Sonatorrek

Sonatorrek ("the irreparable loss of sons") is a skaldic poem in 25 stanzas by Egill Skallagrímsson (ca. 910–990). The work laments the death of two of the poet's sons, Gunnar, who died of a fever, and Böðvarr, who drowned during a storm. It is preserved in a few manuscripts of Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, ch. 78. According to the saga, after Egill placed Böðvarr in the family burial mound, he locked himself in his bed-chamber, determined to starve himself to death. Egill’s daughter Thorgerd diverted him from this plan in part by convincing him to compose a memorial poem for Böðvarr, to be carved on a rune-staff.

The first stanza of the poem is attested in all the main medieval manuscripts of the saga (or, where these are now incomplete, in copies made when they were more complete):

Only the K-manuscripts have the whole poem.

However, the first half of st. 23 and the whole of st. 24 also appears in Snorra Edda. According to Bjarni Einarsson, 'the text of the poem is the result of a long series of copies and is in some instances corrupt beyond correction'.

Sonnatorrek is composed in kviðuháttr, a relatively undemanding meter which Egill also employed in his praise-poem, Arinbjarnarkviða. Kviðuháttr is a variant of the usual eddaic metre fornyrðislag, in which the odd lines have only three metrical positions instead of the usual four (i.e. they are catalectic), but the even lines function as usual. As in fornyrðislag, there is systematic alliteration but no rhyme.

Thus the first stanza, as edited by Finnur Jónsson, reads

Sonatorrek’s 25 stanzas progress through seven stages:

Sonatorrek provides an unusually personal expression of Norse paganism. The poem includes some 20 allusions to Norse gods and myths, not all of which can be understood. The poem deals with Egil's complicated relationship with Óðinn, as well as those with Rán and Ægir. The poet’s personification of inevitable death as the goddess Hel waiting on a headland (st. 25) is particularly striking. It has been suggested that Egill modeled Sonatorrek and his expressions of grief on the myth of Óðinn grieving for his own dead son, Baldr.

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