Note to Anon Gát 1^III

[3] aldrtjón Ellu ‘life-loss of Ælla <Northumbrian king>’: I.e. ‘eagle’ (ON ǫrn). Ælla (Ella) or Ælle was king of Northumbria in 867 and was killed during the Viking incursions into the British Isles that year (see ASC, s. a.). According to several sources, he was tortured to death by means of the so-called ‘blood-eagle’ rite by Ívarr inn beinlausi ‘the Boneless’ and his brothers in vengeance for their father, Ragnarr loðbrók ‘Shaggy-breeches’, whom Ælla had killed. Precisely what blood-eagling involves varies from source to source: the carving of an eagle into the victim’s back, with or without the addition of salt (Ragn ch. 17, FSGJ I, 278; Saxo 2005, I, 9, 5, 5, pp. 610-11; ÍF 26, 132; ÍF 34, 13); the tearing out of ribs and lungs (Orkn ch. 8, ÍF 34, 13; HHárfHkr ch. 30, ÍF 26, 132); or a combination of all of the above (RagnSon ch. 3, FSGJ I, 298). Roberta Frank (1984a; 1990b) has argued that the rite never existed at all, and that the later descriptions resulted from misinterpretation of a skaldic stanza, Sigv Knútdr 1^I (see Note to [All] there). She believes that the stanza merely suggests that Ívarr and his brothers provided Ælla’s body as carrion for the eagle, a standard skaldic motif. Whatever the historical reality, the present line requires understanding the ‘eagle’ as the method of Ælla’s death. A similar principle is involved in ESk Hardr II 3/1, 2^II, where eagles are referred to as geitunga Ellu ‘Ælla’s birds’. The solution is written above the line in 1562ˣ.

References

1. Bibliography
2. ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
3. ÍF 26-8 = Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 1941-51.
4. ASC [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] = Plummer, Charles and John Earle, eds. 1892-9. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1952.
5. Frank, Roberta. 1984a. ‘Viking Atrocity and Skaldic Verse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle’. English Historical Review 99, 332-43.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
8. Internal references
9. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Orkneyinga saga’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=47> (accessed 7 May 2024)
10. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars saga loðbrókar’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 616. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81> (accessed 7 May 2024)
11. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Ragnars sona þáttr’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 777. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=85> (accessed 7 May 2024)
12. Not published: do not cite (Rloð^VIII)
13. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 1’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 651.