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Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon (Ragn) 7VIII (Ragn 37)

[6] á Bolgaralandi ‘in Bolgaraland’: I.e. in the land of the Bulgars. The Bulgars, originally a Turkic nomadic people, lived in two locations in the Viking Age, having divided into two branches in the mid-C7th: the Balkans (in roughly the area of modern Bulgaria) and the middle Volga (Haywood 2000, 38). If Bolgaraland ‘the land of the Bulgars’ in l. 6 refers to one of these two locations, and if the bragnar ‘men’ in l. 5 are Ragnarr and Bjǫrn, referred to in the first half-stanza, there is no clear evidence of these figures having fought as far east as this, either in history or legend. It seems safest not to look for a precise location of Bolgaraland here, and to follow Renaud (2005, 70 n. 59) in seeing ll. 5-6 as referring generally to the activities of the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók in southern Europe.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Haywood, John. 2000. Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age. London: Thames & Hudson.
  3. Renaud, Jean, trans. 2005. Saga de Ragnarr aux Braies velues, suivie du Dit des fils de Ragnarr et du Chant de Kráka. Toulouse: Anacharsis.
  4. Internal references
  5. Not published: do not cite (RloðVIII)
  6. Not published: do not cite (RunVI)

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