Guðrún's sons with Jónakr, who set out on a doomed revenge expedition against Jörmunrekr to avenge their half-sister Svanhildr's death by trampling.
Hamðir and Sörli were the sons of Guðrún Gjúkadóttir and her third husband Jónakr. They are the Norse tradition's rendering of the historical figures Ammius and Sarus. Guðrún incited them to avenge Svanhildr's death even though they knew the journey meant their deaths. On the way they met their half-brother Erpr but slew him in a heated quarrel, a decision that proved fatal to their mission.
They reached Jörmunrekr's hall and cut off the king's hands and feet, but without Erpr they could not complete the deed. Óðinn's intervention caused them to be stoned, for iron would not bite their magically protected bodies. The Hamðismál is one of the oldest and formally most refined of all Eddic poems, and their final words are marked by stoic heroic resolve.
Sources in the Eddas
- Hamðismál
- The complete account of Hamðir and Sörli's revenge expedition. Own translation.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Hamðismál is preserved in Codex Regius and is considered by most philologists to contain some of the oldest strophes in the Poetic Edda.
B What we think we know
Hamðir and Sörli's iron-fastness (iron not biting them) is interpreted as an ancient Indo-European magic motif connected to protective belief systems.