Egil Quotes

Many are brave but do not redden their sword in the chest of another.

If you want to get by with the minimum of effort then pretending to understand less than you do is not the stupidest tactic to employ. So maybe Egil wasn’t so dumb after all.

HIORDIS. Better no child, than one born in shame. DAGNY. In shame? HIORDIS. Dost thou forgot thy father's saying? Egil is the son of a leman; that was his word. DAGNY. A word spoken in wrath—why wilt thou heed it? HIORDIS. Nay, nay, Ornulf was right; Egil is weak; one can see he is no freeborn child.

…Egil har altså ikke sugd det fra eget bryst, men, sier han, vi må ta i betraktning at den tiden er over. I dag er det ganske lite som kan suges helt fra eget bryst. Det er ikke mulig lenger. Folk har tenkt tankene før. Vår oppgave blir å raffinere dem.

Mēs- vienkāršie dabas bērni... kurus tik ļoti cenšas samaitāt reliģija, visdažādākās morāles dogmas un dažu nepilnvērtības nomāktu cilvēku sludinātās un pat ar likumu nostiprinātās sabiedriskās uzvedīas normas... Visu pie velna.! Esmu īslaicīgi dzīva un brīva un kas man var aizliegt.? Diemžēl var. Un tā ir mūsu nelaime. Vienmēr kāds kaut ko aizliegs.

Egil asked Thord to let him go with him to the game; he was then in his seventh winter. Thord let him do so, and Egil mounted behind him. But when they came to the play-meeting, then the men made up sides for the play. Many small boys had come there too, and they made up a game for themselves. For this also sides were chosen. Egil was matched to play against a boy named Grim, son of Hegg, of Hegg-stead. Grim was ten or eleven years old, and strong for his age. But when they played together Egil got the worst of it. And Grim made all he could of his advantage. Then Egil got angry and lifted up the bat and struck Grim, whereupon Grim seized him and threw him down with a heavy fall, and handled him rather roughly, and said he would thrash him if he did not behave. But when Egil got to his feet, he went out of the game, and the boys hooted at him. Egil went to Thord and told him what had been done. Thord said: 'I will go with you, and we will be avenged on them.' He gave into his hands a halberd that he had been carrying. Such weapons were then customary. They went where the boys' game was. Grim had now got the ball and was running away with it, and the other boys after him. Then Egil bounded upon Grim, and drove the axe into his head, so that it at once pierced his brain. (...) when Egil came home, Skallagrim said little about it; but Bera said Egil had in him the makings of a freebooter, and that 'twould be well, so soon as he were old enough, to give him a long-ship.

Then took they both to their swords, and went at it with a will, blow upon blow. Atli gave no ground. They smote fast and hard, and full soon their shields were becoming useless. And when Atli's shield was of no use, then he cast it from him, and, grasping his sword with both hands, dealt blows as quickly as possible. Egil fetched him a blow on the shoulder, but the sword bit not. He dealt another, and a third. It was now easy to find parts in Atli that he could strike, since he had no cover; and Egil brandished and brought down his sword with all his might, yet it bit not, strike he where he might. Then Egil saw that nothing would be done this way, for his shield was now rendered useless. So Egil let drop both sword and shield, and bounding on Atli, gripped him with his hands. Then the difference of strength was seen, and Atli fell right back, but Egil went down prone upon him and bit through his throat. There Atli died. Egil leapt up at once and ran to where the victim stood; with one hand he gripped his lips, with the other his horn, and gave him such a wrench, that his feet slipped up and his neck was broken; after which Egil went where his comrades stood, and then he sang: 'I bared blue Dragvandill, Who bit not the buckler, Atli the Short so blunted All edge by his spells. Straining my strength I grappled, Staggered the wordy foeman; My tooth I bade bite him, Best of swords at need.' Then Egil got possession of all those lands for which he had contended and claimed as rightfully coming to his wife Asgerdr from her father.

And now the household took their seats, and tables were set all round the hall, and food served; dishes of meat were brought in and set before Egil and the rest. After this ale was borne in, beer of the strongest. Soon they began to drink bumpers, each man was to drink off the horn; and especial care was taken that Egil and his companions should drink hard. Egil drank without shirking a drop for a long while, but when his companions were become helpless, then he drank for them what they could not. So matters went on till the tables were removed, and by then all in the room were well drunk. But before each cup that he drank Armod said: 'I drink to you, Egil,' and the house-carles drank to Egil's companions with the same preface. A man was appointed to bear every cup to Egil's party, and he urged them to drink it off quick. Egil told his companions to drink no more, but himself drank for them what they could not avoid. Egil soon found that it would not do for him to go on so. Wherefore he stood up, went across the floor to where Armod sat, took him with his hands by the shoulders, and forced him back against the inner posts, and vomited in his face. There was an outcry and uproar, but Egil went back to his place, sate him down, and bade them serve him drink. ... Egil rose up in the morning as soon as it was day. He and his made them ready, and when ready went at once to the house to seek Armod. And when they came to the apartments where slept Armod and his wife and daughter, then Egil burst open the door and approached Armod's bed. He then drew his sword, but with the other hand grasped the beard of Armod, and forced him forward to the edge of the bed. But Armod's wife and daughter leapt up and prayed Egil not to slay Armod. Egil said he would spare him for their sakes; 'For,' said he, 'this is but meet; yet has he deserved to die.' After this Egil cut off his beard close to his chin, and put out one of his eyes.

When Egil was twelve years old, he was grown so big that there were but few men howso large and strong that he could not overcome in games. In his twelfth winter he was often at games. Thord Grani's son was then twenty years old; he was very strong. As the winter wore on, if often chanced that the two, Egil and Thord, were matched against Skallagrim. And once in the winter it so befell that there was ball-play at Borg, southwards in Sandvik. Thord and Egil were set against Skallagrim in the game; and he became weary before them, so that they had the best of it. But in the evening after sunset it began to go worse with Egil and his partner. Skallagrim then became so strong and he caught up Thord and dashed him down so violently that he was all bruised and died on the spot. Then he seized Egil. Now there was a handmaid of Skallagrim's named Thorgerdr Brak, who had nursed Egil when a child; she was a big woman, strong as a man, and of magic cunning. Said Brak: 'Dost thou turn they shape-strength, Skallagrim, against thy son?' Whereat Skallagrim let Egil loose, but clutched at her. She broke away and took to her heels with Skallagrim after her. So went they to the utmost point of Digra-ness. Then she leapt out from the rock into the water. Skallagrim hurled after her a great stone, which struck her between the shoulders, and neither ever came up again. The water there is now called Brakar-sound. But afterwards, in the evening, when they came home to Borg, Egil was very angry. Skallagrim and everybody else were set at table, but Egil had not yet come to his place. He went into the fire-hall, and up to the man who there had the overseeing of work and the management of moneys for Skallagrim, and was most dear to him. Egil dealt him his deathblow, then went to his seat. Skallagrim spoke not a word about it then, and thenceforward the matter was kept quiet. But father and son exchanged no word good or bad, and so that winter passed.

Mēs esam zaudējuši savu garīgo līdzsvaru un vērtību sistēmu. Mēs atzīstam, ka esam nolieguši Tava vārda absolūto patiesību un to nosaukuši par plurālismu. Mēs esam kalpojuši citiem dieviem un to nosaukuši par multikulturālismu. Mēs esam atbalstījuši perversiju un to nosaukuši par alternatīvo dzīvesveidu. Mēs esam ļaunprātīgi izmantojuši nabagos un to nosaukuši par loteriju. Mēs esam nogalinājuši nedzimušos un to nosaukuši par izvēli. Mēs esam atteikušies no savu bērnu stingras audzināšanas un to nosaukuši par pašapziņas veidošanu. Mēs esam ļaunprātīgi izmantojuši varu un to nosaukuši par politiku. Mēs esam iekārojuši sava tuvākā mantu un to nosaukuši par veselīgām ambīcijām. Mēs esam piesārņojuši pasauli ar nešķīstību un pornogrāfiju un to esam nosaukuši par izpausmes brīvību. Mēs esam ņirgājušies par mūsu sentēvu dzīves vērtībām un to nosaukuši par apgaismību." It kā vajadzētu kliegt- un tāds ir bijis civilizācijas un cilvēka progress.?! Diezgan baismīgs un stipri apkaunojošs... cilvēkam.

Nix hocked, spit, and chuckled. "I'm not your fakkin' eunuch. Get it yourself. Egil almost died because of you. Him and me are here only because of your compulsion. You and your sisters could all die tomorrow and I'd mourn you not at all. Don't ever forget how it is with us.

A woman's thoughts are always weapons. And all men are monsters in their hearts.

Every child is an artist, with imagination and the artistic instinct. Life stamps these out...” -- Percy

§ 3.2Du skal heller ikke ha kitch-aktige bilder av barn som gråter, med mindre du har en ironisk distanse til dem.

§ 2.15Når du passerer selgere på gata, skal du late som om du ikke ser dem i stedet for å si at du ikke er interessert.

§ 18.2Det er ikke lov å bruke «sa brura» som vits mer enn fem ganger om dagen.

§ 25.7Med mindre du flørter, skal du ikke kommentere kvinners kroppslige attributter.* * Unntaket er hår på hodet, hvis du ser at de har gjort noe spesielt. Men ikke kommenter kvinnelig bartevekst – selv om de har gjort noe spesielt med den.

§ 6.7Du skal tenke at alle som ikke kjører akkurat like fort som deg selv, er idioter.

§ 8.9Man skal helst dele soverom, selv om den ene snorker så mye at den andre aldri får sove.

§ 10.11Si alltid ting to ganger når du snakker til dyr.

§ 16.13Det er bare eldre mennesker som har lov til å hytte med neven.

music.

§ 19.3Du skal like å gå på ski, enten du vil eller ikke.

§ 21.20Møter med punktet «eventuelt» på sakslisten har en tendens til å bli svært lange.

§ 36.8Sakene folk er mest interessert i, begynner med «slik» og «derfor».

songwriting

Only kings and queens know the reasons behind their designs. Commoners don’t question them, they comply with them,” Egil recited.

Of course, Egil. You are trustworthy,

What tends to happen to you, my friend,” said Egil, “is that you’re apprehensive in the face of the unknown. Because it’s an abstract idea or concept, that’s what prevents your mind fully understanding or accepting it, and hence it defends itself by causing you this fear of something which is not necessarily bad.

Brother Egil died first, his armour split by bolts.

Gjøre noen en bjørnetjeneste: Betydningen her er å gjøre noe som er godt ment, men som resulterer i ulykke. Opprinnelsen skal være en av vismannen Æsops fabler, om en tam bjørn som ser en flue på sin herres panne og dasker til den for å drepe fluen – med det resultat at herren dør av slaget. Stadig oftere dukker det opp tegn på at idiomet holder på å få et annet innhold: Mange yngre brukere av norsk oppfatter og anvender bjørnetjeneste i betydningen en viktig vennetjeneste. Grunnen må være at bjørner, spesielt arten teddybjørn, er kosedyr. Det er også Hakkebakkeskogens store bamse, som ustoppelig lar seg hylle på sin 50-årsdag.

I praksis er det neppe lettere å få en kamel forbi drøvelen enn det er å få den gjennom et nåløye, så veiledningen fra en av Norges statsministre, Jan P. Syse, kan komme godt med: «Vi strigler dem og sluker dem medhårs.»

Perler for svin: «Kast ikke perler for svin» er en formaning i Bergprekenen, som er referert i Matteus-evangeliets kapittel 5–7. Det betyr at man ikke skal gi noe verdifullt til en som ikke verdsetter det. Men det er en snever fortolkning, og hele setningen lyder (Matteus kap. 7, v. 6): «Gi ikke hundene det hellige, og kast ikke deres perler for svin; de vil bare trampe dem ned, vende seg mot dere og rive dere i stykker.» Hunder og svin var dyr som på Jesu tid ble ansett for å være urene i Midtøsten. Følgelig kan utsagnet tolkes som både nedlatende og diskriminerende. Det kan brukes selvironisk, og da er det mer forsonende: «Å spandere så dyr vin på meg og min primitive gane er å kaste perler for svin.» Bergprekenen, og svært mange andre tekster i Bibelen, inneholder metaforer (språkbilder og sammenligninger) som vi finner i en rekke språk og kulturer, ofte uten at brukerne har noen anelse om opprinnelsen. Amerikaneren Stephan Pastis (f. 1968) kjenner nok opprinnelsen til akkurat dette uttrykket: Han lager tegneserien Pearls Before Swine, som er gjengitt i Aftenposten.

Bet mēs sākam deģenerēties. Mēs braucam automašīnās. Sliktākajā gadījumā - autobusos vai tramvajā. Sēžam kantoros. Elpojam pašu saindēto gaisu. Izsmalcināti ēdieni. Izsmalcināti dzērieni. Mēs mēģinām drausmīgi apmānīt dabu. Skaistums tiek sabradāts ielu asfaltos. Mežs, baltas smiltis un jūra paliek vienīgi sapnis. Brīnums. Brīnums, kā vēl šodien šalc meži! Un bango jūra. Un visas baltās smiltis nav vēl aizvestas uz betona rūpnīcu.

Dreams and goals are there so that we can try to reach them,” Egil told her. “If we don’t manage to, it doesn’t mean we’ve failed, because what’s important isn’t reaching the finishing line but the struggle and the effort we put into trying to get there.

Laughter is good,” he whispered to her. “It gladdens the soul.” “And heals it,” Egil added.

SOMETHING ABOUT EGIL-

Only a fool attempts the same madness twice, having failed the first time,” Egil instructed them. “We will wait for a chance to present itself. We’ll prepare and be ready when the time of the West arrives. Don’t despair. We need silence and tenacity. We must work in the shadows together. The day will come, I swear it.

I’ll be part of your book, Mother, but not like Egil or Haki or Rupa. I’ll be Omika, the giant. I’ll be the monster who frightens little girls. That’s what I am. I’ll butcher the whole world one by one with my bare hands, and when they’re all dead, the lawmakers and priestesses and all their servants, then I’ll go to the afterlife and find you, and I’ll make you their queen.

The king of Norway back then was not very fond of him and did not like the fact that he was killing that much. However, instead of banishing Egil, the king gave him the chance to go pillaging and plundering. He did that together with eleven men. He used his teeth to tear apart throats and remove eyes from his enemies. He had a lifetime of fighting, and he never gave up poetry. He lived for 80 years.

A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.

It was not long before the Mother Specialist summoned Nilsa, Gerd, and Egil to the Chamber of Runes. They had enjoyed a couple of days of rest since their return to the Shelter. It was because Sigrid, Annika and Egil had been examining Camu, whose physical change had them intrigued and very interested. Camu felt very happy to be the center of attention and that everyone admired him.

Vārdi vēl nebija uzrakstīti, tie vēl kaut kur dziļi slēpās zemapziņas dzīlēs, taču mūzika jau skanēja.

You’ve named it Fred? A king scorpion that can kill with a single sting?” “That’s right,” Egil said nonchalantly. “I like the name.” “What have you called the viper, which is almost as lethal as that when it has its venom? Gertrude?” Nilsa asked to provoke him. “Almost right … I call her Ginger.

Girls,” Egil commented. “They’re hard to fathom, a real mystery.

The most common way to establish contact with our fellow men is through language. Yet like Strindberg, Bergman distrusts language as a means of communication in any deeper sense. We have already seen how Elisabet in Persona chooses muteness in the conviction that words equal lies. Taking Hummel’s remark in The Ghost Sonata to heart that languages are “codes” invented “to conceal the secrets of one tribe from the others,” Bergman often demonstrates how language rather than serve as a means of communication serves as a conscious or unconscious barrier. This idea is fundamental in The Silence, where the main characters are confronted with a language, construed by Bergman, which is as unintelligible to them as to us. The inability to understand the foreign language is here a metaphor for our inability to understand one another truly. While Anna in The Silence tries to communicate via the senses, her sister Ester, a professional translator, tries to do so via reason. In her attempt to understand the foreign language she is, like the Student in The Ghost Sonata, a seeker who tries to understand life intellectually. In the nightmarish exam scene of Wild Strawberries, professor emeritus Isak Borg, who has been a harsh examiner, finds himself in the position of his former students. It is now his turn to be harshly examined and to fail his exam. His failure is serious since the blackboard text Isak is unable to decipher tells what a doctor’s—read: man’s--primary duty is: to care for your fellow men. The sequence is a contamination of the Asylum scene in To Damascus I and the school scene in A Dream Play. In the former the Stranger is condemned for the wrongs he has done to his fellow men, in the latter the Officer, recently conferred doctor, finds himself returned to primary school. In Wild Strawberries we have a thematic counterpart of the school scene when young Sara tells Isak, as she holds a mirror in front of his face, that although he knows a lot, he knows in fact almost nothing—that is, about the essentials of life. When Tomas, the doubting priest in Winter Light sits down at one of the pupils’ desks in the local school, it is a discreet reminder that he, like Isak Borg and the Officer, needs to “mature” as it says in A Dream Play.

The most common way to establish contact with our fellow men is through language. Yet like Strindberg, Bergman distrusts language as a means of communication in any deeper sense. We have already seen how Elisabet in Persona chooses muteness in the conviction that words equal lies. Taking Hummel’s remark in The Ghost Sonata to heart that languages are “codes” invented “to conceal the secrets of one tribe from the others,” Bergman often demonstrates how language rather than serve as a means of communication serves as a conscious or unconscious barrier. This idea is fundamental in The Silence, where the main characters are confronted with a language, construed by Bergman, which is as unintelligible to them as to us. The inability to understand the foreign language is here a metaphor for our inability to understand one another truly. While Anna in The Silencetries to communicate via the senses, her sister Ester, a professional translator, tries to do so via reason. In her attempt to understand the foreign language she is, like the Student in The Ghost Sonata, a seeker who tries to understand life intellectually. In the nightmarish exam scene of Wild Strawberries, professor emeritus Isak Borg, who has been a harsh examiner, finds himself in the position of his former students. It is now his turn to be harshly examined and to fail his exam. His failure is serious since the blackboard text Isak is unable to decipher tells what a doctor’s—read: man’s--primary duty is: to care for your fellow men. The sequence is a contamination of the Asylum scene in To Damascus I and the school scene in A Dream Play. In the former the Stranger is condemned for the wrongs he has done to his fellow men, in the latter the Officer, recently conferred doctor, finds himself returned to primary school. In Wild Strawberries we have a thematic counterpart of the school scene when young Sara tells Isak, as she holds a mirror in front of his face, that although he knows a lot, he knows in fact almost nothing—that is, about the essentials of life. When Tomas, the doubting priest in Winter Light sits down at one of the pupils’ desks in the local school, it is a discreet reminder that he, like Isak Borg and the Officer, needs to “mature” as it says in A Dream Play.

Another example of the same attitude, this time on a less cosmic and more humble scale, comes from the life of the warrior-poet Egil Skallagrimsson. According to his saga, toward the end of his life, one of his sons died, after the others had died before him. Such was the depth of Egil's grief that he planned to kill himself, but his surviving daughter convinced him instead to use his poetic talent to compose a memorial poem for his lost children. Egil's poem is called The Wreck Of Sons (Sonatorrek). In it, Egil bemoans his lot in life and curses Odin, his patron god, for having made him suffer so much. But Egil finds that this suffering has also carried a gift within it, for his anguish inspires him to compose better poetry than ever before. He lets loose an eloquent cry of both despair and joy, or at least contented acceptance. The final three stanzas read: I offer nothing With an eager heart To the greatest of gods, The willful Odin. But I must concede That the friend of the wise Has paid me well For all my wounds. The battle-tested Foe of the wolf Has given me A towering art, And wits to discern In those around me Who wishes well, Who wishes ill. Times are dire, Yet glad is my heart, Full of courage, Without complaint. I wait for the goddess Of dirt and of death Who stands on the headland To bear me away.

He understood this man too was a slave to greater forces, just as Egil was—that his deeds and words were the last scribblings of a simple rower on a mighty ship, trapped in seething waves, never to be written in any tales.

The Hellene exists as an individual, a separate person within a community. The Germanic individual exists only as the representative, nay, as the personification of a whole. One might imagine that a supreme convulsion of the soul must tear the individual out from that whole, and let him feel him-self, speak as for himself. But actually, it is the opposite that takes place; the more the soul is moved, the more the individual personality is lost in the kin. At the very moment when man most passionately and unreservedly gives way to his own feelings, the clan takes possession of the individual fully and completely. Egil's lament is not the lament of a father for his son; it is the kin, that utters its lament through the person of the father. From this breadth of passion springs the overpowering pathos of the poem.

Error leads to evil.