" made them.
Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. The Viking Road to Byzantium. London:
George Allen & Unwin. 1976.
p. 279
The techniques employed against incindiary devices may also have
added to the reputation of the wise men of Byzantium. Use of asbestos
fabrics was apparently known in the ancient world, since Strabo,
Pliny and other writers refer to napkins made from it which could be
cleansed in fire. Pliny claims that this special cloth was used to
wrap the bodies of the dead before cremation, so that
p. 280
the calcined bones would be kept togethert. Asbestos carpets were
used by the Arabs in the Viking Age, and soldiers trained to hurl
petroleum wore asbestos coats for protection. Ploss discusses the
widespread tradition of garments of invulnerability in medieval
Germanic literature, and offers as an analogy the tunics worn by
American soldiers in the Korean War, made of glass fibres woven with
nylon; although a single fiber is fragile, many heated together form
a material which is both flexible and virtually impenatrable. If
asbestos and silk were woven together in medieval times, this would
form a protective garment against fire and weapons, and Ploss quotes
Anna Comnena's reference to mailcoats and helmets of grey silk
resembling metal in colour, worn by Alexius' soldiers at the battle
of Leunion in 1191, when there was insufficient iron for all.
The shirt of invulnerability is a favorite motif in Norse literature.
In the account of the dead of the hero Ragnar Lodbrok, he wore a
shirt which weapons could not pierce, and this protected him a while
in the snake-pit. When, however, he went out earlier in his career
to slay the dragon, he took practical measures to guard against its
firey breath: he chose woolen cloth of coarse quality, heated it in
tar until it was matted and impregnated with resis, and then rolled
it in sand to give it a hard surface. In Saxo's account we are told
that the hero intended "...to use a dress stuffed with hair to
protect himself, and also took one that was not unweildy that he
might move nimbly." Here, however, the point of the protection
against fire is lost, since only the poison of the dragon is
mentioned, and Ragnar's method of hardening the cloth by plunging it
into cold water and letting it freeze on his body is not a sensible
one. In Beowulf the aged king prepared a protection against the fire
of the dragon by having a huge iron shield made, large enough for two
men to shelter behind; while at the same time he wore his
special "battle-shirt," which Grendel's mother had been unable to
pierce with her knife. The emphasis in the poem
p. 281
on the fire raining from the air and flowing in a liquid stream out
of the dargon's lair, "hot with battle-fire," as well as on the
terrible effects of burning on the warriors who encounter the
monster, raises the question of whether here we may discern Swedish
influence, based on some knowledge of Greek fire used in warfare.
Ploss noted that Ragnar's protective shirt was obtained from Aslaug,
the daughter of Sigurd the Volsung, who foungt as a valkyrie, and
that it is described as a grey garment, the gift of the gods. Such a
garment is found in a number of stories connected with the Volsung
cycle, and is associated with Brynhild, Dietrich and Wolfdietrich in
Germanic tradition. The earliest mention of this tunic is in the
Icelandic poem Hamðismál, when Hamdir and Sorli wear garments to
protect them from wounds, and Jormunrek accordingly calls on his men
to stone them. They are said to pull on their "well-woven" garments
as they draw near the hall of the King. In another account of this
tragic expedition, in Guðrúnarhvöt, Gudrun is said to provide her
sons with "ample mailcoats" when they set out. Ursula Dronke doubts
whether the idea of the coat which protected the wearer from wounds
formed part of the original story, although the point is emphasized
both in the Prose Edda and Völsunga Saga. But she also notes a hint
in the earliest source, a ninth-century poem by Bragi, which
describes the heroes as hrafnblair, apparently referring to the dark
clothes or armor which they wore, and uses the term saums
andvanar, "without a join," suggesting a protective garment with no
weak places. Thus it is possible that in the earliest tradition
Gudrun's sons wore tunics of outstanding quality, giving protection
against wounds, and that later on the story of a magic garment
inevitably crept into the account. Emphasis on the dark colour of
such garments recalls Anna Comnena's mention of the silk tunics of
metallic shade worn by the soliders, and it is interesting that in
the Icelandic Sagas we find the convention that men going out to kill
wear a drak garment. One further example of strengthened silk is
found by Ploss in the realm of myth: the cord Gleipnir used to bind
the wolf is said in the Prose Edda to be a smooth silk ribbon
impossible to break.
::GUNNVOR::