Melkorka

Melkorka is the name given in Landnámabók and Laxdœla saga for the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson. According to Laxdœla saga, Höskuldr purchased a Melkorka, who he believed to be a mute thrall-woman, from a Rus' merchant on Brännö while on a trading expedition to Norway, and made her his concubine while away from his wife Jórunn Bjarnadóttir.^[1] When Höskuldr returned home to Iceland, he took her with him. Despite Jórunn's irritation, the concubine was accepted into Höskuldr's household, though he remained faithful to Jórunn while in Iceland. The following winter the concubine gave birth to a son, to whom they gave the name Ólafr after Höskuldr's uncle, Olaf Feilan, who had recently died.^[2] Landnámabók mentions that Höskuldr and Melkorka had another son, Helgi, but he does not appear in Laxdœla.^[3] According to Laxdœla saga, Ólafr was a precocious child, and could speak and walk perfectly by the age of two. One day Höskuldr discovered Ólafr's mother speaking to her son; she was not, in fact, mute.^[4] When he confronted her she told him that she was an Irish princess named Melkorka carried off in a viking raid, and that her father was an Irish king named "Myrkjartan" (Muirchertach).^[5] Shortly thereafter squabbling between Jórunn and Melkorka forced Höskuldr to move his concubine and his son by her to a different farm, which thereafter was known as Melkorkustaðir.^[6]

Around 956, Ólafr, at Melkorka's urging, decided to go abroad to seek his fortune. Melkorka taught Ólafr Irish Gaelic and urged him to visit her family. Höskuldr was opposed to the expedition and would not provide trade wares, and the property of Ólafr's foster-father Þórðr was mostly in immobile goods and land. In part to arrange financing for his expedition, his mother Melkorka married Þorbjörn skrjúpur ("the Feeble"), a farmer who had previously assisted her in the management of Melkorkustaðir. Melkorka and Þorbjörn had a son named Lambi.^[7]

Ólafr visited Ireland, where he met Melkorka's father and kinsmen.^[8] Ólafr remained with Myrkjartan for a time, and the king, according to Laxdœla saga, even offered to make Ólafr his heir. Ólafr, however, ultimately returned to Norway, afraid of provoking Myrkjartan's sons.^[9]

Media

Melkorka is featured in the 2007 young adult novel Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale by author Donna Jo Napoli. The novel depicts how she became a slave and why she decided to remain mute. The novel ends as she is being taken to Iceland by Höskuldr.

Notes

1. ^ Lax. § 12 (Magnusson 63)
2. ^ Lax. § 13 (Magnusson 67).
3. ^ Ari 2:18.
4. ^ Lax. § 13 (Magnusson 68).
5. ^ Lax. § 13 (Magnusson 68). Magnusson notes that there were a number of contemprorary Irish petty kings by this name. Magnusson 68 at n.1
6. ^ Lax. § 13 (Magnusson 69).
7. ^ Lax. § 20 (Magnusson 86–88).
8. ^ Lax. § 21 (Magnusson 91).
9. ^ Lax. § 21 (Magnusson 93–96).

References

• Ari the Learned. The Book of the Settlement of Iceland (Landnámabók). Ellwood, T., transl. Kendal: T. Wilson, Printer and Publisher, 1898.
• Byock, Jesse. Viking Age Iceland. Penguin Books, 2001.
• A. Forte, R. Oram, and F. Pederson. Viking Empires. 1st. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-521-82992-5.
• Hollander, Lee, transl. Njal's Saga. Wordsworth, 1999.
• Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd ed. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984.
• Magnusson, Magnus and Hermann Palsson, transl. Laxdaela Saga. Penguin Classics, 1969.
• Ordower, Henry. "Exploring the Literary Function of Law and Litigation in 'Njal's Saga.'" Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring – Summer 1991), pp. 41–61.
• Scudder, Bernard, transl. Egil's Saga. Penguin Classics, 2005.