THE TERRIBLE ONE'S HORSE: CHAPTER 6

THE RUNIC WORD ‘ALU’ AND STARKAD ALUDRENG

For some time now, I've been working on the "problem" of Starkad and his being "gifted" with a fate both good and bad by the gods Odin and Thor.  My angle had to do with his epithet, Aludreng (the initial A- has an accent mark over it), itself the subject of a great deal of speculation.  A. LeRoy Andrews ("Studies in the Fornaldarsogur Nordrlanda II. The Hervarar Saga 4. The Constituent Parts of the Saga") offers the various interpretations given to Aludreng in the past.  None are wholly satisfactory.

The German linguist Thomas Markey first suggested the the runic word alu, which one might expect to become an ol- formation in Old Norse (the initial o having an umlaut over it), might have as its source the Rhetic alu, itself from Etuscan alu, 'giver/gift', a word used specifically on votives.  According to Markey, alu was both or either the gift (votive) and giver (dedicant) protected by the mysteries, and was thus “a talismanic term”.  Etruscan dictionaries now give al- as meaning 'to give, to donate, to offer', and the like.  Links to Markey's papers on the subject may be found here:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=...

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=...

For an example of alu occurring in Rhetic inscriptions, see:

http://adolfozavaroni.tripod.com/bolzano.htm

Recently, I corresponded at some length with Dr. Bernard Mees on his work with the runic word alu.  His two papers provide what I personally feel to be a convincing argument for seeing the Germanic alu as ultimately derivative of the Rhetic word (“Alu and Hale II: ‘May Thor bless’*”, Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association 5 (2009), pp. 107–31 and  Á austrvega. Saga and East Scandinavia. Preprint Papers of The 14th International Saga Conference Uppsala, 9th – 15th August 2009, edited by Agneta Ney, Henrik Williams and Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Papers from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences 14. Gävle: Gävle University Press 2009).  Dr. Mees prefers to define alu as "dedication", which has a more specifically ritual connotation than merely "gift".

Dr. Mees also argues forcefully for alu having evolved a secondary and opposite meaning from 'gift', namely 'curse' or similar.  He lists precedents for such opposite word meanings in Latin, and there are examples one can cite in other languages.  The idea is that something holy may be bestowed, but that that thing - whether it is composed of spoken words or of a material object - may take either a positive or a negative form.

For even more on alu, see Dr. Mees's book with Mindy MacLeod, 'Runic Amulets and Magic Objects', made available here in pdf format:

http://bibleoteca.narod.ru/runy/MacLeod_Mees_Runic_Amulets.pdf

It was precisely this use of alu which reminded me of Starkad Aludreng.  It is not impossible that Aludreng (with the accented a, indicating an original dipthong au) could be a relic or fossilized form of earlier alu.  The personal name Ali (also with the accented a) can be written Ole.  But if we are going to draw a connection, no matter how tentatively, between alu and Aludreng, we must ask why Starkad may have been called such.

The answer may lie in a tradition recorded in Gautrek's Saga and the History of the Danes by Saxo Grammaticus.  The most detailed account is from the former and I will quote it here in full:

"Then just about midnight, Grani Horse-hair woke up his foster-sn Starkad and asked him to come along with him. They got a small boat and rowed over to another island. They walked through a wood until they came to a clearing where a large number of people were attending a meeting. There were eleven men sitting on chairs but a twelfth chair was empty. Starkad and his foster-father joined the assembly, and Grani Horse-hair seated himself on the twelfth chair. Everyone present greeted him by the name Odin, and he said that the judges would now have to decide on Starkad's fate.

Then Thor spoke up and said: 'Starkad's mother, Alfhild, preferred a brainy giant to Thor himself as the father of her son. So I ordain that Starkad himself shall have neither a son nor a daughter, and his family will end with him.'

Odin: 'I ordain that he shall live for three life spans.'

Thor: 'He shall commit a most foul deed in every one of them.'

Odin: 'I ordain that he shall have the best in weapons and clothing.'

Thor: 'I ordain that he shall have neither land nor estates.'

Odin: 'I give him this, that he shall vast sums of money.'

Thor: 'I lay this curse on him, that he shall never be satisfied with what he has.'

Odin: 'I give him victory and fame in every battle.'

Thor: 'I lay this curse on him, that in every battle he shall be sorely wounded.'

Odin: 'I give him the art of poetry, so that he shall compose verses as fast as he can speak.'

Thor: 'He shall never remember afterwards what he composes.'

Odin: 'I ordain that he shall be most highly thought of by all the noblest people and the best.'

Thor: 'The common people shall hate him every one.'

Then the judges decreed that all that had been said should happen to Starkad. The assembly broke up, and Grani Horse-hair and Starkad went back to their boat.

'You should repay me well, my foster-son,' said Grani Horse-hair to Starkad, 'for all the help I've given you.

'That I will,' said Starkad.

'Then you're to send King Vikar to me,' said Grani Horse-hair. 'I'll tell you how to go about it.'

Starkad agreed, and Grani Horse-hair gave him a spear which he said would seem to be only a reed stalk. Then they joined the rest of the army, just a little before daybreak."

In this marvelous episode from the saga, we see Starkad being GIVEN a fate that is both positive and negative in nature.  This is exactly the kind of function indicated by the double-meanin of runic alu.  To quote from Dr. Mees:

“The range of uses to which alu is put in early runic magico-religious practice suggests that the Etruscoid u-verb (or verbal noun) alu came to be employed in the Germanic North as a substitute for *hail- in the technical sense ‘written dedication that brings luck (good or bad, depending on the context)’ on items such as the Old Germanic bracteates.”

Now, we still have to dispose of a number of objections to the notion that Aludreng may preserve an obsolete form of runic alu.  As I mentioned above, alu ought to have been spelled with an umlauted o.  Also, most prefer to see Aludreng as merely an error for Aladreng, or 'Ali's retainer/attedant', especially given as Starkad does serve (among other kings) Ali the Bold of Sweden.  Starkad murders Ali, and this is considered one of the evil deeds Thor gave to him.

Aludeng is linked by the saga writers with an Alufossar, thought to be Ulefoss in Telemark, Norway.  I've discussed this with Norwegian place-name expert Professor Tom Schmidt, who related that Ulefoss was earlier Olu-, from Volu-, itself even earlier Vala, a river-name.  A. LeRoy Andrews also mentions an Old Norse ala (accent over the initial a), which apparently lies behind Norwegina ala (small circle over the a), a "deep narrow channel in a sea or river".  I do not find ala in the Old Norse, but rather (see the Zoega and Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionaries) 'all' as having this meaning.  We know of a Hraundrengr or 'dreng of the lava-field' used for a giant in Old Icelandic literature, so a 'dreng of a deep narrow channel’ is not without precedent.

Still, if we can surmount these problems, it is highly tempting to see in Starkad Aludreng a warrior who was, literally, the 'Gifted/Cursed Warrior', i.e. a giant-descended man who was GIVEN his mixed allotment of fate directly by the gods themselves - not, as one might expect, by the Norns.  And he returned the favor in kind by "giving" King Vikar to Odin.  Vikar was thus an alu, a 'dedication'.  Starkad had himself been 'dedicated' to the gods by his being made to fulfill the special destiny they had appointed for him.

NOTE ON THE THREE “CRIMES” AND SACRED DEATH OF STARKAD ALUDRENG

I’ve briefly discussed above in the context of the magical word alu the three lifespans given to Starkad by Odin and the countering “crimes” with which Thor curses him.  Here I wish to clarify the actual nature of those crimes and relate them to Starkad’s strange suicide by proxy.

The author of Gautrek’s Saga made use of Thor as the oppositional force to Odin.  Students of Norse mythology know that Odin is often represented in the literature as the deity of kings and nobility, while Thor is favored by the common people.  This polarity allowed for a shift in the causal relationship between the three lifespans and the three crimes.

Starkad’s first and third crimes are well known: they involve the murder of two kings, Vikar and Ali, both of whom he served.  The third crime is not overtly stated in any source, but E.O.G. Turville Petre in his invaluable MYTH AND RELIGION OF THE NORTH supports J. de Vries’s theory that it was Starkad’s inciting of Ingjald to the murder of Sverting’s sons.  This event is mentioned in BEOWULF, where the character playing the role of Starkad is referred to as an eald aescwiga or “old warrior”.  Well known is Starkad’s epithet ‘inn gamli’, “the Old”.

While we might not think – especially in an Iron Age Germanic society – that revenge for the killing of one’s father could be considered in any sense a crime, Sverting’s sons were murdered when they were enjoying the hospitality of Ingjald and this alone would have been considered a grievous breach of tradition. 

The real reason for these three “crimes” is wholly different that that presented in Gautrek’s Saga.  To understand what really lies behind them, we have to go to Snorri Sturluson’s Ynglinga Saga (Chapter 29):

“… and King On returned to Uppsala when he was sixty years of age.  He made a great sacrifice, and in it offered up his son to Odin. On got an answer from Odin, that he should live sixty years longer; and he was afterwards king in Uppsala for twenty-five years… After Ali’s fall [slain by Starkad the Old, the third of his “crimes”], On returned to Uppsala, and ruled the kingdom for twenty-five years.  Then hemade a great sacrifice again for long life, in which he sarcrificed his second son, and received the answer from Odin, that he should live as long as he gave him one o fhis sons every tenth year… When he had sacrificed the seventh of his sons he continued to live; but so that he could not walk, but was carried on a chair.  Then he sacrificed his eighth son, and lived thereafter ten years, lying in his bed.  Now he sacrificed his ninth son, and lived ten years more; but so that he drank out of a horn like a weaned infant.  He had now only one son remaining, whom he also wanted to sacrifice, and to give Odin Uppsala… but the Swedes would not allow it; so there was no sacrifice, and King On died, and was buried in a mound at Uppsala.”

Thus it would appear that Thor is merely being “blamed” for meting out to Starkad the fate of committing three crimes.  In reality, Starkad must pay for his three lifespans somehow, and the account of King On shows pretty plainly that such payment was tendered in the form of human sacrifices offered to Odin. As is the case with King Vikar, whom Starkad kills by hanging to Odin, the sacrifice victims themselves REPRESENT Odin, the god who sacrificed himself to himself.

It is in this sense that we must understand Starkad’s self-sacrificial death.  According to Saxo Grammaticus, the hero was driven to perform this last deed of his life out of guilt and remorse for his murder of Ali.  But there is not too much about Starkad that leaves room for such sentiments, and this is doubtless a motivation invented by Saxo as a way of redeeming his hero at the end. 

The Skjoldunga Saga version has Starkad bribed to kill Ali by his half-brother Frodi.  Saxo, on the other hands, mentions twelve chieftains (note the solar number 12 here) who were responsible.  One of them was named Lenni, a name not found outside of Saxo.  We are told Starkad killed Lenni out of repentance for the murder of Ali.  When he is truly old and ready to die, Starkad just happens to encounter Hather, son of Lenni, and allows this man to kill him and to take from him the gold he was paid for murdering Ali. 

Two things are interesting about this story.  First, Hather has been shown by Dumezil and others to be a form of the name Hodr, the blind god of Norse myth who slays Balder with the mistletoe.  Lenni may well be Saxo’s Latin form of Norse Hlin, a goddess who most believe to be none other than Frigg, mother of Balder.  Starkad’s name, of course, has by some been etymologized as ‘the strong Hod’ (meaning ‘the strong Warrior’).

What we have in Starkad’s death, then, is Starkad, a human incarnation of Hod, being killed by Hather, another human incarnation of Hod, here the son of Frigg in her aspect of Lenni/Hlin (“Protector”).  I’ve discussed in another chapter the true identity of Hod the Blind, i.e. Odin, and his role in the slaying of Balder. 

We can say in conclusion that Odin is killing Odin once again and that it was in this way that Starkad, even in death, honored his god.