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Aud the Deep-Minded (Ketilsdóttir)

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For an earlier and more legendary Aud the Deep-Minded, seeAuðr the Deep-Minded (Ívarsdóttir).
For other uses, seeAud (disambiguation).

Aud the Deep-Minded(Old Norse:Auðr djúpúðga Ketilsdóttir[ˈɔuðz̠ˈdjuːpˌuːðɣɑˈketelsˌdoːtːez̠];Modern Icelandic:Auður djúpúðga Ketilsdóttir[ˈœyːðʏrˈtjuːpˌuðɣaˈcʰɛːtɪlsˌtouhtɪr̥];Norwegian:Aud den djuptenkte), also known as Unn, Aud Ketilsdatter or Unnur Ketilsdottir, was a 9th-century settler during the age ofSettlement of Iceland.The main source of information about her life in Iceland isSturla Þórðarson'sLandnámabók;Laxdæla saga,which calls her Unn, gives a varying account but has more on her background, and she also figures in several other sagas, includingNjáls saga,Eyrbyggja saga,Eiríks saga rauðaandGrettis saga.

Biography[edit]

Aud was the second daughter ofKetill Flatnose,a Norwegianhersir,and Yngvid Ketilsdóttir, daughter of Ketill Wether, a hersir fromRingerike.She marriedOlaf the White(Oleif), son of King Ingjald, who had named himselfKing of Dublinafter going on voyages toBritainand then conquering the shire ofDublin.They had a son namedThorstein the Red.After Oleif was killed in battle in Ireland, Aud and Thorstein journeyed to theHebrides.Thorstein married there and had six daughters and one son. He also became a great warrior king, conquering in northern Scotland; however, he was killed in battle after being betrayed by his people.[1][2]

Hvammur í Dölum

Upon learning of the death of Thorstein, Aud, who was then atCaithness,commissioned the construction of aknarr,a type of ship used in the Viking Age for Atlantic voyages. For unknown reasons, she had it built secretly in the forest. With several surviving kin aboard, she captained the ship toOrkney,where she married off one of her granddaughters, Gróa, then to theFaroes,where she married off another granddaughter, Ólöf, and she then finally to the area ofBreiðafjörðurin Iceland, where her brother Björn lived. She brought her grandson,Olaf Feilan,with her to Iceland.[3][4]The ship had a crew of twenty men under her command and also carriedthralls,men who had been taken prisoner in Viking raids near and around the British Isles. When Aud arrived in thewestern region of Iceland,she claimed all the land inDalasýslabetween the rivers Dögurðará and Skraumuhlaupsá for her family, and gave the thralls their freedom (making themfreedmen,with a status between slave and free). She gave both the crewmen and the freedmen land to farm and make a living. One of the freedmen, Vifil, was given Vifilsdal, part ofHvammur í Dölum[is],the area in which Aud settled.[5][6]

Cross in memory of Aud at Krosshólar

Unlike most early Icelandic settlers, Aud was a baptizedChristian.She erected crosses in a hilly area where she often went to pray, which became known asKrosshólar[is]('cross hills').[7][8]According toLandnámabók,which calls her Aud the Deeply Wealthy (Auðr in djúpauðga), she died on the third night of a feast which she hosted as a farewell and which she asked those present to continue for three more nights as her wake, and she was buried in thetidal zonebecause there was no consecrated cemetery in which to bury her.[9]Laxdæla saga,however, calls her Unn the Deep-Minded (Unnr in djúpúðga) and depicts her as aheathenwoman renowned for her wisdom; according to its account, she died during the wedding feast for her grandson and was given aship burial.[10][11]

Aud had unusual power and authority for a woman, and successfully saved herself, her grandchildren and considerable wealth from a catastrophic situation,[12]although examination of various accounts of warrior rulers named Olaf suggests that Olaf the White may not have been killed in Ireland, but returned to Norway in 871 to regain control of his father's kingdom.[13]Her story also demonstrates that Iceland was not settled only by Norwegians of noble birth, but also by people from Scotland and the northern isles, including vikings. TheNational Museum of Icelandcontains a collection of somewhat debasedpenannular broochesand pins of undoubted Celtic provenance from the ninth and tenth centuries which would fit well in the context of the HebrideanNorse–Gael.[14]

Legacy[edit]

Many prominent Icelanders of the Middle Ages were descended from Aud through her grandson and several granddaughters, in particular theSturlungs,whose family estate was at her former residence of Hvammur.[11]In the 18th and 19th centuries, she became known as a national foremother; in the 18th century she was praised in works based onLaxdæla sagasuch as Tyrfingur Finnsson's poem "Laxdælakappakvæði", and in 1828, Jón Jónssonlangurrecorded a prayer ascribed to her.[15]On August 8, 1965, a cross was erected at Krosshólaborg as a monument to her, inscribed with a passage fromLandnámabók.[8][11]

Aud is the main character in a trilogy of novels by Icelandic authorVilborg Davíðsdóttir:Auður(2009),Vígroði(2010), andBlóðug jörð(2017).[15][16]A loosely-based Aud, also daughter of Ketill Flatnose and involved with thesettlement of Iceland,is portrayed byLeah McNamarain the5th seasonof the historical drama television seriesVikings(2013).[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^Landnámabók(Sturlubók), ch. 11, 36.
  2. ^Laxdæla saga,ch. 1.
  3. ^Landnámabók(Sturlubók), ch. 36.
  4. ^Laxdæla saga,ch. 4–6.
  5. ^Landnámabók(Sturlubók), ch. 38.
  6. ^"Auður the Deep-minded(The Settlement of Dalasýsla) Eiríksstaðir Haukadal ".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-03.Retrieved2021-05-12.
  7. ^Landnámabók(Sturlubók), ch. 37.
  8. ^ab"Krosshólaborg(Dalabyggd) Eiríksstaðir Haukadal ".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-03-21.Retrieved2021-05-12.
  9. ^Landnámabók(Sturlubók), ch. 40.
  10. ^Laxdæla sagach. 7.
  11. ^abcVanherpen, Sofie (2017). "In Search of a Founding Mother: The Case of AuðrdjúpauðgainSturlubók".Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik.77(3–4): 559–83.doi:10.1163/18756719-12340092.
  12. ^Jochens, Jenny (1995).Women in Old Norse Society.Ithaca, New York: Cornell University. p. 62.ISBN978-0801485206.
  13. ^Smyth, Alfred P. (2010) [1984].Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–1000.Edinburgh University Press. pp. 158–61.
  14. ^Smyth, pp. 163, 165.
  15. ^abVanherpen, Sofie (2020). "The Afterlives of an Icelandic 'Foremother of Us All': Auðrdjúpauðgaand the Making of Cultural Memory ".Scandinavian-Canadian Studies / Études scandinaves au Canada.28:231–59.
  16. ^"Bækur".Vilborg Davíðsdóttir rithöfundur(in Icelandic).Retrieved2022-05-10.
  17. ^Houghton, Rianne; Robinson, Abby (November 5, 2021)."Vikings star explains why character's fate" made a lot of sense "".Digital Spy.RetrievedApril 2,2022.

Other sources[edit]

  • Crawford, Barbara (1987)Scandinavian Scotland(Leicester University Press)ISBN978-0718512828
  • Jones, Gwyn(1984)A History of the Vikings(London: Oxford Univ. Press)ISBN978-0192801340
  • León, Vicki (1998)Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages(John Wiley & Sons)ISBN0-471-17004-6
  • Sigurðsson, Gísli (2004)The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press)ISBN978-0674014572

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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