Old Norse Saga Song - Gunnarr at Hlíðarenda
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Here’s a song I wrote and sang in Old Norse. This is the first song of a series I’m planning called “Sagas in Song”, through which I’d like to tell the tales of some of my favourite sagas in song format.
This one is about one of the most famous warriors in Icelandic history, Gunnarr Hámundarson, commonly known as Gunnarr of Hlíðarendi. Details about his life and exploits are given in Brennu-Njáls saga, literally “The story of Burnt Njáll”, as he met a fairly gruesome end.
The saga is commonly thought of as the apex of Icelandic saga writing, and while the song doesn’t aim to tell the whole tale (it is several hundreds of pages, but well worth the read!), it focuses on one of the most virtuous characters of any saga, and how he ultimately met his end.
The saga deals with many themes; trust, betrayal, friendship, negotiation, law, war, personal virtue, strength, honour - the list goes on.
Gunnarr is one of the most (almost impossibly) virtuous men imaginable. His issue is that he marries a conniving woman, Hallgerðr, who starts feuding with the wife of Njáll, his best friend. This escalates into a slew of killings, and as Gunnarr gains a reputation for being so mighty a man, more and more men grow jealous of him and seek to dethrone him.
Because of the part his wife plays in starting fights and ultimately getting men killed, Gunnarr slaps her across the cheek. This plays an important part in the story, because when Gunnarr is attacked by Mǫrðr in his home, Gunnarr is able to fend them off with his bow. However, his bowstring gets cut, so he asks Hallgerðr for two strands of hair to restring his bow. She refuses, reminding him of the fact that he slapped her, and so leaves him for dead.
I am on Spotify under The Skaldic Bard, but this song will be released there at a later date with more under the theme of Sagas in Song.
I hope you enjoy the song. Please leave a comment, like the video and subscribe to the channel for more!
If you'd like to support my work, you can do so here: www.buymeacoff... (but really, no pressure!). Thank you for your kindness.
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Here’s a song I wrote and sang in Old Norse. This one is about one of the most famous warriors in Icelandic history, Gunnarr Hámundarson, commonly known as Gunnarr of Hlíðarendi. Details about his life and exploits are given in Brennu-Njáls saga, literally “The story of Burnt Njáll”, as he met a fairly gruesome end.
This is the first song of a series I’m planning called “Sagas in Song”, through which I’d like to tell the tales of some of my favourite sagas in song format. If you'd like to see more, please consider subscribing!
Can't wait to hear about grettir and egil
Me (Swedish) and my Norwegian Friend watch these together every time they come out. Love your videos. Keep it up 👍
That's awesome, thanks for your comment
Happened to find this, happens to be my favorite saga.
Skarphéðinn is my favorite character, but Gunnarr's story has always been an interesting one.
Yes, I am a fan of Skarphéðinn too!
Me too!! Njals Saga was the first saga I read as a teenager, Gunnar struck me as my kind of Viking, fierce yet merciful, Skarpheðinn seems a harder guy generally but a good man like his Dad. I love the fact that he was the guy ( like a strong trusted Uncle) with young Högni when they witness Gunnar sitting up in his paranormally open mound singing and ecstatic!
Listening to this every day. Icelanders were very tough..
Hands down, one of the coolest channels on TH-cam.
Great compliment, thank you, friend
Lets go, new banger.
Amazing piece and one of many to come in later days.
Beautiful, i look forward to the rest of the "sagas in song" series.
Now I found one more piece of what was missing in my life... This is absolutely beautiful.
What a lovely comment, thank you.
Very love this one !
Thank you so much !
Excellent ! This is my favourite saga. 👍
Man I gotta say thank you. Its thanks to people like you the Icelandic culture and language survives. Going through your old norse catalouge has been one of the best things I've gone through for a long time. all the stories of my childhood, being sung! Gerist ekki betri tilfinning! Takk fyrir og haltu áfram að gera frábæra tónlist! Og ég sé að framburður þinn verður bara betri og betri því nýrri lög sem ég hlusta á af þér!
This comment really means a lot, thanks so much for your kind words and high praise - it's extremely motivating to keep it up when I read comments like yours! Bestu kveðjur frá Englandi, bróðir minn :-)
Masterful work! I adore it all
Yo! This guy is my ancestor, we went to his museum in Iceland and ate there when we visited the island, super cool
Wow that's a pretty epic claim man
You must be an Icelander, one of my friends in Iceland found a connection to Gunnar as well through the governments family tree online website
Icelands Population: Its just one man how hard could it be?
Gunnar with one pokey stick: Ég ætla að gera það sem kallast atvinnuleikjahreyfing (this is google translate if it means something wrong I sry)
Lmao
Lol that translation. it's right just so funny
This is epic, you deserve more views
really nice story
This is magnificent! I can't believe I have never seen your channel before. I became a big fan of Icelandic sagas and Dark Ages history in the 70's and started teaching myself Icelandic then as well. Have never visited Iceland and Australia is very isolated, especially pre-internet, but have had lots of good luck finding books and my Icelandic penpal has always helped me. Many years I didnt study it and for ten years I focused on Japanese but since Covid I have really knuckled down and Íslensku mig has improved.
Do you speak Icelandic? Your Old Norse is very smooth and flowing. Doesn't sound to my ear that you are using Modern Icelandic pronunciation? Are you using someones reconstructed sounds? You have done a wonderful job with this song of Gunnarr, I have always loved Brennunjálssaga and Mr Hámundarsson has always been my favourite Viking hero😀🤙
Your musicianship is superb, thanks very much for this, I am going to listen to this a lot
Hey there, thanks for your kind and interesting comment! I am using a reconstructed Old Norse pronunciation, indeed. And I do speak Icelandic, I lived in Iceland for a bit and studied Icelandic at university :-) keep up with your studies!
@@SkaldBard this little road trip to Hliðarenda was filmed by my mate Simmi Valgeirsson. He and his wife went back to Iceland to see their family and they caught up with my dear friend Guðrún, who has been my penpal since 1979!
She is the lady giving them a bit of a tour, she lives just down the road outside of Hvolsvöllur
th-cam.com/video/H8_dYffI0iY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=HnW1SnvfoVm_Vw8V
@@SkaldBard Hæ I sent you a comment but it's disappeared. So apologies if you get it twice but I basically said that it makes sense that you lived in Iceland because your accent is so fluid. My accent is getting there but I can't speak at full speed because my tongue trips over itself.😅 I am really looking forward to listening to all your work. I love your channel art and your passion. I am the same, very long time history and culture nerd, I am a writer and artist and I'm actually writing a book called 'Viking Superpowers' at the moment. Obviously that's my channel name as well and I am redoing my previous channel with more of a northern focus.Have you heard this piece before? I love it, It somehow captures the feeling that I get from Hliðarenda even though I haven't been there. I feel like I know it from the saga and from my friends video and other things I've seen. Bless bless mate!
spotify.link/5MwRusCjdDb
Gunnar the absolute chad
Throrolf Kveldulfsson!!!! The Battle of Hafrsfjord the death of bard the white the treachery of Hildiridarsons and Thorolfs last stand!!! So many great heroes to sing about
Sounds Epic, how are you recording your voice and instrument?
Cheers! I actually just use my phone microphone and basic free mixing software
@@SkaldBard it sounds very professionell ;)
cool, i dont know how well it would be in song but my favorite saga/story is of this guy that just wants to be left alone and build his ships but people keep giving him a hard time about being a wuss. He the proceeds to kick their asses every time and everyone says good job for standing up for yourself i did not know you had it in you. but you have to leave cause that guy had a lot of friends that know Harald hardrule. he does this three or so times and ends with him flattening some dudes with a longships with wheels.
How do you speak old norse so fluently? Im interested into speaking it.
Damned Nowegas have a lightning-powered, time-travelling longship. They hadn't been able to get it up to 88 knots for almost a millennia, not since the Wiking era. And they never would have again, if modern racing engines hadn't came along...
MorÞr = Murderer is it not?
The Saga author didn't even want such an nithing to have his name recorded?
This story reminds me about the saga of Gisli Surson 🤔
Based Gunnar with a hockey stick for his one man crusade. 😏
@@randomyoutubeaccount_ what
Where would I be able to find paper copies of all these Sagas?
Hæ hæ great Skald😀 I love this music so much, is there any chance I could use the first 30 secs for the intro to my Viking Superpowers channel?
I am researching and writing a book of the same name, and I'm making an intro with a blazing fire in the night and other old Norse iconic things moving in the background maybe old Norse text and artefacts. Of course I would give you full attribution in every video and I would really like to promote your channel. Even though at the moment I think I have about 400 subs, I believe it will build. I would also like to interview you for my channel.
I expect you know the ins and outs of the music set up on TH-cam, I would like to be able to use music so I don't get copyright claims from them. Is there a licensing set up that you use or something like that?
I tried to find you on Facebook, couldn't see you under this name, but is there a social media that you use? Cheers and bless, Dave
PS Of course it's totally cool if you would prefer not. I'm a big fan now
@skaldbard
Can you tell me why did he asked his wife for two strands of her hair?
Because his bowstring snapped and he would have been able to continue fighting had she given him the hair to restring his bow!
He also might have wanted the two strands of hair, to sew up his wounds. As in the last battle he was wounded twice.
551 like 20:24 16.06 .2024
Women☕...
Right. Just imagine if Gunnar’s wife actually assisted him when he was attacked, would totally be a different story, no? 🤔
@@lopakacooper1668 if she didn't act like a retard from the beginning this wouldn't have happened
i don´t think his wife was much liked for causing problems so the saga might lie
@@K0bbii a beautiful woman could do murder and beta simps will still like her