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LAUGHING SHALL I DIE

explores the adventures and mind-set of these heroes and heroines, many of whom were actual historical figures who flourished during the Viking heyday of roughly A.D. 750 to 1100....They were also utterly dauntless, self-control being honored as the supreme virtue. When Ivan Morris produced his classic study of the Japanese conception of the hero, he titled it “The Nobility of Failure.” Vikings and samurai are much alike: A hero, stresses Shippey, “is defined not by victory but by defeat. Only in defeat can you show what you’re really made of. Only in final defeat can you show that you will never give in.” A true Viking goes down fighting while uttering a defiant wisecrack and never showing any emotion except contempt for his enemies. Prestige and “drengskapr” — honorable behavior — matter more than winning.
From this perspective, consider this book’s odd-sounding title. When Ragnar Hairy-Breeches — no one knows why he bears this weird nickname — is dumped into a snake pit, he composes a “death-song” that ends with the line “laejandi skalk deyja,” or “laughing shall I die.” Earlier in this poem he grimly jokes that “the piggies would grunt if they knew of the old boar’s death.” Ragnar, of course, is the old boar and the “piggies” are his sons. There in the pit, this fierce Viking — neither hoping for nor expecting rescue — uses this farmyard metaphor to tell his enemies that their days are numbered.

ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED; IF WE ARE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.....GOD MUST BE A COMEDIAN!