Talk:Starkad

A fact from Starkad appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 December 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Starkad was a legendary Norse hero blessed by Odin but cursed by Thor?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/December.

Wikipedia

Norse history and culture Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Norse history and culture, a WikiProject related to all activities of the North Germanic peoples, both in Scandinavia and abroad, prior to the formation of the Kalmar Union in 1397. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Norse history and cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Norse history and cultureTemplate:WikiProject Norse history and cultureNorse history and culture articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Vetrliði Sumarliðason's lausavísa

"Praising Thor for having killed giants and giantesses, and for having humiliated Starkad."

I disagree with the last part of the sentence. I think the verb steypa in this stanza simply means "to kill". Sigo 22:59, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This etymology says that it means "cause to stoop". That Thor killed him is a possible interpretation, but I don't think that it is the only one. It basically only says that Thor defeated him.--Berig 15:20, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That’s why I asked the question. It’s OK with me now. Even if, apart from Starkaðr (the grandson), it's not very common that Thor defeats a giant without killing him. Sigo 00:03, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there was a limit to what Thor dared do to Starkad, as he was Odin's protegee ;).--Berig 09:06, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I should mention that Poul Anderson, the well-known Science-Fiction author wrote a book called "Ensign Flandry", in which there is a planet called "Starkad", obviously named after this mythological figure. Strontium dog

Where did Starkard come from?

I do not fully agree about some part of the “Hervarar saga”.

“In this version a Starkad Ala-Warrior lived in northern Norway at the waterfalls of Alufoss.”

When I read the saga it says “Hann var farinn norðr um Álufossa, ok var hón þá brott tekin; en er hann kom heim, þá drap hann Hergrím á hólmgöngu. (Þeir börðusk við inn efsta foss at Eyði.)”

This mean “ He was on a journey north of Alufoss; and then she was taken away; but when he returned home, he killed Hergrim in a holmgang. (They dueled at the upper waterfall Eyd)”

This is a more local history around Alfheim Bohuslän. Home for Starkad seems more likely be the northern part of “Göta-älv”. There are two waterfalls here; the little Edet end the big Edet. As I see it; the big Edet “Eyði” are to day at the town Trollhättan there this fight was taken part.

Eban65 19:41, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Eið which means "portage" is a bit too common for such conclusions to be made. There are other places by that name.--Berig 06:35, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes you are right. It was not right of me to say it is around this waterfall in Trollhättan for sure. But I’m not alone of this theory so it should be told. Due to the folklore Starkad is buried at Starrkärr west of Risveden at Göta-älv. But this is folklore and saga. But back to the text, I cannot find anything that point out northern Norway as Starkads home!?

Eban65 20:04, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, I shouldn't say anything about Old Norse without consulting a dictionary. Haukurth would prolly have had a good laugh if he had read my previous post. The Swedish location Ed is derived from eið "portage" which was probably a neuter noun, like modern Swedish Ed. The place mentioned in Hervarar saga was called at Eyði and according to this dictionary it means "at the Wasteland". Consequently, there is just as little connection between the place name Edet and Eyði as there is between Edet and ödeland. As for Starkad's original home, does it really matter? The Danish source Gesta Danorum says that he came from Russia or a place even further east.--Berig 20:21, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Starkad might have been from Northen Norway or from Novgorod or maybe from the east goth areas in Ukraine? Where he was born has no importance. But this saga has been told for centuries in the southern part of Scandinavia especially in Västergötland, Bohuslän and Østfold. In these part of Scandinavia the traditions says it all took part at the edge of the upper waterfall near by the Eidar as it was called in Middle Ages. Eidar was the place there the ships was dragged beside the waterfall in and out of the lake Vänern. But you are right “Eyði” means deserted, öde in modern Swedish.

Eban65 08:20, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Images of Starkaðr

I have uploaded some woodcuts from Olaus Magnus' Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, they can be found under the category commons:Category:Starkaðr. I will let someone else place these images on the appropriate places in the article for now, maybe I will look at it later on. –Holt T•C 00:15, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well done, Holt! I'll add the pics to the article right away.--Berig (talk) 07:40, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Berig, I'm glad you took the job. –Holt T•C 08:12, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm glad you approve :). The present placement is a compromise between relating the pics to the text and having an even distribution in the article. Don't hesitate to move any of them if you disagree.--Berig (talk) 08:31, 24 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gifts of Odin, curses of Thor

In the Gautrek's saga, every curse of Thor is a direct answer to one of Odin's gifts for Starkad, to reverse its effect. Therefore I'll change the order of the curses and gifts as mentioned in the article: now it's curses first, then gifts, I'll do it the gifts first, then the curses.--JakobvS (talk) 10:21, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Starkad. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:31, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]