Fóstbrœðra saga

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fóstbrœðra saga ( oath brother saga ) is a 13th century Icelandic saga with a plot that occurs in the early 11th century. The saga is relatively well-known, but due to its scenes of violence it is considered one of the “most controversial” Icelandic sagas . Another problem is that newer interpretations are often based on the novel Gerpla (see under Reception) and not on the traditional text versions. As the life story of the skald Þormóðr Bersason Kolbrúnarskáld, it is counted (with restrictions) to the six skald biographies .

Lore

The saga has survived in several collective manuscripts, such as the Óláfs ​​saga helga des Flateyjarbóks (AM 142, fol .; AM 566a, 4 °) in the Arnamagna collection . The oldest version can be found in the Hauksbók . An incomplete version of the text can be found in Möðruvallabók . (Of this version, however, a copy from the 18th century has been preserved, which still had a complete text as a template.) There are clear differences between the text versions that have survived. The version in Flateyjarbók contains a few additional episodes and its wording largely corresponds to the version in Möðruvallabók . The text in the Hauksbók is much shorter.

action

The main location is northwest Iceland, later also Greenland and finally Norway. The saga is about the two blood brothers Þorgeirr Hávarsson and Þormóðr Bersason Kolbrúnarskáld, who close a sworn brotherhood shortly after the turn of the millennium. If one of them is killed, the other is supposed to avenge death.

The first is a die-hard warrior and the second a poet and womanizer. Þorgeirr is a manslayer and begins his “career” at a young age (at 15) by avenging his father. Both, including auchormóðr, are hardly inferior to the first, take a ship, plunder the coasts of West Iceland with murder and do not stop at the rural population. As a result of his misdeeds, Þorgeirr is ostracized and has to leave Iceland . The two of them part ways when Þorgeirr Þormóðr asks which of them would win if they fight each other. In order not to have to end the friendship with a fight against him, Þormóðr leaves him. (While both meet a few times afterwards in the additional episodes of the Flateyjarbók version, the other versions give the impression that both have completely broken off contact with each other.)

Þormóðr stays in Iceland and returns to his father. As a result, he seeks diversion in a love affair with Þordís von Ögur. To protect her daughter's reputation, which is threatened by this, her mother, Gríma, who knows all about magic, has him carried out an attack that leaves him with a permanent handicap. A little later Þormóðr made the acquaintance of Þorbjörg kolbrún, for whom he wrote love poems. (This is also the explanation for his nickname in the saga: Kolbrúnarskáld .) When he later meets with Þordís again and she is jealous, he claims that he actually wrote the poems for her and changes them. Confronted by Þorbjörg kolbrún in a dream, he denies everything, whereupon she places a curse on him that threatens his eyesight. On the advice of his father, he restores the original version and apologizes to Þorbjörg kolbrún, whereupon she takes back the curse.

After the separation in Norway, Þorgeirr goes to war for King Olaf the Holy . Later he and his companions are attacked and killed by Þorgrím Einarson trolli and Þórarinn ofsi and their followers in Hraunhöfn on Melrakkaslétta. While Þórarin ofsi is slain shortly afterwards under obscure circumstances, the Greenlander Þorgrím Einarson trolli returns to his homeland. Mindful of his oath, Þormóðr travels to Greenland, where he kills him and other members of his family. Then Þormóðr becomes a follower of King Ólav the Saint, at whose side he falls in the battle of Stiklastaðir.

Stylistic abnormalities

The Fóstbrœðra saga differs stylistically from most of the Icelandic sagas , because instead of the "observer's perspective" feelings are addressed directly and there are direct evaluations at the "narrator level", this in the form of a series of shorter digressions, which partly theological, add partly moralizing, partly historical and anatomical comments. As a result, the text contains an ambiguity; it is often not entirely clear how seriously one or the other scene was actually designed.

References to other Icelandic sagas

  • In the Grettis saga there is a scene that is also found in a version of the Fóstbrœðra saga and tells of a joint stay of the sworn brothers with Grettir in Reykjahólar.
  • The Þórarinns Þáttr ofsa also reports on Þorgeirr's death . The Gode Gudmundr ríkí Eyjolfsson, known from other sagas, is also involved in this matter .
  • In the oldest saga of Saint Ólafr there is Þormóðar Þáttr , who tells of a stay óormóðr with King Knútr the Great in Denmark and of his first meeting with King Ólafr. This story differs significantly from the Fóstbrœðra saga .

reception

The Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness resorted to motifs from the Fóstbrœðra saga for his satirical novel Gerpla (published in German as The Happy Warriors ) . In Gerpla , too , Þorgeirr and Þormóðr are the focus of the story.

translation

  • Thule Collection , Old Norse Poetry and Prose, Vols. 1–24, edited by Felix Niedner and Gustav Neckel, Jena, 1912–1930.
  • The saga of the brethren / Fóstbrœðra saga. In: Klaus Böldl, Andreas Vollmer, Julia Zernack (eds.): The Isländersagas in 4 volumes with an accompanying volume . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-007629-8 . Vol. 2, pp. 409-521.
  • The Saga of the Sworn Brothers . Translated by Martin S. Regal . In: Viðar Hreinsson (General Editor): The Complete Sagas of Icelanders including 49 Tales . Reykjavík: Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, 1997. Volume II, pp. 329-402. ISBN 9979-9293-2-4 .

Secondary literature

  • Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, pp. 233f., Pp. 290-293.
  • 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.
  • Fóstbrœðra saga. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon . Study edition. Munich, 1988. Vol. 18, pp. 605ff.
  • Kurt Schier: saga literature . Metzler Collection, Vol. 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In addition to Fóstbrœðra saga , the Skald biographies or Skaldensagas include the Kormáks saga , the Hallfreðar saga , the Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa , the Gunnlaugr saga ormstungu and the Egils saga . For this designation cf. Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (eds.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition, de Gruyter, New York / Berlin, 2005, Volume 28, pp. 559-562
  2. ↑ 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, p. 209f.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Butt, in: Klaus Böldl, Andreas Vollmer, Julia Zernack (eds.): The Isländersagas in 4 volumes with an accompanying volume . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-007629-8 . Vol. 2, pp. 411ff.
  4. ↑ 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, p. 180ff.
  5. ↑ Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, pp. 233f., Pp. 290-293