Crashing the wedding
How Gram turned a feast into a funeral.
The story of king Gram is built up around poems, each offering a glimpse into the heroic exploits of the king. One poem centers on his reproaches of the faithless princess Signe and the vengeance he took during her wedding. The story of king Gram shares strong parallels with Anglo-Norman tales of king Horn, particularly the common motif of the hero arriving just in time for the wedding, entering in disguise, defeating the villainous groom, and either saving or abducting the princess.
There were also many other deeds of king Gram. Having declared war against Sumble, king of the Finns, at the sight of his daughter Signe, he laid down his arms and, transforming from an enemy into a suitor, sought her hand in marriage, pledging to divorce his own wife. While he was deeply occupied with waging a war in Norway against king Swipdager for violating his sister and daughter, a messenger informed him that Sumble had treacherously promised her in marriage to Henric, king of Saxony. More devoted to the maiden than to his warriors, he abandoned his army and secretly hurried to Finland. Arriving just as the wedding had begun, he disguised himself in the vilest of rags and took a seat in a contemptible place at the table. Upon being asked what he was bringing, he professed his skill in healing. Finally, as all were soaked in drunkenness, he gazed at the girl, and amidst the boisterous joys of the banquet, he revealed the depth of his displeasure with a song of this kind, with the utmost condemnation of feminine fickleness and the greatest boasting of his own valour:
Alone against eight, I drove in the spears of death,
and drawing my sword, I hewed down another nine
when I took the life of Swarin for claiming glory
not won by himself, fame not earned;
I have often drenched my gory blade in slaughter,
and in carnage soaked it in the blood of foreigners,
never fearing the sword's crash or the helmet's shine.
But now Sumbli's daughter, the wild Signe, cruelly rejects me,
upholds the vow of another, detests the former pledge,
and devises a disorderly devotion,
presenting a mark of the evil of womanly falseness,
she who ensnares princes, wins them over, sullies them,
above all others debasing the highborn,
she remains steadfast with none, but always waver,
giving rise to dubious and divided emotions.And with these words, he leapt from his seat and cut down Henric amid the embraces of his friends at the sacred feast. Seizing the bride from among her bridal attendants, he slew a large number of the guests, and carried her off with him by ship. Thus, with the wedding turned into a funeral, the Finns were taught that it is not proper to lay hands on the loves of others.
The poem
The opening solus in octo (“alone against eight”) corresponds directly to Old Norse ęinn við átta found in a lausavísa by Egill Skallagrímsson and in a poem spoken by Ásmundr in his saga Ásmundar saga kappabana. The latter is particularly significant, as it shares more poetic elements and content with Gesta Danorum.
Two kennings hide within the Latin text of the poem: crepitus ensiculi (“the sword’s crash”) and galee nitorem (“the helmet’s shine”). The first is a kenning for battle, of the same type as dyn sverða, ljóms hjörva, hjǫrdynr, þrumu branda, etc. The second is harder to tease out, but seems to me to be a kenning for sword, such as funa hjalma, hjalmeldr, hyrjar hjalma, and mána fjǫrnis.
The first seven lines have been reconstructed in málaháttr by Konrad Rosenberg, who has a substack dedicated to Germanic philology. Highly recommended reading.
Helt’k ęinn við átta · í hęljar flęinum,
brá’k mínum brandi, · bǫrðumk þá við níu,
þá’s ek Svarin drap · þann’s sǿmð ǫðlaðisk,
sóma ó·fęngin · þann’s sjalfr né vann.Opt dręifða’k dręyra · dręyrgan mę́ki,
ok þann í vali støkkða · vala blóði,
ó·hrę́ddr við hjǫr-þrimu · ok hjalm-ljóma.
The Latin literary parallels
As per usual, Saxo enriched this passage by drawing parallels from Classical literature. I will focus on two specific examples: one from Seneca's Controversiae and the other from Valerius Maximus' Facta et Dicta Memorabilia.
The passage borrowed from Seneca, uersae sunt in exequias nuptiae ("the wedding turned into a funeral"), appears three times in Gesta Danorum, each used fittingly in the context of a feast. These moments serve as key narrative turning points, providing a setting for the clash between protagonists and antagonists, which inevitably leads to action — and in Gesta Danorum, action means bloodshed.
The second instance of Saxo borrowing this passage occurs after the fall of Lejre, when Wigg is supposed to swear loyalty to the victorious Hiarthwar, but instead turns the feast into a funeral. The third instance involves Halfdan Biargrammi crashing Ebbe’s wedding, which also turns into a funeral. This latter example is particularly significant, as Gram may be a transposition of Halfdan.
The passage from Valerius deals with the ancient customs of the Romans:
Conuiuium etiam sollemne maiores instituerunt idque caristia appellauerunt, cui praeter cognatos et adfines nemo interponebatur, ut, si qua inter necessarias personas querella esset orta, apud sacra mensae et inter hilaritatem animorum et fautoribus concordiae adhibitis tolleretur.
Our ancestors also established a formal banquet, which they called Caristia, to which no one other than close relatives and in-laws was admitted, so that, if any quarrel arose between these close relatives, it could be resolved at in good spirits at the sacred feast, in presence of supporters of reconciliation. (Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, II, 1. 8. M).
Saxo uses this passage three times, all in the context of feasting. In book five, Starcather’s exhortations incite king Ingiald to butcher the sons of Swerting at his banquet. In book ten, king Cnut quarrels with jarl Ulf during the Christmas feast and orders him slain. In both instances, the feasts, meant to be occasions of celebration, turn into scenes of violence. Resolving the quarrel indeed!
Literature:
Axel Olrik - Kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie: en literaturhistorisk undersøgelse 1: Forsøg på en tvedeling af kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie, 1892.
Axel Olrik - Kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie: en literaturhistorisk undersøgelse 2: Sakses oldhistorie, norrøne sagaer og Danske sagn, 1894.
Hilda Ellis Davidson - Saxo Grammaticus: The History of the Danes, Books I-IX, 1980.
Paul Herrmann - Erläuterungen zu den ersten neun Büchern der dänischen Geschichte des Saxo Grammaticus. Zweiter Teil: Kommentar, 1922.
Theodor Wissmann - “Studien zu King Horn” in: Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, 1881(4), 1881, p. 342-400.