An early example of an Evil Overlord?
Thursday, May 8th, 2003 18:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeIt has occurred to me while reading Egil's Saga, that Queen Gunnhild would make a fantastic Evil Overlord. If she had James Bond in her clutches she wouldn't make any of the classic mistakes that allow him to escape every time.
When Egil is shipwrecked in Northumberland, only to find that his enemies King Eirik Bloodaxe and Queen Gunnhild (the former rulers of Norway) are now in charge there, his blood-brother Arinbjorn (a close friend of the king's) takes him to the court to plead for his life. Queen Gunnhild's reaction to Arinbjorn's suggestion that Egil be allowed to compose a poem in honour of the king is to the point: "We don't want to hear his words of praise. Have him taken out and killed, Eirik. I don't want to hear him or see him". If only all Evil Overlords were so decisive!
Unfortunately, in order to succeed as an Evil Overlord, the first thing she would have to do is get rid of her husband. King Eirik agrees with Arinbjorn that killing Egil at night would be murder (?) so he tells him to come back the next day for judgment. Overnight Egil composes a long poem in honour of the king, and when he recites it the king is won over and lets Egil go (while reserving the right to take revenge if he ever sets eyes on him again), which must have infuriated the queen. I'm with Gunnhild on this; if someone had killed my son, foster-son and brother-in-law as well as many of my courtiers and servants, I wouldn't let him go just because he wrote a flattering poem about me!
When Egil is shipwrecked in Northumberland, only to find that his enemies King Eirik Bloodaxe and Queen Gunnhild (the former rulers of Norway) are now in charge there, his blood-brother Arinbjorn (a close friend of the king's) takes him to the court to plead for his life. Queen Gunnhild's reaction to Arinbjorn's suggestion that Egil be allowed to compose a poem in honour of the king is to the point: "We don't want to hear his words of praise. Have him taken out and killed, Eirik. I don't want to hear him or see him". If only all Evil Overlords were so decisive!
Unfortunately, in order to succeed as an Evil Overlord, the first thing she would have to do is get rid of her husband. King Eirik agrees with Arinbjorn that killing Egil at night would be murder (?) so he tells him to come back the next day for judgment. Overnight Egil composes a long poem in honour of the king, and when he recites it the king is won over and lets Egil go (while reserving the right to take revenge if he ever sets eyes on him again), which must have infuriated the queen. I'm with Gunnhild on this; if someone had killed my son, foster-son and brother-in-law as well as many of my courtiers and servants, I wouldn't let him go just because he wrote a flattering poem about me!
