Note to ESk Hardr II 3II
[1, 2] geitunga Ellu ‘of Ælle’s <Northumbrian king’s> birds [EAGLES]’: See also ÞjóðA Magnfl 6/6. Ælle (Ella) was king of Northumbria (d. 867). He was captured by the sons of Ragnarr loðbrók ‘Shaggy-breeches’, whom Ælle had killed. To avenge their father, they are said to have tortured him to death by carving an eagle on his back, cutting the ribs from the spine and pulling the lungs out through the wound (see Hb 1892-6, 464). For this type of torture, see Frank 1984a. In skaldic poetry, Ælle came to be used as a virtual shorthand for ‘English king’ (see ÞjóðA Magnfl 6/6; Townend 1997), and if the name is used in this generic sense here, his ‘birds’ would be a kenning for ‘birds of battle’ in general.
References
- Bibliography
- Frank, Roberta. 1984a. ‘Viking Atrocity and Skaldic Verse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle’. English Historical Review 99, 332-43.
- Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
- Townend, Matthew. 1997. ‘Ella: An Old English Name in Old Norse Poetry’. Nomina 20, 23-35.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite (RloðVIII)
- Diana Whaley (ed.) 2009, ‘Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, Magnússflokkr 6’ 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, pp. 70-2.