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Fascinating Historical Sidebar
Oct. 23rd, 2002 10:11 amAfter every Buffy, I surf over the alt.tv.buffy newsgroup via Google and see what the diehard fans have to say. If a show pleases them, it MUST be good. But along the way I found this piece of Scandanavian legend in one of the posts...
"I've now spent a little time looking up Deepminded Aud, she's really a fascinating historical figure.
Aud Ketilsdottir, called 'the deep minded' was born in Norway in 834ad. She married Olof Ingjaldsson, called 'the white' in 857ad in Dublin.
In some sagas, Olof put her aside to marry an Irish maid, and Aud
wreaked vengeance on him. A similar story is told about her sister
Jurunn Kettilsdottir, called 'mannvitsbrekka' (more or less 'pinnacle
of wit'), so there may be some story swapping. Both Aud and Jorunn
(and their sister Thorunn, called 'hyrna', also) were called 'Unn' in different stories, so the conflation is almost unavoidable (by the
way, one way of translating 'hyrna' would be 'spike', it's literally
the point on top of an axehead).
After Olof's death, she emigrated to Iceland with her family, and is
considered one of the founders of Iceland (as is Thorunn, who was one
of the first norse women to give birth in Iceland)."
So huge style points to new Buffy writer Drew Goddard for incorporating a bit of "reality" into his first script. It's been far too long since we saw such a clever use of myth or legend in the Buffyverse, and this fact is making me reassess my feelings about the humorous but somewhat out-of-place flashback to Anya/Anyaka/Aud's youth.
"I've now spent a little time looking up Deepminded Aud, she's really a fascinating historical figure.
Aud Ketilsdottir, called 'the deep minded' was born in Norway in 834ad. She married Olof Ingjaldsson, called 'the white' in 857ad in Dublin.
In some sagas, Olof put her aside to marry an Irish maid, and Aud
wreaked vengeance on him. A similar story is told about her sister
Jurunn Kettilsdottir, called 'mannvitsbrekka' (more or less 'pinnacle
of wit'), so there may be some story swapping. Both Aud and Jorunn
(and their sister Thorunn, called 'hyrna', also) were called 'Unn' in different stories, so the conflation is almost unavoidable (by the
way, one way of translating 'hyrna' would be 'spike', it's literally
the point on top of an axehead).
After Olof's death, she emigrated to Iceland with her family, and is
considered one of the founders of Iceland (as is Thorunn, who was one
of the first norse women to give birth in Iceland)."
So huge style points to new Buffy writer Drew Goddard for incorporating a bit of "reality" into his first script. It's been far too long since we saw such a clever use of myth or legend in the Buffyverse, and this fact is making me reassess my feelings about the humorous but somewhat out-of-place flashback to Anya/Anyaka/Aud's youth.
