''Åsmund Frægdegjevar'' is a medieval
Norwegian legend and ballad (classification:
TSB
Banking
A trustee savings bank is a type of financial institution.
* In the United Kingdom:
** Trustee Savings Bank, a bank in the United Kingdom that merged with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB until 2013
** Lloyds TSB, the name used by ...
E 145) with several variations all detailing the adventures of a hero by the same name who is hired by the king to rescue a princess. It is based on a
fornaldarsaga
A legendary saga or ''fornaldarsaga'' (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.The article ''Fornaldarsagor'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1991 ...
.
Summary
The story starts as many fairytales do: the fair princess has been captured and imprisoned in a faraway castle, and the King commissions a hero, in this case Åsmund, to rescue her. He and his brothers take the King's flagship
Ormin Lange to the castle of the ogre Skomegyvri, where the princess is imprisoned. However, his brothers will not enter with him, so he goes alone.
He finds the princess with relative ease walking through the castle, and immediately falls in love with her. But she is under a spell of the
ogre, and believing that Skomegyvri is her mother, will not leave with him. He then takes her by force.
On his way out, the ogre appears. They fight a long battle both physically and with curses and spells, but Åsmund eventually kills Skomegyvri. The princess being free from the spell, they plunder the castle and return home with all the ogre's treasure.
Parallels
The ballad tells a similar story to an
Icelandic saga (''Ásmundar saga flagðagæfu'', extant only as the fragmentary ''Ásmundar
rímur
In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterate and consist of two to four lines per stanza. T ...
flagðagæfu''), where the hero is known as Ásmundur Flagðagæfa.
Recordings
''
Åsmund Frægdegjevar'' by
Lumsk is a
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
based on the ballad.
Jan Inge Rasmussen recount the ballad in his version of the song "Åsmund Frægdegjæva" on the album from 1975 ''
Rasmusikk''
Gåte
Gåte ( en, riddle) is a band from Trøndelag, Norway playing Norwegian folk music bred with metal and electronica. Their style has been referred to as progressive folk-rock. The band was put together by Sveinung Sundli (violin, keyboards) in ...
recount the ballad in their song "Åsmund Frægdegjæva" on the album ''
Svevn''.
English Translations
English translations of this ballad have been published:
*"Åsmund Frægdegjeva" in ''The Faraway North'' (2016) by Ian Cumpstey.
* (from the summary ''Inntak úr söguþætti af Ásmundi flagðagæfu'': Tale of Asmund Ogre-Lucky, pp. 151-164)
References
External links
Åsmund Frægdegjevar variations in original Norwegian
Norwegian folk songs
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
{{Norway-stub