A lost myth?

Written by thehouseofvines

I just read Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Virgilessrímur, an Icelandic poem written around 1300–1450 e.v. about the legendary exploits of Virgiles, the far-famed Italian magician and author of the Aeneis. The story is quite fascinating, and not just for the explicit BDSM scenes – I think we’ve got a pre-Christian myth passed down as a bawdy folk ballad. What do you guys think? 

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3 thoughts on “A lost myth?”

  1. It’s fascinating. There are Odinic themes, some of it reminds me of Loki, Freya, but then elements that elude all that. I just said to T.: what if it’s a weird iteration of what was originally a Heimdall story? lol. (In the Rigsthula, He wanders around fucking His way through the different social classes). I suppose we’ll never know.

    What we do have is a woman behaving poorly: mocking a magician, getting above her station, elements of lack of hospitality and I almost wonder if the original skirted around behavior counted as ‘argr’. Regardless, quite frankly she’s paid back in spades lol (if this is the one you told me this morning). The mockery …it’s been awhile since I read Gragas but iirc, there were certain types of mocking insults and public humiliation that could carry a retaliatory death sentence if they occurred man to man. Here, instead of handling this on the down low, discreetly when she rejected him, she publicly mocked him. moral: don’t piss off a magician. ha ha.

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  2. Reblogged this on Gangleri's Grove and commented:
    As I said on Sannion’s blog, this is a fascinating lay. It’s fascinating. There are Odinic themes, some of it reminds me of Loki, Freya, but then elements that elude all that. I just said to T.: what if it’s a weird iteration of what was originally a Heimdall story? lol. (In the Rigsthula, He wanders around fucking His way through the different social classes). I suppose we’ll never know.

    What we do have is a woman behaving poorly: mocking a magician, getting above her station, elements of lack of hospitality and I almost wonder if the original skirted around behavior counted as ‘argr’. Regardless, quite frankly she’s paid back in spades lol . The mockery …it’s been awhile since I read Gragas but iirc, there were certain types of mocking insults and public humiliation that could carry a retaliatory death sentence if they occurred man to man. Here, it’s a woman humiliating a man — instead of handling this on the down low, discreetly when she rejected him, she publicly mocked him. He took care of teaching her a lesson in humility quite neatly. moral: don’t piss off a magician. ha ha.

    What an entertaining read.

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  3. Hmm…

    I hadn’t heard of this previously, but I had a quick read of it just now…

    What sort of myth do you think it is? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on that.

    It reminds me a bit of the Old French fabliaux…particularly one called “The Chevalier who could Make Cunts Talk.” I’d highly recommend reading that when you get a chance!

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