Josh Burgoyne

• Burgoyne, Josh (2025). Sanguine or Sweet: Dew as a Transitional Motif in Grœnlendinga saga. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Dew (dǫgg) is a recurring literary motif in Grœnlendinga saga, where its bookend appearances serve as an allegorical gateway to Vínland. When Leifr Eiríksson and his crew first set foot on this new soil, they gather and drink sweet dew from the field. The scene’s imagery evokes a paradisaical locus amoenus by drawing on medieval associations of dew as life-giving and sacred, reflecting both Christian and non-Christian belief, and, in a sense, welcoming these explorers to Vínland. Yet dew reappears in a different guise at the saga’s violent close; it coats Freydís’ feet prior to her betrayal of the brothers Helgi and Finnbogi. These wet feet wake her husband, Þorvarðr, who then massacres the brothers and their crew while Freydís herself takes up an axe to murder the women. The Norse explorers subsequently leave Vínland for the final time. This later depiction echoes skaldic kennings that link dew to blood, transforming the liquid’s symbolic role as a sign of paradise to a harbinger of bloodshed. I thus posit that dew serves as a transitional motif which depicts Vinland as a deceptive paradise: sweet at first, yet ultimately soaked in violence.

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