Note to Þjóð Yt 26I
[14] á Geirstǫðum ‘in Geirstaðir’: Geirstaðir is most likely modern Gjekstad (Rygh et al. 1897-1936, VI, 273), close to Gokstad, where a ship burial was found in a large mound. A man aged between forty and fifty was buried there, who may have limped because of an injury to his left knee (Holck 2009). Brøgger (1916, 54) identified him as Óláfr Geirstaðaálfr. However, he seems to have died from diverse wounds inflicted upon him in battle (Holck 2009) and not from the fótverkr ‘foot-disease’ mentioned in this stanza. In addition, dendrochronological evidence from the Gokstad mound dates it to c. 900 (Myhre 1992c, 276; Capelle 1998, 301). Both facts tell against Óláfr or Rǫgnvaldr heiðumhár having been buried there.
References
- Bibliography
- Brøgger, Anton Wilhelm. 1916. Borrefundet og Vestfoldkongernes graver. Videnskaps-selskapets Skrifter. II. Hist.-filos. kl. 1916/1. Kristiania (Oslo): Dybwad.
- Capelle, Torsten. 1998. ‘Gokstad §2. Archäologisches’. In RGA, 12, 299-301.
- Myhre, Bjørn. 1992c. ‘Kronologispørsmålet og ynglingeættens gravplasser’. In Christensen et al. 1992, 272-7.
- Holck, Per. 2009. ‘The Skeleton from the Gokstad Ship: New Evaluation of an Old Find’. Norwegian Archaeological Review 42, 40-9.