Krákumál

Krákumál or the Lay of Kraka is a skaldic poem, consisting of a monologue in which Ragnar Lodbrok is dying in Ælla's snake pit and looks back at a life full of heroic deeds. It was composed in the 12th century, almost certainly in the Scottish islands.^[1] It is composed in a kind of háttlausa in 29 stanzas, most of them with ten lines. Thomas Percy was the first to translate the poem into English.

Ragnar Lodbrok during his presentation of Krákumál

In moving and forceful language, the poem deals with the joys of the life of a warrior, the hope that his death will be followed by a gory revenge, and the knowledge that he will soon know the pleasures of Valhalla.

The poem has been translated into several languages and it has contributed to the modern image of a Viking warrior.

Sample

The following is the text of the first stanza^[2] with a literal translation:^[3]

Hjoggum vér með hjörvi. Hitt vas æ fyr löngu, es á Gautlandi gengum at grafvitnis morði; þá fengum vér Þóru, þaðan hétu mik fyrðar, es lyngölun lagðak, Loðbrók at því vígi; stakk á storðar lykkju stáli bjartra mála.

We swung our sword; that was ever so long ago when we walked in Gautland to the murder of the dig-wulf.[4] Then we received Þóra; since then (at that battle when I killed the heather-fish) people called me shaggy-breeches. I stabbed the spear into the loop of the earth.

In popular culture

• In History Channel's drama series Vikings ("All His Angels"), the poem forms the basis for the final words of Ragnar Lothbrok, played by Travis Fimmel. Stanza 23 is read in old norse in the episode "The Best Laid Plans".
• French Nordic neofolk group SKÁLD performed extracts of the poem in their song Krákumál, featured in their 2019 album Vikings Chant.^[5]