This entry is for two types of cards: the saga illustration ones and some totally random old photographs.
The first card: Meet Gunnar of Hlíðarend. Gunnar is awesome. Gunnar has a pretty face and he can dress up better than any man, he can somersault in full war-gear and his favourite type of woman is homicidal maniac with a good head of hair.
Juuuuuuust kidding about that last one, but not completely. Hallgerður has managed to get several men killed before they get married, and among these men were her previous two husbands. Some people might let this affect their opinion but not Gunnar, because Gunnar is awesome like that! :D
This is Gunnar's preferred fighting style: he spears people, lifts them up on a spear and throws them into a river! And just see how far that river is, that is some serious throwing distance not to mention good aim!
When they come to kill Gunnar in his home he even spears someone through the roof of his house, thus making one of the most well-known viking slapstick comedy moments.
Random guy: "IDK if Gunnar's home so I'll climb his roof to find out."
Gunnar: "ORLY" *spear*
Random guy: "Guys, I think this means he's home and no doubt about it!" *badum-tshhhh*
Random guy: *dies*
Why yes, I'm a Gunnar fangirl. It really isn't hard to fall for such obvious alpha traits!
Here be a totally different type of hero of the same saga, Skarphéðinn. He gets plenty of comments at one point to his unfortunately ugly face - seems even the most seasoned warriors get a skip at the heart when they see him for the first time, and unlike with Gunnar it's not because they're suddenly so awed! However, Skarphéðinn more than makes up for this for his action with that sweet axe there - meet the "Ogress of War" he's brandishing in this pic. That's the name he gave that axe. Eventually when the house around him was burned, Skarphéðinn struck Ogress of War so deep into the wall it didn't suffer damage in the fire.
He himself died in the fire, but hey, at least he had his priorities right, right?
This image is from some earlier battle in which, if I'm not too badly mistaken, he slipped and would have fallen down an icy slope in front of his enemies except that to avoid this he accelerated and chop-chopped everyone on his way through the rather surprised enemy ranks. Guys, I just love sagas.
Then for something completely different: national garb! These two girls aren't wearing Icelandic national garb though, since the Icelandic version does not include the silk ribbon as a sign of maiden vs. woman. My guess is Norwegian...? Feel free to correct me if I'm totally wrong about this!
And to return to fighting, have some more glíma! It truly is a beautiful sport, so high on the "just being bros"-scale only the Turkish oil wrestling in tight leather pants could top it! No rly I love watching glíma, actually.
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