Melkorka

*"What do you want from me?" Asked the farmer's daughter.
"I need to water my steed at your wine-trough" answered Bósi...
"Where is your steed, my sweet?" she said.
"Between my two legs, my love," he replied, "and you may stroke him, but gently, since he is very ... bashful."
Said the girl: "I'll guide him there and thrust him deep if he does not want to freely drink ..."
She took hold of Bósi's staff and stroked it: "It is a tender steed, although rather stiff at the neck."
"Be careful not to drown your steed!" Shrieked the farmer's daughter..."*
―Melkorka and Eysteinn[src]
**Melkorka** is a kitchen slave at Freysdalur and a talented singer.

## Biography

### The Chieftain's Feast

Melkorka travels to the Chieftain's Feast alongside her fellow slaves Olga and Kormlöth, carrying the belongings of Fjölnir and his family.

Later that evening, the slaves have a rare moment of revelry in which they dance around a bonfire. Melkorka uses a milk pail as a drum as she and Eysteinn, Hákon Iron-Beard's comical slave, sing the Bósa Saga. The song's bawdy lyrics drive the slaves into an erotic frenzy which ultimately leads to an orgy.

### Intended for Sacrifice

Several mornings later, the dismembered corpses of Hersveinn Battle Hard and Hjalti Battle Hasty are discovered nailed to the barn at Freysdalur in the shape of Sleipnir. The temple priestess, Áshildur Hofgythja, examines the corpses and concludes that their wounds were left by otherworldly means and that a sacrifice must be made to sate the spirit's bloodlust.

Melkorka is chosen for sacrifice and later that night Áshildur and her assistant, Hallur Freymundur, take her to the temple where they blindfold, bind and gag her. As they prepare to carry out the sacrifice, they are distracted by a distant howling. An intruder enters the temple, kills Hallur, binds and gags Áshildur and rescues Melkorka. She is led out of the temple, but once she removes the blindfold, her rescuer is gone.

### Return to Service

*"Go take some night air. I'll finish here. Go on."*
―Olga to her fellow slaves[src]

The following night, Melkorka is back working in the kitchen. Once Halldóra leaves, Olga tells the others to leave while she finishes up. Tired, they follow her order.

### Liberation

*"From this night there are no masters on this farm. Take your freedom and do with it what you will."*
―Amleth to the slaves[src]

Melkorka is in the byre when the door bursts open and Hallgrímr Half-Troll staggers in, having been disemboweled, and falls dead. Björnulfr appears in the doorway and tells the slaves to take their freedom and do with it what they will. He then kills Gudrún and Gunnar, after which Fjölnir rides to Mount Hekla. Melkorka joins the other slaves as, freed from their oppressors, they burn the farm to the ground and kill Halldóra and Áshildur for mistreating them.

## Personality

Melkorka is a talented singer who enjoys engaging in song, which is a rare source of revelry in her life as a slave. She carries out her duties at Freysdalur to avoid the wrath of her enslavers and once Amleth frees her and her fellow slaves, she joins them in burning the farmstead to the ground.

## Religion

Little is known about Melkorka's religious beliefs, but she does not appear to be of the Norse faith, as she is thankful when Amleth saves her from being sacrificed by Áshildur and Hallur.

## Trivia

* Melkorka is the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson in *Landnámabók* and *Laxdæla saga*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Eggers, Robert; Sjón, *The Northman*, Focus Features, USA, April 22, 2022
2. ↑ Robert Eggers on The Northman, Viking lore and Harry Styles - The Face