Candice, in retrospect, referring to a while back, it might be worth noting
on this list that Byock's findings (real as well as imagined) connect in a
curious round-about-way to Basil Bunting's 'Briggflats'. The connection is
Erik Blood-axe, who's mentioned therein (and partly explained in BB's
notes). Egil, the subject of Byock's research, was a primitive sadistic
killer as well as a profound poet. His (to my mind) second outstanding poem
(re Egil's Saga) is 'Head's Ransom' (Höfuðlausn), composed (reportedly)
during one sleepless night to Erik the Blood-Axe, who had him in custody and
had his execution timed for the early hours of the morning. The poem saved
Egil's life. Hence it's title.

Árni


on 12/16/01 3:04 AM, Árni Ibsen at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Boy, am I glad I'm not alone on this darkened Titanic!
> 
> on 12/16/01 2:23 AM, Candice Ward at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> 
>> Couldn't leave you hanging in silence after this post! And there's actually
>> something I've been meaning to query you about: the homefront (national or
>> local) view of the Mosfell dig and/or Jesse Byock's work more generally--if
>> I'm not putting you on the spot?
> 
> Hm, very much THE spot, yes! I've been following Jesse Byock's escapades with
> great, committed interest in recent years as has every other literate person
> living on this island (it's all a literature that's very much alive still and
> living next door to almost anyone up here), but afraid I've not yet got hold
> of his latest. It'll be in the media over here very shortly I can assure you.
> I'll check the websites tomorrow and treport back, thanks for the suggestion.
> Still, it only takes me 10-15 minutes to drive to Mosfell from my house. And
> yet I keep vigorously trying to resist any and all saga-age context with my
> person as writer and citizen when presented to an audience abroad (especially
> in a German context)
> 
>> Have you read his long-awaited, recently published _Viking Age Iceland_ yet,
>> for instance? I've only just gotten my hands on it and had a glance through,
>> on which basis it looks quite promising--in line with his usual political
>> economy analysis of saga culture--
> 
> Details of the publication?
> 
>> but I've also noticed a curious absence in
>> the book's index: there's no entry for "trees." Does that strike you as odd
>> too?
> 
> Popular myth has it that there are no trees in this country. I never
> questioned this until an English friend pointed it out to me that there were
> in fact trees in several places, many of which were huddled together to form
> woods and forests, and some of them were even quite tall. Blinded by the myth,
> I had simply failed to notice them. On reflection, retracing my aimless tracks
> back to my childhood, those fuzzy things that lined the horizon around my
> family's picnic scenarios were actually trees. And many of them even had green
> leaves among their branches.
> 
>> Re Byock's focus on political economy, his stunning Viking site at UCLA
>> (http://www.viking.ucla.edu/) includes an animated "saga feud" that's
>> delightful, not least because he had the good sense and taste to avoid flash
>> (as a sort of oral-trad propriety gesture) and instead has used a beautiful
>> set of what look like chess pieces, moving them around diagrammatically
>> through the stages of the feud. It's a charming and pedagogically effective
>> demonstration of saga-feud dynamics, I think. The site also contains
>> excerpts from his translations of the Hrolf Kraki and Volsung sagas, an
>> interview with him, and "Egil's Bones," the fascinating account of
>> diagnosing Paget's disease in a centuries' old skeleton published in
>> _Scientific American_ (I think) during the mid-90s.
> 
> I'll most certainly check it out!
> 
>> Byock's other UCLA site, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
>> (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/peple/byock.html), includes some (not nearly
>> enough) magnificent photographs of the 9thc Mosfell settlement digsite and
>> an interesting account of the two-country, interdisciplinary collaboration
>> it represents. There's also a link to your National Museum. Both sites are
>> well worth a visit, regardless of one's familiarity with or degree of
>> interest in saga literature, and Byock's work on Hrolf Kraki is particularly
>> important to Beowulfians (check it out, David Kennedy!).
> 
> Thanks for your prompt post, Candice. I can go to bed now  and actually get
> some sleep, assured that the world's there and responding.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Árni
>