Episode 41c - Víga-Glúm's Saga (chapters 10-15)

In this episode, Glúm continues to establish himself as a leading figure in southern Eyjafjörður. We start with a brief overview of the many marriages that take place at this stage of the saga, including:

• Glúm - Halldóra
• Thórir of Espihóll - Thórdís
• Thórarinn of Espihóll - Thorgerd
• Thorvald Hook of Espihóll - Thorkötla

Of course, the real trouble starts when Thórir's son Thorgrím sets his heart on the lovely Thórdís. Things get interesting from there. Check out the Víga-Glúms saga genealogy Andy's been building here.

All these marriages naturally result in the arrival of many new characters to the saga. Among them are Már, the son of Glúm and Halldóra, and two special little cousins, Arngrím and Steinólf. These two boys get along better than anyone in Iceland. Surely they have a bright future ahead of them. Right?

We also dive into a fun little story about Ingólf, a very large man who finds a home at Þverá with Már and Glúm. Through no fault of his own, Ingólf gets caught up in a somewhat precarious feud between Glúm and a no-good neighbor known as Kalf of Stokkahlaðir. There's a horse fight, some hurt feelings, and then thing leads to another. Before you know it, there's a lawsuit against Ingólf at the Althing.

As usual, we've got plenty of digressions to distract you from the story. We talk about ice storms in Mississippi, snow storms in Massachusetts. We go on for too long about formalist approaches to the structure of Víga-Glúms saga and how we approach building an episode of Saga Thing. This actually leads to a brief discussion of the role of minor characters in the sagas, a subject that the great Ármann Jakobsson covers in his new book (grab a copy here):

We discuss the fascinating subject of children and toys in medieval Iceland. While there's not much info out there, we found just enough to get John excited about a possible Saga Brief on the subject ;). At some point, I mention a small toy carving found at Seydisfjordur (a great spot to visit in the East fjords). What kind of animal is this?

Read the article in Smithsonian for more information.

As you'll hear, this episode is very digression heavy as we work our way through a transitional moment in the saga. There are many many references to Gabriel Turville-Petre's edition of the saga, which provides plenty of useful insights and discussion points for us.

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Music Credits

Intro Music – “Prelude and Action” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro Music – “Stormfront” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/