Krákumál

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Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It is probably composed at the end of the 12th century on Iceland. It is composed in a kind of háttlausa with stanzas of ten lines.

With a moving and forceful language, the poem deals with the joys of the life of a warrior, the hope that his death will be followed by a gory revenge, and the knowledge that he will soon know the pleasures of Valhalla.

The poem has been translated into several languages and it has contributed to the modern image of a Viking warrior.

Excerpt:

Hjoggum vér með hjörvi. Hitt vas æ fyr löngu, es á Gautlandi gengum at grafvitnis morði; þá fengum vér Þóru, þaðan hétu mik fyrðar, es lyngölun lagðak, Loðbrók at því vígi; stakk á storðar lykkju stáli bjartra mála.(Northvegr's edition)

We swung our sword; that was ever so long ago when we walked in Gautland to the murder of the dig-wulf. Then we received Þóra; since then (at that battle when I killed the heather-fish) people called me Furry-pants. I stabbed the spear into the loop of the earth."(Haukur Þorgeirsson's translation)

[edit] Source

• Krákumál in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
• Nordisk familjebok on Krákumál
• Haukur Þorgeirsson on the poem with a recording

[edit] Other external links

• Krákumál Old Norse
• Another page by Haukur Þorgeirsson with a glossary
• Northvegr's edition
• Two editions back to back