Sörli- Norse HeroHero

The Last Ride of Vengeance

Sörli was born to Guðrún Gjúkadóttir and her third husband Jónakr, alongside his brother Hamðir. Their half-sister Svanhildr, Guðrún's daughter by Sigurðr, had been given in marriage to the Gothic king Jörmunrekkr but was accused of infidelity with his son Randvér. Jörmunrekkr ordered Svanhildr trampled to death beneath the hooves of horses, and Randvér was hanged.

Guðrún armed her surviving sons and urged them to ride south to Jörmunrekkr's hall. In Guðrúnarhvöt, she reminds them of the wrongs done to their kin, naming each death in the family line. Sörli and Hamðir took up their weapons. They told their mother they would not return, and that she should prepare their funeral ale.

The Killing of Erpr

On the road south, the brothers encountered their half-brother Erpr, who offered his aid. In Hamðismál, the exchange is cryptic and riddling. The Völsunga saga tells it plainly: Erpr said he would help them as a hand helps a foot. The brothers took this as mockery and cut him down. Erpr had pledged to strike the head from Jörmunrekkr while his brothers took the king's hands and feet. Without him, they could maim but not kill.

Death in Jörmunrekkr's Hall

Arriving at the Gothic king's hall, Sörli and Hamðir fell upon Jörmunrekkr and hewed off his hands and feet, but could not deliver the killing blow to his head. That stroke had been Erpr's to make. The wounded king cried out to his warriors, but swords and spears could not bite the brothers, for they were protected by enchantment. In Hamðismál, Odin himself appears as a one-eyed old man and tells Jörmunrekkr to have the brothers stoned, since iron will not harm them.

Sörli and Hamðir fell beneath a hail of stones. The last of Guðrún's sons died in a hall far from home, their vengeance half-finished, the blow that mattered given away on the road.