Aud the Deep-Minded (Ketilsdóttir)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For an earlier and more legendary Aud the Deep-Minded, see Auðr the Deep-Minded (Ívarsdóttir).
For other uses, see Aud (disambiguation).

Aud the Deep-Minded (

Eiríks saga rauða and Grettis saga
.

Biography

Aud was the second daughter of

King of Dublin after going on voyages to Britain and then conquering the shire of Dublin. They had a son named Thorstein the Red. After Oleif was killed in battle in Ireland, Aud and Thorstein journeyed to the Hebrides. Thorstein married there and had six daughters and one son. He also became a great warrior king, conquering in northern Scotland; however, he was killed in battle after being betrayed by his people.[1][2]

Hvammur í Dölum

Upon learning of the death of Thorstein, Aud, who was then at

Faroes, where she married off another granddaughter, Ólöf, and she then finally to the area of Breiðafjörður in Iceland, where her brother Björn lived. She brought her grandson, Olaf Feilan, with her to Iceland.[3][4] The ship had a crew of twenty men under her command and also carried thralls, men who had been taken prisoner in Viking raids near and around the British Isles. When Aud arrived in the western region of Iceland, she claimed all the land in Dalasýsla between the rivers Dögurðará and Skraumuhlaupsá for her family, and gave the thralls their freedom (making them freedmen, with a status between slave and free). She gave both the crewmen and the freedmen land to farm and make a living. One of the freedmen, Vifil, was given Vifilsdal, part of Hvammur í Dölum [is], the area in which Aud settled.[5][6]

Cross in memory of Aud at Krosshólar

Unlike most early Icelandic settlers, Aud was a baptized

heathen woman renowned for her wisdom; according to its account, she died during the wedding feast for her grandson and was given a ship burial.[10][11]

Aud had unusual power and authority for a woman, and successfully saved herself, her grandchildren and considerable wealth from a catastrophic situation,

Norse–Gael.[14]

Legacy

Many prominent Icelanders of the Middle Ages were descended from Aud through her grandson and several granddaughters, in particular the Sturlungs, whose family estate was at her former residence of Hvammur.[11] In the 18th and 19th centuries, she became known as a national foremother; in the 18th century she was praised in works based on Laxdæla saga such as Tyrfingur Finnsson's poem "Laxdælakappakvæði", and in 1828, Jón Jónsson langur recorded a prayer ascribed to her.[15] On August 8, 1965, a cross was erected at Krosshólaborg as a monument to her, inscribed with a passage from Landnámabók.[8][11]

Aud is the main character in a trilogy of novels by Icelandic author

Vikings (2013).[17]

References

  1. ^ Landnámabók (Sturlubók), ch. 11, 36.
  2. ^ Laxdæla saga, ch. 1.
  3. ^ Landnámabók (Sturlubók), ch. 36.
  4. ^ Laxdæla saga, ch. 4–6.
  5. ^ Landnámabók (Sturlubók), ch. 38.
  6. ^ "Auður the Deep-minded (The Settlement of Dalasýsla) Eiríksstaðir Haukadal". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  7. ^ Landnámabók (Sturlubók), ch. 37.
  8. ^ a b "Krosshólaborg (Dalabyggd) Eiríksstaðir Haukadal". Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
  9. ^ Landnámabók (Sturlubók), ch. 40.
  10. ^ Laxdæla saga ch. 7.
  11. ^
    doi:10.1163/18756719-12340092
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0801485206
    .
  13. ^ Smyth, Alfred P. (2010) [1984]. Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–1000. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 158–61.
  14. ^ Smyth, pp. 163, 165.
  15. ^ a b Vanherpen, Sofie (2020). "The Afterlives of an Icelandic 'Foremother of Us All': Auðr djúpauðga and the Making of Cultural Memory". Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études scandinaves au Canada. 28: 231–59.
  16. ^ "Bækur". Vilborg Davíðsdóttir rithöfundur (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  17. ^ Houghton, Rianne; Robinson, Abby (November 5, 2021). "Vikings star explains why character's fate "made a lot of sense"". Digital Spy. Retrieved April 2, 2022.

Other sources

Further reading

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aud_the_Deep-Minded_(Ketilsdóttir)&oldid=1200898934"