# "The saga of Hromund Greipsson" plot question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saga-of-hromund-greipsson-plot-question/686900 "2014-04-24T22:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saga-of-hromund-greipsson-plot-question/686900/1 "2014-04-24T22:19:01Z")
OK this might sound like a bit of a weird question to ask, seeing as I usually know quite about Icelandic legendary and heroic sagas even though I’m not an expert yet. Also, bumping up the saga thread feels useless right now (and this is one of the times when I wish there was an option to delete your posts on this forum) Anyway, in Hromund Greipsson’s saga, the hero is the son of a Danish farmer called Greipir and his wife Gunnlod. As a young man, he serves in King Olaf’s retinue and joins the king and his men on an expedition to the Hebrides and Gaul (or . While he’s there the king’s men round up some cattle and a local farmer tells them there’s a barrow nearby with a berserker’s corpse and a treasure hoard. So Hromund sails to Valland with his friends and they find the barrow. This scene then happens: > [@](#): > > Hromund said: “Kari [one of the king’s men, killed in a battle with an enemy] would have dared to do this, if he was alive,” --and added that he was prepared to descend into the barrow, although it would be better if he went with others. Hromund went down on a chain. It was night-time by then. And when he reached the bottom, he found much wealth and gathered it together. > > In previous days Thrain had been king over Gaul, and he had accomplished everything by sorcery. He did much evil, until he was so old that he no longer wanted to know adversity any longer, so he went alive into the barrow and took much wealth with him. > > Now Hromund saw where a sword hung up from a pillar. He took it down, belted it to himself and went forward and said: “I will speak with you before I leave the barrow, since you do not stop me. What is wrong with you, you there, old one? Do you not agree that while I gathered your wealth together you sat silent, hated dog? Was something in your eyes, that you looked on as I took your sword and jewellery and many of your other treasures?” > > Thrain said to himself that he would seem worth little if he allowed himself to sit silently in his chair, – “I have little wish to fight. But I must have become a great coward, if you can rob my wealth. I refuse you my treasure. You will see me dead first.” > > Then Hromund said: "It would be seemly if you rose, cowardly and craven one, and took your sword back from me, if you dare.‘’ > > The drow said: “That is no deed, to bear a sword against me, who am weaponless. I will test my strength with you and wrestle.” > > Hromund threw down the sword and trusted in his own strength. Thrain saw that and got up from his cauldron. He blew on the fire, and now he was ready to eat out of the cauldron. A great fire lay between his feet, and the cauldron was full of goat-meat. He wore a gold-painted hide. Both his hands were gnarled, and his nails were crooked over the tips of his fingers. > > Hromund said: “Rise from the chair, cowardly slave, and take your wealth.” Then the drow said: “Now will we have fitting speech, now you challenge my courage.” > > Day passed, and dusk fell, and it grew dark in the barrow. Then the drow went to wrestle with Hromund, but he cast down his cauldron. Hromund had the advantage of strength, and so they went hard at it, so that rocks and stones sprang up. Then the drow fell to his left knee and said: “You knock me down, and certainly you are a brave man.” > > Hromund said: “Stand without support to your back. You are as great a coward as Máni the farmer said.” > > Thrain went crazy, and he filled the barrow with an evil reek. Then he set his claws to the back of Hromund’s head and broke hold of the bone to his loins and said: "Do not complain about it, although the game grows coarse and I have wounded your throat, so that now I shall tear you apart still alive.‘’ > > “I do not know,” said Hromund, “from where such cat-kin has come to this barrow.” > > The drow said: **“You were born to Gunnlod. All your like are so.”** How does Thrain know whose son Hromund is? Is the implication that he used second sight (he _was_ a sorceror when he was alive after all) or psychic ability to find out the name “Gunnlod” or that Hromund’s mother’s family has a reputation for being particularly heroic? I’m also thinking if the fact that Gunnlod is a giantess’ name (the daughter of the giant Suttung, who owned the mead of poetry which he got as wergild for his father’s death) has anything to do with that, making the line a veiled insult and a good answer from Thrain to being called “cat-kin”; he basically makes the insult about Hromund rather than him. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saga-of-hromund-greipsson-plot-question/686900/2 "2014-04-24T22:27:31Z")
_Valland_ Also, the quoted passage is from [this translation](http://http://www.northvegr.org/sagas%20annd%20epics/legendary%20heroic%20and%20imaginative%20sagas/old%20heithinn%20tales%20from%20the%20north/003.html). ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saga-of-hromund-greipsson-plot-question/686900/3 "2014-04-25T01:53:30Z")
He knows because he’s murdered 400-something warriors who weren’t. It’s one of those backwards translations where everybody sounds like Yoda, but basically he’s saying that Hromund must be Gunnlød’s son because few men are his equal in combat. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-saga-of-hromund-greipsson-plot-question/686900/4 "2014-04-25T02:33:03Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > He knows because he’s murdered 400-something warriors who weren’t. It’s one of those backwards translations where everybody sounds like Yoda, but basically he’s saying that Hromund must be Gunnlød’s son because few men are his equal in combat. That has to be a good explanation. Thanks. And sounding like Yoda? “Gunnlod’s son you must be” LOL.