Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

from minerals, slag, pieces of molten iron, and a piece of copper.” Archeological dating as well as the presence of iron smelting and the architecture prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were Vikings in America around the year 1000, approximately five centuries before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World.
9. Borges is referring to the so-called Varangian Guard, organized at the end of the tenth century by Emperor Basil II. Famous for its fearlessness, its ferocity in battle, and its loyalty to the emperor, the Varangians or
Væringjar
were the best-paid soldiers of the empire; serving in this guard was an honor that proferred a lifetime of great prestige and wealth.
10. Viking seafarers occupied these islands in the eighth and ninth centuries.
11. Borges is referring to the Viking expeditions to the Holy Land. This “traveler” or “pilgrim to Jerusalem” is Sigurd “Jórsalafari” Magnusson (ca. 1090–1130), son of King Magnus III.
Jórsalir
was the name the Vikings gave to Jerusalem; the Norse word
fari
means “traveler” or “pilgrim.” According to
Heimskringla
, Sigurd Magnusson left Norway for Spain with sixty ships in the year 1107. He stopped in Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Sicily before arriving in Palestine in 1110. For more information, see
Saga of Sigurd the Pilgrim
, in
Heimskringla
or the
Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
, by Snorri Sturluson, or the anonymous
Orkneyinga Saga
.
12. Borges is surely referring here to the extravagant adventures of a Viking named Hastein, recounted by Benoît de Saint-Maure and by the chronicler Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his work
De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum
. The story is of a legendary nature, and it is unlikely that it contains any historical truth.
13. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
is a collection of annals chronicling the events that took place in medieval England. The original chronicle is thought to have been compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great (871–99). Since then, several other copies have been in circulation, each different according to their geographic locations. The manuscripts are different, all having incorporated material of local interest. Six of these manuscripts have been preserved and are designated by letters of the alphabet. The relationship among them is so complex that several authors assert that instead of talking about a single
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
, it would be preferable to use the plural. The “Battle of Brunanburh” appears in the annals from the year 937. The last annals, from the year 1154, appear in the Peterborough Chronicle (E) and tell of the death of King Stephen.
14. At the end of 1876, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote his version of “The Battle of Brunanburh” based on the prose translation by his son, Hallam, which had appeared in
Contemporary Review
in November of that year.
15. The Anglo-Saxon appendix includes Tennyson’s translation of “The Battle of Brunanburh.”
16. The Battle of Brunanburh took place in the year 937.
17. Borges’s great-grandfather, Colonel Isidoro Suárez, took part in the Battle of Junín, on August 6, 1824, leading a famous Peruvian and Colombian cavalry attack, which was decisive in the outcome of the battle.
18. Borges alternately refers to this character as Anlaf and Olaf. For the sake of simplicity, here and elsewhere we will always use Anlaf, the name Borges uses in his summary of the poem in
Mevieval Germanic Literature
, OCC, 885–86.
19.
Egil’s Saga
includes the story of the Battle of Vinheid (ch. 54), in which Egil and his brother Thorolf fight under the Saxon king Athelstan. Some authors, including Borges, claim that the Batttle of Vinheid is the same as that of Brunanburh, but many doubts remain.
Egil’s Saga
is included in volume 72 of
Biblioteca personal
(Hyspamérica editions), published at the beginning of 1986, a collection of Borges’s favorite books with his prologues.
20. This line and the others in this paragraph are from Tennyson’s translation.
    CLASS 5

1. The Battle of Maldon took place on August 10 or 11, 991. (Medieval sources differ as to the exact date.)
2. Æthelred II, called
Unræd
, later “the Unready” (968–1016). He became king in 978. The name Æthelred means “noble counsel.” Shortly after he became king, Æthelred suffered from waves of Viking attacks. He responded with measures that were both unpopular and futile. Making a pun of his name, his contemporaries nicknamed him
Unræd
, which actually means