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Starkaðr Flees from the Battle of Brávellir

Starkaðr Flees from the Battle of Brávellir
  • Creator: Louis Moe 1857-1945
  • Description: Starkaðr gives up and runs away from his fight with Vébjörg at the Battle of Brávellir in Louis Moe's retelling of the story. Literal translation of the Danish text for page 83:: And so he flees. – The North’s most powerful warrior flees. Starkaðr runs, jumping over the heaps of the dead, shoving aside the living, fleeing, fleeing. Away from the shield-maiden on the crest of the hill, away from the piercing eyes and lightning blows, away to gather his former courage once more. But Vébjörg cries young Haraldr’s name after him. Editor's Note.
  • Source: Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning i Billeder og Tekst
  • Folio or Page: 83
  • Medium: Not known
  • Date: 1930
  • Dimensions (mm): 130 x 110
  • Provenance:
    This copy of Valkyrien was donated to the MacPherson Library at the University of Victoria by Trish Baer.
    Call number: PZ54.1 M65 1931
    The University of Victoria Library photographed this copy of Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning i Billeder og Tekst at the request of Dr. P.A. Baer, Medieval Studies, as 600 dpi tiffs with a Plustek OpticBook A300 (lrg book scanner)
  • Rights:
    Illustrations by Louis Moe came into the public domain on January 1, 2017.
  • Bibliography:

    Primary Sources

    Moe, Louis Maria Niels Peder Halling. Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning. København: Gyldendal, 1930.

    Secondary Sources

    Cleasby, Richard and Vigfússon Guðbrandur . An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.
    Saxo (Grammaticus). Danmarks krønike. Edited by Fr. Winkel Horn, Copenhagen: A. Christiansens Kunstforlag, 1898.
    ―. The History of the Danes. Translated by Peter Fisher, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1976.
  • Identity Number: ValKr-Rom-Digt-1930-UVic-083-01
  • Download size: 6.5 MB
  • Source code of this document: [XML]
Moe, Louis   Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning, Valkyrie: An illustrated romance   Saxo Grammaticus   Danmarks Kronike, Gesta Danorum   Gesta Danorum   Vébjörg, Vebjorg   Starkaðr, Starkad   Battle of Brávellir, Battle of Bravellir  

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Linked items

Events: Historical

Battle of Brávellir (non.) Battle of Bravellir (en.)
A legendary battle described in Saxo's Gesta Danorum and elsewhere in eddaic poetry and several sagas.

Historical Persons, i.e. from Heimskringla, Saxo, sagas etc.

Starkaðr (non.) Starkad (en.) A legendary warrior who appears in many sources including Saxo’s Gesta Danorum (c. 1204) and Olaus Magnus’s Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555).
Vébjörg (non.) Vebjorg (en.) A shield maiden in Saxo's Gesta Danorum who died at the Battle of Brávellir. She is the shield maiden in Louis Moe's Valkyrien who becomes a Valkyrie.

Source Materials:

Danmarks Kronike (da.) Gesta Danorum (la.) This edition of Saxo's Gesta Danorum was translated and published by Fr. Winkel Horn and illustrated by Louis Moe. Moe recycled some of his illustrations from Winkel Horn's edition of Noreges konge-sagaer.
Gesta Danorum (la.) Saxo Grammaticus's thirteenth century prose work concerning Danish mythology and history.
Valkyrien: Romantisk Digtning (da.) Valkyrie: An illustrated romance (en.) Louis Moe's illustrated retelling of the life and death of the legendary Danish shield maiden Vébjörg.

Source Persons

Moe, Louis (no.) b. 1857
d. 1945
Nationality: Norwegian/Danish.
Occupation: illustrator
Residence: Copenhagen
Moe was an illustrator who was born in Norway but became a Danish citizen in 1919.
Saxo Grammaticus (la.) b. 1150
d. 1220
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: cleric
Saxo wrote the Gesta Danorum, which is known in English as The History of the Danes . His account of mythological Norse gods and heroes is heavily euhemerized.