Resumen de Håløygkongen Mundill den gamle og Bjørgolv: episoden i "Egils saga"
The story of Bjǫrgólfr’s unlawful marriage with Hildiríðr in Egils saga is hereinterpreted as a send-up of the hieros gamos motif prevalent in Old Norse liter-ature. Given the geographical setting, where a suitor from the southern-mostmagnate seat in Hálogaland married the daughter of a rich farmer from thenorthern-most magnate seat in Namdalen, it is argued that a lost tradition con-cerning Mundill gamli served as a model for the story. This underlying traditionmay or may not have included the hieros gamos motif. Mundill features in a ge-nealogical list dating from c. 1250 AD, which in turn presumably builds on thepoem Háleygjatal from around c. 980–990 AD. Considering the rich traditionof erotic conquests of land in the form of female beings among the Háleygirjarls, it will be argued that Mundill in poetic terms conquered, or even ‘wed’, theisland of Leka according to traditions possibly nurtured at the court of Lade inTrøndelag by the late 900s.
