Egil's saga
Egils saga (also Egils saga Skallagrímssonar or Egla or Eigla , German The saga of Egil Skalla-Grimsson ) is one of the most outstanding Icelandic sagas .
It was probably written between the years 1220 and 1240. The saga is often attributed to Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), but his authorship is disputed. The saga is about the life of the main character Egill Skallagrímsson , an Icelandic farmer, Viking and skald , and his family who lived in the 10th century . A total of about 400 people appear who are either related to him or meet him in quarrel or friendship.
action
The saga begins in Norway in 850 in the life of Egil's grandfather Úlfr, also known as Kveldúlfr (English: Evening Wolf ), and his two sons Þórólfr, a great warrior who has a complicated relationship with the King of Norway Haraldr , and Egil's father Skallagrímur Kveldúlfsson.
After Þórólfr's death, due to his involuntarily broken subordinate duty to King Haraldr, Skallagrímur and Kveldúlfr flee from Norway to Iceland. Skallagrímur settles as a peaceful farmer and blacksmith in Borg (probably Borg á Mýrum near Borgarnes ), where his sons Egill and Þórólfr (named after his uncle) grow up.
The saga then tells the story of Egil's childhood, which gives a hint of his future rebellious attitude. The peace his family had found is threatened by Egil's dangerous attitude towards social order. He stirs up trouble by committing his first murder with an ax at the age of seven. After that, Egil's travels to Scandinavia and England , his struggles and friendships, the relationship with his family (shaped by envy and affection for his older brother Þórólfr), his years in old age and the fate of his own son Þorsteinn and his descendants are discussed reported.
The saga ends around the year 1000 and spans several generations. Above all, she looks at the various phases in Egil's life, which are often characterized by battles and told by Egill himself with numerous poems. Before his death, Egill allegedly hid the silver treasure he had accumulated over the years near Mosfellsbær and thus founded the legend of silfur Egils (German: Egils silver ).
The scholar Jesse Byock suspects that Egill suffered from the disease osteodystrophia deformans . Byock draws this conclusion by comparing different passages of text with the symptoms of the disease.
literature
- expenditure
- Finnur Jónsson : Egils saga Skallagrímssonar. In addition to Egil's greater poems. (= Old Norse Saga Library. 3). Max Niemeyer Verlag, Halle / S. 1924. (Digitized at Internet Archive)
- Rolf Heller (Hrsg./Übers.): The saga of Egil. The saga of the people on Eyr. The saga of the people from the Laxar Valley. (= Icelandic Sagas. Volume 1). Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1982, pp. 41–305.
- Felix Niedner (Hrsg./Übers.): The story of the skald Egil (= Thule. Old Norse poetry and prose. Volume 3). Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1911.
- Kurt Schier (Ed / Translator): Egils Saga. The saga of Egil Skalla-Grimsson. Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1978, ISBN 3-424-00521-5 (complete revision: Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01262-9 ).
- Research literature
- Claudia Müller: Narrated knowledge. The Isländersagas in Möðruvallabók (AM 132 fol.) (= Texts and studies on German and Scandinavian studies, vol. 47; also Bonn, Univ.Diss., 1999), P. Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2001.
- Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, pp. 276–281.
- Kurt Schier: saga literature . (= Metzler Collection. Volume 78). Reality books for Germanists . Metzler, Stuttgart 1970.
- Rudolf Simek , Hermann Pálsson : Lexicon of Old Norse Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 490). Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-49001-3 .