Brennu Njáls saga

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Page of the Njáls saga from Möðruvallabók
Mount Þríhyrningur in Fljótshlíð , where Flosi and his men hid
Monument in Hlíðarendi, Fljótshlíð

The Njáls saga , often also called Brennu Njáls saga ( aisl. The saga of Njáll or The saga of the Brenna Njálls , sometimes abbreviated to Njála ) is one of the most famous and popular Icelandic sagas . Brenna is the name for a form of murder by arson and appears as a motif in other Icelandic sagas.

The Njáls saga is the longest of all Icelandic sagas and the only one whose main location is southern Iceland.

content

A feud between the families of Njáll Þórgeirsson and his wife Bergþóra Skarpheðinsdóttir in Bergþórshvóll on the one hand and Gunnar Hámundarson and his wife Hallgerður Höskuldsdóttir on Hlíðarendi on the other hand leads to the fact that Njáll is set on fire.

Written fixation

The Njáls saga was written by an unknown author between 1270 and 1290 (1280 after Einar Ólafur Sveinsson ). The unknown author obviously knew older sagas, royal sagas and prehistoric sagas that he used and may have drawn on events from some Samtíðasögur (German contemporary sagas ) when designing individual scenes .

Reference to other Old Icelandic sources

Njáll Þórgeirsson, the Brenna , his later son-in-law Kári Sölmundarson, Gunnar Hámundarson and other characters are mentioned in the Landnámabók , which Brennu-Flosi knows about the Kristni saga

Manuscripts

It was handed down in 19 medieval manuscripts and fragments; there are also five parchment manuscripts from around 1600 and from the 17th century. The manuscripts are divided into three groups: X, Y and Z. The difference between X and Y is so great that two versions are assumed. The most important manuscripts of the respective group are:

Edits

The nationally known Icelandic artist Friðrik Þór Friðriksson directed an experimental film on the subject in 1980.

In 1989 the British BBC produced a radio play version of the saga based on a manuscript by David Wade . The same script was set to music in a German translation by WDR in 1991 .

Icelandic television finally filmed the saga in 2004.

literature

Text output
Translations
  • Heller, Rolf (Ed., Translator): Isländer-Sagas. Second volume. The saga of Njal. The saga of Grettir. Insel, Leipzig 1982.
  • Heusler, Andreas (translator): The story of the wise Njal. In: Niedner, Felix (ed.); Thule. Old Norse poetry and prose. Fourth volume. Eugen Diederichs , Jena 1914.
  • Naumann, Hans-Peter (Ed., Translator): Njals saga. The saga of Njal and the murderous fire. In: Petersson, Rikke (Ed.): Scandinavian Studies. Language-Literature-Culture. Volume 3. Lit, Münster 2005.
  • Karl Ludvig Wetzig: The saga of Brennu-Njáll. Brennu-Njál's saga. In: Isländer Sagas I. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2011, pp. 449–814.
Secondary 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. 300-309.
  • Sverrir Tómasson : Njáls saga. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 21. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, pp. 231-234.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, p. 300.
  2. ↑ Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, pp. 301-304, 306f.
  3. ↑ Jónas Kristjánsson: Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland . Transferred from Magnús Pétursson and Astrid van Nahl, H. Buske, Hamburg, 1994, p. 304.
  4. ^ Jón Karl Helgason: The rewriting of Njáls saga: translation, ideology, and Icelandic sagas. Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2000. p. 42.
  5. ↑ The tree of rag. (PDF) on HÖRDAT - the audio game database