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Blodhingst
En prisbelønnet nydigtning af "Skirners rejse", som vender sit forlæg, den fortællende digtsuite fra Den ældre Edda, på hovedet og ser Skirners bruderov fra den røvede kvindes synsvinkel.
133 pages
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Gerður Kristný
43 books63 followersGerður Kristný graduated in French and comparative literature from the University of Iceland in 1992. Her B.A. dissertation was on Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal. After a course in media studies at the University of Iceland from 1992-1993 she trained at Danish Radio TV. She was editor of the magazine Mannlíf from 1998 - 2004, but is now a full time writer.
Awards for her work include 1st prize in the National Broadcasting Service short story competition 1986, 1st prize in a TV culture programme poetry competition 1992, the Children's Choice Book Prize in 2003 for her book Marta Smarta, the Halldór Laxness Literary Award in 2004, for her novel Bátur með segli og allt (A Boat With a Sail and All) and the Icelandic Journalist's Award for Myndin af pabba - Saga Thelmu (A Picture of Dad - Thelma's Story) in 2005. Her poetry book, Höggstaður, was nominated for The Icelandic Literary Award in 2007. Her poetry and short stories have been included in school textbooks at the elementary- and secondary level, as well as in anthologies published in Iceland and overseas.
Gerður Kristný has published poetry books, short stories, novels and a book for children, as well as a book about the Westman Islands Festival in 2002.
Awards for her work include 1st prize in the National Broadcasting Service short story competition 1986, 1st prize in a TV culture programme poetry competition 1992, the Children's Choice Book Prize in 2003 for her book Marta Smarta, the Halldór Laxness Literary Award in 2004, for her novel Bátur með segli og allt (A Boat With a Sail and All) and the Icelandic Journalist's Award for Myndin af pabba - Saga Thelmu (A Picture of Dad - Thelma's Story) in 2005. Her poetry book, Höggstaður, was nominated for The Icelandic Literary Award in 2007. Her poetry and short stories have been included in school textbooks at the elementary- and secondary level, as well as in anthologies published in Iceland and overseas.
Gerður Kristný has published poetry books, short stories, novels and a book for children, as well as a book about the Westman Islands Festival in 2002.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 13, 2019
I'm really not into poetry, so I doubt this would've made it into my hands had my friend not accidentally ordered two copies and given me her extra.
I'm so surprised by how much I enjoyed this! The introduction definitely gave me context I would've been sorely missing otherwise, but even so, I loved the language of the poem itself. I'm a sucker for mythology and this was a super quick read, I'm so pleased I liked this so much.
I'm so surprised by how much I enjoyed this! The introduction definitely gave me context I would've been sorely missing otherwise, but even so, I loved the language of the poem itself. I'm a sucker for mythology and this was a super quick read, I'm so pleased I liked this so much.
Read
September 24, 2015Moderniserad ljođahattr från huvudpersonens namne, läses gärna tillsammans med den gamla Skírnismál.
Omläst: jämte Karin Rehnqvists musikaliska gestaltning.
Omläst: jämte Karin Rehnqvists musikaliska gestaltning.
May 18, 2025
Hörde först denna text i Karin Rehnqvists stycke med samma namn, vilket berörde mig djupt. Texten står sig lika bra på egen hand.
June 9, 2021
Video review here: https://youtu.be/_nGeYD70nJ8
January 12, 2019
I read a translation of this contemporary poetic retelling of a norse myth - the abduction of a beautiful giantess by a god - and enjoyed the stark and concise narrative.
August 23, 2025
"Yö // suvanto / johon sukeltaa"
Read
May 3, 2026Följde Johans exempel och läste jämte
Karin Rehnqvists musikaliska version
framförd av Lena Willemark (Youtube)
Karin Rehnqvists musikaliska version
framförd av Lena Willemark (Youtube)
September 28, 2015
A powerful retelling of an Eddic poem!
It is the first time that I read something of this sort and I am quite impressed.
The author can definitely play with words and her use of the Icelandic language to write poetry is amazing.
What is great about this edition is that even without previous knowledge on Norse mythology or a background in poetry, you can still understand the message provided by the vivid vocabulary used by the author.
It tells the story of a forced union between Gerdur and Freyr settled by his servant´s (Skirnir) threats.
But this time from a female's point of view (Gerdur) and how she felt about the union and the birth of her son.
This book made me strangely emotional (probably because of the power of words).
It is the first time that I read something of this sort and I am quite impressed.
The author can definitely play with words and her use of the Icelandic language to write poetry is amazing.
What is great about this edition is that even without previous knowledge on Norse mythology or a background in poetry, you can still understand the message provided by the vivid vocabulary used by the author.
It tells the story of a forced union between Gerdur and Freyr settled by his servant´s (Skirnir) threats.
But this time from a female's point of view (Gerdur) and how she felt about the union and the birth of her son.
This book made me strangely emotional (probably because of the power of words).
December 22, 2017
Gorgeous!
Rightly framed as a story in abduction, or perhaps in the terror that masculine violence performs in the matrimonial history of mythology.
Wide-stretching fields
in glowing sunlight
the ears of corn
whispering in the breeze:
'No luck like yours'
Rightly framed as a story in abduction, or perhaps in the terror that masculine violence performs in the matrimonial history of mythology.
With rapid boundsThis is also a poem reaching deep in the archive for what it cannot ever contain. Kristný's hands come up drenched in Snorri's unspoken nightmares and in the thought of what may have happened. Eloquent and elegant, this is poetry that lives in the shadows, that is the shadows of textuality; it remembers the sun, and what took it from that light.
three bitches caught me
fast in their teeth:
Sorrow
Solitude
Suffering
December 2, 2018
An epic retelling of an old Norse tale from the perspective of the giantmaiden and victim. I bought this book on a recent trip to Reykjavik while I was looking for Kristný's Drápa. The bookseller handed me this book with Drápa and told me that I should buy both. I'm glad I did. The intoduction of Bloodhoof is written by Rory McTurk, the translator. This introduction explained the story of Gerður (the author's namesake) as it was traditionally told from stories written in the 1300s. It was always told as a love story, but in Kristný's retelling places Gerður as the victim and is told exclusively from her perspective. I'm glad I read it before Drápa, as the introduction helped with the pronunciation of Icelandic in both books.
September 6, 2026
A retelling from the real main character’s point of view circa 1300s; is it not the woman who bore the burden of satiating the powerful man’s lust? In short verses the reader can read the quiet parts aloud from the woman’s POV- the ripping away from her home and family, the violence that passed as love, and the devastation of motherhood while powerless except for the tireless emotional labor that must be expressed to stay alive. Quite a contrary account when compared to the fairy-tale-like telling of the original manuscripts. I recommend this book.
June 13, 2017
A fabulous Icelandic short saga/poem and retelling of an ancient partially recorded saga. The translation was lyrical and poignant. The tale was a beautiful yet sad tale of a God wanting to marry a woman on Earth and her travail of leaving her home.
March 15, 2019
I wish I get to read more of her books – but didn’t find much translated material
I am in love with Icelandic history and all the myths, magic and stories that go round it – Gerdur transmits that vibrantly in this short but powerful poetic recount
I am in love with Icelandic history and all the myths, magic and stories that go round it – Gerdur transmits that vibrantly in this short but powerful poetic recount
March 27, 2020
ótrúlegt
hve mikið
er hægt að sýna
með fáum orðum
hve mikið
er hægt að sýna
með fáum orðum
July 13, 2021
Minimalistic, but proof you don't need a lot of words to write a gripping story.
Want to Read
July 5, 2022recommended by Genevieve Gornichec
March 28, 2025
Sykt god, men litt synd jeg bare fant en engelsk oversettelse..
December 3, 2013
Read originally in February 2014; reread for class in March 2016.
Reviewed for The Reykjavík Grapevine in 2014. Original review below, and archived here: http://grapevine.is/culture/literatur...
Gerður Krístný is an immensely prolific writer, having produced some 18 books—including poetry and short story collections, novels for adults and children, a biography and a travel narrative—since her first publication in 1994. However, she is as of yet relatively unknown to English-reading audiences. For although several international collections have anthologised her poems and short stories, it was not until Gerður won the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2010 that one of her works, the winning poetry book Bloodhoof, was translated into English in its entirety.
“I feel as though I have been writing Bloodhoof since I was a child,” Gerður has stated, explaining that as a girl she was fascinated by Norse mythology. In fact, the first verse that she ever composed was about Odin, the ruler of the Æsir gods. In ‘Bloodhoof,’ she turns her attention to a well-known mythological episode in which the servant Skírnir travels across worlds to fetch a beautiful Jötunn maiden (also named Gerður) and bring her to the god Freyr, who has fallen in love with her from afar.
Bloodhoof's long-form retelling draws its inspiration from the ‘Skírnismál,’ (‘The Lay of Skírnir’). “This story has always been considered a romantic and beautiful story,” she explained. “But actually it is full of violence.” Indeed, Gerður’s spare retelling leaves no room for idyllic interpretations—no glossing over of the fact that in the ‘Skírnismál,’ the woman only agrees to go to Freyr under great duress—only, in fact, after he has threatened to kill her kinsmen and place a curse on her: “Over my head / the sword sang a song / the song of a maiden / who struggles / and dies / her neck decked with a slash.”
The poem’s deliberate pacing and stark imagery is emphasised by its layout: there is no more than a stanza on each page, sometimes no more than a few lines. Given the rhythmic alliteration of the poem in its original Icelandic (which often reflects the ljóðaháttur, or chant metre, of the ‘Skírnismál’), it is also particularly nice to see both the Icelandic and English text on the same page, as even readers who do not understand Icelandic will be able to get a feel for the sound of the original as they read along.
As translator Rory McTurk points out in his useful contextual introduction, Bloodhoof finally allows Gerður her own voice—the poem is told entirely from her perspective—where in ‘Skírnismál,’ she only speaks eight stanzas of 42. Additionally, both Eddic versions of Gerður’s story end with her promise to come to Freyr in nine night’s time, but neither actually relate the pair’s meeting. Bloodhoof, on the other hand, uses this first meeting as a jumping-off point, as merely the start of Gerður’s nightmare of abuse:
He wrapped
my hair
around his hand
and led me
away
…
Freyr’s paws
pawed me
reducing me
to terror
scored
a new scar
on my skin each night
These passages of violence in Bloodhoof resonate particularly for being wholly unvarnished and direct. It is also important to note that this is not the first time that Gerður Kristný has written about these mythological figures. In fact, her first poetry collection includes a poem entitled “Til Skírnis” (‘To Skírnir’). Also narrated by Gerður, “Til Skírnis” ends with awful finality, on the lines “Dauðan lít ég svip minn / í sverði þínu,” (literally: “Dead I see my face / in your sword”).
This line is quoted almost verbatim in Bloodhoof: “Dauðan leit ég / svip minn / í sverði drengsins,” which Rory has rendered as “I saw my face, / dead, reflected / in the envoy’s sword.” But in this echo, the line appears only half way through the book. And while great suffering follows the statement, so does great strength and resurrection:
Yet the body
holds
its own
The body
holds
firm
The body
holds
…
with a foot stuck fast
under a chair
a hand
in the far corner
fingers all over the floor
I gathered myself
into one piece
aligned my eyebrows
set my jaw
tucked in my liver and lungs
pressed my heart
into service
Until eventually, Gerður rises to meet her oppressor: “In the doorway / I met Freyr / He saw his face, / dead, reflected / in my eye.” Still awaiting the vengeance of her kinsmen, Gerður has nevertheless freed herself in spirit, if not yet in body.
Reviewed for The Reykjavík Grapevine in 2014. Original review below, and archived here: http://grapevine.is/culture/literatur...
Gerður Krístný is an immensely prolific writer, having produced some 18 books—including poetry and short story collections, novels for adults and children, a biography and a travel narrative—since her first publication in 1994. However, she is as of yet relatively unknown to English-reading audiences. For although several international collections have anthologised her poems and short stories, it was not until Gerður won the Icelandic Literature Prize in 2010 that one of her works, the winning poetry book Bloodhoof, was translated into English in its entirety.
“I feel as though I have been writing Bloodhoof since I was a child,” Gerður has stated, explaining that as a girl she was fascinated by Norse mythology. In fact, the first verse that she ever composed was about Odin, the ruler of the Æsir gods. In ‘Bloodhoof,’ she turns her attention to a well-known mythological episode in which the servant Skírnir travels across worlds to fetch a beautiful Jötunn maiden (also named Gerður) and bring her to the god Freyr, who has fallen in love with her from afar.
Bloodhoof's long-form retelling draws its inspiration from the ‘Skírnismál,’ (‘The Lay of Skírnir’). “This story has always been considered a romantic and beautiful story,” she explained. “But actually it is full of violence.” Indeed, Gerður’s spare retelling leaves no room for idyllic interpretations—no glossing over of the fact that in the ‘Skírnismál,’ the woman only agrees to go to Freyr under great duress—only, in fact, after he has threatened to kill her kinsmen and place a curse on her: “Over my head / the sword sang a song / the song of a maiden / who struggles / and dies / her neck decked with a slash.”
The poem’s deliberate pacing and stark imagery is emphasised by its layout: there is no more than a stanza on each page, sometimes no more than a few lines. Given the rhythmic alliteration of the poem in its original Icelandic (which often reflects the ljóðaháttur, or chant metre, of the ‘Skírnismál’), it is also particularly nice to see both the Icelandic and English text on the same page, as even readers who do not understand Icelandic will be able to get a feel for the sound of the original as they read along.
As translator Rory McTurk points out in his useful contextual introduction, Bloodhoof finally allows Gerður her own voice—the poem is told entirely from her perspective—where in ‘Skírnismál,’ she only speaks eight stanzas of 42. Additionally, both Eddic versions of Gerður’s story end with her promise to come to Freyr in nine night’s time, but neither actually relate the pair’s meeting. Bloodhoof, on the other hand, uses this first meeting as a jumping-off point, as merely the start of Gerður’s nightmare of abuse:
He wrapped
my hair
around his hand
and led me
away
…
Freyr’s paws
pawed me
reducing me
to terror
scored
a new scar
on my skin each night
These passages of violence in Bloodhoof resonate particularly for being wholly unvarnished and direct. It is also important to note that this is not the first time that Gerður Kristný has written about these mythological figures. In fact, her first poetry collection includes a poem entitled “Til Skírnis” (‘To Skírnir’). Also narrated by Gerður, “Til Skírnis” ends with awful finality, on the lines “Dauðan lít ég svip minn / í sverði þínu,” (literally: “Dead I see my face / in your sword”).
This line is quoted almost verbatim in Bloodhoof: “Dauðan leit ég / svip minn / í sverði drengsins,” which Rory has rendered as “I saw my face, / dead, reflected / in the envoy’s sword.” But in this echo, the line appears only half way through the book. And while great suffering follows the statement, so does great strength and resurrection:
Yet the body
holds
its own
The body
holds
firm
The body
holds
…
with a foot stuck fast
under a chair
a hand
in the far corner
fingers all over the floor
I gathered myself
into one piece
aligned my eyebrows
set my jaw
tucked in my liver and lungs
pressed my heart
into service
Until eventually, Gerður rises to meet her oppressor: “In the doorway / I met Freyr / He saw his face, / dead, reflected / in my eye.” Still awaiting the vengeance of her kinsmen, Gerður has nevertheless freed herself in spirit, if not yet in body.
July 28, 2015
I picked up Bloodhoof while I was in Iceland. I have read the Sagas (in translation) and love them as well as Old English epics like Beowulf and The Wanderer, etc., but wanted to bring back some contemporary Icelandic poetry. This was an excellent quick read. It is epic in scope but the stanzas are very tight and deeply structured. It is not just a translation but a re-telling and in some ways an expansion of an existing tale within a larger saga. I love that kind of stuff, and so this book won me over before I cracked it. Readers of poetry in translation will surely enjoy it as much as I did.
May 22, 2015
Fear, anger and pride of a ravaged mistress.
The texts in this book were very short, but filled with so much feeling I felt like choking at parts. Now this is the sort of prose poetry I'm excited to read more in the future!
The texts in this book were very short, but filled with so much feeling I felt like choking at parts. Now this is the sort of prose poetry I'm excited to read more in the future!
Read
May 12, 2016A short book of startling power. I bought it after hearing the author speak about folklore and social memory and the tales of Iceland. She also talked of the feminine viewpoint in ancient tales. I am so happy to recommend this. I recommend reading it and the Icelandic sagas together.
May 20, 2014
Man ekki hvenær ég táraðist seinast yfir ljóðabók. Ótrúlega mögnuð frásögn, auk þess sem þetta er gullfalleg bók.
November 6, 2015
An atmospheric re-telling of a medieval Icelandic tale -- I finished this book in one sitting and am re-reading parts of it just to savour the beautiful sounds and images.
October 9, 2016
A new perspective on an ancient story best read aloud. A story of a god who falls in love with a mortal. A story of a woman coerced into a new life and what follows.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews