Egil, the Viking Poet: New Approaches to 'Egil's Saga' (Toronto Old Norse-Icelandic Series (TONIS)) by

Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781442621244
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2015-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

[eigum ekkjur

allkaldar tvær,

en þær konur

þurfu blossa.] (296)

These are the universal plaints of old age, and contribute nothing to the individualization of Egil, but rather belong to the pattern of generalization that we have noted previously. But the sequence of verses acts as a prelude to Egil’s last quirky gesture before his death, the mysterious disposal of the two chests of silver given to him long ago by King Athelstan in compensation for his brother’s killing. This constitutes another recapitulation of an element from Egil’s past, for it closely mimics the last act of his father Skallagrim. After disputing possession of Athelstan’s gift with Egil (the king had told Egil first to give the silver to his father and then to share it with the rest of his family as well), Skallagrim had taken his own hoarded money and sunk it in a marsh (174). Egil is thwarted in his first mischievous intention, to scatter the money from the Law-Rock at the Assembly in order to watch people scramble for it, an impulse that could be interpreted as another identification of Egil with Odin, in reference to the story of the god’s casting a whetstone up into the air, leading Baugi’s slaves to kill each other with their scythes as they try to catch it (Sturluson 1998, I, 4). Egil is believed instead to have hidden the money somewhere around Mosfell, where he had been living with his step-daughter. The saga’s references to places where the exotic English coins can still be found are a last reminder of the identification of the hero with the particularities of the local landscape (in this case that of Mosfell), a reminiscence of his days of martial glory in foreign battles, and a device that ensures his continuing influence among the saga author’s contemporaries as they continue to turn up evidence of his hoard and speculate on its location.

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