Book finished: The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald
2/1/2017
I took a punt on this; I feared it might be the kind of tiresomely archaicised translation I encountered in The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. It turned out to be very readable, a straightforward account in general, with archaic words appearing more frequently and, it seemed to me appropriately, in the numerous poems the characters are constantly composing on the spot as the story unfolds. If you have read "Lord of the Rings" you will recognise the style of poetry used by Tolkein as similar.
A skald was a historian, storyteller, poet and singer of songs. The skald was highly respected in Viking society for his skills. The lead character Cormac appears to have been quite the poet at least, but other characters also come out with poetry from time to time. It is useful to know the style of poetry uses a technique called "kenning", where things are not named directly, but alluded to by using a descriptive two-word replacement. A ship may be referred to as "sea-steed", or "wave's horse", a sword as "man-biter", etc. Ref Wikipedia entry "Kenning". I found a nice page on "Viking" poetry which may be of interest. As for the story, as soon as the establishing history and parentage passages are out of the way, Cormac's life story is principally concerned with his constantly unsuccessful pursuit of Steingerd, the love of his life. From his first sight of her he is thwarted at every turn of the plot, by marriage, gossip, spells and curses, bad luck, and his own errors. There are assaults, duels, scandals, chases, battles, journeys by horse and ship, sailing "incidents", and feasts with poetising. |
A tragic story unfolds
In Iceland, whilst staying at a neighbor's hall, Cormac sees Steingerd, who is also staying there, as she stands on the threshold to spy over the the wicker gate at the guests. Her feet are visible through the gap between the gate and threshold, and already he is moved to poetry: -
"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."
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."
(In this poem "wierd" is used in the sense of Old English "wyrd" = ‘destiny’, of Germanic origin. The adjective ( late Middle English) originally meant ‘having the power to control destiny’. Thus Cormac seems to predict the future frustration she will cause him.)
Cormac goes to see her often, but her father hears of it and calls her home. He has a fatal encounter with two brothers sent to discourage him, and is cursed by their witchy mother never to have Steingerd. He is eventually promised marriage, but fails to follow through due to the bewitchment. Her father is insulted by his lack of commitment, and covertly marries her off hot-quick to frustrate the unsuitable Cormac.
There is some argy-bargy with Steingerd's husband, whose behaviour offends Steingerd and she abruptly leaves him. A few more feuds and offenses amongst the locals are related before Steingerd is again married to another. Cormac tries to talk to her but is rejected for his impropriety.
He sails to Norway, where he "set out to the wars, and did many great deeds", returns to Norway still singing of Steingerd, sails to Ireland to fight for the Norwegian king, and, still pining for her, decides to return to Iceland. She again rejects him, and then there is plotting and feuding with, by, and among his neighbors, and things get bloody and murky.
He resolves to return to Norway, getting a kiss from Steingerd on parting, for which he has to pay her husband for the offense caused. Then, curiously, she convinces her husband they should go abroad. They are captured by pirates and Cormac recues them "by chance". They go to the Norwegian court, and there are "incidents" between her and Cormac which are smoothed over. They all go to sea fighting, and Steingerd is saved by Cormac again. Her husband concedes that she should go with Cormac, as he had won her; Cormac is keen for this "but "Nay," said Steingerd, "she would not change knives."".
She returns to Iceland with her husband, but Cormac and his brother "went warfaring round about Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland, and they were reckoned to be the most famous of men." Cormac meets his end in battle there, still spouting songs to his lost lady as he expires.
Cormac goes to see her often, but her father hears of it and calls her home. He has a fatal encounter with two brothers sent to discourage him, and is cursed by their witchy mother never to have Steingerd. He is eventually promised marriage, but fails to follow through due to the bewitchment. Her father is insulted by his lack of commitment, and covertly marries her off hot-quick to frustrate the unsuitable Cormac.
There is some argy-bargy with Steingerd's husband, whose behaviour offends Steingerd and she abruptly leaves him. A few more feuds and offenses amongst the locals are related before Steingerd is again married to another. Cormac tries to talk to her but is rejected for his impropriety.
He sails to Norway, where he "set out to the wars, and did many great deeds", returns to Norway still singing of Steingerd, sails to Ireland to fight for the Norwegian king, and, still pining for her, decides to return to Iceland. She again rejects him, and then there is plotting and feuding with, by, and among his neighbors, and things get bloody and murky.
He resolves to return to Norway, getting a kiss from Steingerd on parting, for which he has to pay her husband for the offense caused. Then, curiously, she convinces her husband they should go abroad. They are captured by pirates and Cormac recues them "by chance". They go to the Norwegian court, and there are "incidents" between her and Cormac which are smoothed over. They all go to sea fighting, and Steingerd is saved by Cormac again. Her husband concedes that she should go with Cormac, as he had won her; Cormac is keen for this "but "Nay," said Steingerd, "she would not change knives."".
She returns to Iceland with her husband, but Cormac and his brother "went warfaring round about Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland, and they were reckoned to be the most famous of men." Cormac meets his end in battle there, still spouting songs to his lost lady as he expires.
Anyone familiar with the history of the British Isles will know the characterisation of the Vikings as savage, uncivilised raiders, pillaging and plundering in orgies of violence and destruction. It is interesting to hear this account from the other side, where warriors are also poets, and battle is not to be feared, but an honourable pursuit of brave and self-reliant men of power and strength.
All this would make a rip-roaring movie! It could be done as a doomed love story, with a few action scenes, or as an action-adventure story, with a bit of love-interest. I guess you could also base a role-playing computer game on it. Not that I have heard of many requiring off-the-cuff poetry and song composition!
I would recommend this to anyone prepared to make the effort of getting used to the different style of English, and the rather condensed plot construction. Some periods of years are skipped over in a few lines, elsewhere incidents are fully related conversations or blow-by blow accounts of fights. There are times you must read between the lines as to the internal states of the characters. Steingerd is especially cryptic, and is not a fully developed character at all. Her motives are never clear, and her decisions are largely unexplained. Even poor Cormac seems left in the dark in the end!
Read as an e-book downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg, on my Kobo Touch e-reader.
All this would make a rip-roaring movie! It could be done as a doomed love story, with a few action scenes, or as an action-adventure story, with a bit of love-interest. I guess you could also base a role-playing computer game on it. Not that I have heard of many requiring off-the-cuff poetry and song composition!
I would recommend this to anyone prepared to make the effort of getting used to the different style of English, and the rather condensed plot construction. Some periods of years are skipped over in a few lines, elsewhere incidents are fully related conversations or blow-by blow accounts of fights. There are times you must read between the lines as to the internal states of the characters. Steingerd is especially cryptic, and is not a fully developed character at all. Her motives are never clear, and her decisions are largely unexplained. Even poor Cormac seems left in the dark in the end!
Read as an e-book downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg, on my Kobo Touch e-reader.