A metal interpretation of the sort of cursing described in Egils saga Skallagrímssonar.
[Egil] took in his hand a hazel-pole, and went to a rocky eminence that looked inward to the mainland. Then he took a horse's head and fixed it on the pole. After that, in solemn form of curse, he thus spake: 'Here set I up a curse-pole, and this curse I turn on king Eric and queen Gunnhilda. (Here he turned the horse's head landwards.) This curse I turn also on the guardian-spirits who dwell in this land, that they may all wander astray, nor reach or find their home till they have driven out of the land king Eric and Gunnhilda.'This spoken, he planted the pole down in a rift of the rock, and let it stand there. The horse's head he turned inwards to the mainland; but on the pole he cut runes, expressing the whole form of curse.
Immediately after this is a nice poem, which is not part of the curse.
After this Egil went aboard the ship. They made sail, and sailed out to sea. Soon the breeze freshened, and blew strong from a good quarter; so the ship ran on apace. Then sang Egil:
'Forest-foe, fiercely blowing,
Flogs hard and unceasing
With sharp storm the sea-way
That ship's stern doth plow.
The wind, willow-render,
With icy gust ruthless
Our sea-swan doth buffet
O'er bowsprit and beak.'
"Forest-foe" is a hard wind, as is "willow-render"; the "sea-swan" is of course the ship itself.
5 comments:
Curses are an interesting topic I don't know much about.
Could anyone pronounce such a curse, or only certain types of people? Where did the power of the curse come from? And could such a curse be removed?
In the saga, we learn that Egil also had a particular facility with runes, including the ability to correct badly carved ones. He seems to have had a general facility with words, and words always hold potential magic. I get the impression this facility is considered hereditary to some extent, but I'm not sure anyone ever laid out any kind of system. Really, I'm just guessing.
There were systems.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302710/Was-cursed-Roman-ring-exhibition-Hampshires-The-Vyne-JRR-Tolkiens-inspiration-The-Hobbit.html
Interesting, Lars.
Eric, that's a very interesting article. Thanks for linking it! But, it doesn't seem to describe a system for curses. Although, in both cases writing down the curse seems to be part of it.
Writing it down, in those times, would narrow down who could do it quite a bit, I'd think.
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