Aslaug ( non, Áslaug ), also called Aslög, Kráka (O.N.: ) or Kraba, is a figure in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
who appears in
Snorri
Snorri (; ) is a masculine given name. People with the name include:
* Snorri Þorbrandsson, a character in the Icelandic ''Eyrbyggja saga''
* Snorri Goði or Snorri Þorgrímsson (963–1031), a prominent chieftain in Western Iceland, featured i ...
's
Edda
"Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poem ...
, the
Völsunga saga
The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the stor ...
and in the saga of
as one of his wives.
Aslaug in legend
According to the 13th-century ''
Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok
The Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok ( non, Ragnars saga loðbrókar) is an Icelandic legendary saga of the 13th century about the Viking ruler Ragnar Lodbrok. It is part of the manuscript of the ''Völsunga saga'', which it immediately follows. The tale co ...
'', Aslaug was the daughter of
Sigurd
Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...
and the
shieldmaiden
A shield-maiden ( non, skjaldmær ) was a female warrior from Scandinavian folklore and Norse mythology, mythology.
Shield-maidens are often mentioned in sagas such as ''Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'' and in ''Gesta Danorum''. They also appear in ...
Brynhildr
Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=New High German, Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigoths, Vis ...
,
but was raised by Brynhildr's foster father
Heime
Heime (German), Háma ( ang, Hāma), or Heimir (Old Norse) was a Germanic figure in Germanic heroic legend who often appears together with his friend Witige.The article Heimer' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1909). He appears in the Anglo-Saxon poems ...
r. At the deaths of Sigurd and Brynhildr, Heimer was concerned about Aslaug's security, so he made a harp large enough to hide the girl. He then traveled as a poor harp player carrying the harp containing the girl.
![Mårten Winge-Aslög i harpan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/M%C3%A5rten_Winge-Asl%C3%B6g_i_harpan.jpg)
They arrived at
Spangereid
Spangereid is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1889 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality was located in the southwe ...
at
Lindesnes
Lindesnes ( en, the Naze) is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Mandal. Other villages in Lindesnes include Åvik, Høll ...
in Norway, where they stayed for the night in the house of the peasants Áke and Grima. Áke believed the harp contained valuable items and told his wife Grima. Grima then persuaded him to murder Heimer as he was sleeping. However, when they broke the harp open, they discovered a little girl, whom they raised as their own, calling her Kráka ("Crow"). In order to hide her beauty – the accepted sign of her noble origins
– they rubbed her in tar and dressed her in a long hood.
However, once as she was bathing, she was discovered by some of the men of the legendary king
. Entranced by Kráka's beauty, they allowed the bread they were baking to burn; when Ragnar inquired about this mishap, they told him about the girl. Ragnar then sent for her, but in order to test her wits, he commanded her to arrive neither dressed nor undressed, neither fasting nor eating, and neither alone nor in company. Kráka arrived dressed in a net, biting an onion, and with only a dog as a companion. Impressed by her ingenuity and finding her a wise companion, Ragnar proposed marriage to her, which she refused until he had accomplished his mission in Norway.
Scholarship
According to Marilyn Jurich, Aslaug's tale in the ''Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok'' is the prototype of the "Clever Peasant Girl" folk tale,
Aarne–Thompson No. 875. The saga matches the tale closely up to Aslaug's marriage to Ragnar, but even after that there are similarities: The saga highlights Aslaug's resolve (she refuses sex to Ragnar until after marriage) and her seemingly preternatural wisdom: because Ragnar insists on bedding her immediately after the wedding, contrary to her advice, their first son Ivar was born weak, "boneless".
The
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
discuss the similarities of their tale 1815 No. 8 "Die kluge Bauerntochter," with the Nordic tale of Kraka in the appendix entry of the text. They also discuss similarities to a tale in
Johannes Pauli
Johannes Pauli (about 1455 – after 1530 at Thann in Alsace) was a German Franciscan writer.
Life
What little is known of his life rests upon unreliable information. Ludwig von Pastor rejected the story that he was of Jewish descent, and had be ...
's "Schimpf und Ernst" from 1519 to 1522.
In other fiction
The romantic poem "The Fostering of Aslaug" by
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
is a retelling of Aslaug's relationship with Ragnar, based on the version of the tale in
Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature.
Biography
In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis.
A ...
's ''Northern Mythology'' (1851). It is changed in tone and emphasis by Morris' romanticism, excising the saga's more somber and complicated
motifs and portraying Ragnar as the typical hero wooing the maiden.
She appears in
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style.
Biography
He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in ...
's "Aslauga's Knight," published in 1810 with two other Icelandic romances as ''Der Held des Nordens'' (The Hero of the North).
A principal character in the television series ''
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
'' (2013–2016), played by
Alyssa Sutherland
Alyssa Sutherland (born 23 September 1982) is an Australian actress and model best known for her role as Queen Aslaug in the History Channel television series ''Vikings'' (2013–2016).
Early life
Sutherland was born in Brisbane. Sutherland at ...
, is loosely based on the legend, and introduced to Ragnar in the manner it described.
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
*
{{Norse mythology
Heroes in Norse myths and legends
Völsung cycle
Ragnar Lodbrok
Mythological queens
ATU 850-999