Starkaðrês teeth

by WILLIAM LAYHER, Washington University


Starkaðr inn gamli, "Starkad the Old," is renowned as one of the most valiant and perplexing heroes in the Norse tradition. the bulk of his tragic story is recounted in books six through eight of the Gesta Danorum (early thirteenth century) and in Gautreks saga, a fornaldarsaga ("saga of ancient times") that dates from the latter part of the thirteenth century. Additional perspectives about Starkaðr's origins, his deeds, and his downfall are provided in Norna-Gests pˆttr, the Sögubrot af fornkonungum, the U redaction of Hervarar saga ok Heidreks konungs, and in a tenth-century skaldic stanza that is recorded only in Snorra Edda. taken as a whole, however, the sources do not provide a unified portrait of the hero. Rather, the composite is much akin to a Cubist painting, for each source refracts different angles and perspectives of what was obviously a contradictory—even fractured— heroic personality. Starkaðr is shown to be a valiant champion but also a coward who flees the battlefield; a loyal retainer to kings like Ingeld, VÍkarr, and Olo but also a renegade murderer of two of them; a committed moralist who is himself plagued by self-loathing; a hero granted three lifespans but cursed to commit a shameful crime in each; a gifted poet who is condemned to forget his verses as soon as he utters them; and, not least of all, he is revealed to be a man whose humanity is repeatedly called into question.