Feeding the Wolf

The Theme of Restraint, and its Lack,

in the Mythology of Fenrir•

By Dan Campbell

Published by

Odroerir: The Heathen JournalAugust 2014

Volume II

Originally published April, 2012

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Óðrœrir 1

I am reluctant to have this band put on me. But rather than that you question my courage, let some one put his hand in my mouth as a pledge that this is done in good faith.

But all the Æsir looked at each other and found themselves in a dilemma and all refused to offer their hands until Tyr put forward his right hand and put it in the wolf's mouth. And now when the wolf kicked, the band grew harder, and the harder he struggled, the tougher became the band. Then they all laughed except for Tyr. He lost his hand.1

To modern sensibilities, the binding of the wolf Fenrir can seem cruel and unfair: a self-fulfilling proph-ecy that turns the wolf into the gods' slavering enemy because of how they treat him. But such an interpre-tation overlooks the symbolic value of the wolf in Norse mythology and the social mores reinforced by the wolf's binding. Setting aside questions about the gods' morality, the binding of Fenrir shows the restraint required to maintain the reciprocal social bonds that support and protect the common good. The tale shows the price that individuals must pay to gain, and keep, the benefits of kinship and common cause.

In Snorri Sturluson's tale of the binding of Fenrir, the chief reason given for the Æsir’s actions is a mix of prophecy and Fenrir's innate character:

And when the gods realized that these three siblings [Hel, Jörmungandr, and Fenrir] were being brought up in Giantland, and when the gods traced the prophecies stating that from these siblings great mischief and disaster would arise for them, then they all felt evil was to be expected from them, to begin with because of their mother's nature, but still worse because of their father's [Loki]. 2

A simple interpretation of this statement, and of references to Fenrir in eddic and skaldic poetry,3 would be that the Æsir bind Fenrir because he is kin to their enemies among the giants and will play a critical role in the destruction of all things at Ragnarok. But what moves the Æsir to bind Fenrir is the wolf's appetite, a characteristic that links Fenrir to the underlying symbolism of the wolf in Norse myth and literature:

The Æsir brought up the wolf at home, and it was only Tyr who had the courage to approach the wolf and give it food. And when the gods saw how much it was growing each day, and all prophecies foretold that it was des-tined to cause them harm, then the Æsir adopted this plan, that they made a very strong fetter.4

While Snorri continues to emphasize the prophecy in the Æsir’s motivation, it is the wolf's hunger and growing size that prompts the gods to act.

Earlier, in Gylfaginning, Snorri describes the devouring rampage of the wolf Moongarm: “He will fill himself with the lifeblood of everyone that dies, and he will swallow heavenly bodies and spatter heaven and all the skies with blood,” and he quotes from Völuspá for support: “He gorges the life of doomed men,

1 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes (London: J.M. Dent, 1987) 29.2 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 27.3 - c.f.: Völuspá stanzas 40, 44, 49, 53, 54, 55, and 58 in: Carolyne Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1996) 9-12; VafÞrúðnismál stanzas 46, 47, and 53 (Larrington 47-48); Grímnismál stanza 23 (Larrington 55); Lokasenna stanzas 39 and 41 (Larrington 91); and Hákonar saga Góða, stanza 100 in: Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, trans. Lee M. Hollander (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007) 127.

4 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 27.

Óðrœrir 2

reddens gods’ halls with red gore.”5 While Moongarm would appear to be a different wolf than Fenrir, Rudolf Simek asserts they are the same and that the other two named wolves, Sköll and Hati, who de-vour the sun and moon, are similarly identical with Fenrir.6 Even if one interprets Moongarm, Sköll and Hati as individuals distinct from Fenrir, they are nonetheless all the same kin, sired by Fenrir, as Snorri describes with reference to Völuspá: “The ancient giantess breeds as sons many giants and all in wolf shapes, and it is from them that these wolves are descended... Thus it says in Voluspa: In the east lives the old one, in Ironwood, and breeds there Fenrir’s kind.”7 The fact that Fenrir shares the destructive hunger of Moongarm, Sköll and Hati is alluded to both in Snorri’s account in Gylfaginning, quoted above,8 and in his later description of Ragnarok:

But Fenris wolf will go with mouth agape and its upper jaw will be against the sky and its lower one against the earth. It would gape wider if there was room.9

In this second image, the threat of Fenrir’s hunger and growth are emphasized, for his jaws gape open to swallow all there is between heaven and earth. Indeed, the refrain about Fenrir in Völuspá stanzas 44, 49, and 58 explicitly links Ragnarok with the wolf’s hunger: “the rope will break and the ravener run free.”10

In that line from Völuspá, the word translated as “ravener” by Carolyne Larrington connects Fenrir with what wolves represent in Norse myth and literature. In Old Norse, the second line of the refrain from Völuspá stanzas 44, 49, and 58 reads: “festr mun slitna en freki renna,”11 in which freki is the word allud-ing to Fenrir and translated as “ravener” by Larrington. Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson offer the following definition for freki:

freki, a, m., poët. a wolf, Vsp. 51, Gm. 19. 12

However, freki more literally means “the greedy one”13 and is derived from the adjective frekr, mean-ing “greedy, voracious, hungry,” with connotations of “exorbitant, harsh.”14 As mentioned in Cleasby and Vigfusson’s definition quoted above, freki and the hunger of wolves also appear in Grímnismál stanza 19: “Geri and Freki, tamed to war, he satiates, / the glorious Father of Hosts.”15 Looking up geri in both Simek and Cleasby and Vigfusson reveals that it also means “the greedy one,”16 by way of the adjective gerr, meaning “greedy, gluttonous.” 17

Frekr, in the form frekan18 and translated as “ravener” by Larrington, further appears as a kenning for fire in Alvíssmál. In stanza 26, fire is called “ravener by the giants,”19 while stanza 28 echoes the theme

5 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 15.6 - Simek 80.7 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 15.8 - SnorriSturluson, Edda 27.9 - SnorriSturluson, Edda 5310 - Larrington, 10-1211 - Völuspá. Eddukvæði: Sæmundar-Edda, ed. Guðni Jónsson, Heimskringla: Norrøne Tekster og Kvad, 2005, 25 April 2009

<http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Eddukvæði>.12 - Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 1874) 172, Germanic

Lexicon Project, 28 May 2011 <http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/texts/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html>.13 - Simek 90.14 - Cleasby and Vigfusson 172.15 - Larrington 54.16 - Simek 106.17 - Cleasby and Vigfusson 197.18 - Eddukvæði, Alvíssmál stanza 26.19 - Larrington 112-113.-h

Óðrœrir 3

with wood called “fuel by the giants.” The ravening appetite of fire is similarly put to good use in Snorri’s description of the eating contest between Logi and Loki, in which Logi is later revealed as fire itself.20 Two stanzas by Thjóthólf quoted in Ynglingasaga bring together the greedy appetites of fire and wolves:

...the fire did turn,and the gleedes’greedy-dog [fire] bitthe liege-lord21

By bay bightthe building-wolf [fire]swallowed upÓláf’s body.22

In the eddic poems about Sigurd, the greed of wolves is extended to greed for gold and their hunger to its loss. Sigrdrífumál stanza 38 warns Sigurd: “never trust / the oaths of a wrongdoer’s brat” for “the wolf is in the young son, / though he seems to be gladdened by gold.”23 In Reginsmál, Regin plots to use Sigurd to win Andvari’s gold from his brother, Fafnir, by saying, “I have expectations of winnings from a raven-ing wolf.”24 Atlakviða uses wolves twice to warn that Gunnar will lose his wealth: first, when Hogni says to Gunnar, “I found a hair of the heath-wanderer twisted round the red-gold ring; / our way is wolf-beset if we go on this errand,” and second when Gunnar responds, “The wolf will have control of the Niflungs’ inheritance, / the old grey guardians, if Gunnar is going to be lost.”25

From the evidence related above, it is clear that wolves were synonymous with greed in Norse thought. But what is the origin of the association?

The image of the greedy wolf survives in the modern English saying “to wolf down” one’s food, i.e. to eat like a wolf, gulping one’s food quickly as if one were starving and unable to fill one’s belly. To anyone who has watched a nature film that shows wolves eating, the sense of this image will be readily apparent, for wolves “wolf down” their food, consuming as much as possible to hold them over until the next kill. Eating wolves appear ferocious, violently defending their share of the kill either against other predators or against lower status members of their own pack. This violent behavior of wolves at a kill may help explain the Norse perception of the wolf as a creature of the lawless wild, often seen scavenging corpses on the battlefield.

In skaldic poetry, “feeding wolves” is a cliché kenning referring to battle and the prowess of warriors, and the metaphor is often extended to ravens and eagles. As Aleksander Pluskowski summarizes:

Skalds used predatory kennings for warriors, their behavior and equipment, whilst personal names incorporating animals (in runic inscriptions and later literature) are almost exclusively drawn from wild species... Stronger as-sociations are found in warrior kennings which refer to them as feeders of ravens, wolves, and eagles... whilst the fallen in battle are described as

20 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 41, 45.21 - SnorriSturluson, Heimskringla 18.22 - SnorriSturluson, Heimskringla 45.23 - Larrington 172.24 - Larrington 154.25 - Larrington 211-212.

Óðrœrir 4

meals.26

Examples can be drawn from multiple sources,27 but a few selections should suffice to demonstrate the motif’s emphasis on hunger, greed, and the devouring of the dead:

From Skaldskaparmal:“Evil lineage of she-wolf swallowed much-harmed corpse”“the prince reddened Fenrir’s chops”28

From Heimskringla stanzas 210, 320, 328, 438, 519, 569:“Tawny she-wolves’ teeth a twelfth time the king reddened”“who filled with meat the maws of wolves”“Gorge we the hungry wolf-brood!”“Heaped he...hills of high-piled slain for hungry wolves”“gorging the greedy mount-of-ghouls”“feeder-of-famished-wolves”29

From Egil’s Saga stanzas 12 and 53:“who stain wolf’s teeth with blood”“make meals for the wolf with his sword”30

From Krákumál stanzas 9, 16, and 19:“The wolf welcomed our offering of corpse-windrows”“never suffered the she-wolf to starve”“many fell into wolf’s jaws”31

A verse of Egil’s, quoted by Snorri in Hattatal, dwells on the “feeding wolves” motif and further con-nects it to Fenrir:

Who would nourish the bloody-bristled she-wolf with the wound’s red drink unless it were that the prince strengthens the wolf’s greed many a day? The leader provides the watcher [wolf] with wounds newly pierced by edge. The army sees the front claw of Fenrir’s shaggy paw redden.32

While the “feeding wolves” motif naturally derives from wolves worrying corpses on the battlefield, the symbolism of the wolf, its hunger, and the violence it will do to satiate itself is more than a grim

26 - Aleksander Pluskowski, “Harnessing the hunger: Religious appropriations of animal predation in early medieval Scandinavia,” Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: origins, changes, and interactions, eds. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006) 120.

27 - These are all of the references that I found to “feeding wolves”, though I doubt this list is comprehensive: Snorri on the word warg with quotes from Thiodulf, Egil, Einar, Arnor, Illugi, Hall and Thord (Sturluson, Edda 135-136); stanzas 62, 85, 133, 146, 148, 194, 200, 210, 290, 320, 328, 401, 412, 427, 438, 441, 445, 454, 460, 472, 495, 505, 518, 519, 528, 540, 544, 547, 569, 573, 581, 586, 592 and 597 in Sturluson’s Heimskringla; stanzas 12, 13, 41, 50, and 53 quoted in Egil’s Saga, as well as stanzas 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15 from the poem Egil delivers to King Eirik to ransom his head, in: Bernard Scudder, trans. Egil’s Saga, in: The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, (New York: Penguin Books, 2001) 75, 76, 126, 165, 166, and 116-117; another verse by Egil, quoted by Snorri in Hattatal (Sturluson, Edda 199); and stanzas 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 19, and 24 of Krákumál, in: The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, ed. and trans. Ben Waggoner (New Haven: Troth Publications, 2009) 75-82.

28 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 135-136.29 - Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla 257, 476, 497, 573, 647, 696.30 - Scudder 75 and 166.31 - Krákumál 78, 80, 81.32 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 199.

Óðrœrir 5

metaphor of war.33 To be or become wolf-like means becoming a threat to the social order; being an agent of destruction, which cannot restrain itself. In a prior paper, I pointed out that the breaking of the bonds of Loki and Fenrir is equivalent to, and caused by, the breaking of the bonds of kinship and community, as alluded to in stanza 45 of the Völuspá (translation mine): 34

Bræðr munu berjask ok at bönum verðask, munu systrungar sifjum spilla; hart er í heimi, hórdómr mikill, skeggöld, skalmöld, skildir ro klofnir, vindöld, vargöld, áðr veröld steypisk; mun engi maðr öðrum þyrma. (Eddukvæði, Völuspá 45)

Brothers shall fight and become each other’s slayers,Cousins shall commit incest;Hard it is in the world, there is much adultery, Axe-age, sword-age, shields are cloven,Wind-age, wolf-age, until the world is overthrown,No one shall give others hospitality.

Note that such a time of social disorder is described as an “Axe-age, sword-age” and a “Wind-age, wolf-age”, recalling the skaldic kennings for battle. The threat represented by both wolves and weapons reappears in Hávamál stanzas 85-88, in which “A stretching bow, a burning flame, / a gaping wolf, a caw-ing crow” and “a flying dart” are named in a list of things that should not be trusted. 35

Such lack of trust and the inherent dangers in unrestrained appetites also apply to outlaws and berserk-ers who, being outside the law (and thus outside the social order), are compared with wolves. The Old Norse word vargr, while literally meaning “wolf”, is a legal term for an outlaw, “esp. used of one who commits a crime in a holy place, and is thereon declared accursed”.36 The terms for full outlawry and full outlaw—skóggangr, “forest-going”, and skógarmaðr, “forest-man”37—further emphasize the wolfish character of the outlaw by echoing verse about wolves in the wilderness, such as in Völuspá stanza 40,

In the east sat an old woman in Iron-wood and nurtured there offspring of Fenrir38

The first stanza of the Old Norwegian Rune Poem:

Gold causes the strife of kinsmen;the wolf is reared in the woods.39

The distinction in Icelandic law between manslaughter and murder shows that a lack of restraint un-derlies the comparison of full outlaws with wolves. Killing someone and confessing (or boasting) about it

33 - Nonetheless, the “feeding wolves” motif as a kenning for battle is likely behind both Tyr’s epithet as “feeder of the wolf” (Sturluson, Edda 76) and Odin feeding Geri and Freki in Grímnismál stanza 19 (Larrington 54)—in each case showing them to be gods of battle and warfare.

34 - Dan Campbell, “’The Bound God’: Fetters, Kinship, and the Gods” Idunna 89 (Fall 2011). 24.35 - Larrington 25.36 - Cleasby and Vigfusson 680.37 - Jesse Byock, Viking Age Iceland (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2001) 231.38 - Larrington 9.39 - Stephen E. Flowers, The Rune-Poems, Volume 1: Introduction, Texts, Translations and Glossary (Smithville: Rûna-Raven Press, 2002) 21.

Óðrœrir 6

was considered manslaughter, a crime which could be settled through compensation and so avoid further bloodshed. Murder, in contrast, was a killing where the perpetrator did not confess the deed. If discovered, the murderer could be outlawed; however, the act was just as likely to lead to revenge killings and feuding, upsetting the social order. As Jesse Byock summarizes:

The law gave people the right to take vengeance and to defend their person and their honour, but only within limitations...the law book entries agree with the general thrust of the sagas, showing a consensus among the popula-tion for allowing vengeance-taking but only within the limits of acceptable windows of opportunity.40

Berserkers are also compared with wolves and typically portrayed as outlaws-waiting-to-happen. In Ynglingasaga, Snorri describes berserkers “as mad as dogs or wolves,”41 and berserkers appear as trou-ble-makers in need of killing in Egil’s Saga,42 Grettir’s Saga,43 and Eyrbyggja Saga. The last echoes Ynglingasaga and emphasizes how berserkers are outside of human society: “They used to go berserk...they were wholly unlike human beings, storming about like mad dogs and afraid of neither fire nor weapons.”44 In telling the story of the berserker brothers Halli and Leiknir, Eyrbyggja Saga portrays them as lacking restraint. When they first enter Vermund’s service, they threaten him: “if ever you refuse us anything which we want and you have the power to give, we won’t be at all pleased”. This threat bears fruit when Halli asks Vermund to find him a wife, and then later when the berserker seeks the hand of Skyr’s daughter. The match is not appropriate for the women or their families, and Skyr contrives to kill the berserkers rather than confront them directly.45 Echoing the berserker’s lack of restraint, Icelandic law carries a penalty of lesser outlawry simply for going berserk, as well as for “those men who are present except if they restrain [the berserker]”. 46

Turning such social restraint on its head, there are two occasions in Norse myth where an individual is forced to become wolf-like so that they will ignore normal social boundaries. The eddic poems about Sigurd use wolf-meat as a means to make Guthorm kill Sigurd. The fourth stanza of Fragment of a Poem about Sigurd and stanza 20 of A Short Poem about Sigurd both describe the same event:

Some roasted wolf, some sliced-up serpent,wolf-meat they gave Guthorm to eat,before they could, desiring [Sigurd’s] ruin,lay their hands on the wise man.47

We should prepare Guthorm for the killing,our younger brother, not so experienced;he was away when the oaths were sworn,when the oaths were sworn and the pledges made.48

40 - Byock, Viking Age Iceland 225-29.41 - Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla 10.42 - Scudder 124-126.43 - Byock, Grettir’s Saga 113-11444 - Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, trans. Eyrbyggja Saga (London: Penguin Books, 1989) 68-69.45 - Hermann Pálsson 68-71, 76-80.46 - Byock, Viking Age Iceland 314.47 - Larrington 174.48 - Larrington 185.

Óðrœrir 7

By eating the meat, Guthorm becomes like a wolf, capable of savage violence that breaks the bonds supporting the social order. Similarly, according to Snorri’s tale of the Æsir binding Loki with Narfi's guts, they avoid direct responsibility for Narfi's slaying by turning his brother Vali into a wolf, causing Vali to tear his brother Narfi to pieces”.49

Interestingly, the idea of feeding an outlaw echoes the "feeding wolves" motif of skaldic poetry. Just as "gorging the greedy mount-of-ghouls”50 results in ruin and slaughter on the battlefield, so feeding an outlaw supports their lawlessness. The Icelandic legal term bjarg-ráð means “help or shelter given to an outlaw” and was forbidden, as shown by the legal term ú-alandi, meaning “one who must not be fed”.51 The first term is a compound derived from bjarga, meaning “to save, help” but with connotations of feed-ing or eating, as shown in the following phrases and one compound from Cleasby and Vigfusson page 65:

bjarg úti, of cattle, to grazebjarg sjálfr, to gain one’s breadhví hann byrgist svá lítt, why he ate so slowlybjarg-leysi, starvation, destitution

The more explicitly food-associated term ú-alandi is derived from ala, which means “to give birth to, nourish, support” and thus encompasses raising children along with feeding and aiding individuals.

The same meaning occurs in several poems with reference to wolves, both literally and metaphorically. The verb meaning “reared” in the first stanza of The Old Norwegian Rune Poem, quoted above, is føðesk, identical to Old Norse fœðisk, the reflexive of fœða52 or fæða, “to feed, give food to; to rear, bring up; to give birth to.”53 The same word appears in Völuspá stanza 40,54 “In the east sat an old woman in Iron-wood / and nurtured there offspring of Fenrir.”55 Likewise, the eleventh stanza of Völuspá in skamma,56 incor-porated as the fortieth stanza of Hyndluljóð by Larrington, relies on ala to convey the same idea: “Loki got the wolf on Angrboda”.57 Ala also appears in stanza 12 of “Sigurðarkviða in skamma”58 as part of a warning that recalls the law term ú-alandi:

Let the son go the same way as the father!Don’t nurture for long the young wolf;for to which man would revenge come easier—afterwards in recompense—than if the son were still alive?59

The theme of restraint also appears in the Hávamál, which frequently stresses caution and moderation in adherence to social norms--from knowing when to speak and when to be silent, to how much one should drink and how best to maintain friendships. Among these admonitions, stanzas 20 and 21 emphasize re-straint in eating habits, providing a direct contrast to the imagery of feeding wolves:

49 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 52.50 - Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla 647.51 - Cleasby and Vigfusson 65, 658.52 - Flowers 20-21, 43.53 - Cleasby and Vigfusson 184.54 - Eddukvæði.55 - Larrington 9.56 - Eddukvæði.57 - Larrington 258.58 - Eddukvæði.59 - Larrington 183.

Óðrœrir 8

The greedy man, unless he guards against this tendency,will eat himself into lifelong trouble;often he’s laughed at when he comes among the wise,the man who’s foolish about his stomach.

Cattle know when they ought to go home,and then they leave the pasture;but the foolish man never knowsthe measure of his own stomach.60

Icelandic law emphasizes restraint in its proscriptions against feeding or aiding outlaws and the penalty of lesser outlawry for going berserk or failing to restrain a berserker. Icelandic society valued hóf, mod-eration, over the vengeance of feuding. If a dispute could be settled through arbitration, and crimes with compensation, then Icelandic society benefited from the lack of violence and the resulting disruption. In the opposite of hóf; óhóf, and Icelandic society's response to it, can be found the rationale for the Æsir’s binding of Fenrir. As Byock describes:

The practice of óhóf was known as ójafnaðr, meaning unevenness, unfair-ness or injustice in dealings with others. Ójafnaðr, which is often trans-lated as 'being overbearing' or 'unjust', disturbed the consensual nature of decision-making and set in motion a series of coercive responses; for ex-ample, when an individual's greed or ambition threatened the balance of power, other leaders banded together in an effort to counter his immoderate behaviour.61

To the Icelanders, Fenrir is without restraint; he has óhóf. His appetite is never ending, his eating habits ferocious (judging from Tyr's courage in feeding him), and his growth exponential. He is this way simply because he is a wolf: a raving killer, a devourer of corpses, the epitome of lawless violence, as quick to consume as fire and just as merciless in the destruction of wealth and well-being. While to modern sensi-bilities the preemptive actions of the Æsir appear unfair, Fenrir's very nature requires them to impose the restraint he lacks.

The wolf is the will to cause strife among men, the hunger and greed that urges violence, the raving prowess that breaks all bonds of social order. Because he cannot restrain himself (as the Æsir believe), he must be bound, to protect the world of men and the gods. Metaphorically, the binding of the wolf symbol-izes the restraint that all members of a community must exercise both within themselves and with each other. Similarly, not feeding the wolf, binding him, and leaving a sword in his jaws, are the only hope we have of social stability, for to feed the wolf is to encourage death, battle and the betrayal of all we hold dear.

When the Æsir saw that the wolf was thoroughly bound they took the cord that was hanging from the fetter, which is called Gelgia, and threaded it through a great stone slab—this is called Gioll—and fastened the slab far down in the ground...The wolf stretched its jaws enormously and reacted violently and tried to bite them. They thrust into its mouth a certain sword;

60 - Larrington 17.61 - Byock, Viking Age Iceland 190-191

Óðrœrir 9

the hilt touches its lower gums and the point its upper ones. This is its gum-prop. It howls horribly and saliva runs from its mouth. This forms the river called Hope. There it will lie until Ragnarok.62

62 - Snorri Sturluson, Edda 29.

Óðrœrir 10

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--. Viking Age Iceland. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2001.

Campbell, Dan. “‘The Bound God’: Fetters, Kinship, and the Gods.” Idunna 89 (Fall 2011), 24.

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Eddukvæði: Sæmundar-Edda. Heimskringla: Norrøne Tekster og Kvad. Ed. Guðni Jónsson. 2005. 25 April 2009 <http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Eddukvæði>.

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Scudder, Bernard, trans. Egil’s Saga. The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection. New York: Penguin Books, 2001, 3-184.

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--. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Trans. Lee M. Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.