Journeys To The Otherworld in The Icelandic Fornaldarsogur

Journeys to the Otherworld in the Icelandic "Fornaldarsgur"
Author(s): Rosemary Power

Source: Folklore, Vol. 96, No. 2 (1985), pp. 156-175
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1259639
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Folklore vol. 96:ii, 1985 156
Journeys to the Otherworld in the Icelandic

Fornaldarsogur
ROSEMARY POWER
AMONG the group of forty or so medieval Icelandic sagas and thaettir, or short sagas,
known as the Fornaldarsdgur Nordturlanda, the sagas of heroic times, there is a tale in
which a human hero makes a perilous journey to a delightful otherworld country. Here
he performs certain deeds, the most important of which is to resolve a conflict between
two rulers, and he also obtains a wife. He returns temporarily to mortal lands but then
goes back to the other world to rule territory he has acquired there. This story is the
major episode in Thorstein's saga baejarmagns,' and a small number of other
Fornaldarsogur and related works contain tales that are both thematically and
structurally very similar.
While the theme of a journey to the otherworld is common in medieval literature,
the Icelandic tales in question do not appear to be derived from foreign secular or
religious literature on this theme, although they have to varying degrees been
influenced by works of this kind, which would have been well known to the authors of
the written sagas. The degree and type of this influence varies from saga to saga, but
when the tales are examined in depth it can be seen that much the same pattern of
events occurs in each of them. The individual authors apparently drew, independently
of each other, on a group of oral tales within which this pattern had acquired its
constituent elements. A number of these elements are found in Norse mythological
tales, which must be the sources, but there are also features which are common to
certain tales in Irish and Welsh literature. If the latter have provided material for the
Fornaldarsdgur they were most probably transmitted to Iceland in oral form during the
period of settlement in the late eighth and ninth centuries. It is known that at this time
Norsemen from Scotland and Ireland went to Iceland, taking with them women and
slaves of Celtic stock.
The Fornaldarsi'gur were written in Iceland during the second half of the thirteenth
century and the beginning of the fourteenth. They concern the legendary and
reputedly legendary heroes of Scandinavia, some of whom are said to have been
ancestors of Norse settlers of Iceland. The accounts of the various heroes circulated in
oral form and accumulated additional material before being used by the authors of the
literary works. A varying degree of influence from romance, in particular French
romance, is discernable in the written works. The Fornaldarsiigur were always very
popular in Iceland, although the stories they contain were relatively seldom used in
later literature and folktales.
Journeys to the otherworld occur in five of the Fornaldarsoigur and also in two other
sagas which are modelled on French romances and consequently do not have Nordic
heroes. The formulaic pattern of the tale told in each is best demonstrated when what
is in many ways the most archaic version, the main tale in Thorstein's saga baejarmagns,
is considered.
The hero, Thorstein, who has already had two adventures with supernatural
characters, is sailing along the coast of the Austrveg, in north-west Russia, an area
largely inhabited by supernatural or at least unusual peoples, looking for further
ICELANDIC OTHERWORLD JOURNEYS 157
adventures. He loses his course during a storm and sails into an unknown fjord. The
crew cast anchor and Thorstein decides to go ashore alone. He tells his men not to wait
for him more than six days before returning to the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason,
whose retainers they are.
Thorstein sets out into the forests. On the second morning he is wakened by the
noise made by a party of men of enormous size who ride past the tree in which he is
resting. Later, three other, equally large, men pass that way and Thorstein goes to
meet them. Their leader is Guthmund, the king of Glaesisvellir. His father, a vassal of
the king Geirridth, has recently been slain by Geirradth, and now Guthmund is on his
way to Geirroith's court to be installed as his father's successor. He is, not surprisingly,
reluctant to undertake this journey, and is even more reluctant to take the Christian
Thorstein, who asks to accompany him, but he finally agrees to do so. They continue
the journey and come to a river, the waters of which cause death to any horse other
than theirs and to any person not protected by special clothing which Guthmund and
his companions have with them for themselves and the horses. They cross this river
and enter Geirr6th's lands. Thorstein has previously acquired a magic ring that makes
him invisible, and he now puts this on.
They arrive at Geirr6th's court, where Guthmund and his people are welcomed.
Three days of feasting take place. On the first of these Guthmund swears an
ambiguous oath of fealty to Geirr6th. Each evening various forms of entertainment are
arranged by the host, with the purpose of slaying Guthmund and his people. Thorstein
prevents any harm coming to them. Guthmund's final feat is to drink from a
remarkable horn, to which a human head capable of uttering prophecies is attached.
The contents are poisonous but Guthmund is lent a magic protective shirt by
Thorstein and suffers no ill-effects.
Becoming visible once more, Thorstein enters the hall openly, and Guthmund
explains his relatively small size by saying that he is his page. Thorstein is told to
display his talents, and, using other magic objects he has acquired (a stone and spike),
he creates first a snowstorm, then sunny weather and sweet scents, and then sets the
hall ablaze, throws the stone and spike at Geirrath and kills him.
With Guthmund's assistance he escapes from the hall, and on his return to his ship
he meets the half-human daughter of Earl Agthi, one of Geirr6th's retainers. He asks
her if she will be baptised and come with him and she agrees, so they journey together
to the ships and travel home to King Olaf. Thorstein presents Olaf with gifts sent by
Guthmund, and also with two famous horns he has stolen from Agthi. Another
adventure follows, in which Agthi retrieves his horns and attempts to harm Thorstein
but is prevented from doing so by King Olaf. Thorstein goes back to the otherworld to
gain the horns back, returns with them to Olaf and then goes back with his wife to the
otherworld to rule the lands held previously by Agthi, who has retired to his grave-
mound.
The elements that may be isolated because they are found in the other tales as well as
this one may be tabulated as follows:
A The hero chooses to go on a journey to a certain named destination.

B He takes companions and journeys by ship.
C He reaches an otherworld country where
D he is welcomed by the friendly inhabitants.
E He decides to continue his journey to a more dangerous otherworld country.
F He receives information about the journey and the destination.
G He makes the journey, surviving perils on the way.
158 ROSEMARY POWER
H The most important of these is crossing a perilous river.

I The hero arrives at his destination in the otherworld and enters a hall or similar building.
J He stays there for a specified length of time, at least one night.
K Eating, drinking and entertainments take place there, and also
L some particular event, usually of religious or occult significance.
M The hero confronts an enemy, usually a ruler, and destroys him and any followers he may have.
N The hero leaves, without encountering further difficulties.
O He acquires a wife.
P He returns home, successful and wealthy.
Q He finally returns to the otherworld.
This is a general outline, and while the other tales will contain most of these
elements, the order can sometimes vary slightly, and each tale also contains a fair
amount of additional material which may obscure the outline or be responsible for
certain changes.
In Helgi's saga,2 a closely related short saga, the hero, Helgi, has been on a trading
voyage to the Finns, and on his way home along the coast of Norway he goes ashore
one day. A darkness descends and separates him from his companions. He sees twelve
women ride up. They dismount, set up a beautiful tent and prepare a feast. The leader
of them then greets Helgi by name, and invites him to feast with her. She is Ingibj6rg,
the daughter of Guthmund of Glaesisvellir. The two sleep together and Helgi remains
there for three days. When he leaves Ingibj6rg gives him gifts. He refuses to tell his
companions where he has been.
Although t: - hero meets the otherworld character in a forest in north Norway, as in
Thorstein's saga, the opening to Helgi's saga is otherwise quite different. The source
appears to be the opening section of Marie de France's Lai de Lanval in which Lanval
meets his lady in similar circumstances, and eats and sleeps with her in her pavilion.
This lai was known in Norway, and so possibly in Iceland too, but the manner in
which it is used in Helgi's saga suggests that the author was working from memory.3
Once this opening episode has been accounted for it may be seen that many of the
features of Thorstein's saga have their counterparts in Helgi's saga. The feasting and the
meeting with the lady have been transposed and occur in the first otherworldly
country. Helgi then returns to his own lands until the following Christmas. He goes
outside in a storm to check that Ingibj6rg's gifts, which he has hidden on his ship, are
safe, and he is abducted by two men and carried off to Glaesisvellir. No fight occurs
here, for only the one ruler, Guthmund, is mentioned, but something similar occurs in
Olaf's own court the next Christmas, when Helgi arrives, in the company of two of
Guthmund's retainers. These bring a gift of two horns. Olaf has them filled with drink
and blessed by the bishop, and they are given to the two visitors to drink from first.
They are incensed; the lights are suddenly put out and the two men and Helgi have
gone by the time they are relit, leaving three men dead behind them. The two visitors,
and also the horns themselves, are called Grim, the name given to the horn with the
human head in Thorstein's saga. In addition to this physical 'fight' another occurs at a
different level, as a struggle between the Christian Olaf and the heathen Guthmund for
possession of Helgi. This is won by Olaf when Guthmund is no longer able to continue
opposing his will. Helgi is released the next Christmas, though he is first blinded by
Ingibj6rg, who warns him that the women of Norway will not enjoy him for long. She
has no longer been able to enjoy him herself as a result of Olaf's intervention. Helgi
does not return to the otherworld, but dies a year later.
Helgi's saga is clearly derived from much the same sources as Thorstein's saga.
Guthmund and his realm are regarded with unease by the author, for whom a heathen
ruler of a land of delight did not fit well into the accepted moral order. He speaks of
Guthmund sending the gift of horns in order to honour Olaf, but he also says that
Guthmund wished to act treacherously towards him. Helgi is well treated in this land,
but apparently by bringing him back Olaf saves his soul. This uneasy attitude towards
the otherworld is also apparent in some of the analogues, while even in Thorstein's saga
Olaf admonishes Thorstein to hold to his Christianity and Guthmund agrees not to
interfere with his beliefs.
The problem of accommodating the heathen otherworld to the Christian scheme has
been avoided totally in The Saga of Eirik the Far- Traveller,4 in which the otherworld is
uninhabited and is identified with the Earthly Paradise. This has in turn been
identified with the Garden of Eden, which is set in the east, near India. This saga is
derived largely from medieval learned accounts of the world and in particular of the
Earthly Paradise, and has also been influenced by vision literature.5 Even so, it is both
thematically and structurally related to Thorstein's saga and Helgi's saga.
The land to which the hero goes in this saga is not named Glaesisvellir. One Yule,
the heathen Eirik, son of the king of Thrandheim, swears during the drinking session
in the standard heroic manner to search the world seeking the place that heathens call
Oddinsakr and Christians jord lifandi manna or Paradise. The first of these names,
which translates as the Field of the Undead, or more loosely as the Land of the
Undying, is also found in one version of Hervarar saga where it is regarded as lying
within Glaesisvellir.6 Guthmund and his people, we are told here, lived through many
generations of humans, and for this reason heathens believed that in his lands lay the
Land of the Undying, where sickness and old age disappear from all whom come there,
and where none might die. The immortality of the otherworld characters reappears
(though in muted form) in Thorstein's saga, in which the king always takes the name of
Guthmund, and is also hinted at in other of the analogues. The name the Land of the
Undying may possibly derive from the Christian name for the land, jord lifandi manna,
the Land of the Living. This may in turn be derived from the terra viventium of the
Vulgate Bible. The biblical Land of the Living, which sometimes was regarded as
referring to Paradise,' is in Eirik's saga equated with the name Paradise.8 Paradise
itself had become an ambiguous term in this period, as it referred both to Heaven and
to the Earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden, which was believed to have a
geographical locality. Soinething of this confusion is found within Eirik's saga, for
when the hero finally arrives at his destination he is told it is not Paradise, which no
living person may enter, but somewhat confusedly, that God has had the Land of the
Living created or prepared and shown t'o them.
No reason is given for Eirik's swearing his oath, but we later discover that his
guardian angel was present on this occasion. Eirik sets out with his companions, who
include his foster-brother Eirik the Dane. Guided without their knowledge by the
angel, they make their way to the first 'otherworldly' country, the city of Byzantium.
The inhabitants are, as usual, well disposed, and Eirik is entertained by the emperor
himself. His realm is suffering from attacks by vikings. This element is not developed
further but presumably Eirik's high standing with the emperor is won through
defeating them. This appears to be a muted version of the usual otherworld fight,
which has in this saga been moved forward as the main otherworld country is
uninhabited. The emperor instructs Eirik in cosmology and Christianity in a lengthy
section based on such textbooks as the Elucidarius and De Imagine Mundi, and Eirik is
160 ROSEMARY POWER
baptised. After visiting the River Jordan he continues his travels, searching for the
Earthly Paradise, which the emperor has told him lies beyond Furthest India, and is
separated from other lands by a wall of fire reaching to the heavens. He finally finds
the land, which is not surrounded by a wall of fire and lacks certain other features
commonly ascribed to Paradise in the literature. Most unusually it contains neither the
Tree of Life nor the Tree of Knowledge, and though Eirik must cross the River Pishon
to enter it, the three other rivers and the fountain from which they all flow, according
to these standard accounts, which are ultimately based on Genesis chapter 2, are
absent.'0 In contrast, Eirik and his companions, who have journeyed through many
lands, including a land of darkness," see a fair, low-lying land, flowing with streams of
honey if not with milk, where a gentle breeze wafts the sweet smells of the many plants
and flowers to them. It is separated from them by the River Pishon, across which there
is a bridge on which stands a dragon. Eirik the Dane decides that they can go no
further, but Eirik the Norwegian and one companion approach the dragon, which
swallows them. They pass through a mist and find themselves in the land they have
seen. Their method of entering appears to be without parallel in the literature of this
type.12 The two travel on until they find a hall suspended in the air, similar to a chapel
in a vision tale in the hagiographical compilation Marl'u saga, in which a similar
description of Paradise is given.'3 In Marou saga Mass is said in this chapel, while in
the unpopulated land in Eirik's saga the Mass is represented by a table in the tower on
which the companions see sweet-smelling bread and a chalice of wine. Also present in
the tower are couches, which may have been suggested by the description of the
furnishings of the upper room of the Last Supper in Mark 14:15 and Luke 22:12. The
two companions rest here, and while Eirik sleeps his guardian angel appears to him
and explains the significance of the journey. He also gives Eirik the choice of
remaining in this land or returning to Norway, and Eirik chooses to return. The angel
tells him that he will come for him in some years' time and take his soul to Paradise
and his bones to a place where they will rest till Judgement Day. Eirik and his
companion are permitted to remain for six days, and they then return to Norway. Ten
years later Eirik disappears one day while praying. While the manner of his leaving
mortal lands may be based on the passage in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians
(2 Corinthians 12:1-5) in which Paul speaks of a man who was caught up into the third
heaven, whether in body or soul he does not know, the way in which Eirik's departure
has been prearranged suggests that the theme of the final return to the otherworld has
been retained in a form suitable for the religious context.14
One major element found in the analogues is entirely absent in this context. At no
stage does Eirik acquire a wife. Presumably she has simply been discarded by the
author as being, together with all the inhabitants of the heathen otherworld, unsuitable
in a religious tale of this kind. But other less potentially disconcerting elements have
been retained by the author in some form. One example is the inclusion of the vikings,
hinting at the otherworld fight, while another is the finding by Eirik of a silver bowl
during his journey east. This serves no purpose in the saga, but may echo the
acquisition of the horns in Thorstein's saga and Helgi's saga.
Another Fornaldarsaga, The Saga of Yngvar the Far-Traveller,'" has again used the
formula characteristic of the otherworld tales, though in this case the heathen
otherworld visited is not Glaesisvellir but is placed on a river of Russia. This saga,
which is an odd combination of viking tale and hagiographical work, may in its present
form be a rewriting of an earlier saga.16 It appears to be indebted in particular to Eirik's
saga, but it uses the formula identified in Thorstein's saga much more fully than does
Eirik's saga, which indicates that the author was, consciously or not, aware of the
pattern of events deemed suitable for the tale of a journey to the otherworld. Yngvar's
saga concerns an historical character, who led an expedition to Russia in the mid-
eleventh century, and died there, together with a number of his men, as more than
twenty Swedish runestones erected in memory of the dead testify. According to the
saga he was acclaimed as a saint; nothing is said of this elsewhere and the author
himself had doubts about the sanctity of his hero, but Yngvar is at least no worse a
candidate than certain other members of the Scandinavian royal families who were also
regarded as saints.
Yngvar decides to journey to Russia to seek a kingdom for himself after he has been
denied the name of king in his own country, Sweden. This journey, which he embarks
on with a number of companions, soon becomes a journey to discover the estuary of
the river on which they find themselves, which is presumably the Volga, though it has
characteristics of the Dneiper.
The companions have a number of adventures and reach the lands of a certain Queen
Silkisif. They stay here for a while, and Yngvar sternly warns his men from having any
dealings with the heathens of this land, in particular the women. After a time they
journey further down the river and reach another land populated by friendly heathens.
The brother of the ruler, Jolf, is at enmity with him, and Yngvar promises to assist Jolf
when required. He is given instructions about the rest of his journey, and reaches a sea
named the Red Sea, where he and his companions defeat vikings and a dragon, and
come to an apparently deserted castle. One of Yngvar's followers elects to spend a
night there, and is visited by a devil who gives him an account of the place and then
drops dead. As in Thorstein's saga and Helgi's saga, the hero takes an object from this
otherworld hall, in this case a banner which belonged to a Swedish king who had
previously made the voyage and had died in the Red Sea. Yngvar and his men leave,
and return to Jolf, whose brother they defeat. They then continue back towards
Silkisif's lands.
So far, the pattern of events is much the same as in the other sagas, though additional
adventures have been included and there are three (not two) otherworld countries. The
Swedes have also taken part in numerous fights, though only one in which the hero has
resolved the conflict to the benefit of the good ruler. But at this point the pattern is
broken. Yngvar dies on his return to Silkisifs lands. As Yngvar actually did die in
Russia the author was unable to complete the usual pattern, but rather than leave it
unfinished he provided Yngvar with a son, Svein, before he left Sweden, and the rest of
the saga concerns Svein.
After a few years Svein sets out with the intention of bringing his father's body home
to Sweden. This is what Yngvar had himself desired, but his body had been taken and
buried by Queen Silkisif. Svein completes adventures left unfinished by his father and
his crew and arrives at Silkisifs lands. Here he finds himself involved in completing
the christianisation of the country which was initiated by Yngvar, and also marries
Silkisif, his father's intended bride. A church is built and dedicated to Yngvar. Svein
returns to Sweden, taking his wife with him, but does not remain long before going
back to rule the lands previously governed by Silkisif.
This saga contains all the usual elements, though with some duplication, and even
the land of darkness (which is replaced by mist in Thorstein's saga) is included, albeit as
an afterthought."17 The otherworld hall at the destination is present, though there is no
ritual drinking; the only religious or occult event is the visitation by a devil.
In other medieval sagas containing the journey to the otherworld the hero is not a
162 ROSEMARY POWER
Christian, nor does he need this protection as the otherworld is not threatening. In the
Saga of Egil and Asmunds' there is an inset story in which a trollwoman journeys to the
otherworld in order to collect certain objects there. The theme has been turned to
comic purpose here but many of the usual elements appear-the feasting in an
otherworld hall; the drinking from a poisonous horn; the slaying of enemies, though
not in order to aid a good ruler; and having dealings with a deity. In the medieval
romance Konrad's saga19 the use of the theme is more obvious and a debt to Eirik's saga
is also apparent. The hero, Konrad, has gone to Byzantium in the company of his
treacherous foster-brother Rothbert. Rothbert, who can speak the language, is asked by
Konrad to pretend to be him. Konrad wishes to win the emperor's daughter, and sets
himself to learning the language, only to discover that Rothbert is trying to win her for
himself. He tells the emperor, and in order to prove he is who he says he is Konrad is
sent to find a certain precious stone. His lady, Matthild, gives him directions, and after
a perilous journey he arrives at Babylon on Whit Sunday, the only day of the year on
which he can complete his quest. He crosses a bridge on which is lying a dragon, who
on that day is in a daze, and finds himself in a town infested by dragons. He acquires
the stone and other objects including precious horns and a drinking bowl. As he
departs the city is destroyed. He returns home safely.20
The complete formulaic pattern is used in the first half of another native Icelandic
romance, the Saga of Vilhjalm sjdd,21 though it is again somewhat obscured by the
inclusion of a number of minor adventures. The tale opens with a number of
mysterious chess games which lead to the hero's being sent to seek a giant's den and to
recite the names of the inhabitants. This opening is unlike that of the other sagas but it
has analogues elsewhere in Icelandic literature. The hero sets out and after various
adventures he acquires a foster-brother and with him crosses not a perilous river but
the Straits of Gibraltar, which the author seems to have regarded as being no less of an
undertaking, and which comprises a similar barrier between the otherworld and this
world. In the land that Vilhjalm has now reached he is well-treated by his foster-
brother, and meets his sister. This lady directs him to her foster-mother, who gives
him further information. Vilhjalm now travels to the main otherworld land, crossing
on the way a river whose waters mean death to any who touch them. He is now in the
Land of Eirs, a land which has day while other countries have night, and which
appears to be a creation of the author's derived from travellers' tales of India. Half of
this land is inhabited by good human-like characters, and the other half by trolls, but
in this saga the trolls are vassals of the good ruler. Their subsequent acts centre on
their having to pay taxes to him. Vilhjalm arrives at the trolls' court on the sixth day of
Christmas, and the main events take place, as in Helgi's saga, on the eighth day.
Vilhjalm learns the names of the trolls, and on the eighth day recites them while the
trolls are feasting, thus destroying them. The ruler of the Land of Eirs then appears,
but after a short confrontation their dispute is settled without the usual fight, perhaps
because Vilhjalm has been engaged with and has defeated the evil inhabitants, the
trolls. The second part of the saga follows. This consists of unrelated adventures, but
towards the end Vilhjalm marries his otherworldly lady, returns briefly to his own
home to display his wealth and success, and then goes to settle with his wife in the
strange and distant kingdom of Babylon. The features peculiar to this saga are that the
fight is portrayed differently and the event of occult significance is the recitation of the
trolls' names, in the form of a poem, which destroys them, an international motif.
The correspondences between the different sagas may be seen when the elements
isolated for Thorstein's saga are tabulated for the other three Fornaldars'gur and for
Vilhjalms saga. The Saga of Egil and Asmund and Konrad's saga may be left aside as
they are only partial analogues.
Thorstein's saga A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
Helgi's saga B C D K P I J (O) (M) P
Eirik's saga A B C D (M) E F G H I J K L N P Q
Yngvar's saga ABCDE BCDE F GI J LMN (Yngvar)
A B C D L O P Q (Svein)
Vilhjalm's saga B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
Thus, in spite of the absence of some of the elements and the variation in the order in
particular of minor events, it can be seen that there is to a large degree a common
structure in addition to the common theme. It is now possible to look at some of the
common sources, or at least analogues, for this group of tales in order to determine to
some extent how the existing stories developed.
THE NORDIC ANALOGUES
Two mythological tales survive in Iceland which have certain similarities to the
group of stories under discussion. Both have been considered previously, in relation to
Thorstein's saga in particular.22 They are the tenth-century poem Thorsdrapa, which is
quoted by the thirteenth-century Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson in his
Edda, a handbook of mythology and poetics, written in about 1220;23 and the tale of
the god Thor's visit to the giant Utgartha-loki, which is recounted by Snorri, also in
the Edda.24
The earlier of the two tales, Thorsdrapa, is fairly obscure, and was so even in Snorri's
time, for he gives a prose account of the contents in addition to quoting the poem. The
story is that the god Thor is incited by the trouble-maker Loki to visit the giant
Geirrtith. As in Thorstein's saga and Helgi's saga, the two begin their journey with a sea
voyage, but unlike the Fornaldarsdgur heroes they do not first visit a pleasant
otherworld with friendly inhabitants, partly because they are themselves the
inhabitants of a pleasant otherworld. It is they who are intent on destroying villainous
otherworld enemies and they have no mortal companion to do this for them. They do
make a dangerous journey and cross a perilous river, in which Loki is almost drowned,
as one of Geirr6th's daughters raises its level by urinating or menstruating into it. She
is prevented from doing further harm by Thor, and the two companions arrive at
Geirr6th's court, where feasting is in progress. Here Thor manages to break the backs
of two of Geirr6th's daughters, and then plays a 'game' with Geirrith. The giant
throws a red-hot spike at Thor, who catches it, and throws it back at Geirr6th, killing
him. Thor and Loki then return home.
Several elements found in Thorstein's saga, and to a lesser extent in the other sagas
discussed, occur here. In particular, the 'game' with the red-hot spike is paralleled in
Thorstein's saga by two events: a throwing game played in Geirri-th's hall with a red-
hot seal's head; and the slaying of Geirr6th by Thorstein with his magic spike. This
spike and its accompanying stone produce different kinds of weather, and it has been
pointed out that echoes of Thor's attributes are found in Thorstein's use of these magic
objects.25
But a number of the elements that occur regularly in the Fornaldarsogur tales are not
found here: nothing of religious or occult significance occurs; no mention is made of
164 ROSEMARY POWER
the length of time spent in Geirr6th's hall; no wife is acquired; and while Thor and
Loki return to their own otherworld country, they do not return to Geirr6th's land, nor
does it come under Thor's rule. And neither character is human.
The next account, the journey of Thor to the house of Utgartha-loki, is told by
Snorri as a myth, but its origins are less certain. Although the existing written version
is older than the written Fornaldarsogur by some fifty years or more, it may have been
influenced by oral versions of them, for a Danish rendering of the same story, which
will be considered shortly, dates from about 1200, and proves that the oral stories must
have been in circulation at least some twenty years before the Edda was written. This
so-called myth has a number of unusual features, including allegorical explanations of
some of its characters, and parallels from Ireland suggest that it is possibly an Irish tale
which has been caught up into Norse mythology.26
According to Snorri, Thor sets out with Loki as a companion, and with no fixed
destination in mind. There follows an inset tale in which Thor acquires two
companions, the children of a farmer. One of them, Thjalfi, becomes his helper in the
subsequent events. They spend a night in a mysterious hall which they discover next
day is the mitten of a giant they meet, who names himself Skrymir. They continue
their journey with him, and Thor attempts to slay him three times, though without
success. Skrymir directs them to the hall of Utgartha-loki, and then leaves them. There
is no perilous river to cross. Everything in Utgartha-loki's dwelling is of enormous
size, and they are obliged to enter by squeezing through the railings that surround the
dwelling. They enter the hall to meet the huge inhabitants. As usual, feasting is taking
place. The companions are told that if they wish to stay there they will have to
demonstrate their skills in order to provide entertainment. The trials that follow are
not designed as in Thorsdrapa and Thorstein's saga to destroy them, but merely to
humiliate them. The trials include as in Thorstein's saga drinking and wrestling, but
the fire-game is absent, unless some vestige remains in an eating contest between Loki
and an opponent who is the personification of fire. After the companions have been
defeated in their trials they are hospitably treated and remain the night. They leave
without encountering any difficulty the next day, and their host, Utgartha-loki,
informs them that he is the same person as Skrymir, and that their opponents the night
before were personifications of Fire, Thought, the Sea, and Old Age; and the Midgard
snake in disguise. Thor again attempts to kill the giant, but fails, and the companions
return home, having gained neither in wealth nor in prestige.
For the first time in this group of tales the wrestling in the otherworld hall occurs,
and it is also of note that the companions stay in the hall for a specified length of time,
in this case one night. There are otherwise no new features. The peculiarities of this
tale are not found in the Fornaldarso'gur versions, and this suggests that the so-called
myth has been influenced by them rather than that it is one of the sources, for the
fights of allegorical nature would perhaps have found a natural home in the
Fornaldars'gur and Icelandic romances had the tale been widely known.
The tale of the journey to the otherworld was known to the Danish writer Saxo
Grammaticus, who used it in Book Eight of his Gesta Danorum, which he wrote in
about 1200.27 Saxo learned many of his mythological and legendary tales from
Icelanders, as he acknowledges himself. He actually recounts two stories of the
journey, one after the other, and the first of these shows considerable similarities to the
tales already discussed. A major development has occurred in Saxo's accounts; the hero
is now human.
The hero of both tales is an Icelander named Thorkillus.28 He is a retainer of the

(legendary) Danish king Gormo, who is curious to visit the abode of Geruthus, the
Geirri*th of the Icelandic tales. As Thorkillus has already visited these lands he is
chosen by Gormo to act as the guide to him and three hundred of his followers who
accompany him. They make the journey north around the coast of Norway and to
Permland, and after a perilous voyage arrive at the land ruled by Geruthus's friendly
brother Gudmundus, who makes them welcome and invites them to a feast. Thorkillus
warns his companions about accepting this hospitality, and tells them to eat only the
food they have brought with them and to ignore the blandishments of Gudmundus's
daughters, prohibitions reminiscent of Yngvar's saga, though possibly suggested
independently in each case by the strictures of medieval Christianity. Some of the
visitors succumb to the women and become enchanted, and so presumably lose their
souls, as they have to remain there. Thorkillus and Gormo wish to visit Geruthus, and
Gudmundus reluctantly gives them directions and accompanies them across the river
that divides the two lands. They cross by boat, for a bridge connecting the two lands
may not be used by the living. They arrive at Geruthus's hall, which is a ghastly place
of decaying grandeur where the inhabitants appear to have been frozen while taking
part in various forms of activity which include fighting with clubs and a tugging game
played with an animal's hide, a game mentioned several times in Icelandic sources.
The companions see many treasures, including the ornamented horn of an aurochs,
and armour which is too large for humans. In the centre of the court are Geruthus and
his three daughters, all of whom, we are told, were slain by Thor long before. As the
visitors leave, Thorkillus, who has warned his men not to touch the treasure they see,
succumbs to the temptation himself. At this the members of Geruthus's court
suddenly become animate and attack the humans, only a few of whom escape from the
hall. They return to the river, where Gudmundus is waiting to ferry them back to his
own land. Here he encourages them to stay with him, but apart from one man, who is
seduced into staying by a daughter of Gudmundus, and consequently loses his mind,
the companions depart, crossing another river as they leave Gudmundus's land. After
many perils they return to Denmark.
As in Thorstein's saga the human hero's name contains the name Thor; there are two
countries in the otherworld, separated from each other by a river, and indeed almost all
the other distinctive features are present, even if only vestigally. These vestigal
features-the aurochs's horn; the attempt by Thorkillus to steal treasure (Thorstein
steals Agthi's horns); and also the huge armour, which indicates knowledge of a story
in which the otherworld's inhabitants are larger than humans-suggest that, though it
was written down earlier, Saxo's tale is derived from the oral tale preserved in
Thorstein's saga. A complication has arisen as Saxo also knew the myth preserved in
Thorsdrapa and has combined it with the story of Thorstein, probably without
realising that he was dealing with two tales which by this time were separate. It is
probably because of this combination that the otherworld fight, so important in the
other accounts, does not occur in this tale; the fight is sufficiently indicated by the
presence of the dead Geruthus slain previously by Thor. Other features only partially
present are the event of occult significance, which remains in the mention of the horn,
and the acquisition of a wife for the hero, which is replaced by the marriage of some of
Gormo's men to daughters of Gudmundus-leaders cannot be spared so easily.
Thorkillus does not return to this otherworld, which is not surprising considering its
depiction.
Saxo's tale is a little confused because of his combination of otherworld saga and
166 ROSEMARY POWER
Norse myth, and this confusion is reinforced because Saxo was clearly disturbed by the
depiction of a delightful heathen otherworld, for which he could find no place in the
Christian moral order. Therefore he had to present it as a place of dubious delight.
This results in some internal contradictions; Gudmundus is described as the faithful
guardian of people who travel to the northern latitudes, but also as attempting to
enchant the mortal visitors and as treacherous. Even so he lets his visitors leave him
freely.
Thorkillus sets out on a second voyage in order to bring Gormo news of the afterlife
by visiting the abode of Utgarthilocus, the deity to whom Gormo sacrifices. Thorkillus
has not made this journey before, but he sails north and after an even more perilous
voyage than the previous one, which includes a passage through the usual land of
darkness, the companions reach a country inhabited by two well-disposed giants. Once
Thorkillus has answered certain questions to their satisfaction they give him
directions. The humans pass through a second land of darkness and finally reach a
cavern within which Utgarthilocus is to be found. Inside they cross a river and within
the cave, which is even more foul than the hall of Geruthus, they see the giant deity
lying bound on the floor. The humans stay long enough only to pluck a hair from his
beard, and then leave. Some of them are slain by snakes that inhabit the cave;
otherwise there is no combat. They return home, undergoing many perils on the way.
Thorkillus displays the hair from Utgarthilocus's beard.
It appears that Saxo has used the structure and many of the motifs of the otherworld
journeys, and that he may have heard of the existence of a tale of the journey of Thor to
Utgartha-loki such as that told in the Edda. But, as in the case of the previous voyage of
Thorkillus, he has combined the tale in question with an older myth, in this case the
myth of the binding of Loki in a cave beneath a serpent dripping venom, as a
punishment ordained by the gods, which is to continue until Doomsday.
The resulting story appears to be very much Saxo's own creation, which is based on
half-remembered tales combined with each other in a manner that is somewhat
confusing. Again Saxo is determined to provide moral instruction; in this case he
wishes to demonstrate the vileness and inefficacy of the old deities and the folly of
being a pagan. The hero, Thorkillus, duly becomes a Christian. Yet even if Saxo had
used only the one tale, the voyage to Geruthus, he would presumably have made
Thorkillus a Christian, in order to protect him from the blandishments of the
otherworld of delight.
It is obvious from the Icelandic sagas and from Saxo's account that the delightful
otherworld was not incorporated into the Christian moral order and that it caused
unease. This indicates that the theme was not derived from European religious,
learned or romance writing, for in them the theme had been assimilated. Whatever the
remaining sources are it must be assumed, because of this lack of assimilation and
because the Norse accounts contain a number of distinctive elements absent or at least
very rare in mainstream European literature on the theme, that the stories in question
circulated in Iceland before the introduction into the country of foreign works
containing the theme.29 Therefore any even partial analogues not derived from the
sagas can be assumed to derive from a common source, or else to have passed to Iceland
in oral form and to have influenced the development of the tale there. By far the closest
to the Norse tales in question are certain stories found in medieval Irish and Welsh
literature, to which it is now possible to turn.
THE CELTIC ANALOGUES
The theme of an otherworld, usually a land beyond the sea, to which a mortal may
journey, is popular in early Irish literature. It is frequently depicted as a land of delight
though a certain ambiguity may be present as some connection with the realms of the
dead may be hinted at. The theme appears to be pagan in origin and to have been
much used in tales of the heroes of the past, but in Ireland it became assimilated to the
Christian scheme at an early date. This assimilation has been discussed recently in
some detail by Proinsias Mac Cana, who takes the otherworld as being a land of delight
inhabited by immortals and shows how the pagan concept of the otherworld was
brought 'poetically if not rationally within the framework of Christian orthodoxy.'30 It
was identified as related in some way to the Earthly Paradise.31 According to MacCana,
even the otherworld population, who indulged in sexual pleasure, were incorporated
into the Christian scheme; the inhabitants were untouched by the Fall, and therefore
existed in a sinless state. In this state they could indulge in sexual pleasure, and
likewise did not have to die.
As the descriptions of the otherworld could be regarded as edifying it is no surprise
that they are used in the religious literature. In the Voyage of Brendan the saint voyages
over the ocean and finally comes to the Earthly Paradise. Similar Irish religious works
in Latin circulated throughout Europe, and the Voyage of Brendan itself was translated
into Norse in the early twelfth century.32 It might be assumed that these provided the
sources for the Norse tales of the journey to the otherworld, but in fact the religious
accounts are largely descriptive, and while they may have reinforced the use of the
otherworld theme, the analogues to the Norse secular tales are to be found in Irish
secular works, which were written in Irish and did not enjoy widespread circulation.
A journey to the otherworld by a human hero who resolves a dispute there is a
common theme in early Irish literature.33 It is also found in Wales, to which it may
have come from Ireland, and it has been discussed as a popular Celtic motif.34 In many
of the tales in question the hero acquires a wife in these lands. An example of such a
tale, which may date to the ninth century, is The Sickbed of Cuchulain.35 The hero is
visited by women from the other world, who ask for his assistance. When he complies
(which comes after his being beaten in his sleep by them and then cured by them from
the resulting sickness), he defeats their people's otherworld enemies, the rulers of other
territories, and acquires one of the ladies. Another example is the Welsh Pwyll, Prince
of Dyfed, one of the Mabinogion tales.36 This has been referred to previously in the
context of Icelandic literature because the name of the friendly otherworld king,
Arawn, is very similar to Aran, the name of the foster-brother of one of the heroes in
the Saga of Egil and Asmund.37
In Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed the hero is hunting in the forest and becomes separated
from his companions. He comes across a pack of hounds that are white with red ears,
colouring characteristic of otherworld creatures in Celtic tales. He drives the hounds
from a stag they have killed, and a single horseman appears and addresses him by
name, a token of familiarity customary among inhabitants of both Celtic and Icelandic
otherworlds. The stranger rebukes Pwyll for his discourtesy and names himself
Arawn, King of Annwn, the Welsh underworld. Pwyll wishes to make amends for his
behaviour, and Arawn proposes that they change shapes and that Pwyll take his place
in Arawn's kingdom for exactly one year. At the end of this year he will be required to
fight Arawn's enemy, Hafgan, whom he will be able to slay with a single blow. In the
meantime Arawn will govern Pwyll's own kingdom for him.
168 ROSEMARY POWER
When Pwyll arrives in Arawn's land he is taken by all to be Arawn, and he spends a
year there with great enjoyment. He refrains, however, from having sexual relations
with Arawn's wife, not because any prohibition has been put on this, but as an act of
friendship towards Arawn. At the end of the year Pwyll meets Hafgan at a ford on a
river that separates the two territories, and defeats him as Arawn has foretold. He then
returns to the forest to meet Arawn and each resumes the rule of his own lands.
This tale contains a meeting in a forest with an otherworld ruler from a delightful
land. In this land the hero meets a woman he can at least treat as his wife. He stays a
specified length of time in this land and defeats an otherworld enemy. A peculiar
parallel to Thorstein's saga is that there is reference to an earl of Arawn's, though this
character plays no part at all and thus the correspondence to Agthi is very slight. When
the hero leaves the otherworld he has not acquired wealth, but he finds that his own
domains have been exceptionally well governed in his absence, which is perhaps a
more fitting reward for a prince than are the material gains awarded to a farmer's son
in Thorsteins's saga.
In this story there is no final return of the hero to the otherworld after a temporary
sojourn in mortal lands, during which he presumably gives an account of his time
away. The theme is common enough in tales of this type, and is exemplified by the
story of Nera, 38 who spends some time in the otherworld, and acquires a wife, returns
briefly to his own land, and then goes back to the otherworld. There is a fight, but, as
in Helgi's saga and Vilhjalm's saga, it is between humans and the otherworld
inhabitants.
One early Irish tale, Laeghaire Mac Crimhthann,39 is particularly relevant in a
discussion of the Icelandic stories as it contains the otherworld dispute, the acquisition
of the wife and the final return to the otherworld. In this story Fiachna, a king of
Fairyland, comes to seek the assistance of a mortal in a dispute with his enemies.
Laeghaire returns with him to his country, destroys the enemies, rescues Fiachna's
wife, and wins an otherworld lady. After a year he returns to human lands on a brief
visit, and then goes back and remains with Fiachna as co-ruler of his domains. While
this tale appears to be the only early literary example in which all three main elements
are present, partial analogues in the literary and oral traditions are numerous.
In the Irish and Welsh stories the otherworld is a land of delight, and while in some
tales the inhabitants can appear menacing, in the majority of those showing a kinship
to the Icelandic accounts they are well-disposed towards mortals, and actually in need
of their assistance. If such tales are the partial sources for the Icelandic tales, as they
appear to be, the menacing element, derived from the connection sometimes made
with the world of the dead, may also have influenced the use of the theme in Iceland.
This would help to explain the death of the hero in Helgi's saga, and even in Eirik's
saga, and may have provided some basis, though slight, for the unease the later,
Icelandic, authors felt.
One additional feature of the Icelandic tales, the statement of the length of time
spent by the mortal hero in the otherworld, is also quite possibly of Irish origin.
Laeghaire, Pwyll and Nera all spend a stated length of time away from mortal lands, in
each case one year, the length of time duplicated in Helgi's saga. But one common Irish
theme, that time passes at a different rate in the otherworld, has no parallel in Icelandic
literature of this period.
In the Irish, or Celtic, tales there is no event that can be equated with the event of
religious or occult significance in the Icelandic sagas. This appears to be a purely
Icelandic innovation, providing a central pivot for the stories in question, while in the
Celtic tales the fight itself provides this pivot or climax. In Iceland it may be partly the
result of the combination of the secular tale with the myth and the tensions between
the heathen and Christian elements in the tales. The event itself can vary from saga to
saga; nothing standard had emerged before the sagas were written. The event itself can
be of either heathen or Christian significance, depending on the tone of the saga. The
horns of Thorstein's saga and Helgi's saga may be at least partly of Celtic origin,40 but
the ritual toasting of the gods at feasts is frequently referred to in saga literature, and
decorated drinking horns were actually kept in churches in Iceland, apparently for use
on important occasions.4"
The Irish tales discussed all seem to date to the early Viking period or before, and in
all events they can be seen to be related to earlier Irish works. It seems very likely that
stories of this type were transmitted orally to Iceland where they were combined with
the mythological tale of the visit of Thor to Geirrdth and perhaps with other similar
mythological tales. By the end of the twelfth century some pattern had emerged in the
theme and structure, which is best exemplified by the main tale in Thorstein's saga. An
imperfectly remembered version of this tale and a similarly imperfect version of the
myth of Thor and Geirr6th were then combined by Saxo in his Gesta Danorum.
Thorstein's saga was not the only Icelandic saga in which the tale was used; several
others drew independently, or at least took the majority of their material
independently, from the common oral sources, using the structure and the general
theme of the otherworld journey, even though in Yngvar's saga and Vilhjalm's saga the
identity of the otherworld and the names of the inhabitants were different. In addition,
there are a further two stories that owe, or appear to owe, a direct debt to the main tale
in Thorstein's saga, and these may be considered next.
THE LATER VERSIONS
Thorstein's saga is composed of four episodes, the first of which has to a large extent
been modelled on the main episode, the journey to the otherworld. In this case too
Thorstein journeys to the Austrveg, and one morning he strays into the forest. He
comes upon a glade, in which there is a fairy mound. A boy requests his mother who is
in the mound to give him a staff and gloves so that he can travel to the underworld, and
they are handed to him. Thorstein makes the same request, is given similar objects and
follows the boy. They follow a river through a cleft in rock, and then pass through mist
to the underworld. Here they reach a hall in which feasting is taking place. The two
have been made invisible by the staff and gloves and the boy proceeds to steal food.
Thorstein steals a precious cloth and ring, but he drops his staff and becomes visible.
He is chased to the river, and slays several of the people who attack him, before the boy
arrives with his staff and the two can make their escape.
This story bears a resemblance to the international legend 'The Ride with the
Fairies,'42 and also to certain Icelandic folktales in which a human journeys to the
underworld through a cleft in rock, usually in order to follow a supernatural character.
He is invisible while he is there, and takes some object in order to prove later where he
has been.43 The main tale has provided the setting, and an underworld divided into
more than one realm, for an embassy comes from another ruler while Thorstein is in
the hall. There is a fight, though it is not on behalf of either ruler, but on Thorstein's
own account. There is of course no wife, as Thorstein is to obtain her in the main tale.
One feature of the main tale may have been suggested by this introductory episode, the
invisibility motif. There are no analogues to this in the literary tales already
mentioned, but it is common in folktales of the journey to the underworld. It is
170 ROSEMARY POWER
introduced into Thorstein's saga in the second episode, which precedes the main tale.
In this the hero performs a service for a dwarf, who rewards him with several magic
gifts, a protective shirt, the ring which makes him invisible, another ring which will
prevent him from ever being poor, and the magic stone and spike with which he
destroys Geirroith. It has been suggested that the stone and spike bear some relation to
Thor's hammer, but the invisibility motif does not come from mythology. This, and
the theft of certain objects from the otherworld, serve to connect the different episodes
of the saga.
Another, and in this case non-Norse work, bears a curiously close resemblance to the
main tale of Thorstein's saga. This is the English ballad, The Turke and Gowin, which
has been preserved in a single mutilated manscript of the sixteenth century.44 The
exact sequence of events cannot be determined, but enough of the ballad survives to
give a general outline of the story. It begins with the visit of a supernatural character,
the Turke, to the court of King Arthur, where he challenges one of the knights to
exchange buffets with him. Gowin (Gawain) accepts the challenge, and is apparently
put under an obligation to follow the Turke, as we next hear of them journeying
together. They enter a hill where they encounter darkness, thunder, lightning, snow
and rain. They travel for three more days without eating, still, it appears, in the world
within the hill. They then reach a hall where they see fire and food but no people. The
Turke warns Gowin against eating the food he sees, and produces some of his own.
There is a gap in the text at this point and we next hear of them crossing the sea to
the 'heathen' Isle of Man, which is inhabited by giants. They enter a castle. The Turke
is small compared to Gowin, but Gowin finds himself small compared to the giants.
Gowin is required to perform several feats, and the Turke, who is now wearing clothes
that render him invisible, enables him to perform them. An attempt is then made on
Gowin's life, but the Turke manages to kill all the giants. He throws their king into the
fire. He then tells Gowin to behead him, and when Gowin reluctantly complies, as it is
apparently part of their agreement, the Turke turns into a handsome prince who
declares that he has been under enchantment. A number of captives are released,
among them several ladies who are restored to their husbands. The two heroes return
to King Arthur, and the Turke asks the king to make Gowin King of Man. Gowin
demurs and nominates the Turke, who returns to rule there.
The ballad begins with an agreement to exchange buffets which later becomes an
agreement that Gowin behead the Turke. This version of the 'Beheading Game' is
believed to be a variant of that used in the medieval English romance Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight,45 and it may have been suggested by this or by some similar tale. It
provides the motivation for the journey in the ballad, and once this episode has been
discounted the similarities to Thorstein's saga may be seen more clearly. The hero
journeys with an otherworld companion to a land inhabited by hostile giants who are
defeated, and the hero enables his companion to become the ruler here. On the way
they visit another otherworld country, where there are physical signs of feasting. The
reason for this visit is uncertain, but it may be that here the Turke acquires his magic
clothes. These clothes parallel Thorstein's magic shirt, which he lends to Guthmund
to protect him when he drinks the poisonous drink; but they also parallel the ring
which renders Thorstein invisible. The weather they encounter within the hill is
similar to that caused by Thorstein in Geirrith's hall, and there are relations between
both accounts and Thor's own attributes as a god who controls the weather. The
prohibition on eating the otherworld food seen in the hall within the hill is similar to
that in Saxo and in Yngvar's saga, but it also occurs in a number of English ballads and
folktales. The journey over the sea adds another similarity to the Norse accounts,
although in Thorstein's saga the sea voyage has taken place at an earlier stage.
Until their arrival in the Isle of Man the Turke has played the role equivalent to
Guthmund's, but now he becomes the invisible helper. One of the feats Gowin has to
perform is to throw a brass ball, and another is to lift a brazier, two fire-games
reminiscent of the game with the fiery seal's head in Thorstein's saga. Further details,
in particular of the fight with the giants, are absent in the mutilated text. The
disenchantment of the Turke by beheading is a common motif.
There is no correspondence in the names in the ballad and the saga, nor in the
character of the individuals, although each human is a retainer of a famous king. The
choice of Gowin as hero may have been suggested by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
or a ballad derived from it, but as this knight represents the chivalric ideal it would be
unsuitable to have him play the part of the invisible trickster, and what were possibly
the original roles may have been reversed. In the ballad Gowin takes on the quest as a
matter of honour, while Thorstein chooses to accompany Guthmund. Neither the
Turke nor Gowin acquires a wife on this venture, although there are ladies present in
the otherworld. In spite of these differences there are remarkable similarities between
the tales, and even the Christian-heathen tension of Thorstein's saga is echoed in the
ballad, for the inhabitants of the Isle of Man are heathens.
The Turke and Gowin is far closer to Thorstein's saga than it is to Thorsdrapa. It is
difficult to avoid the conclusion that it is in some manner derived from the main
adventure in Thorstein's saga, to which the 'Beheading Game' and a few common
folktale motifs have been added. There is sufficient evidence of late medieval contacts
between England and Iceland to make it plausible that an Icelandic tale could be
transmitted orally to England.46 At least one medieval English tale, The Carl of
Carlisle, appears to have travelled in the opposite direction at a late stage.47 The other
alternative, that there is a common source for the Icelandic and English tales, is most
unlikely, as the comparison of Thorstein's saga with its analogues show that it belongs
very firmly in the corpus of Icelandic traditional tales.
Within Iceland there is only one folktale with an otherworld journey resembling that
of the sagas. The Saga of Jon Asmundsson48 concerns a young man, Jon, who is sent to
the underworld by a merchant in order to obtain a certain book. Jon receives
instructions from his foster-father, whose brother, a clergyman in the underworld, is
the owner of the book. Jon enters a certain cave and passes through darkness to emerge
in the underworld. He goes to the house of the clergyman and spends a year there
without speaking, as he has been instructed by his foster-father. At the end of the year
he is given the book and receives instructions on what to do when he returns home
with it. Following them he destroys the satanic merchant who sent him. The
clergyman's daughter is pregnant, but Jon is unable to marry her, and returns instead
to his foster-father, who is also a clergyman and whose daughter he marries instead.
His own daughter later leaves the underworld to live with him, but on one occasion
visits her mother and returns to warn Jon that he has only one month to live. He dies at
the appointed time.
This tale has no otherworld fight, nor any trials other than keeping silence, but as
the merchant required Jon to perform three feats before sending him on this quest, this
element may have been transferred. There is also no return by the hero to the
otherworld, but as in Helgi's saga the hero dies at a specified time.
Other icelandic folktales bear only the most general resemblance to the otherworld
journeys in the medieval literature. The closest are some of the tales in which outlaws
172 ROSEMARY POWER
believed to live in the interior of the country are visited. If the visitor is male he is
sometimes required to wrestle with the inhabitants. He often marries an outlaw woman
and they may elect to live with her relatives. But the similarity to the otherworld tales
remains most general.
In conclusion, it appears that in Iceland tales of a journey to the otherworld are
specifically native in form and in the treatment of their content. They appear to derive
from a combination of Norse myth with Irish, or at least Celtic, secular tales of a visit
to a delightful land of the immortals. At a late stage and to a relatively superficial
degree the stories have been influenced by tales both religious and secular then current
in medieval Europe. But even before this influence became apparent the Christian
authors, and possibly even to some extent the oral tellers who preceded them, had
moral qualms about the use of the theme, and as a result the otherworld is depicted as
dangerous for mortals if not the possible cause of their damnation. While this seems to
be a specifically Icelandic development, a certain ambiguity may be found in some of
the Irish tales, probably because they are depicting the world of the unknown. This
may have given the initial impetus for the treatment of the theme by the Icelandic
authors, although their main scruples appear to have been religious. The individual
authors treated the otherworld theme in different ways and with varying degrees of
success; the author of Eirik's saga succeeded best because he made use of the portrayal
of the land in question in contemporary religious literature and identified it with the
Garden of Eden. The other authors, who had more secular material, and heroes who
were in some cases at least traditional characters, did not achieve such a satisfactory
outcome, though one of them, the author of Vilhjalm's saga, managed, unhampered by
a traditional hero and free of the geographical limitations of the legendary Nordic
world, to create a work in which there is no sign of this tension. The author of
Yngvar's saga, on the other hand, used the form and adapted the theme to suit the
demands of a work as hagiographical as it is heroic.
The theme was one that belonged to the period. Few of the Fornaldarsogur tales
survived in other genres, for the stories are suitable on the whole only for the Nordic
world of legend, and are rarely used even in the native romance literature. Vilhjalm's
saga is one of the few exceptions to this rule. It is therefore no surprise to find so few
traces of what was obviously a popular theme surviving in the later literature and in
oral tradition. Elsewhere in Europe the theme, at least of a visit to the otherworld,
survived the middle ages to varying degrees; possibly religious and cultural factors may
be responsible for its retention in some areas while it was lost in others. In Ireland the
theme has remained popular into this century in oral tales, which may tell of a fight
between fairy peoples, or even a football game, which a mortal is required to settle.
And a journey to an otherworld over or under the sea, which may be similar to that of
the medieval literature, or may, more prosaically in versions of the later nineteenth and
earlier twentieth centuries, be America, remains to demonstrate the strength of the
belief, or at least of the desire for the belief, in a land of delight which a mortal may
visit.
Institute of Irish Studies,

The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
NOTES
1. Porsteins Pdttr baejarmagns, in Fornaldarsoigur Nordurlanda, edited by Gudhni J6nsson and Bjarni
Vilhjalmason, 3 volumes, Reykjavik 1943-4, III, 395-417. This collection is hereafter referred to as Fas. A
translation of Jorsteins Jdttr is in Gautrek's saga and other Medieval Tales, translated by Hermann Pilsson
and Paul Edwards, London 1968, pp. 121-40; also in Jacqueline Simpson, The Northmen Talk, London and
Madison, 1965, pp. 180-97. Previous discussions of the saga are in: Paul Herrmann, Die Heldensage des
Saxo Gramnmaticus, 2 volumes, Leipzig 1922,II, 592-608; Gabriel Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the
North, London 1964, 31-2; Jacqueline Simpson, 'Grimr the Good-A Magical Drinking Horn,' Etudes
Celtiques X (1962-3), 489-515; and Simpson, 'Otherworld Adventures in an Icelandic Saga,' Folklore 77
(1966), 1-20.
2. Helga Jdttr d6rissonar, Fas III, 419-26. A translation is in Pilsson and Edwards, Gautrek's saga,
pp. 141-7; also in Simpson, The Northmen Talk, pp. 175-80.
3. Le Lai de Lanval, edited by Jean Rychner, Geneva/Paris 1958. This edition includes the Norse
Ianuals lj6dd, edited and introduced by Paul Aebischer. For the relationship to Helgi's saga see my article 'Le
Lai de Lanval and Helga kdttr Pdrissonar' forthcoming in Opuscula (Series Arnamagnaeanae).
4. Eiriks saga vidfiirla, edited by Helle Jensen, Editiones Arnamagnaeanae Series B, volume 29,
Copenhagen 1983. Both Helga dttr and Eiriks saga have been preserved in the late fourteenth century
Icelandic compilation Flateyjarbdk. Eiriks saga is also printed in Fas III, 446-54. My interpretation is based
on the Flateyjarbdk text, which is printed in FAS and also in Jensen's edition as 'version A.' However, while
this article was in press I was informed by Jensen that the text she prints as 'version C' is in many respects a
more satisfactory one. In this text, Eirik does fight Vikings in Miklagard. More significantly, it is made
clear that he does not reach the Earthly Paradise, which is seemingly equated with jordlifanda manna; this
is inhabited by patriarchs and prophets. It is near the land the two companions have reached, which has
been prepared at God's behest to give them a taste of jord'lifanda manna and as a reward for their journey.
Therefore it is natural that the distinctive features of Paradise are absent.
5. The identification of the Earthly Paradise of myth and legend with the Garden of Eden was made by
several of the Church Fathers. See the discussion in Howard Rollin Patch, The Other World According to
Descriptions in Medieval Literature, Cambridge Massachussetts 1950, especially pages 80-174; and Jensen's
Introduction to Eiriks saga viFd'rla.
6. See Saga Heidreks Konungs ins Vitra/The Saga of King Heitrek the Wise, edited and translated by
Christopher Tolkein, London 1960, pp. 66-8, 84-6, where the Hauksbdk text and a commentary are given.
For later Icelandic references to Oddinsakr see Einar G. Petersson, 'Einn atburdur og leidela um
6d'insakur,' Gripla IV, Stofnun Arna Magntissonar rit 19, Reykjavik 1980, 138-65, especially pages
156-62.
7. The expression is used in Job 28:13; Psalms 27:13, 52:5, 116:9, 142:5; Isaiah 38:11, Jeremiah 11:19;
Ezekiel 26:20, 32:23, in the numbering of the Revised Standard Version. Augustine in his Commentaries
on Psalms 27,52 and 116 takes the expression to refer to the heavenly Paradise.
8. The same equation is found in Orkneyinga saga, edited by Finnbogi Gud~nuncTsson, islenzk Fornrit
XXXIV, Reykjavik 1965, 111, but in this case the reference is to the heavenly Paradise.
9. See Eiriks saga xxviii-xl.
10. In Genesis there is no fountain in Paradise and there is one river which divides into four after
leaving Eden. This has presumibly influenced the author of Eiriks saga. Other accounts of Paradise found
in Norse and of a similar age have the fountain as the source of the rivers.
11. The land of darkness parallels to some extent both the mist of Porsteins bdttr and the darkness of
Helga }dttr and the other analogues to be discussed, but it is also found in the description of the journey to
the east in Mandeville's Travels. See Margaret Schlauch, Romance in Iceland, London/New York 1934,
p. 51; and Patch, The Other World, p. 172.
12. In the popular Vision of Tundale, which was translated into Norse as Duggals leizla not long after
1200, a dragon swallows and then vomits out not only the damned in hell but also Tundale himself. See
Heilagra manna s6gur, edited by C. R. Unger, 2 volumes, Christiania (Oslo) 1877, I, 329-62, 686-9.
13. Mariu saga, edited by C. R. Unger, Christiania (Oslo) 1871, 1163. See too page 536.
14. Three heavens are described in Eiriks saga, which here follows the Elucidarius. The third heaven is
the abode of God. The three heavens are again described in the Icelandic Pdls saga postola in a commentary
on the passage in 2 Corinthians. See Postola saga edited by C. R. Unger, Christiania (Oslo) 1874, pp. 267-9.
The distinction between the Earthly and the Heavenly Paradise is also elucidated in this passage.
15. Yngvars saga vidforla, edited by Emil Olsen, Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur
XXXIX, Copenhagen 1912. Also printed in Fas III, pp. 361-94.
16. See Dietrich Hofmann, 'Die Yngvars saga vidfdrla und Oddr munkr inn fr6dl,' in Speculum
Norroenum: Norse Studies in Memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre, edited by Ursula Dronke and others, Odense
174 ROSEMARY POWER
1981, pp. 188-222. The mixture of historical fact and fantasy in this saga is discussed by H. R. Ellis
Davidson, The Viking Road to Byzantium, London 1976, pp. 87-8, 166-70, and the geographical details by
Mats Larsson, 'vart for Ingvar den vittfarne?' Fornvdnnen 78 (1983), 95-104.
17. Yngvars saga, p. 49. It is said here that the gorges on the river were so great that they closed out the
light and the companions were in darkness for two weeks and saw nothing unless they lit candles.
18. Egils saga einhenda ok Asmundar berserkjabana, Drei Lygisdgur, edited by Ake Lagerholm,
Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek 17, Halle 1927, pp. 1-83. Also printed in Fas III, pp. 153-89. A translation is
in Pilsson and Edwards, Gautrek's saga, pp. 89-120.
19. Konrads saga, Fornsb'gur Sudrlanda, edited by Gustav Cederschi6ld, Lund 1884, pp. 68-81.
20. The relationship between Eiriks saga and Konrads saga is discussed by Jensen, Eiriks saga, pp. xxvi-
xxviii. The presence of dragons in Babylon is presumably biblical in origin. Konraad saga also shows certain
similarities to Porsteins}dttrforvitna in which the hero is sent by a king to take a golden twig from an island
inhabited by a dragon. See Flateyjarbdk, edited by Gudbrandur Vigftisson and Carl R. Unger, 3 volumes,
Copenhagen 1867, III, pp. 431-2.
21. Vilhjdlms saga sjdfs, in Late Medieval Icelandic Romances, edited by Agnete Loth, 5 volumes,
Editiones Arnamagnaeanae Series B, volumes 20-24, Copenhagen 1962-5, IV, pp. 1-136. It appears to be a
work of the early fourteenth century. The opening episodes in which games of chess are played appear to
be derived from Irish, or Gaelic stories. See Einar Olafur Sveinsson, 'Svipdag's Long Journey,' in
Hereditas: Essays and Studies presented to Sjamus 0 Duilearga, edited by Bo Almqvist, Breanddn Mac Aodha
and Gear6id Mac Eoin, Dublin 1975, also published as Bealoideas 39-41 (1972-3 [1975]), 298-319; and my
article, 'Geasa and Alog: Magic Formulae and Perilous Quests in Gaelic and Norse,' forthcoming in
Scottish Studies.
22. See note 1 above. Other relevant articles are: Nora K. Chadwick, 'The Russian Giant Svyatogor and
the Norse Utgartha-Loki,' Folklore 75 (1964), 243-59; Marlene Ciklamini, 'Journeys to the Giant
Kingdom,' Scandinavian Studies 40 (1968), 95-110; Andrew Hamar, 'Legendary Fiction in Flateyjarb6k,'
Proceedings of the First International Saga Conference, Edinburgh 1971, edited by Peter Foote and others,
London 1973, 184-211; Margaret Clunies Ross, 'An interpretation of the myth of'6rr's encounter with
Geirrodr and his daughters,' Speculum Norroenum, 370-91.
23. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, edited by Finnur J6nsson, Copenhagen 1931, pp. 105-10.
24. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, pp. 48-61.
25. Simpson, 'Otherworld Adventures,' pp. 6-8.
26. This was first suggested by a number of commentators around the turn of the century. For full
references see my article 'An Oige, an Saol agus an Bds, Feis Tighe Chondin and V6rr's Visit to 1Utgarda-loki,'
forthcoming in Bjaloideas 53 (1985).
27. Saxonis Gesta Danorum, edited by J. Olrik and H. Raeder, 2 volumes, Copenhagen 1931, I, 239-47;
The History of the Danes, Books i-ix, translated by Peter Fisher, with a Commentary by Hilda Ellis
Davidson and Peter Fisher, 2 volumes, Cambridge 1979-80, I, 262-70, II, 141-7.
28. Both the hero and King Gormr are referred to in the Icelandic Annals, while Torkild Adalfar in also
named in the Norwegian ballad Aasmund Fregdegaevar. See The History of the Danes, II, 141-7.
29. For the foreign works see Patch, The Other World, and in particular his discussions of vision and
romance literature.
30. Proinsias Mac Cana, 'The Sinless Otherworld of Immram Brain,' Eriu 27 (1976), 95-115 (p. 100).
See too Mac Cana's earlier work on the theme, referred to in this article.
31. One of the names given to this land was Tir na mBeo, the Land of the Living, a term also used for
the heavenly Paradise. See Contributions to a Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
1913-76, Fascicule T, p. 187.
32. Brandanus saga, see Heilagra manna s5'gur, I, pp. 272-5.
33. See references under Fll l-Journey to earthly paradise-in Tom Peete Cross, Motif-Index of Early
Irish Literature, Bloomington, 1952; and for oral versions, Sean 0 Stlilleabhin, A Handbook of Irish
Folklore, Dublin 1942, reprinted Detroit 1970, p. 606 (number 23); and some of the tales listed under Type
AT 470 in Sean 0 Sfiilleabhdin and Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Types of the Irish Folktale, Folklore
Fellows Communications 188, Helsinki 1963.
34. Kenneth Jackson, 'Some Popular Motifs in Early Welsh Tradition,' Etudes Celtiques 11 (1964-7),
83-99 (pages 84-88).
35. Serglige Con Culainn, edited by Myles Dillon, Dublin 1953. For a summary and discussion see
Arthur Brown, The Origins of the Grail Legend, New York 1943, reprinted 1966, pp. 15-28.
36. The Mabinogion, translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, London 1949, pp. 3-9. The relations
of this tale to the Irish tales of this kind are discussed by Jackson, 'Popular Motifs,' pp. 83-88.
37. See Nora K. Chadwick, 'Literary Tradition in the Old Norse and Celtic World,' Saga-Book of the
Viking Society 14 (1953-7), 175.
38. Edited and translated by Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique X (1889), 212-27. The Scottish romance
Thomas of Erceldoune provides another example of this kind of story.
39. 'The Adventures of Laeghaire Mac Crimhthainn,' edited and translated by Kenneth Jackson,
Speculum XVII (1942), 377-89. The text and a translation are also in Tom Peete Cross, 'Laeghaire Mac
Crimhthann's Visit to Fairyland,' Modern Philology 13 (1915-16), 155-63. The text is preserved in the
twelfth-century Book of Leinster, but the story is possibly a work of the ninth century-see Jackson,
'Popular' Motifs,' 85. For discussions see Brown, Grail Legend, pp. 14-90; Arthur Nutt, The Happy
Otherworld, in Immram Brain Mic Febhail: The Voyage of Bran Son of Febhal, edited by Kuno Meyer, 2
volumes, London, 1895-7. Simpson noted a similarity between the stories of Laeghaire and Nera and of
Thorstein, 'Otherworld Adventures,' pp. 11-12, 20.
40. See Simpson, 'Grimr the Good.'
41. '6rr Magniisson, 'The Story of the Drinking Horn,' Atlantica and Iceland Review, number 2,
volume 10 (1972), 45-8.
42. ML5006 in Reidar Th. Christiansen, The Migratory Legends, Folklore Fellows Communications
175, Helsinki 1958. The resemblance was pointed out by Simpson, 'Otherworld Adventures,' pp. 2-3.
43. See
second for example
edition, 'Hildur
6 volumes, ,lfadrottning,'
Reykjavik 1954-61,Islenzkar Pjodsigur of aefintyri, edited by J6n Arnason,
I, pp. 105-9.
44. Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, edited by John Hales and F. J. Furnivall, 4 volumes, London 1867,
I, 88-102. The similarities have been pointed out several times-see Simpson, 'Otherworld Adventures,' 14
and note.
45. Edited by J. R. R. Tolkein and E. V. Gordon, second edition revised by Norman Davies, Oxford
1967.
46. For a discussion of late medieval contacts between Iceland and England see E. M. Carus-Wilson,
Medieval Merchant Venturers, London 1954, 98-142.
47. Sveins rimur Maikssonar, edited by Einar Olafur Sveinsson, Rit Rimnaf6lagsins 1, Reykjavik 1948.
See too Sveinsson, 'Herra Valvin og Karlinn grdi,' Long er f'r, Studia Islandica 32 (1975), 117-69 (English
summary included).
48. 'Sagan af J6ni Asmundssyni,' islenzkar 7jdds'gur I, 313-19.

Journeys To The Otherworld in The Icelandic Fornaldarsogur

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Journeys to the Otherworld in the Icelandic "Fornaldarsgur"

Author(s): Rosemary Power

Journeys to the Otherworld in the Icelandic

A The hero chooses to go on a journey to a certain named destination.

H The most important of these is crossing a perilous river.

THE NORDIC ANALOGUES

The hero of both tales is an Icelander named Thorkillus.28 He is a retainer of the

THE CELTIC ANALOGUES

Institute of Irish Studies,

48. 'Sagan af J6ni Asmundssyni,' islenzkar 7jdds'gur I, 313-19.

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