Gísla saga

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The Gísla saga Súrssonar ( Old Icelandic for saga of Gísli, Súrs son , Gísla saga for short or just Gísla ) is an Icelandic saga and is one of the highlights of medieval storytelling . In terms of narration, the plot of the saga, the phases of which are coherent and balanced in terms of content, is carried out extremely sparingly. The Gísla is one of the tragic works of Norse literature, the drama of which lies in an apparently inescapable fate of the protagonists .

The Gísla saga tells the story of the siblings Gísli, Þorkell and Þórdís, who have to emigrate with their parents from western Norway to Iceland , get married there and get into a devastating conflict in which most of the relatives are killed. The saga, with its deliberately obtrusive contrivances with a fatalistic tone in the plot and characteristics of its protagonists, exudes a peculiar mood, a mixture of pathos and melancholy .

Origin and author

The Gísla saga Súrssonar is the work of a gifted artist. The reserved Christian evaluation does not have to mean that he was a clergyman. In the middle of the 13th century this can also be expected of an educated layman, especially if you consider that the Gísla, and especially in its earlier version from the 12th century , thematize heroic pre-Christian virtues as exemplary action.

The Gísla saga exists in several manuscripts, which belong to two different versions:

  • the oldest text, a manuscript from the 15th century ( AM 445c 40) and
  • a more recent text (Y = NKS 1181 fol. ), which is particularly noticeable because it depicts the prologue set in Norway in much more detail.

The surviving version of the Gísla saga is an editorial from the 13th century. The story of the outlaw Gísli was known as early as the 12th century. This is attested by the Ævi Snorra goði by Ari Þorgilsson from the beginning of the 12th century, a short biography of Goden Snorri, which mentions that Eyjólfr killed Gísli after Snorri's return from Norway.

Jan de Vries considers the many impromptu stanzas (old Icelandic lausavísur , loose stanzas) that the author puts into Gísli's mouth to be older than the saga version. They are probably not from Gísli, but give the impression of authenticity in terms of meter , style and content. According to their poetic form, these skaldic stanzas belong to the 12th century; stanzas 11 and 40 show Eddic influence (cf. Sigurðr and Guðrún songs ).

The author used different sources for his saga. First and foremost, he resorted to oral traditions (old Icelandic frásagnir , report, narrative, customer, message, information), from which he borrowed the central motifs of Gísla. The Ur-Gísla is said to be comparable to the Orms saga Barreyjarsskálds that priest Ingimundr recited at the famous wedding in Reykjahólar in 1119 . Jan de Vries suspects in this context an unknown Sigurðar saga , a prose text mixed with stanzas.

The author found the historical events underlying the saga in the Landnámabók , which reports in Chapter 25 that Ingjaldr spoiled himself with Börkr digri for Gísli's sake on the island of Hergilsey. The author took other scenes of Gísla from sagas known to him:

  • the níð episode from the conflict with Hólmgöngu-Skeggi comes from the Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa ,
  • the story of the tied cow tails is also told by the author of the Droplaugarsona saga and
  • the Eyrbyggja saga mentions independently of the Gísla the killing of Vésteinn and Þorgríms, the marriage of the Þórðis with Börkr and their unsuccessful attempt to avenge her brother on Eyjólfr.

Stylistic means

Like other Icelandic sagas , the Gísla does not describe historical events, even if it occasionally refers to them. It is a literary work, most likely comparable to the modern short story or the novel . The author of the saga was neither a historian nor a scientist, he was a writer and an artist. The elaborate narrative style, the carefully composed dialogues and the structured structure of the plot speak a clear language.

In his saga, the author uses the impersonal style of the authorial narrative situation . From his oral episodes, other written contemporary sagas and his creative energy and imagination, he wrote a saga in the style of Eddic heroic epic. His text is characterized by its closeness to reality and lively, comprehensible descriptions of reality. The sentences are simply formed, following entirely natural language. Apart from the tragic fate of Gísli and the heroic virtues exemplified in his behavior and person, there is no poetic elevation or exaggeration of the characters. The dialogues are sober, factual and without exaggeration or whitewash. The saga is told in a straightforward manner and not overloaded, the introduction is consistently and directly related to the central events in Iceland, pre-figuring them, the ending is limited to a minimum of information, without interrupting the mood and distracting from what is actually essential.

In the uniformly composed plot, in which the individual scenes are clearly intertwined, the author demonstrates a preference for juxtaposing parallel episodes, which he arranges according to the principle of the threesome. The Gísla saga owes the arc of tension, drama and climax of its plot to this contrasting, increasing repetition of the same and the like. The Gísla saga also proves the influence and material from oral tradition in the use of this poetic medium.

Synopsis

The first part of the saga tells of the fate of the family of Gísli's grandfather, Þorkell skerauki, a Hersen from Súrnadalr in western Norway. Þorkell is married to Isgerðr and has three sons with her: Ari, Gísli and Þorbjörn, all three of whom live at home. The eldest son Ari is married to Ingibjörgr, who moved into the house of skorkell skerauki after their marriage. The vagabond berserk Björn, who forces everyone to fight, also challenges Ari and kills him. Ingibjörg's servant Kollr has the magic sword Grásíða, which gives victory to anyone who wields it. Ingibjörgr, who liked Ari's brother Gísli better than her own husband, calls on him to take revenge and procures him the sword Grásíða, with which Gísli slays the berserk. Since he no longer wants to return the sword to its owner, a fight ensues in which Gísli and Kollr die. The youngest brother, Þorbjörn, takes over the father's farm, gets married and has four children: Þórðis, Þorkell, Gísli and Ari.

A family neighbor, Bardr, seduces Þórðis, who is promised to Kolbjörn. Þórði's father, Þorbjörn, is against a connection between his daughter and Bardr and discusses this with his son Gísli, who, against the will of his brother Þorkell, kills Bardr. Þorkell allies himself with Hólmgengu-Skeggi, whom he advises to advertise his sister Þórðis, whereupon Skeggi challenges his rival Kolbjörn to a duel. Kolbjörn evades this fight cowardly, so that it is again Gísli who defends the family honor and Skeggi is seriously injured in the duel. In order to get revenge, Skeggi's sons burn down the house of Þorbjörn's family, whose members only survive because they fight the fire with whey (old Icelandic súrr ). This event leads to Þorbjörn's nickname: Þorbjörn Súr. After this attack, Þorbjörn Súr left Norway with his family and emigrated to Iceland. Ari, who lives with a relative of the family, stays behind in Norway.

In West Iceland, Þorbjörn Súr and his family live in Haukdœlir on Dýrafjörður . There they set up the Sæból farm. After the death of her parents, Þorkell marries Þorbjörn's daughter, Ásgerðr, and Gísli marries Auðr, Vésteinn's sister. Þórðis married the brothers to Þorgrímr, Þorstein þorskabíts son. Þorgrímr lives with his wife on Sæból, while Þorkell and Gísli move into the neighboring farm Hóll.

Gestr Oddleifsson, who plays a similar role in the Laxdœla saga, prophesies to the residents of Haukœlir that their good relations will not last three years. Gísli then suggests blood brotherhood in order to strengthen mutual relationships. During the ceremony, Þorgrímr rejects Gísli's brother-in-law Vésteinn, and Gísli's forward-looking plan fails.

One day Þorkell overhears a conversation between Auðr and Ásgerðr, who are discussing that Ásgerðs is attracted to Vésteinn, Auð's brother. Þorkell, jealous of Vésteinn, takes this as an opportunity to separate from Gísli, but demands half of the joint property from him and moves to Sæból, to his brother-in-law Þorgrímr.

Gísli is preparing a party at which Auðr wants her brother Vésteinn to be present; Gísli himself hopes that he will stay away because of the looming threat of Þorkell's jealousy. Þorgrímr has now managed to forge the parts of the broken sword Grásíða, which he received as a dowry, into a spear. In the meantime, Vésteinn has landed in Iceland. Gísli sends him a warning, but Vésteinn proposes the triple warning - watch out ( vertu varr um þik ) - to the wind, and comes to Hóll. He presents Gísli with a tapestry, which he wants to share with Þorkell in order to appease him, but who refuses to accept it. Nightmares torment Gísli for two consecutive nights. On the third night, during a violent storm, Vésteinn is killed on Hóll with the spear Grásíða, which the murderer leaves in his chest. Gísli and his people buried Vésteinn below Sæból. Þorgrímr and Þorkell join in, and Þorgrímr ties Vésteinn's slippers in a provocative way, but according to an old custom. Then the three talk about the fact that it will probably never be known who killed Vésteinn. On the way home, Gísli makes up with Þorkell.

In order to organize a festival, Þorgrímr, further evidence of his arrogance, asks for the tapestry that Vésteinn gave to Gísli before his death. Þorgrím's provocative behavior opens up a dimension to the already smoldering conflict, so that Gísli remains no alternative to revenge. Þorgrím sends a boy to Hóll to pick up the carpet. Gísli causes the boy to leave Sæból unlocked overnight on his return. Gísli gains unobserved access to Þorgrím's house and takes revenge on Þorgrímr, also with the spear Grásíða. A ship burial is organized for einorgrímr, which Gísli, in memory of Vésteinn's slippers, weighs down with a huge stone. Þorkell is holding back and keeping the peace for the time being.

Gísli's sister Þórðis marries Þorgrím's brother Börkr digri, who in turn hires the magician Þorgrímr nef to use magical spells to expose his brother's murderer. Believing himself unobserved and prompted by the magic spell of Þorgrímr nef, Gísli composes, in his triumph, a scaldic stanza in which he confesses the homicide of Þorgrímr. Þórðis secretly witnesses her brother's confession.

From now on, Börkr digri appears as Gíslis' new opponent. His relationship with Þorgrímr and a revenge sequence between followers of Gísli and Börkr heats up the conflict between the brothers-in-law. Þórðis, Gísli's sister, gets caught between the fronts because of her affinal relationship, and in the end has no choice but to betray her brother. In the course of several homicides among the henchmen, Þórðis reveals her husband Gísli's confession. Þorkell warns his brother that his secret has been revealed. Gísli then asks him for support, which Þorkell refuses to give him. In the meantime Börkr has put together a squad to invite Gísli to the Thing; Þorkell warns him again and tells him about Börk's plans. Gísli asks his brother for the second time what help he will give him and is turned back for the second time. Gísli sends representatives to the Thing to make a settlement on his behalf. The project fails and Gísli is ostracized. Due to the persistent curse of Þorgríms nef, he does not manage to find asylum anywhere.

The fulfillment of Gísli's fate takes its course. The rest is easy to tell: Börkr digri instructs Eyjólfr inn graí to arrest Gísli. Eyjólfr sends his henchman Njósnar-Helgi to scout out Gísli's whereabouts; Eyjólf's search is ultimately not crowned with success.

From then on, two women appear in Gísli's dreams - one is friendly to him, the other wants to harm him. The friendly dream woman shows him seven fires that represent his lifetime. Some of the fires have already burned down, others are still burning bright and shining. The dream woman also advises him to turn away from the faith of his fathers and points out Christian values ​​to him.

Njósnar-Helgi sets off again, finds Gísli's trail, but Eyjólfr fails this time too, to find the refugee. His attempt to bribe Gísli's wife, Auðr, also fails. In this situation Gísli again turns to his brother for help, who refuses it a third time. For the fourth and last time he asks his brother for help, who this time gives him a boat. When he parted, Gísli prophesied that he would be slain before him and said reproachfully: "But you can believe that, I would not have acted like that on you." For the next three years Gísli stayed with his relative Ingjaldr on Hergilsey, but fell through his ornate handicrafts that nobody would trust Ingjaldr to do.

Njósnar-Helgi is sent out again to scout out Gísli's stay on Hergilsey and inform Börkr. He gathers a team, but does not meet Ingjaldr and Gísli on Hergilsey because they are out fishing. Gísli escapes his pursuers again by tricking him into exchanging clothes with a servant.

Vésteinn's sons, Helgi and Bergr, slay Þorkell on his arrival on the Þorskafjarðar-Thing with his own sword, in revenge for the death of their father, in which Þorkell Súrsson was involved.

Other troubling dreams torment Gísli.

Again Njósnar-Helgi is sent out. He tracks down Gísli, but Eyjólfr inn grái remains unsuccessful for the fourth time. Eyjólf's second attempt to bribe Auðr to reveal Gísli's hiding place to him remains unsuccessful: Auðr instead bleeds his face with the purse of silver that he offers her as a price for her betrayal, and Eyjólfr has to leave in shame.

In Gísli's dreams the malevolent dream woman has now gained the upper hand. He sleeps worse and worse and begins to fear the dark. When Eyjólfr finally tracks him down, Gísli has been living at home with Auðr and her foster daughter Guðríðr all summer. To escape his enemies, Gísli and the two women climb a cliff where they can better defend themselves. Gísli defends himself “wildly and manfully”, as the saga says. In the first attack he kills Helgi, and Auðr pushes Eyjólfr off the cliff. In the course of the conflict, Gísli gradually kills most of the attackers. Even seriously injured, he asks for a break, speaks his last scaldic stanza, kills Þorðr, one of Eyjólf's relatives, and collapses, dying, over the man who has just been slain.

Eyjólfr returns to his client Börkr with the news of Gísli's death. Þórðis tries to pierce Eyjólfr with Gísli's sword, which is lying next to him on the ground, but inexperienced in handling weapons, stab and brotherly vengeance failed because it only hit Eyjólf's thigh. Þórðis separates from Börkr and moves to Þórdísarstöðum on Eyri; Börkr stays on Helgafell until the god Snorri drives him away, as reported in the Eyrbyggja saga.

comment

Like the Laxdœla saga , the Gísla saga is modeled on the heroic epic . The Eddic Sigurd poem also had an inspiring effect on the author of Gísla. The argument (old Icelandic senna , quarreling with someone, arguing, having an exchange) between the sisters-in-law Auðr and Asgerðr in the women's room is reminiscent of the conflict over social priority between Guðrún and Brynhildr. Like the motifs and texts of the Nibelungenstoff , the plot and protagonists of Gísla - Þorkell, Ásgerðr and Vésteinn - are arranged according to the classic triangular relationship of the Sigurðr-Brynhildr motif, in whose dynamics Gísli becomes entangled.

The characters of Gísla are drawn psychologically differentiated and driven by an inner conflict. Their actions and behavior, their personality, represent characteristic Germanic heroic virtues: sincerity, honor, sense of duty, loyalty, courage, bravery. The author has heavily exaggerated Gísli's character, stylizing him into an exceptional personality, with whom he exemplifies heroic values, and which other men cannot stand alongside. This, too, is a reason for Gísli's fate: The men related to him can only survive socially and personally if Gísli falls outside the social context. But it is precisely the ostracism that helps Gísli to express his personality even more clearly.

The central theme of the Gísla is the ostracism, the exclusion of a member from his community and the psychological effects of this social isolation on his actions, his thoughts, feelings and behavior. The eight, the banishment , is a state of lawlessness and peace that excludes the outlaw from the legal association of the community. Due to a series of tragic entanglements, defamation and social confrontations that result in a series of manslaughter, Gísli loses his right to personal integrity and inviolability and can be killed without punishment for the perpetrator. Gísli becomes skógarmaðr (dt. Forest man or forest walker ), someone who is banished to the full eight.

Another important theme of the Gísla is the emphasis on the fateful . In the Gísla, the Germanic belief in fate creates the dominant atmosphere of the saga. It is a destiny that is predetermined. Right from the start, Gísli knows about his fate, in this his character extends to the Germanic heroic topos. His heroic charisma is fed by his steadfastness with which he rebels against his fate. The author has elaborated on this subject in the prophetic dreams of the saga that accompany Gísli's biography. But the fatalism that the saga defines here is an active one, not one that conforms to the immutable. Gísli is ready to take on fate in any situation. Knowingly, he tries to avert the impending disaster by all means. Only when he is physically and mentally exhausted, his resilience and energy have been used up in the last fight, does he accept his inevitable fate that was triggered by the failed blood brotherhood and the women's squabbles.

The long life in solitude wears Gísli down, makes him depressed and moody. Increasingly in this situation his great sensitivity is revealed, which was already expressed in his skaldic stanzas and which he, caught in his social and family obligations, hides behind the heroic virtues he represents. The lingering, ominous dreams eventually frighten him too much. It is not Eyjólf's abilities that lead to Gísli's killing, on the contrary, it is Gísli himself who decides to go to death consciously and willingly. In this attitude he remains master of his fate to the end. Perhaps this attitude expresses the real Christian ethics of Gísla: the doctrine of free will and human self-determination, which the author skilfully combined with the pre-Christian belief in fate.

However, it is strange for an Icelandic saga that an exceptional hero like Gísli remains unavenged. But there is also no other saga hero who is as unimpeachable a moral victor as Gísli, who rises above his opponents, the cowardly Eyjólfr and the disgraced Börkr, even in death. From the perspective of the Icelandic saga, the Gísla saga is one of the most perfect of its kind: it perfectly varies the characteristic literary means of its genre and thus becomes the most mannerist representative of an already mannerist genre (Theodore M. Andersson).

literature

  • The story of Gísli the Outlaw, Thule Collection - Old Norse Poetry and Prose, Vol. 8: Five stories of Ächter and blood revenge, translated by Andreas Heusler and Friederich Ranke, Jena, 1922: 61-133.
  • Franz Seewald, The Gísla saga Súrssonar, Göttingen, 1934.
  • Anne Holtsmark, Studies in the Gísla saga, Studia Norvegica Ethnologica et Folkoristica 2, 1951: 1-55.
  • Taylor Culbert, The Construction of the Gísla saga, Scandinavian Studies 31, 1959: 151-165.
  • Jan de Vries, Old Norse Literature History, Vol. 2, Berlin, 1967: 378–383.
  • Theodore M. Andersson , The Icelandic Family Saga. An Analytic Reading, Harvard University Press, 1967: 175-185.
  • Rudolf Simek , Hermann Pálsson : Lexicon of Old Norse Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 490). Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-49001-3 , pp. 105-107.

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