Viking Saga in a Nutshell – As performed at Gudvangen Viking Market 2017

See ‘how to’ at the bottom for ways to turn these shortened sagas into performances

Sigurd the Warrior

The warrior thrust his sword – into his scabbard

Mounted his mighty horse – and rode through the night

And the next day

And the next night

Ahead was an enormous mountain

In the mountain was a huge cave

He leapt from his horse – and strode in

Up a long high tunnel

Towards an enormous cave

In the cave was an enormous heap of gold

Upon the gold was an enormous dragon

“Roar”

He crouched in fear, “I cannot kill this thing!”

Two birds landed on his shoulders and whispered,

“Dig a hole” “What with?”

“Dig with your sword.” “Why?”

“Just dig, dig, and leap in!”

The great monster awakes

Sigurd the warrior crouches down with his sword

The monstrous dragon flies out through the tunnel

Sigurd stabs, stabs, urg, hu, arg, p,dumph

The dragon bites, RRRRaphnth!

Sigurd slices, “Hahahahahahaha!”

“Hahahahahahaha!”

Sigurd Awakens Brinhild

Sigurd the warrior raised his sword

He sliced right through the dragon’s neck

And from its claw he took the cursed gold ring

“I will go and seek my fortune”

“Hang on, I already have a fortune”

He filled his saddlebags with dragon’s gold

He rode away on his horse which was afraid of nothing – nothing

Nothing

Forests, swamps, mountains

Upon a far mountain is a tall tower

Surrounded by flames

The horse leaps

Through the air

Through the flames

Sigurd dismounts inside the tower

Laid asleep upon a stone bed is…

The most beautiful woman he has ever seen

She was unclothed

He took her in his arms

He kissed her

She awoke, “I love you”

“I love you too – will you marry me?”

He put the ring upon her finger

The cursed ring

That is just the beginning of a story – where

Everybody dies

For the Love of Freyja – and the Walls of Asgard

The big boss god of all the Viking gods?

OOOOOOOOOOOdin

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOdin

His city was in ruins

Ruins

Along came a handsome stranger

“I will build the walls of your city for you”

“And all I want in return is…”

“The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as my wife oooooo”

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as my wife oooooo”

Odin said, “You want what!”

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as my wife oooooo”

That is a lot, I will ask Loki

“What does he want paying?”

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as his wife oooooo”

“Only if he can get it done in less than half a year”

Odin told the stranger…

“But will you still pay me “Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as my wife oooooo”

“And can my horse help?”

“Hahaha what good is a horse? It was a magical horse

It flew down and picked up a mountain

The stranger used it as a brick

It flew down and picked up a mountain

The stranger used it you get the idea

He will get it down in time and then we will have to pay him

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as his wife oooooo”

Loki turned into a beautiful lady horse brrrrrrr

The stallion followed her

Into the magical woods

Now the stranger wouldn’t get the job done in time and he wouldn’t get paid…

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as his wife oooooo”

He threw off his handsome disguise and became the rock giant he really was

He went to biff Odin

But Odin biffed him

He biffed him so hard he flew all the way back to the land of the giants

The walls were nearly finished and Odin didn’t have to pay…

“Everybody all at once” “The sun, the moon and the beautiful lady Freyja as his wife oooooo”

Loki

The god of mischief

Trickery

Cruelty

“When the goddess awakes see how she screams”

Loki laughs “hehehehe”

“Hehehehehe”

He is also a shape changer god

(say to the cast,) “Say the names of four random creatures or things”

The gods had had enough of him

They threw away his children

The giant snake they threw into the sea, “Roar, sploosh”

The monster wolf into the ground “hoooooowl”

His putrid, rotten daughter down to the underworld

Scream!

Burning poison was dripped on Loki’s face

“All scream together!”

“See my daughter fly her ship of the dead”

“And we will kill you all!”

“Hahahahahaha” – “Haha”

That is the end of Loki’s story, in which…

[Say to the cast] (“All say together, “Everybody dies” on the count of three.) 1 2 3 “Everybody dies!”

Ragnarok

The end of the world, where everybody dies

Gods, Monsters, wolves and slaves

Everyone fights together until they die

Did we mention everybody dies?

Because they do

The sea rises up and swallows the land

Lightning strikes the great tree

The great tree falls,

eeeke, creeeeak, vrooooompht, budoumpht, budoumpht, budoumpht

budoumpht

One branch

One branch remains standing free of the water

The bits of the old world gather around the branch

Two figures climb down to this new land

Lith and Lithrasia

New life begins, cradled in their arms

The power of the old gods rises from the sea

The light of life and hope

We raise up our arms in wonder and say, “aaaaaaah”

Njord; the god of the sea

He leads us

Guides us

Stare out to sea with him

For under the sea is a terrible goddess

Ran! She is wicked and twisted

She swings her net and catches sailors “aaaaaaaargh”

They wander her home forever

“I am cccccold.” – “I miss my familyyyyy”

“I wish I hadn’t drowneded”

“Hahahahaha” Ran laughs and claps

That is how sick she is

Njord is good; he guides us

This is his home

Njardarheimr

He stands now by the sea

Bless him with mjord and ol

Gudvangen! Njardarheimr!

Although I wasn’t yet strong enough to face being at Gudvangen this year I was thrilled to be asked by stand-in host Annabelle to allow her to continue my tradition of multi-national stories. So each of the scripts I have published here has been performed in my honour by Annabelle with a gang of pals such as Karin in many languages and dialects simultaneously.

‘How to’ guide:

If you are working with children they can repeat each line altogether after you and act it out; remember, many of the stories from the mythology are quite gruesome.

The multi-national story; you need people who speak different languages (and English) you can also encourage different dialects for a bit more fun. You say each of the lines and one at a time they saying along the row in their own language. It works wonderfully well, it works far better than it should! Prepare to have great fun.

I look forward to be being welcomed back into the fold at Gudvangen next year (or even sooner).

Love

Adrian

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