Valkyrie · Chapter 3 of 5
The Loom of Spears
A loom of entrails · Clontarf · Weaving an outcome
The battle was not being watched. It was being made on a loom.
One saga preserves a poem in which the work is weaving. In Njals saga, before the battle of Clontarf in 1014, a man sees twelve figures at a loom: the warp is human entrails, the weights are heads, the shuttle is a sword, and they sing as they weave the course of the fight. The poem is called Darradarljod and it is considerably older than the saga carrying it. It gives the clearest surviving statement of what these figures were held to do — not report the outcome of a battle but make it, thread by thread, while the battle is going on.
- A loom
- Entrails and heads
- Older than its saga
Unlocks in-game at Ascension tier 1.
