Narrative
Eyrbyggja Saga
Eyrbyggja saga
Anonymous · 1250
Synopsis
On the Snæfellsnes peninsula, from the settlement of the ninth century to the early eleventh, the families of the region quarrel over wood, land and livestock and turn to their chieftains, foremost among them Snorri goði, master of Helgafell, and his rival Arnkell. The narrative follows the passage from paganism to Christianity and mixes supernatural episodes with the quarrels: the dead Þórólfr Halt-Foot returning to haunt the district, the corpse of Þórgunna preparing a meal, the wonders of Fróðá, where a rain of blood precedes a series of deaths.
Context
Written by an unknown author, in the thirteenth century according to most scholars, in the early fourteenth according to others, the saga already knows those of Egill and of the people of Laxárdalr; it survives in fragments of the thirteenth century and in many manuscripts of the fourteenth. Less admired for its art than the great sagas and unreliable as history, it is valuable for what it says about ancient cults, rites and beliefs. Translated into English by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon as early as 1892, then by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, it was translated into French by Régis Boyer in 1973; Stevenson drew The Waif Woman from it, published in 1914.
Who it is for
For a saga in which neighbourly quarrels rub shoulders with the dead who return and wonders from the other world.
Prizes and reception
Judged less accomplished than the major sagas, it is read for its wealth of ancient traditions and has inspired writers, playwrights and illustrators.