Stories and Ballads of the Far Past / Translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese) with Introductions and Notes

by Nora K. Chadwick

Thereupon Guest took his candle out of the frame of his harp. The King ordered it to be lighted, and this was done. And when the candle was lighted it soon began to burn away.

Then the King said to Guest: "How old are you?"

And Guest replied: "I am now three hundred years old."

"You are an old man," observed the King.

Then Guest laid himself down and asked them to anoint him with oil. The King ordered it to be done, and when it was finished there was very little of the candle left unburnt. Then it became clear that Guest was drawing near to his end, and his spirit passed just as the torch flickered out; and they all marvelled at his passing. The King also set great store by his stories and held that the account which he had given of his life was perfectly true.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THÁTTR OF SÖRLI

This story, like the last, is taken from the long Saga of Olaf Tryggvason contained in the Flateyjarbók, Vol. i, pp. 275-283. Its connection, however, with the story of that King is of the slightest. According to the opinion of Finnur Jónsson[¹] the story in its present form dates from the first half of the fourteenth century.

This story, like the Tháttr of Nornagest, shows evidence of a definite structural plan and falls into three distinct parts. In the first two chapters the scene is laid among the gods, and the story is set in motion by the forging of a necklace for the goddess Freyja by some dwarfs. This is stolen by Loki and given to Othin, who refuses to restore it to Freyja till she promises to bring about a perpetual battle between two mighty kings.

Then in chs. iii and iv we have an account of the adventures of a Viking prince named Sörli, from whom the story takes its (somewhat inappropriate) title[²]. Sörli comes into contact (first as an enemy, later as a friend) with another prince called Högni, and this leads up to the main theme—the friendship and subsequent quarrel of Hethin and Högni, in whose tragic fate Freyja's promise is fulfilled. The perpetual battle between these two heroes is finally ended by one of Olaf Tryggvason's men, and it is through this that the story comes to be introduced into his Saga.