All Aboard

Today it’s all aboard the Earl Sigurd. Thankfully there’s not a magical raven banner in sight. Earl Sigurd is one of the Vikings mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga, and his mother’s magical raven banner is featured in one of the stories. Earl Sigurd Hlodvirsson, also known as Sigurd the Stout, was a Viking who was challenged to fight by a Scottish earl called Finnleik on a particular day at Skitten. Sigurd consulted his mother, telling her that the odds against him were heavy, at least seven to one.

“Had I thought you might live for ever,” she said, “I’d have reared you in my wool-basket. But lifetimes are shaped by what will be, not by where you are. Now, take this banner. I’ve made it for you with all the skill I have, and my belief is this: that it will bring victory to the man it’s carried before, but death to the one who carries it.”

Obviously it wouldn’t make a good saga if her prediction didn’t come true multiple times.

I’ve double checked just in case: no raven banners here.