{"id":18694,"date":"2023-09-12T20:20:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T00:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18694"},"modified":"2023-09-12T20:20:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T00:20:15","slug":"a-fatal-slip-of-the-tongue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18694","title":{"rendered":"A fatal slip of the tongue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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St. Magnus’ Kirk on Birsay, believed to be the site of the old Christ Church, where Jarl Thorfinn was buried. Photo credit: Chris Downer. Creative Commons license, Wikimedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I wrote last night\u2019s review<\/strong> of Orkneyinga Saga<\/a><\/em>, I\u2019d intended to mention one more thing, but I find I overlooked it. It\u2019s not crucial to appreciating the book. Just an interesting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The saga includes one of the earliest references I\u2019m aware of to a Freudian Slip. Not as such, of course. But I hadn\u2019t been aware that the Vikings found such slips of the tongue as significant as psychologists do \u2013 only in a different way. Where we look for the voice of the subconscious, the Vikings looked for Fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage concerns the death of Jarl Ragnvald Brusesson, rival to Jarl Thorfinn the Mighty. He and his men had burned Jarl Thorfinn and his men in his house \u2013 or so he believed \u2013 and now he has traveled to the island of Papa Stronsay to collect malt for the Christmas ale. As they\u2019re sitting around a hearth fire in a house there, someone mentions that more wood is needed for the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Then the Earl made a slip of the tongue and this is what he said: \u2018We shall have aged enough when this fire burns out.\u2019 What he meant to say was that they would have baked enough. He realized his mistake immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019ve never made a slip of the tongue before,\u2019 he said, \u2018and now I remember what my foster-father King Olaf said at Stiklestad when I pointed out a mistake of his, that I\u2019d not have long to live if ever my own tongue made a slip. Perhaps my uncle Thorfinn is still alive after all.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Immediately thereafter the house is attacked by Jarl Thorfinn (who had indeed survived), and Ragnvald and all his men are killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I take this to indicate that there must have been some superstition about slips of the tongue being portents of death. It\u2019s reminiscent of their belief in the \u201cfetch,\u201d the separate soul. When you see your fetch, it\u2019s a sign you\u2019re soon to die. It may be that the fetch also speaks audibly through slips of the tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, it might just be an isolated anecdote about St. Olaf’s powers of prophecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ragnvald, by the way, was the man who had saved King Harald Hardrada\u2019s life after the Battle of Stiklestad, carrying the wounded 16-year-old prince off the battlefield and getting him safely away to Russia. Harald was now king of Norway, and Thorfinn\u2019s overlord. Nevertheless, when Thorfinn went to Harald in Norway to explain it all, Harald was not greatly upset, and let him off lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems he recognized a kindred spirit when he encountered him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I wrote last night\u2019s review of Orkneyinga Saga, I\u2019d intended to mention one more thing, but I find I overlooked it. It\u2019s not crucial to appreciating the book. Just an interesting point. The saga includes one of the earliest references I\u2019m aware of to a Freudian Slip. Not as such, of course. But I … Continue reading A fatal slip of the tongue<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,10,13],"tags":[4883,3452,4884,4878,4874],"class_list":["post-18694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-nonfiction","category-reading","tag-freudian-slips","tag-harald-hardrada","tag-jarl-ragnvald-brusesson","tag-jarl-thorfinn-the-mighty","tag-orkneyinga-saga"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18696,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694\/revisions\/18696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}