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In the Nordic Sagas, Kraka (770-842) was a wise and resourceful woman. Kraka (or Áslaug as was her real name) was the daughter of the Danish Viking chief, Sigurd Fafnesbane and Brynhild, one of the Valkyries, but she was brought up in a poor Norwegian family. According to legend, Kraka had to solve a difficult riddle before she could meet the Viking chief, Regnar Lodbrog, who she would later marry. She was instructed to appear before him "neither clothed nor naked, neither eating nor fasting, and neither alone nor accompanied by anyone." Kraka solved the riddle by covering herself in her long hair fastened by a fishing net. She bit into an onion, not considered to be food to show she was not fasting. Then she made a dog accompany her. The illustration to the right shows Kraka meeting Regnar; it is a fragment of an illustration from Saxo's Historia Danica. The artist is Lorenz Frølich (1820-1908), also known for his illustrations of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. |
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