Gunnlaugr ormstunga Illugason

Gunnlaugr Ormstunga (* around 983, † around 1008 in Norway) was an Icelandic skald ( Ormstunga = worm tongue). He is the main character in an unknown author of the Gunnlaugr Ormstungas saga from the 13th century. It contains many of his poems.

Gunnlaugr was the son of Illugi svarti Hallkelsson (Illugi the Black) from an area on Borgarfjörður in Iceland and Ingibjörg Ásbjarnardóttir. There were several famous skalds in his family. Illugi's mother was Þuríður Dylla Gunnlaugsdóttir, daughter of the skald Gunnlaugr Ormstunga d. Elderly. Illugi's brother was the skald Tindur Hallkjelsson, who was in the service of Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson in Norway (see Norwegian history ). He was nicknamed "Ormstunga" because he was notorious for his mockery.

His life according to the sagas

The Gunnlaugr Ormstungas saga is poetically freely designed, but a historical core is ascribed to it.

At the age of 12 he wanted to go abroad, but his father refused to give him the necessary support. Then he left his father in the dispute and went to Torstein Egilsson, the son of the skald Egill Skallagrímsson . There he also learned law. There he met his daughter Helga. The father initially refused because he hoped to find a better man for his daughter. In the end, however, they got engaged on the condition that he be back 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, from there 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 King Olof Skötkonung . There he met the skald Hrafn Önundarson and got into an argument with him over the question of who could be the first to recite poems to the king. They parted in enmity. Hrafn also campaigned for Helga and found support in Iceland. Gunnlaugr missed the three-year deadline and only came back to Iceland in the fourth year. Helga was meanwhile married to Hrafn. At Althing 1006, Gunnlaugr challenged Hrafn to a duel (Holmgang), the last witnessed Holmgang in Iceland. After that it was banned by law. The duel ended in a draw. In order to bring the hostility to an end, both agreed to go to Norway and carry out the duel there. This happened. In the spring of 1008 they met in Trøndelag . There was another duel. Hrafn was killed, but Gunnlaugr died three days later at the age of 25 from his injuries.

The poet

Apart from insignificant short texts, Gunnlaugr is one of the six Icelandic skalds that has its own saga. The others of these sagas are the Egils saga about the skald Egill Skallagrímsson, the Kormáks saga about the skald Kormák Ögmundarson, the Hallfreðar saga about the skald Hallfreðr Óttarson , the Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa about Björn Hítdlakegte's opponent (although the historically ist) and the Fóstbrœðra saga about the skald Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld Bessason.

The seals Aðalsteinsdrápa, Lausavísur, Sigtryggsdrápa are known by him. He composed 1002 different poems on King Æthelred and the Jarl Sigurd of Orkney , as well as some verses on Jarl Sigurd on Gotland, 1003 on the Swedish King Olof Skötkonung and a face on Sigtrygg Silkeskjegg in Dublin. Very little is left of him.

From the little that has survived, it is difficult to gauge his poetic quality. It seemed easy for him to find the rhyme, but it was hardly original. He knew his way around the theory of dial poetry. There is an appreciation of the skald Rafn from the time when they were still with King Skötkonung: "The poem has big words, but is not elegant and is stiff like Gunnlaugr himself."

literature

• Finnur Jónsson: Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie . Copenhagen 1923.

Web links

The saga

• Digital copy of an edition of the "Viking Society for Northern Research" (PDF; 7.7 MB)
• The story of Gunnlaug Wormtongue . (PDF; German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Landnámabók chap 22.
2. ↑ on the so-called Skaldensagas cf. Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition. de Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2005, Volume 28, pp. 559-562.

This article is based on a public domain text from the Danish-language lexicon Dansk biografisk leksikon in the 1st edition from 1887 to 1905. Please only remove this note if you have revised or rewritten the article to the extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic.

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .