A Scholarly Introduction
Eiríks saga hin djarfa ok Myrkslímit: A Critical Analysis
This introduction treats the text as a legitimate object of scholarly analysis, employing the methodological tools of saga studies, comparative mythology, and historical-cultural contextualization.
Manuscript Context and Provenance
The saga fragment here presented, tentatively titled Eiríkssaga Myrkslímsbana (The Saga of Eirik, Slayer of the Myrkslím), represents a fascinating intersection of Norse literary tradition and what may be termed “crypto-mythological” material.
The saga’s setting in Greenland during Eirik the Red’s settlement period (circa 985-1000 CE) places it chronologically within the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Icelanders) tradition, yet its content bears stronger resemblance to the fornaldarsögur (legendary sagas) with their emphasis on supernatural encounters and pre-Christian cosmology.
Literary Classification and Genre
This text occupies an ambiguous generic space:
- Íslendingasaga elements: Realistic Greenlandic setting, named historical figure (Eirik the Red), genealogical framework, prose narrative style
- Fornaldarsaga elements: Encounter with non-humanoid monsters, mythological cosmology, expedition into otherworldly spaces
- Þættir characteristics: Episodic structure, focus on a single dramatic encounter
- Skaldic interpolation: Includes a memorial verse (erfidrápa-style) by Odd the Skald
The closest textual parallels are found in:
– Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss (encounters with primordial beings)
– Örvar-Odds saga (expeditions to unknown lands, monsters)
– Eiríks saga rauða (Greenlandic exploration narrative)
The Myrkslím: Etymology and Mythological Positioning
The term Myrkslím (ON: myrkr “darkness” + slím “slime, mucus”) represents a hapax legomenon—a word appearing nowhere else in the Norse corpus. However, its construction follows productive Old Norse compound patterns seen in monster-kennings.
Comparative Mythology: The Myrkslím in Norse Cosmological Context
The Myrkslím exhibits characteristics that position it within several overlapping mythological frameworks:
I. Primordial Chaos Entities
The creature’s formlessness and pre-human antiquity align with Norse creation mythology’s emphasis on primordial states:
Ginnungagap Paradigm: Before the ordered cosmos, Norse mythology posits a void (Ginnungagap) between fire (Muspelheim) and ice (Niflheim). The Myrkslím’s existence in the liminal space between ice and stone, its inability to tolerate extreme cold, and its formless nature suggest it may represent a remnant of this pre-creation chaos.
Völuspá (st. 3) describes the pre-creation void:
Áðr Burs synir / bjǫðum of ypðu,
þeir er Miðgarð / mæran scópo;
sól scein sunnan / á salar steina,
þá var grund gróin / grœnum lauki.
“Before Bor’s sons lifted up the world, they who made famous Midgard; the sun shone from the south on the stones of the hall, then the ground was grown with green leek.”
The Myrkslím exists in a state that predates this ordering—it is explicitly described as feeding “before men walked the earth,” placing it in the same temporal category as the jötnar (giants) who existed before the Æsir.
II. Jötunn (Giant) Typology
While not anthropomorphic, the Myrkslím shares characteristics with chaos-giants:
Ymir Parallels: The primordial giant Ymir, from whose body the world was made, represents undifferentiated matter that must be killed and organized to create cosmos. The Myrkslím’s protean, continuously shifting form mirrors this pre-differentiated state. Its multiple eyes recall the Þrúðgelmir tradition of multi-headed giants.
Þjazi and Shape-Shifting: Many jötnar possess shape-shifting abilities (hamrammir). The Myrkslím’s lack of fixed form represents an extreme version of this—it is ALL potential shapes, never settling into one.
Útgarðr Association: The creature dwells in the deep caves of Greenland’s interior, far from human settlement. This parallels Útgarðr (“Outyard”), the realm beyond civilization where giants and hostile forces dwell. The journey inward into the glacier mirrors traditional journeys to Jötunheimar.
III. Serpent/Dragon Mythology
The Myrkslím’s characteristics overlap significantly with Norse serpent-beings:
Jörmungandr (Miðgarðsormr): The World Serpent, child of Loki, encircles Miðgarðr in the ocean. Key parallels:
– Dwells in water/moisture (the Myrkslím exists in damp caves)
– Incomprehensible size and form
– Associated with apocalypse (ragnarök)
– Cannot be permanently defeated by human heroes
Níðhöggr: The serpent that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil in Niflhel (the lowest realm of the dead). Relevant parallels:
– Subterranean dwelling
– Association with corpses and decay (the Myrkslím’s victims are dissolved)
– Primordial nature
– Connection to the underworld
Völuspá (st. 66):
Þar kemr inn dimmi / dreki fljúgandi,
naðr fránn neðan / frá Niðafjöllum.
“There comes the dark dragon flying, the bright serpent from below from Nida-mountains.”
The Myrkslím as “dark dragon from below” fits this pattern precisely.
IV. Draugr and Undeath Traditions
The saga’s description of the Myrkslím potentially “speaking” with the voices of its victims connects to draugr (revenant) traditions:
Draugr Characteristics:
– Violation of natural death (victims are not properly dead, nor alive)
– Shape-shifting and formlessness (some draugr become mist or shadows)
– Supernatural strength and malevolence
– Inhabitation of burial mounds or dark places
The detail that “none could say” whether the voices were the Myrkslím or the consumed men suggests a horrifying synthesis—the victims may continue to exist within the creature, creating a collective undead consciousness.
V. Dwelling-Place Mythology: The Hostile Hall
The cavern structure deserves analysis:
Anti-Hall: Norse culture centers on the höll (hall) as the locus of civilization, kinship, and order. The Myrkslím’s cavern inverts this:
– The “great chamber” (mikilli stofu) parodies a feasting hall
– Instead of a lord’s high seat, there is a consuming void
– Instead of gift-giving, there is violent taking
– The carved walls suggest a culture, but one utterly alien
This recalls Útgarða-Loki’s hall in Gylfaginning, where familiar hall-customs are twisted into illusions and tests.
Dvergar (Dwarf) Halls: Dwarves dwell in stone halls within mountains and are master craftsmen. The “smooth as glass” walls and impossible carvings suggest dwarf-work, but perverted. This may indicate the Myrkslím either predates or has conquered dwarf-realms.
VI. The Function of Ice as Boundary
The critical detail that the Myrkslím cannot pass into true ice warrants mythological analysis:
Ice as Cosmic Boundary: In Norse thought, ice represents both primordial existence (Niflheim) and death. The Myrkslím’s relationship with ice is paradoxical:
– It exists in ice-caves (association with Niflheim)
– But cannot tolerate pure ice (repelled by the primordial)
This suggests the Myrkslím belongs to a different primordial stratum than the ice-giants. It may represent something that existed BETWEEN the realms of fire and ice, in the mixing-zone of Ginnungagap where life first emerged.
Protective Function: Ice functions here as a helgr garðr (sacred enclosure). Just as sacred spaces could be marked by physical boundaries, the settlers’ use of ice to seal the cavern invokes protective magic. This mirrors practices of sealing burial mounds with stones to prevent draugr from emerging.
VII. The Eyes: A Theological Problem
The hundreds of eyes present a unique mythological feature:
Odin’s Eye Sacrifice: Odin sacrificed one eye for wisdom. Single-eyedness or eye-symbolism throughout Norse myth represents knowledge, particularly forbidden knowledge (rúnar, magical lore).
The Myrkslím’s hundreds of eyes represent an inversion or obscenity—not focused wisdom but fragmentary, incomprehensible perception. It sees everything and nothing, knowledge without understanding.
Argus Panoptes Parallel: While Greek, worth noting for comparative purposes—the many-eyed guardian represents constant, inhuman vigilance. The Myrkslím’s eyes that “open and close like mouths” suggest not watchfulness but hunger.
VIII. Placement in Eddic Cosmology
Where does the Myrkslím fit in the Nine Worlds?
Possibilities:
- Niflheim/Niflhel: The realm of ice, mist, and the primordial. But the Myrkslím’s aversion to ice complicates this.
- Svartalfheim: Realm of dark elves/dwarves, underground. The carved caverns suggest prior inhabitants whom the Myrkslím may have displaced or consumed.
- Between-Space: Most compellingly, the Myrkslím may represent entities that exist in the margins between the ordered Nine Worlds—refugees from the pre-creation chaos that found cracks in reality where they could persist.
Ragnarök Resonance: The saga’s claim that the Myrkslím “shall feed when worlds grow old” explicitly links it to ragnarök. This suggests it is not merely a local monster but an eschatological force—one of the agents of cosmic dissolution.
Völuspá (st. 51-52) describes the breaking of bonds and monsters escaping:
Hrymr ekr austan, / hefisk lind fyrir,
snýsk Jörmungandr / í jötunmóði.
“Hrym drives from the east, holds shield before him; Jormungand writhes in giant-rage.”
The Myrkslím’s promise to feed again suggests it too awaits this cosmic unraveling.
Historical and Cultural Context
The Greenlandic Settlement Period (985-1500 CE)
The saga’s setting during Eirik the Red’s settlement is significant. This was a period of:
– Extreme environmental stress and adaptation
– Contact with unknown territories (including eventual Norse discovery of North America)
– Cultural anxiety about the limits of Christian conversion
– Isolation from traditional power structures in Norway and Iceland
Suppression Theory: If this saga cycle existed, why was it not well preserved?
Several factors may explain its absence from the manuscript tradition:
Christian Censorship: The tale’s emphasis on unkillable, pre-Christian entities that mock human heroism contradicts Christian providential narratives. The 13th-century Icelandic manuscripts were produced in Christian monasteries—scribes may have rejected this material as too pagan.
Greenlandic Isolation: If the saga originated in Greenland rather than Iceland, it may have died with the failing Norse settlement (which vanished by the 15th century). Greenland produced fewer manuscripts than Iceland.
Taboo Material: The saga’s nihilistic implications—that some evils cannot be defeated, only avoided—contradicts the heroic ethos. It may have been orally suppressed as demoralizing.
Cryptid Authenticity: Most provocatively, if the saga preserves genuine encounters with unknown phenomena, later generations who did not share these experiences may have dismissed it as fantasy unsuitable for preservation.
Relation to Broader Myth Cycles
The Monster-Slaying Cycle
Norse tradition includes numerous heroes who confront monsters:
– Sigurðr vs. Fáfnir (dragon)
– Þórr vs. Jörmungandr (ongoing conflict)
– Beowulf vs. Grendel (Anglo-Saxon but culturally related)
The Myrkslím saga SUBVERTS this pattern. Eirik does not slay the monster—he flees. The saga’s “heroism” lies in survival and wisdom (sealing the caves) rather than martial victory. This represents a more pessimistic worldview, closer to Völuspá‘s apocalyptic vision than to optimistic hero-tales.
The Exploration Narrative Cycle
The saga fits within Norse exploration narratives:
– Eiríks saga rauða (exploration of Greenland/Vinland)
– Landnámabók (settlement of Iceland)
– Örvar-Odds saga (fantastic voyages)
But while these typically celebrate Norse expansion and domination of new lands, the Myrkslím saga introduces radical limits: there are places humans cannot go, things they cannot conquer. This may reflect the historical reality of Greenland’s harsh environment and the settlement’s ultimate failure.
The Wisdom-Through-Suffering Cycle
Odin’s self-sacrifice for knowledge (Hávamál 138-139) establishes a pattern: wisdom requires terrible cost. The Myrkslím saga follows this:
– Knowledge is gained (the caves exist, the Myrkslím is real)
– The cost is severe (five men dead)
– The wisdom is transmitted (Odd’s verse preserves the warning)
– Future generations benefit (the caves are avoided)
Connection to Saami Mythology
The Norse settlers in Greenland had contact with indigenous peoples (both Inuit in Greenland and Saami in northern Scandinavia). The Myrkslím’s characteristics overlap with:
Saami Stallo Traditions: The stallo is a hostile, often underground-dwelling being. Some accounts describe shape-shifting or formless qualities.
Syncretism Hypothesis: The Myrkslím may represent Norse interpretation of indigenous Arctic traditions about spirits or forces in the ice, filtered through Norse mythological categories.
Textual Analysis: The Skaldic Verse
Odd’s memorial verse (erfidrápa) warrants formal analysis:
Undir ísbörðum aldnar vættir
í myrkri bíða. Myrkslímit vill
fóðr af folki. Fáir koma aptr
er ganga þangat. Gætið yðar vel.
Metrical Structure: The verse employs fornyrðislag (old story meter), appropriate for grave, archaic subject matter. Each long line contains four stresses (two per half-line), with alliteration binding them.
Kennings and Diction:
– ísbörðum = “ice-sheets” (literal, not kenning—suggests this is descriptive rather than courtly poetry)
– aldnar vættir = “ancient beings” (vættir can mean spirits, creatures, or things)
– fóðr af folki = “food from folk” (grim alliteration of f)
Rhetorical Function: The verse shifts from description to direct warning (Gætið yðar vel = “Guard yourselves well”). This mirrors Hávamál‘s gnomic wisdom-poetry, making Odd’s verse not just memorial but instructional.
Conclusions and Interpretive Framework
The Myrkslím saga, whether representing lost tradition or speculative reconstruction, operates within authentic Norse mythological frameworks while pushing at their boundaries. It synthesizes:
Cosmological primordialism (pre-creation chaos entities)
Eschatological dread (ragnarök associations)
Geographic liminality (Greenland as edge-of-world)
Epistemological horror (knowledge that corrupts and terrifies)
Its most significant contribution to Norse narrative tradition is its anti-heroic realism: not all monsters can be slain, not all darkness can be illuminated, and survival sometimes requires accepting defeat.
This positions the saga as a bridge between the heroic optimism of earlier fornaldarsögur and the more historically grounded, ambiguous tone of late-period sagas. It suggests a culture grappling with the limits of human agency in an indifferent or hostile cosmos—a remarkably modern existential stance within a medieval framework.
For Further Research:
– Comparison with Celtic fomorian (formless chaos beings)
– Analysis of suppression patterns in Christian manuscript culture
– Archaeological investigation of Greenlandic Norse sites for cave-exploration evidence
– Linguistic analysis of Myrkslím compound formation patterns
– Psychological readings of Norse expedition anxiety and colonial failure
From the Saga of Eirik the Bold and the Myrkslím
In the third winter of Eirik’s settlement in Greenland, when the ice lay thick upon the fjords and the sun scarce showed her face above the horizon, there came to his hall strange tidings. Thorstein Svartr, who had ventured far inland seeking walrus ivory, returned with his men much diminished and their minds touched by some terror they would not name. They spoke only of caves within the great ice, carved with no Christian hand nor heathen either, and of sounds that came from the deep places—sounds like the breathing of the world itself.
Eirik, being of bold heart and little given to the fears of lesser men, gathered twelve warriors of proven courage. Among them were his kinsman Thorvald, who had slain a bear with his bare hands; Odd the Skald, who would live to tell the tale; and Bjorn Ironside, so called for his steadfastness in battle. They took provisions for a fortnight and such torches as could be fashioned, and set forth into the white waste where Thorstein had wandered.
On the fifth day they found the place. The entrance to the caverns lay within a cleft of the glacier, and even at its mouth the wind carried a smell that was not of ice nor snow nor any wholesome thing, but rather of ancient seas and corruption. The walls within were smooth as glass, yet not made by water’s patient work. Upon them were carved shapes and symbols that hurt the eye to follow—angles that seemed wrong, and figures of creatures that might have been men, or fish, or things that were neither and both.
They descended. The ice gave way to stone, black and slick with moisture that was not water but some thicker substance. Odd the Skald would later say that the very walls seemed to breathe, expanding and contracting as though they were within the belly of some vast beast. The torchlight danced strangely here, casting shadows that moved against the direction of the flame. And always, from deeper still, came that sound—a wet, rhythmic pulsing, like the beating of a thousand hearts or the lapping of waves in some sunless sea.
It was Bjorn who first saw the Myrkslím. In a great chamber where the ceiling was lost in darkness, where pillars of stone stood carved with more of those maddening shapes, the floor itself began to move. What they had taken for pools of shadow revealed itself as something living—a darkness that flowed upward, taking no fixed form but constantly shifting, swelling, reaching. Within its mass appeared eyes, hundreds upon hundreds of them, opening and closing like mouths gasping for air. They were not the eyes of any beast known to man, but rather like the eyes of fish pulled from the deepest waters, where sunlight has never penetrated.
The thing made sounds—if sounds they could be called. A wet slobbering, a piping that seemed to form almost into words in some tongue older than the tongue of Adam. Tentacles, if such they were, lashed from its bulk, each studded with those terrible eyes, each leaving a trail of slime that steamed in the cold air. The Myrkslím surged toward them like a wave of putrescent night, and in that moment even Eirik knew the taste of true fear.
Three men died in the first moments—Ketil, Sven, and young Haldor who had seen but eighteen winters. The Myrkslím took them not with tooth or claw but simply engulfed them, and their screams were cut short as though they had been plunged into deep water. When the thing drew back, naught remained of them save their weapons, lying upon the stone, and a smell of dissolution that made the warriors retch.
Eirik called the retreat, for he was no fool to throw lives away against such a foe. They fled back through the twisting passages, and the Myrkslím came after, flowing through spaces that no creature of bone and sinew could have passed. Its bulk scraped along the walls, leaving smears of phosphorescent slime that glowed with a sickly green light. More men were lost—Thorvald, taken when he stumbled; Orm, who turned to face the thing and was swept away—but at last they reached the outer caverns where the ice began.
Here a strange thing occurred. The Myrkslím would not follow into the true cold. It halted at the boundary between stone and ice, its mass roiling and churning, those countless eyes fixed upon the fleeing men. It made sounds then that Odd the Skald swore were words in the ancient tongue, words of rage and hunger, promising that it would feed again, that it and its kind had fed before men walked the earth and would feed long after the last man was dust.
Seven men returned of the twelve who had ventured forth. Eirik ordered the entrance to the caverns sealed with stones and ice, and forbade any to venture near that place. Yet in the winters that followed, hunters sometimes reported hearing sounds from beneath the ice—that wet, rhythmic pulsing, and sometimes what sounded like voices calling in the dark, though whether the voices of the Myrkslím or of the men it had taken, none could say.
Odd the Skald made this verse:
Beneath the ice-fields, ancient things
In darkness dwell, where no bird sings.
The Myrkslím waits in caverns deep,
Where brave men went but could not keep
Their lives from that which has no form,
That fed ere men, and shall feed warm
On foolish flesh when worlds grow old—
Heed now this tale that Eirik told.
And men thereafter called that place Myrkslímsgil, the ravine of the dark-slime, and it is shunned to this day.
Frá Eiríki hinum Djarfa ok Myrkslíminu
The Discovery
Í þriðja vetri Eiríks í Grænlandi kom Þorsteinn Svarti aptr með fám mönnum. Hann sagði frá hellirum í ísinum, er váru skorðir með undarligum hætti. Þaðan kom hljóð sem heimsins andi sjálfr.
In the third winter of Eirik in Greenland came Thorstein the Black back with few men. He spoke of caves in the ice, which were carved in a strange manner. From there came sound like the world’s breath itself.
The Journey
Eiríkr tók tólf menn ok fór til hellirsins. Á fimmta degi fundu þeir staðinn. Veggir váru slétir sem gler, ok á þeim váru ristnar rúnir er sáru augum at sjá. Þeir stigu niðr í myrkrit.
Eirik took twelve men and went to the cave. On the fifth day they found the place. Walls were smooth as glass, and on them were carved runes that hurt the eyes to see. They descended into the darkness.
The Myrkslím
Í mikilli stofu hófsk gólfit at hrærask. Skuggi rann upp ok tók engi fast form—svört messa er strauk ok þrútnaði. Í því birtusk augu, hundruð auga, er opnuðusk ok lukusk. Þetta var Myrkslímit.
In a great hall the floor began to move. Shadow flowed upward and took no fixed form—a black mass that flowed and swelled. In it appeared eyes, hundreds of eyes, which opened and closed. This was the Myrkslím.
The Attack
Þrír menn dóu brátt—Ketill, Sveinn ok Haldórr ungr. Myrkslímit greip þá ok gleypti. Engi fannsk síðan nema vápn þeira.
Three men died quickly—Ketil, Sven and Haldor the young. The Myrkslím seized them and swallowed them. Nothing was found after except their weapons.
The Retreat
Eiríkr kallaði á flótta. Þeir renndu til íssins. Myrkslímit fylgdi en stóð við mörkin iss ok steins. Þat gekk eigi í kulðann. Sjau menn komu aptr af tólf.
Eirik called for retreat. They ran to the ice. The Myrkslím followed but stopped at the boundary of ice and stone. It went not into the cold. Seven men came back of twelve.
Odd’s Verse – Skaldic style
Undir ísbörðum aldnar vættir
í myrkri bíða. Myrkslímit vill
fóðr af folki. Fáir koma aptr
er ganga þangat. Gætið yðar vel.
Beneath ice-sheets, ancient beings
in darkness wait. The Myrkslím wants
food from folk. Few come back
who go there. Guard yourselves well.
Closing
Síðan var staðrinn kallaðr Myrkslímsgil, ok karlar forðask hann alla daga.
Afterward the place was called Myrkslímsgil (Myrkslím-ravine), and men shun it all days.
Derivation of Dark Slime
Skvalpdjúp (SKVALP-dyoop) – “Surge-deep” or “Slosh-beast”
– Captures the amorphous, liquid movement
– Skvalpa = to splash/slosh, djúp = deep/abyss
Margígr (MAR-gee-gur) – “Sea-ogre”
– Simple, terrifying, very Norse
– Mar = sea, gígr = ogress/monster
Móðguðr-þing (MOHTH-gooth-thing) – “Rage-mass thing”
– For their violent, mindless nature
– Thing used like in “The Thing” – the unknowable
Myrkslím (MYRK-sleem) – “Dark-slime”
– Direct and visceral
– Myrkr = darkness, slím = slime/ooze
Most Poetic/Saga-worthy:
Augnaveifari (OWG-nah-VAY-far-ee) – “Eye-weaver”
– References the hundreds of forming eyes
– Sounds like a proper saga monster
Fornvaki (FORN-vah-kee) – “Ancient waker”
– Emphasizes their Elder Thing origins
– Forn = ancient, vaki = waking thing
Recommendation: Skvalpdjúp or Myrkslím – both sound authentically Norse while capturing the “shoggoth’s” horrifying essence.
Vikings encountering one would scream “Myrkslím! Myrkslím!” as the thing oozed from the depths.
