Melkorka
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Melkorka (
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
: ;
Modern Icelandic Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
: ) is the name given in ''
Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and over ...
'' and '' Laxdæla saga'' for the
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
mother of the
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
ic
goði Gothi or (plural , fem. ; Old Norse: ) was a position of political and social prominence in the Icelandic Commonwealth. The term originally had a religious significance, referring to a pagan leader responsible for a religious structure and com ...
Ólafr Höskuldsson. It is possible that her name represents the Early Irish ''Mael Curcaig''. According to ''Laxdæla saga'', Hoskuld Dala-Kollsson purchased Melkorka, who he believed to be a selective mute
thrall A thrall ( non, þræll, is, þræll, fo, trælur, no, trell, træl, da, træl, sv, träl) was a slave or serf in Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The corresponding term in Old English was . The status of slave (, ) contrasts with ...
-woman, from a Rus' merchant on
Brännö Brännö is an island in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago and a locality situated in Göteborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 708 inhabitants in 2010 and belongs to the parish of Styrsö within Gothenburg Municipality. H ...
yar while on a trading expedition to
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, and made her his
concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...
while away from his wife Jorunn Bjarnadottir. When Höskuldr returned home to Iceland, he took her with him. Despite Jórunn's irritation, the concubine was accepted into Höskuldr's household, though he remained faithful to Jórunn while in Iceland. The following winter the concubine gave birth to a son, to whom they gave the name Ólafr after Höskuldr's uncle,
Olaf Feilan Olaf ''Feilan'' Thorsteinsson (Old Norse: , Modern Icelandic: ; c. 890–940) was an Icelandic gothi of the Settlement of Iceland, Settlement period. He was the son of Thorstein the Red, Jarl (title), jarl of Caithness, and his wife Thurid Eyv ...
, who had recently died. ''Landnámabók'' mentions that Höskuldr and Melkorka had another son, Helgi, but he does not appear in ''Laxdæla''. According to ''Laxdæla saga'', Ólafr was a precocious child, and could speak and walk perfectly by the age of two. One day Höskuldr discovered Ólafr's mother speaking to her son; she was not, in fact, mute. When he confronted her she told him that she was an
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
princess named Melkorka carried off in a
viking 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 ...
raid, and that her father was an Irish king named "Myrkjartan" (Muirchertach) who has been associated with
Muirchertach mac Néill Muirchertach mac Néill (died 26 February 943), called Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks ( sga, Muirchertach na Cochall Craicinn), was a King of Ailech. Family Muirchertach belonged to the Cenél nEógain sept of the northern Uí Néill. He was t ...
. Shortly thereafter squabbling between Jórunn and Melkorka forced Höskuldr to move his concubine and his son by her to a different farm, which thereafter was known as Melkorkustaðir. The fact that there is another site known by this name, at Borgarfordur, could indicate that Melkorka's name is not Gaelic in origin, but is instead derived from a name composed of the elements ''melr'' ("gravel hillock") and ''korka'' ("wasting away"). Around 956, Ólafr, at Melkorka's urging, decided to go abroad to seek his fortune. Melkorka taught Ólafr
Irish Gaelic Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was the ...
and urged him to visit her family. Höskuldr was opposed to the expedition and would not provide
trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
wares, and the property of Ólafr's foster-father Þórðr was mostly in immobile goods and land. In part to arrange financing for his expedition, his mother Melkorka married Þorbjörn skrjúpur ("the Feeble"), a farmer who had previously assisted her in the management of Melkorkustaðir. Melkorka and Þorbjörn had a son named Lambi. Ólafr visited Ireland, where he met Melkorka's father and kinsmen, Myrkjartan. He introduced himself as Melkorka's son and explained that their kinship was his reason for visiting. Myrkjartan was not immediately convinced of their kinship, but he was impressed with Ólafr's Irish and sure that he was of high birth nevertheless. Then Ólafr showed Myrkjartan the gold ring on his arm, which Melkorka had given him when he left Iceland. It had originally been a gift from her father. After this, Myrkjartan was sure that Ólafr was his kinsman. Ólafr remained with Myrkjartan for a time, and the king, according to ''Laxdæla saga'', even offered to make Ólafr his heir. Ólafr, however, returned to Norway, and then ultimately to Iceland, afraid of provoking Myrkjartan's sons. Ólafr had wanted to take Melkorka's nurse back to Iceland to meet her, but Myrkjartan did not permit it. After his journey, Ólafr became renowned, both for his travels and because he was the grandson of the Irish king.


Media

Melkorka is featured in the 2007 young adult novel '' Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale'' by author
Donna Jo Napoli Donna Jo Napoli (born February 28, 1948) is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, as well as a linguist. She currently is a professor at Swarthmore College teaching Linguistics in all different forms (music, Theater (structur ...
. The novel depicts how she became a slave and why she decided to remain mute. The novel ends as she is being taken to Iceland by Höskuldr. Interwoven with the biography of Fintan of Reichenau, Melkorka's fate has also been a focal point of the Austrian documentary "Victims of the Vikings" (ORF/ZDF/Arte 2021) on Viking slave trade.


Notes


References

*Ari the Learned. ''The Book of the Settlement of Iceland'' ''(
Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and over ...
)''. Ellwood, T., transl. Kendal: T. Wilson, Printer and Publisher, 1898. *Byock, Jesse. ''Viking Age Iceland''. Penguin Books, 2001. *A. Forte, R. Oram, and F. Pederson.
Viking Empires
'. 1st. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 . * *Hollander, Lee, transl. ''Njal's Saga''. Wordsworth, 1999. *Jones, Gwyn. ''A History of the Vikings.'' 2nd ed. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984. *Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, transl. ''Laxdaela Saga''. Penguin Classics, 1969. *Ordower, Henry. "Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in 'Njal's Saga.'" ''Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature'', Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring – Summer 1991), pp. 41–61. *Scudder, Bernard, transl. ''Egil's Saga''. Penguin Classics, 2005. *''The Sagas of the Icelanders: a selection''. New York: Viking, 2000. *{{cite book , last=Thornton , first=DE , year=1996 , chapter=The Genealogy of Gruffudd ap Cynan , editor-last=Maund , editor-first=KL , title=Gruffudd ap Cynan: A Collaborative Biography , series=Studies in Celtic History (series vol. 16) , publisher=
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, publication-place=Woodbridge , pages=79–108 , isbn=0-85115-389-5 , issn=0261-9865 , via=
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and
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, ref=T1 10th-century Icelandic people 10th-century Irish people 10th-century Icelandic women 10th-century Irish women Irish princesses Medieval slaves