The year is 9th Century England. The Viking age has just begun, the Danes are coming from the same and adjacent regions the Angles and Saxons once came so many centuries ago and so many generations ago, bringing back with them the old Germanic gods to what is now a deeply divided but rich Christian country. One by one Kingdoms and petty kings fall, and the Danelaw swallows England, and at the eventual precipice, in the South West of Britain, stands the Kingdom of the West Saxons, the last Kingdom not yet subsumed in the Danelaw, and the Kingdom that would endure into England.
Or so the stage is set in Bernard Cornwell's fantastic Saxon Stories. Also adapted into a Netflix Series.
The Thread
The Netflix series also has a ethereal score courtesy of John Lunn, and Eivor Palsdottir.
All songs fantastic, and epic in their own right. However one which resonates the most is the one of this posts title.
Livstraedir or the threads of life is an incredibly beautiful song in it's own right, but it's beauty becomes more profound when looking into it's lyrics.
The Saga
Livstraedir is light on lyrics, a collection of 4 lines from the Faroe Islander Saga.
Tóri runnu tár á kinn, harðnar Sigmunds sinni: "Grátum ikki frændi mín, vær goymum væl i minni!"
Spjótið gleið í miðju inn, stál í indrum lendi, Brestir gjørdi eitt avreksbragd, hann banasár sær kendi.
Written in Faroese, this translates to
Tears rolled down Thor's cheeks, Sigmundur's temper becomes hard-hearted: "Let's not cry, my friend, we'll keep him in good memory!"
The spear slid into the waist, the steel landed in his bowels, Brestir accomplished a heroic feat, he felt the deadly wound.
Text taken from lyricstranslate
Scene
This is from a part of the Faroese Saga, detailing the deeds of one Brestir, and Beinir, who's foster sons would later bring the word of Christ to Faroe Islands. However the scene in the song is most notably un christ like. We hear of Tori crying, Spears sliding into waists, and Brestir doing something heroic, but feeling a deadly wound in the process.
The events at play here, lay out a formative tragedy in motion. Tori and Sigmundur are foster brothers, raised in the same household. Brestir, Tori's foster father, and Sigmundur's real father is out with Beinir, who is Tori's father, the purpose of their outing unclear from the Sagas. However they are set up on by some of their rival clans. In a brutal demonstration of clan feuds, enemies gather, Brestir and Beinir are ambushed, they fight bravely, but ultimately succumb to and Tori and Sigmundur called to witness their fathers' butchery, and to be later sold into slavery.
It is in this moment of tragedy, despair, and what seems like world ending loss that the lyrics are placed. Tori is upset, but Sigmundur comforts him.
Saga, Aftermath
In the sagas Sigmundur and Tori are later sold into slavery in Norway, where they eventually earn their freedom, and through the then Norwegian king, discover the word of Christ, and with this regal blessing return to the Faroe islands to reclaim their birthright with the legitimacy of Christ behind them.
Varp
While the sagas, and the moving manner in which they are told are a crucial part of the song's soul, it's greatst beauty lies, to me, not in how the sagas it builds from parallel the story it is used to tell. It is full of haunting parallels to the Saxon Stories' protagonist, Uhtred son of Uhtred, of Bebbanburg that make this song really stand out. Perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, we see elements of the Saxon Stories in this Saga, and this song the one link connecting the Sagas to literature coming several centuries after them.
Spoilers
The section under here contains spoilers for the Saxon Stories and the Last Kingdom.
Perhaps intentional, perhaps accidental, the parallels to Uhtred of Bebbanburg are very apparent. Much like Sigmundur and Tori, Uhtred loses is father at a young age, and his forster father Ragnar, when he is perhaps barely an adult. Both to certainly violent ends he is witness to. Uhtred's biological father, the victim of a deadly battle against the Danes, again leaving an impression on Uhtred while his foster father the Jarl Ragnar, is slain at his daughter's wedding.
Much like Sigmundur and Tori, Uhtred is then cast out into England, much like Sigmundur and Tori a pawn in the hands of fate. While Sigmundur, and Tori lay the foundation of a Christian Faroese people, as an instrument of the then King of Norway. Uhtred becomes the Instrument of the then King Alfred to drive the heathen danes from England, and make one kingdom under god a reality.
Perhaps much like Uhtred, Sigmundur, and Tori never wanted anything more than to return home, even though stolen as it was from them by fate. Wyrd. That which plays the role of the mysterious puppetmaster that guides hands and actions without appearing anywhere at all. It is just as inexonerable in the sagas and it is Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories.
Spoilers End
Perhaps intelligent, or perhaps borne out of random chance, while I have always enjoyed the Saxon Stories, Livstraedir as a song becomes even more beautiful viewed through this lens of parallels and symbolism. I heartily reccomend the Saxon Stories, the accompanying Netflix series The Last Kingdom, and perhaps my own blogposts on the historic pre-pre-prequel to the events in An Outsiders Look at Britain