Final Exam Review Flashcards
She answered vehemently, ‘I went to the brothers, to ask to purchase their ship, as I
wanted a larger ship. They reacted so angrily; they struck me and treated me very badly, but
you’re such a coward that you will repay neither dishonour done to me nor to yourself. I am now
paying the price of being so far from my home in Greenland, and unless you avenge this, I will
divorce you!’
Not being able to ignore her upbraiding any longer, he told the men to get up as quickly
as they could and arm themselves. Having done so, they went at once to the longhouse of the
brothers, entered while those inside were still asleep and took them, tied them up and, once
bound, led them outside. Freydis, however, had each one of the men who was brought out killed.
Soon all the men had been killed and only the women were left, as no one would kill
them.
Freydis then spoke: ‘Hand me an axe.’
This was done, and she then attacked the five women there and killed them all.
They returned to their house after this wicked deed, and it was clear that Freydis was
highly pleased with what she had accomplished.
-saga of the greenlanders
- Freydis goes on exploration to Vinland where she can borrow her brothers Leif’s home. The two brothers helgi and finnbogi unload there stuff first into leifs home. Freydis extremely upset by this and lies to her husband who then kills the brothers and their men. They leave the women and children who freydis then executes. She pays her men a lot of money to keep quite but then leif hears about it and Freydis ends up living in seclusion. shows her lust for goods and roles of masculinity.
And the first evening when they shared the same bed, Ragnar wanted to make love to his wife.
But she asked to be excused from this, and told him he would be punished for it if she didn’t get
her way. Ragnar said he didn’t believe it, and he said neither of them was an old man or woman
with second sight. He asked how long this would go on. She said:
“We will live in the hall
three nights together,
then we’ll pray to the gods
and make a sacrifice,
Otherwise there will be
a curse on the son I bear:
if you are too eager to have me,
he will be born with no bones.”
And although she recited this poem, Ragnar ignored it, and he did as he desired.
-saga of ragnarlothrok
- Aslaug warns ragnar that he should wait three nights before having sex to avoid giving birth to a cursed child. Ragnar however commits a vile act of pre martial rape. As a reuslt they give birth to Ivar who is boneless. Ivar then had to be carried everywhere because he did not have the strength to walk.
“Everything I have done has been to bring about the death of King Siggeir my husband, and now
I have done so much to accomplish my vengeance that I cannot choose to live. I ought to die now
with King Siggeir by choice, as I lived with him by force.” Then she kissed her brother Sigmund
and Sinfjolti and she went back into the fire and wished them farewell. There she died with King
Siggeir and all Siggeir’s followers
-saga of the volsung
-Important becuase the revenge plot of the beginign of the book is finsihed. Signy one of the mian caracters dies. she chooses to willingly die with her husband
There comes the shadow-dark dragon flying,
the gleaming serpent, up from Dark-of-Moon Hills;
Nidhogg flies over the plain, in his pinions
he carries corpses; now she will sink down
-seereess Prophecy
-depicts the end of ragnarok. Where Odin thor and the other major Aesir gods will die. A new world will appear from the ashes of this world where earth will sprout in abundance without needing seed. Baldr and Hoor will run the new world. Nidhogg is taking the bodies of the dead to feast on.
A boy! Just a boy! To what young man were you born?
Whose son are you,
you who reddened your shining sword on Fafnir?
The blade stands in my heart!’
-Lay of fafnir
- Everyone is fighting over this ring that is cursed. Greed gets the better of fafnir, sigurd, and reign. Everyone is betraying each other trying to kill each other all over the lust of rare jewels. the irony of it all is that the ring is cursed and not something you want.
Then said Herborg, queen of the Hun’s land:
‘I have a heavier harm to speak of:
my seven sons, in the south-lands,
my husband, as the eighth, all fell in slaughter;
father and mother, four brothers,
the wind played wickedly with them on the waves,
the waves surged against the gunwale.
‘I myself had to lay them out, I myself had to bury them,
I myself had to handle their journey to Hel;
all that I endured in one half-year,
thus no man could ever give me any joy.
‘Then I was taken captive, war-prisoner,
that same half-year it befell me;
I had to adorn her, and tie on the shoes
of the war-leader’s wife every morning.
‘She raged at me in her jealousy
and struck me with savage blows;
nowhere have I found a better master,
nowhere have I found a worse mistress.’
First Gudrun Poem
- shows important life lessons as other wives attempt to brag about how much more pain they have been through to show sympathy
- In the end it is Gullrond who offers to uncover the body and tells gudrun she should kiss sigurd as if he was still alive that gets her to open up. She ends up cursign thge rings for a second time
The ring and golf of fafnir is cursed again showing that the lust for this is truly the undoing of men.
‘Frodi, you weren’t entirely wise about your own interest,
eloquent friend to men, when you bought the slave-girls,
you chose them for their strength and their appearance,
but you didn’t ask about their lineage.’
Song of Grotti
-Important becuase lineage and blood line are extremly important in ancient norse mythology.
-lesson on controlling your ambition
-They are worked to the point of rage where they break the grindstone.
- An army is on the way to punish Frodi.
