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  • Bad Beef and Mad Cow Disease in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs
  • Jonathan Y. H. Hui

The fourteenth-century fornaldarsaga Bósa saga ok Herrauðs is unique in the corpus of medieval Icelandic saga literature on account of several outrageously flamboyant elements. Studies have been devoted to the saga's use of runes (Thompson 1978), its colorful curses (Lozzi Gallo 2004), and its explicitly pornographic set-plays (Renaud 1996). The runes and fabliaux-inspired pornographic scenes are both unique in saga literature, while the curses are exaggerated beyond all seriousness. This relatively late saga also readily subverts several aspects mostly consistent across other fornaldarsögur, such as its use of over-hyperbolized battle scenes and its hero Bósi's idiosyncratic reliance on cunning rather than physical strength. Also notable is its humorous portrayal of the semi-mythological Goðmundr of Glæsisvellir, who, in his numerous recurrences in fornaldarsögur (Tolkien 1960, 84–6; Ellis Davidson 1991, 167–78),1 is never elsewhere treated as a parodic punch line. In the words of Vésteinn Ólason, the saga is "a comedy where the conventions and clichés of the genre of fornaldarsaga are exaggerated to the verge of parody and indeed beyond" (1994, 121). This article will examine another element whose very construction is a product of this eagerness on the part of the saga author to push established boundaries: the conflation of two established [End Page 461] motifs, the monstrous animal and transformative meat. The discussion will seek to fully contextualize the literary processes underpinning this conflation by examining analogues of each of these separate motifs, in order to determine the specific ways and effects through which the saga author adapted them.

The episode of interest is found in the first half of Bósa saga. After having been exiled from Gautland by King Hringr, Bósi is sent to Bjarmaland on a perilous quest to retrieve a vulture's egg.2 He is accompanied by his blood brother, the king's son, Herrauðr. After a raunchy night with a Bjarmian farmer's daughter, Bósi learns from her the following information about the temple in which the vulture's egg is housed: that the temple is dedicated to Jómali (a Finnic deity) and ruled by Kolfrosta, the mother of the Bjarmian king and priestess of the temple, who has kidnapped Hleiðr, sister of King Goðmundr of Glæsisvellir, intending to make her the next priestess of the temple (Guðni Jónsson 1954–1959, I:299–300).3 Bósi's lover also reveals information about the routine of the temple, which will be central to this discussion:

"Tvævetra kvígu þarf hún í mál. . . . Griðungr einn er í hofinu, trylldr ok blótaðr. Hann er bundinn með járnviðjum. Hann skal skjóta kvíguna, ok blandast þá ólyfjan við hana, ok tryllast þeir allir, sem af eta. Hana skal matgera fyrir Hleiði konungs systur, ok verðr hún þá líka tröll, sem hofgyðjan var áðr."

(Guðni Jónsson 1954–1959, I:26)

("She [the priestess Kolfrosta] requires a two-year-old heifer at each meal. . . . There is a certain bull in the temple, entrolled and worshipped through sacrifice. He is bound by iron chains. He will mount the heifer, and then poison will penetrate her, and all those who eat [End Page 462] her will be entrolled. She will be cooked for Hleiðr, the king's sister, and then Hleiðr will also become a troll, like the priestess before her.")

The two motifs are separated by a distinct sequence of events, namely, the bull's sexual infection of one heifer per mealtime, which is then consumed entirely by the priestess. The direct thematic connection between the bull and the consumer of the heifer-meat is implied by the use of the same verb to describe both. John Lindow notes that the verb "trylla," which he translates as "entrolled" (and which I have followed in my translation), can refer to an appearance that becomes "changed, non-human or both," or it can mean "to go insane," which is what the...

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