Gunnlaugr Ormstungas saga

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Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (German: The saga of Gunnlaug Schlangenzunge ) is an Icelandic saga and belongs to Old Norse literature . The saga is a biography from the second half of the 13th century about the Icelandic skald Gunnlaugr ormstunga Illugason , who lived around 1000, and is one of the six skald biographies . She describes the Icelandic chief society of this time.

The main themes of the saga are unhappy love and bitter hatred.

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Gunnlaugr moved in a dispute with his father to Thorstein Egilsson, the son of the skald Egill Skallagrímsson . There he met his daughter Helga, the beautiful, who was considered the most beautiful woman in Iceland at the time, and wanted her to be a wife. The love was deep and mutual. The father initially refused because he hoped to find a better man for his daughter. In the end, however, the engagement took place on the condition that he be back from a planned trip within three years. Otherwise Helga would be free again.

With the help of Torstein, he traveled to Nidaros and from there to England in 1004 to see King Æthelred , from whom he received a lavishly embroidered cloak for a poem. From there he traveled on to Ireland, the Orkneys and Skara in West Gotland, where he stayed with Jarl Sigurd for a winter . From there he came to Sweden to the court of King Olof Skötkonung , where he met the skald Hrafn Önundarson. After an initial friendship, he got into an argument with him over the question of who could be the first to recite poems to the king. The king chose Gunnlaugr. The latter recited a poem about King Olof, and the king asked Hrafn how he found the poem. “ Big words, but not elegant and a bit stiff like Gunnlaugr himself. ” After Hrafn's counter-lecture, the King asked Gunnlaugr what he thought of the poem. “ Nice, like Rafn himself, but not very remarkable, but why did you, ” he turned to Rafn, “ only composed a normal poem and not an art poem for the king? Do you think it's not worth an art poem? “This created enmity between them and they parted.

Hrafn now drove to Iceland via Trondheim and wooed Helga, the beautiful one, and found support in Iceland. In the following year Thorstein married his daughter Helga to Hrafn. Gunnlaugr also wanted to say goodbye to the Swedish king, but he did not initially let him go because of a threatened incursion by the Danes, but only a year later. Gunnlaugr missed the three-year deadline and only came back to Iceland in the fourth year. When Helga heard of his return, she temporarily separated from Hrafn and went back to her father. At a wedding reception at which Hrafn, Helga and Gunnlaugr were present as guests, Gunnlaugr gave Helga the coat that King Æthelred had given him. The marriage between Helga and Hrafn became increasingly hostile.

On the Althing 1006 Gunnlaugr challenged Hrafn to a duel ( Holmgang ). The rule was that the first to be injured lost. As challenged, Hrafn had the first blow and hit Gunnlaug's shield in such a way that it was split open and a piece splintered off, which made a small wound on Gunnlaugr's cheek. The referees stopped the fight immediately. Gunnlaugr claimed victory because Hrafn was now defenseless, and so did Hrafn because Gunnlaugr was injured. The father Illugi decided that the fight would not continue. As a result, the Holmgang was banned by law at the thing meeting. In order to bring the hostility to an end, both agreed to go to Norway and fight there. This happened. In the spring of 1008 they met in Trøndelag . There was another duel. In the course of the fight Gunnlaugr Hrafn cut off one foot and wanted to end the fight now. Hrafn then propped his leg on a tree stump and wanted to continue the fight, but asked for water. Gunnlaugr fetched water in his helmet, and when he handed him the helmet, Hrafn took it with his left hand, with the other he struck Gunnlaugr with his sword and wounded his head. They fought again and Hrafn was killed in the end. Gunnlaugr died from his injuries three days later in Levanger. In Iceland, this event led to blood feuds between the two families.

Thorstein married his daughter Helga to Thorkell Hallkellsson. Helga had several children with him. But her greatest consolation was to look at a coat that Gunnlaugr had given her. When an epidemic hit the farm, most of them fell ill and died. Helga fell ill too, laid her head in Thorkell's lap, had her coat brought, looked at him for a long time and died.

style

The saga is considered to be the "most literary" of all sagas. The unknown poet created a dense and tragic triangular drama from the historical material. The relationship to the older Egils saga, in whose shadow it stands, is unmistakable. The saga often speaks of poems that the heroes utter impromptu. Some are also quoted. Key scenes are heralded by meaningful dreams. Fate and fate dominate the events. With the Egils saga, this saga has the conflict with the father, the way of illustrating the character of the hero through his deeds and struggles in England and elsewhere and the center of the saga, the Borg court, where Helga, the beautiful, lives, together.

References to other sagas

  • In one version of the Hallfreðar saga , the protagonist has an encounter with both Gunnlaugr and Hrafn. The figure of Hallfreds is also the "optical" model for the figure of Gunnlaugr, although in this the ambivalent features of Hallfreds are considerably weakened.
  • The Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa and the Laxdœla saga are the model for the triangular conflict between Helga, Gunnlaug and Hrafn .

Fiction adaptations (or retelling)

  • Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué : The saga of Gunlaugar, called Dragon's Tongue, and Rafn the Skald . An Icelandic customer from the 9th century. Vienna, 1826.

Translations

  • Walter Baetke (ex.): Gunnlaug and Helga ; Series farmers and heroes / Stories from Ancient Iceland. Hamburg 1938.
  • Felix Niedner (ex.): The story of Gunnlaug snake tongue. In: Four skald stories. Düsseldorf / Cologne 1964.
  • The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue . Translated by Katrina C. Attwood. In: Viðar Hreinsson (General Editor): The Complete Sagas of Icelanders including 49 Tales . Reykjavík: Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, 1997. Volume I, pp. 305-333. ISBN 9979-9293-1-6 .

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. 293-296.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. In addition to the Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu , the skald biographies or Skaldensagas also include the Kormáks saga , Hallfreðar saga and Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa , as well as the Egils saga and the Fóstbrœðra 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