{"id":19004,"date":"2023-11-30T20:46:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T01:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19004"},"modified":"2023-11-30T20:46:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T01:46:15","slug":"my-journey-with-erling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19004","title":{"rendered":"My journey with Erling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Above, milestones in my pilgrimage<\/strong> with Erling Skjalgsson. On top, me with Erling Skjalgsson\u2019s memorial stone in Stavanger, sometime around 2003. Below that, me playing Viking at Hafrsfjord, on Erling\u2019s turf, in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I stand before the Last Judgment and the Lord asks me, \u201cWhat did you do with the talent I entrusted to you?\u201d my answer, I guess, will be, \u201cWell, I spent about 50 years writing Erling\u2019s saga.\u201d Will that be a satisfactory answer? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing-wise, I\u2019m deep in anticlimax territory now, just tying up loose ends. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be done with the first draft of The Baldur Game<\/em> tomorrow, but it will be soon. There\u2019ll still be plenty of work left to do, of course \u2013 editing, polishing, tying up plot threads. But the tale will essentially be told very soon now, the formation formed. A stage on my journey finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember exactly when it was that I first settled on Erling Skjalgsson as the Viking hero I\u2019d write about. Reading Heimskringla<\/a><\/em>, the sagas of the kings of Norway, I always found him a puzzling character. The main episodes where he showed up were impressive. Snorri Sturlusson, the author, must have had a soft spot for him. We meet him first when his powerful kinsmen offer him as a bridegroom for King Olaf Trygvesson\u2019s sister, and he surprises everyone by turning down the title of jarl (and the more you understand about Norse society, the more surprising that decision is). Then he gets mentioned here and there, first as a supporter of Olaf Trygvesson, then as an opponent of (Saint) Olaf Haraldsson. We learn that, to his credit, he runs a self-help program to help his slaves buy their freedom. He really stands out when he rescues his nephew Asbjorn from the king\u2019s justice in a dramatic scene at Avaldsnes, And at last Snorri gives him a stirring, Alamo-style death scene. But there’s also the suggestion that he’s a traitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized Erling was local to me. Sola, where he lived, was not far at all from where some of my ancestors came from, near Stavanger. And Avaldsnes was where my great-grandfather Walker grew up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what clinched it for me was acquiring \u00a0enough historic insight to understand what Erling was all about. It may have been reading Prof. Torgrim Titlestad (whose book<\/a> I\u2019d later translate) that helped me to get it, or maybe I\u2019d begun to work it out myself as my political sensibilities matured. I honestly can\u2019t remember. But Erling suddenly fit all the criteria I\u2019d begun setting when I first pondered writing a Viking novel as a kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it still didn\u2019t come together until, sometime in the late 1980s, I guess, while I was living in Florida, Father Ailill burst on my mind. Ailill would be my bridge character, my hobbit \u2013 the Everyman who\u2019d interpret the Viking world for the reader. I thought, \u201cI can make this work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remains to be seen, of course, but I like how it\u2019s coming along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019m not feeling melancholy about saying goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above, milestones in my pilgrimage with Erling Skjalgsson. On top, me with Erling Skjalgsson\u2019s memorial stone in Stavanger, sometime around 2003. Below that, me playing Viking at Hafrsfjord, on Erling\u2019s turf, in 2022. When I stand before the Last Judgment and the Lord asks me, \u201cWhat did you do with the talent I entrusted to … Continue reading My journey with Erling<\/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":[17],"tags":[898,4414],"class_list":["post-19004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-erling-skjalgsson","tag-the-baldur-game"],"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\/19004","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=19004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19007,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19004\/revisions\/19007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}