The figure of St. Magnus preoccupied George Mackay Brown throughout his life. His deeds and character traits informed and inspired much of Brown’s writing. The Saint’s quiet dignity, bravery and generosity of spirit were qualities the writer admired and respected. They chimed with his yearning for a past age when life was simpler and conducted at a slower pace, more in tune with the rhythms of land, sea and nature.
The first time Brown writes about St. Magnus is in 1969. Martyr is the central story in the triptych of tales which forms the core of his anthology, An Orkney Tapestry and tells of the struggle to gain supreme control of the Earldom of Orkney after it is left jointly to Magnus and his cousin Hakon Paulson following their fathers’ respective deaths.
Brown begins his story by explaining the complex genealogy and familial relationships which St. Magnus hails from and outlines some traits which define each of the main characters, putting their actions and behaviour into context. Of the Saint the writer says (Brown, 1969 : 71):-
Saint Magnus, the island Earl, was a most outstanding man, tall, virile,with a vivacious expression, virtuous in his doings, lucky in war, wise, witty, quick with his tongue, noble-minded, generous, magnanimous councillor, extremely popular. He was pleasant and courteous in his talk to good and well disposed men, but hard and pitiless to bandits and Vikings. He had those men put to deaths – harriers of freemen and the common people […] He let no bias influence his judgements; divine justice was more important to him than earthly rank.Magnus is so against war that during a battle against two Welsh earls in the Menai Straits to gain control of the island of Anglesey he refuses to take up weapons. Instead he opens his psalter and begins chanting while the clashing of swords goes on around him. When the King berates him for not doing his duty, the eighteen-year-old Magnus responds (Brown, 1969 : 73):-
I have no quarrel with any man there and so I will not fight.In the end the King, Magnus Barelegs, wins the battle inflicting a heavy loss of men on the Welsh. He returns home to Norway and the story has it that for a while the cousins Hakon and Magnus (the latter also having been made Earl) continue to rule Orkney together. Many sources report, however, that their relationship was often fraught.
George Mackay Brown was keen to explore the story of St. Magnus in more depth than short stories or poetry would allow. His second novel, entitled simply, Magnus, published in 1973, is essentially in two parts. The first expands on the narrative of Martyr and describes the death of St. Magnus on Egilsay on Easter morning 1117 and the events leading up to it. Written in the style of the sagas it tells how the cousins, Hakon and Magnus, agree to settle the differences which make their joint reign over Orkney increasingly difficult. Each is to take no more than two longships and the men needed to sail them. On the way there a huge wave crashes onto Magnus’ ship, scaring the oarsmen half to death. Magnus is overcome by an uncanny sense of foreboding and predicts that his own demise is close.
As soon as Magnus and his crew sail round the Egilsay coastline they see Hakon’s ships approach. There are eight of them. A jealous man, Hakon has come to the island knowing he would not leave until he has murdered his cousin. He wants to be sole ruler of Orkney. Magnus spends the night in the kirk, praying. Morning arrives all too soon and when he leaves he church he finds Hakon and his men already waiting for him. His cousin is not only of a jealous disposition, he is a coward too and when it comes to it is unable to bring himself to carry out the evil deed himself. None of his men are willing to obey Hakon’s wishes. Finally Hakon forces, Lifolf, his cook to do what he cannot. Magnus, recognises the terrible situation the cook is in. Knowing Lifolf is likely to be killed too if he does not follow orders, Magnus kneels before him and bows his head to await the swing of the axe.
The second half of the novel sees an abrupt change of narrative voice and writing style. Here medieval story-telling meets twentieth century atrocities. Brown takes the courageous step of equating the death of Magnus with that of a modern martyr. The brutal execution of the German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, just days before it is liberated, is related in curt, report-style sentences, complete with media representation in which the reporter is quoting what he saw and did. Brown skips astutely between the two storylines, showing that the predicament of both men is equally abject and evil. The intervening centuries dissolve into nothing as he draws comparisons between their respective situations.
Brown is not finished yet with the theme of St. Magnus. His slim volume of poems, Tryst on Egilsay, published in 1989, presents the Saint’s story in seven poems, told mostly in the first person, almost as though he is remembering and writing from the afterlife. The language employed is simple and has a translucent quality which, by its very clarity serves only to deepen the impact upon the reader of the story being told.
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Sources
Brown, G.M.
(1973) An Orkney Tapestry. London: Quartet Books LimitedBrown, G.M. (1998) Magnus. Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd.
Brown, G.M. (1989) Tryst on Egilsay. North Yorkshire (UK): The Celtic Cross Press (limited edition)
