Description: Óðinn pointing
out Starkaðr
to Vébjörg at
the Battle of
Brávellir in Louis Moe's retelling of the story. Literal translation of the Danish text for page 80:
We see Vébjörg standing at Óðinn’s side. It is as if no one
notices them, as if the tall man in the long cloak is invisible
to everyone surrounding them. Óðinn has lifted up his arm, he
points towards an opening in the crowd. He need not say
anything. Vébjörg knows, it is Starkaðr, he points out to her
the North’s most famous warrior, the slayer of young Haraldr.
She sees it in the movement in the crowd over there; she hears
it in the stir of fright that fills the air; she senses it from
the powerful hammering of her own heart, and grips the hilt of
her sword more tightly, while courage swells in her breast and
determination flames in her glance under the winged helmet. Editor's Note.
Source: Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning i Billeder og
Tekst
Folio or Page: 80
Medium: Not known
Date: 1930
Dimensions (mm): 125 x 905
Provenance:
This copy ofValkyrien: Romantisk
Digtning i Billeder og Tekst was donated to the
MacPherson Library at the University of Victoria by Trish Baer.
Call number: PZ54.1 M65 1931
The University of Victoria Library photographed this copy of Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning i Billeder
og Tekst at the request of Dr. P.A. Baer, Medieval
Studies, as 600 dpi tiffs with a Plustek OpticBook A300 (lrg book
scanner)
Rights:
Illustrations by Louis Moe in Valkyrien:
Romantisk Digtning i Billeder og Tekst came into the public
domain on January 1, 2017.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Moe,
Louis Maria Niels Peder
Halling. Valkyrien:
Romantisk Digtning. København:
Gyldendal, 1930.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Saxo (Grammaticus). Danmarks krønike.
Edited by
Fr. Winkel
Horn,
Copenhagen: A. Christiansens
Kunstforlag, 1898.
―. The History of the Danes.
Translated by
Peter
Fisher,
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer,
1976.
Óðinn (non.)
Odin (en.)
The chief god of the Æsir in The Prose Edda.
However, in Heimskringla he was a mortal who
tricks the King of Sweden into believing that he was a god.
Events: Historical
Battle of Brávellir (non.)
Battle of Bravellir (en.)
A legendary battle described in Saxo's Gesta
Danorum and elsewhere in eddaic poetry and several
sagas.
Historical Persons, i.e. from Heimskringla, Saxo, sagas etc.
Starkaðr (non.)
Starkad (en.)
A legendary warrior who appears in many sources including Saxo’s
Gesta Danorum (c. 1204) and Olaus Magnus’s
Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555).
Vébjörg (non.)
Vebjorg (en.)
A shield maiden in Saxo's Gesta Danorum who
died at the Battle of Brávellir. She is the shield maiden in Louis Moe's
Valkyrien who becomes a
Valkyrie.
Source Materials:
Danmarks Kronike (da.)
Gesta Danorum (la.)
This edition of Saxo's Gesta Danorum was
translated and published by Fr. Winkel Horn and illustrated by Louis
Moe. Moe recycled some of his illustrations from Winkel Horn's edition
of Noreges konge-sagaer.
Gesta Danorum (la.)
Saxo Grammaticus's thirteenth century prose work concerning Danish
mythology and history.
Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning (da.)
Valkyrie: An illustrated
romance (en.)
Louis Moe's illustrated retelling of the life and death of the
legendary Danish shield maiden Vébjörg.
Source Persons
Moe,
Louis (no.)
b. 1857
d. 1945
Nationality: Norwegian/Danish.
Occupation: illustrator
Residence: Copenhagen
Moe was an illustrator who was born in Norway but became a Danish
citizen in 1919.
Saxo
Grammaticus (la.)
b. 1150
d. 1220
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: cleric
Saxo wrote the Gesta Danorum, which is known
in English as The History of the Danes . His
account of mythological Norse gods and heroes is heavily
euhemerized.
