Wednesday, August 12, 2020

 

What a Way to Go

Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Translated with Introduction and Notes by Lee M. Hollander (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), pp. 14-15 (The Saga of the Ynglings, Chapter 11):
Once when Fjolnir went to visit Fróthi on the Island of Selund, a great banquet had been prepared and many had been invited from near and far. Fróthi had a large estate, and a vat had been built there, many ells high, and reinforced by stout timbers. It stood on the lower floor of a storehouse, and above it was a balcony with an opening in the floor, so that liquids could be poured down, and mead mixed in it. An exceedingly strong drink had been prepared. In the evening Fjolnir and his retinue were led to lodgings in a loft close by. During the night he went out on the balcony to find a place to relieve himself. He was drowsy with sleep and dead drunk, and on his way back to his lodgings he went along the balcony and to the wrong loft door and through it. He missed his footing and fell into the mead vat and drowned.



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