Gisli Sursson's Saga and The Saga of the People of Eyri

by Martin Regal

  4. And one will stand behind the other: A direct charge of homosexuality, considered among the worst insults in the world of the sagas.

  5. out of range of the dogs’ barking: That is, because they could not hear the dogs, they were safe.

  6. There were sixty of them on board: These are the somewhat confusing figures given in the original.

  7. Thorbjorn Sur (Whey): Later, Gisli is referred to, not as Thorbjornsson (son of Thorbjorn), but Sursson after his father’s nickname.

  8. Thorsnes Assembly: Thorsnes was originally a sacred site dedicated to the god Thor by its first settler, Thorolf Moster-beard, who also established a district assembly there (see The Saga of the People of Eyri, Chs. 4 and 9).

  9. Thorstein Cod-biter: The chronologies of Gisli Sursson’s Saga and The Saga of the People of Eyri are not in harmony here as Thorstein Cod-biter should be long dead according to the latter. It has been suggested that the chronologies would match if the writer of Gisli Sursson’s Saga is confusing Thorstein Cod-biter with his cousin and foster-brother Thorstein Surt, who lived on Thorsnes and, according to The Saga of the People of Laxardal, died around the time that Thorgrim, son of Thorstein Cod-biter, took Thordis as his wife (AD 955–9).

  10. coloured clothes: An indication of social status and prosperity, often associated with people who have travelled abroad and bought their clothes there – rather than wearing Icelandic homespun cloth.

  11. Gest, son of Oddleif: Known from several sagas (The Saga of the People of Laxardal, Njal’s Saga, The Saga of Ref the Sly and The Saga of Havard of Isafjord) as a wise man, just and well-intentioned, even gifted with prophetic vision.

  12. Harald Grey-cloak: Ruler of Norway 961–74, after the death of King Hakon, foster-son of King Athelstan.

  13. cut out a shirt: In the sagas it is considered a sign of a woman’s attraction to a man if she cuts out a shirt for him. Aud’s words should therefore be taken as an accusation of Asgerd’s love for Vestein.

  14. divorce: Divorce was a relatively easy process for women in the sagas. Complaints about the husband’s unmanly behaviour or, as here, his refusal to share the marital bed with his wife were legal and acceptable grounds for a divorce. In such an event the woman could reclaim her bride-price and dowry which was formerly administered by the husband (see Glossary).

  15. tapestry: The sagas mention the use of tapestries for decorative purposes in festive halls. It is believed that these may often have had pictures on them, telling stories of well-known legendary characters and events.

  16. his sworn brother, Thorkel: This shows that the oaths between Gisli, Thorkel and Vestein held, whereas Thorgrim had not fulfilled the ceremony of sworn brotherhood with Vestein (in Ch. 6). Gisli did not become Thorgrim’s sworn brother either.

  17. secret manslaughter rather than murder: This distinction is only found here and not in any other sagas or law codes. The more common distinction is between a publicly announced manslaughter and a secret murder.

  18. Hel-shoes: This is the only extant reference to special shoes tied to the feet of a dead man, but reflects the general belief that the dead had to make a long journey to their destination in the afterlife. The northern ‘Hel’ appears to have resembled the Greek Hades without the punitive aspects of the Christian Hell.

  19. viper… wolf… to death: The two beasts in Gisli’s dream are reminiscent of the Midgard serpent and the wolf Fenrir which fight Thor and Odin in the doom of the gods (Ragnarok). One of Odin’s most frequent pseudonyms is Grim, thus implanting the idea of Thorgrim as Vestein’s killer.

  20. ball game: A game played with a hard ball and a bat, possibly similar to the Gaelic game known as hurling which is still played in Scotland and Ireland. The exact rules are uncertain; the game appears to have involved two players at any one time, although sides are arranged in Ch. 18. Clashes at ball games often herald full-scale feuds, although in The Saga of the People of Eyri, Ch. 43, the setting is more gratuitous.

  21. sacrifice to Frey: Frey is a fertility god in the old Nordic mythology. Thorgrim enjoys a special relationship with him, as shown by the belief stated in Ch. 18 that Frey prevented Thorgrim’s mound from freezing. Thorgrim thus has the divine forces on his side, bearing the names of both Thor and Odin (whose pseudonym was Grim) and making sacrifices to the third main divinity, Frey.

  22. Eyjolf Thordarson: A cousin of Bork and Thorgrim on their mother’s side, the son of Thord Bellower. His nickname ‘Grey’ may reflect his guileful character.

  23. give a mare for this foal… not be underpaid: The word for a slap to the face is buffeit or kinnhestur, the latter literally meaning ‘cheek-horse’. Thus Geirmund’s pun suggests that he intends to pay back Thorgrim in kind for the blow.

  24. black cloak: Saga characters commonly don clothes of black (or a dark blue) when intending to kill.

  25. Snorri: A twin form of the name Snerrir which means ‘unruly’, ‘argumentative’. Snorri is the main character in The Saga of the People of Eyri (see Introduction, pp. xxvii–xxxi).

  26. a sack was placed over his head: In order to avoid the Evil Eye, similar to the precautions taken by Arnkel in The Saga of the People of Eyri (Ch. 33) when he approaches his father’s corpse from behind.

  27. three hundred pieces of silver: The price offered for Gisli is three times the normal amount for an outlaw.

  28. Grettir Asmundarson: Hero of The Saga of Grettir the Strong. Together with Gisli Sursson, Grettir was the best-known – and most admired – outlaw, with a whole saga to his name. Grettir is said to have survived for nineteen years as an outlaw. Gisli is six years short of Grettir’s achievement.

  29. the distance between them was so short: The distance between Gisli’s hideout (Geirthjofsfjord) and Otradal where Eyjolf lived.

  30. Ingjald: This son of an unnamed aunt of Gisli is a well-respected person in other sagas. His son was married to the sister of Thord Glumsson, the second husband of Gudrun Osvifsdottir in The Saga of the People of Laxardal.

  31. Ref: Literally ‘fox’, which might suggest links with Reynard in European beast fables and a possible allegorical interpretation of this episode. One of the wiliest characters in the saga literature is the eponymous hero of The Saga of Ref the Sly.

  32. until Snorri the Godi drove him out: This episode is recounted in full in The Saga of the People of Eyri (Ch. 14).

  33. Helgi: Vestein’s son.

  34. Hedeby: The largest town in Scandinavia during the Viking Age with 1000–1500 inhabitants, an international trading centre with its own mint. Harald the Stern, King of Norway, sacked the town in 1050 and it had been abandoned by 1100.

  THE SAGA OF THE PEOPLE OF EYRI

  1. Ketil Flat-nose: Father or father-in-law of many of the most prominent settlers in Iceland (among them his daughter Aud the Deep-Minded, a Viking queen in Dublin and a settler in Hvamm in the West of Iceland), whose descendants became some of the most powerful families in the tenth and eleventh centuries (among them several Lawspeakers, who presided over the Althing, and the leader of the most ambitious voyage to Vinland, Thorfinn Karlsefni). Ketil is well known from The Book of Settlements and The Saga of the People of Laxardal.

  2. Ingolf Arnarson: The first permanent settler of Iceland, according to all literary sources. Ari the Learned, in his Book of the Icelanders from the early 1100s, dates the settlement to 870 but later versions of The Book of Settlements give the year as 874. Analyses of annual snow-layers in the glacier in Greenland have now shown that a volcanic ash layer that covers large parts of Iceland and predates the first settlement in most parts of the country can also be traced in the glacier. That ash fell in 871 (±1 year), showing that these ultimately oral sources are fairly accurate about the first settlement.

  3. Thorolf carried fire around his land-claim: Carrying fire around an area of land to claim it as a site of settlement is frequently mentioned in Old Icelandic literature. No one was allowed to claim a larger area of land than he could carry fire around in a single day with the cre
w of his ship. The smoke from a fire that he lit in the morning had to be visible from where he lit a fire in the evening. Women were allowed to claim the area of land they could lead a heifer around in a single day.

  4. There he had a temple built: About the authenticity of the temple description that follows, see the Introduction, pp. xlv–xlvi. ‘Helgafell’ literally means ‘holy mountain’. It is not uncommon that mounds and mountains have a religious function as here and the idea of people dying into mountains is widespread. Helgafell retained its religious role after the coming of Christianity. A medieval monastery was established there and local folkbelief still holds the mountain in high esteem.

  5. elf-frighteners: Literally ‘that which frightens elves away’, a euphemism for faeces.

  6. Aud and her son Thorstein: The lives of Aud and her son Thorstein the Red are portrayed in more detail in The Saga of the People of Laxardal and The Book of Settlements.

  7. Bjorn settled… in Bjarnarhofn: The accounts here and in the following chapters about the various settlements are partly told in more detail in The Saga of the People of Laxardal and in The Book of Settlements, and partly in more detail here. These varying details indicate that those who put the texts together had access to oral informants whom they relied on, no less than written sources.

  8. Ari Thorgilsson the Learned does not count her among his children: Ari the Learned only refers to two children of Thorstein the Red, Osk and Olaf Feilan, in the one extant work attributed to him, The Book of Icelanders. Those references are not a part of a complete list of Thorstein’s children and it is possible that the writer of this saga has thought of Ari as the compiler of The Book of Settlements, where the children are listed. Hallstein was the son of Thorolf by a former wife.

  9. Thord Bellower: The leading chieftain in the district, great-grandson of the Viking queen in Dublin, Aud the Deep-Minded. His status was such that it is enough for the author to link characters up with him to elevate their status. He also appears in The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Hen-Thorir’s Saga.

  10. Bork the Stout: Features in many sagas, most prominently Gisli Sursson’s Saga.

  11. Thorgrim married Thordis Sursdottir in Dyrafjord: Here the saga links up with the subject matter of Gisli Sursson’s Saga (Ch. 4) and gives a plot summary which leaves no doubt as to who killed Vestein (see also Introduction, p. xxii).

  12. Helgi Droplaugarson and Vemund Fringe: Both well-known characters, from The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons and The Saga of the People of Reykjadal and of Killer-Skuta, respectively.

  13. they announced the death of Gisli Sursson… before he fell: The following account of Thordis’s attempted revenge is also told in Gisli Sursson’s Saga (Ch. 37). See Introduction, p. xxxvii.

  14. Styr had a lot of influence in the area and many followers: Styr appears as a great killer and troublemaker in The Saga of the Slayings on the Heath, where the story of the berserks is also told in Chs. 3–4 (see Chs. 25 and 28 here).

  15. door court: A ‘civil’ court, held not at an assembly but at the home of the defendant. Such courts are not mentioned in other sagas, but are referred to in law books.

  16. Eirik the Red discovered Greenland… for one winter: The story of Eirik and the later voyages from Greenland to Vinland is told in Eirik the Red’s Saga and The Saga of the Greenlanders.

  17. At that time Earl Hakon Sigurdsson ruled Norway: Earl Hakon ruled 975–95.

  18. The Swedish King Eirik the Victorious: Ruled c.950–93.

  19. Earl Sigurd Hlodvesson of the Orkney Islands: Appears in other Sagas of Icelanders as well as in The Saga of the Orkney Islanders (Chs. 11–12), which tells of his raiding in the Hebrides but does not mention the Isle of Man.

  20. At that time Palna-Toki was the leader of the Jomsvikings: The town of Jomsborg is bathed in a special aura as the source of legends about the Vikings who fought earls Eirik and Hakon at Hjorungavag in Norway in 994 (as told in The Jomsvikings’ Saga and Kings’ Sagas collections). Jomsborg is thought to have been on the Oder estuary in Poland, where a town which flourished during King Harald Black-tooth’s reign in Denmark in the latter half of the tenth century was destroyed in the mid eleventh century.

  21. turf-game: This particular sport is not mentioned elsewhere in the sagas.

  22. Steinthor shot a spear over them for good luck, according to ancient custom: It is believed to have had Odinic associations to mark an army by throwing a spear towards it – Odin was the supreme god of war and wisdom in the Old Norse mythology. A weapon which is thrown or shot in this fashion in the sagas, without the intention to kill a particular person, often kills the most innocent bystander.

  23. when Geir the Godi and Gizur the White attacked Gunnar inside his house at Hlidarendi: A reference to the best-known scene of that kind in the sagas, in Njal’s Saga.

  24. Snorri went to Vinland the Good with Karlsefni… Skraelings: Karlsefni was the leader of the most ambitious exploratory voyage to Vinland, according to The Vinland Sagas. He was the great-grandson of Thord Bellower. Skraelings is the term used in the sagas to describe the native inhabitants of the North American continent.

  25. who owned the slaves: Hallstein’s slaves are known from other medieval sources as well as nineteenth-century folklore, which remembers that they were once found asleep while they were supposed to be working. As a result they were promptly punished by their owner, who hanged them.

  26. everyone in Iceland was baptized: The story of the adoption of Christianity as the official religion in Iceland in the year 1000 is told in several sources, in most detail in The Saga of Christianity (Kristni saga).

  27. have my body carried to Skalholt: Expresses Thorgunna’s prophetic vision, as Skalholt was later to become the seat of the first bishop in Iceland, in 1056.

  28. Bolli Thorleiksson, Gudrun Osvifsdottir’s husband: Two of the main characters in The Saga of the People of Laxardal (in which Snorri the Godi also appears).

  29. Grettir the Strong: See note 28, p. 203.

  30. Ospak, who quarrelled with Odd Ofeigsson of Midfjord: That story is known from The Saga of the Confederates.

  31. from whom the Sturlung clan is descended: The Sturlungs were the most influential family in politics and literature in the thirteenth century. Members of the family often held the post of lawspeaker and authored many known literary works.

  32. In the last days of St Olaf: Saint Olaf, King of Norway, was killed in 1030.

  REFERENCE SECTION

  Family Ties in The Saga of the People of Eyri

  Structure and Feuds in The Saga of the People of Eyri

  AD

  Chapters

  884–6

  1–8

  Settlers arrive in Iceland from Norway and the British Isles

  932–4

  9–10

  Feud settled by the sons-in-law of Thord Bellower

  980

  15–22

  Snorri the Godi and other main characters are introduced (Chs. 11–14)

  23

  Eirik the Red is exiled (Ch. 24)

  982

  26–7

  Vermund gets berserks (Ch. 25)

  983

  29

  Styr kills berserks. His daughter marries Snorri (Ch. 28)

  987–90

  30–32

  993

  35–8

  Thorolf Lame-foot dies and haunts the neighbourhood (Chs. 33–4)

  994

  39

  Clash abroad

  40

  Thurid has a son, Kjartan

  997

  41–6

  Styr fights on both sides and his brother Vermund the Slender settles the feud

  Bjorn of Breidavik goes abroad (Ch. 47), the Thorbrandssons settle in Greenland and go to Vinland (Ch. 48)

  1000

  Christianity is accepted as the official religion in Iceland (Ch. 49)

  1000–1001

  Thorgunna arrives at Froda; the Froda wonders take place (Chs. 50–55)
>
  1008

  Snorri moves to Tunga and takes part in national politics.

  1010–12

  63

  Gets rid of Ospak and his band (Chs. 56–62) Bjorn the Champion of the Breidavik People has become a chieftain in a faraway country across the ocean to the south-west (Ch. 64)

  Final episode about Snorri and his in-laws’ alliances (Ch. 65). Snorri dies in 1031

  Map 1: The West Fjords

  Map 2: Haukadal

  Map 3: Breidafiord

  Map 4: Regional feuds backed by Snorri and Arnkel

  Historical Events linked to the Sagas

  The settlement of Iceland, mainly from Norway, begins c.870

  The establishment of the Althing c.930

  Christianity accepted in Iceland 999 or 1000

  First trips to Vinland c. 1000–1011

  Agreement between the Icelanders and Olaf Haraldsson the Saint, King of Norway 1020–30

  The Möðruvallabók codex of the sagas compiled mid 14th century

  CHRONOLOGY OF GISLI SURSSON’S SAGA

  952 Thorbjorn Sur arrives in Iceland (Ch. 4)

  960 Attempt at pledging sworn brotherhood between Thorgrim, Gisli, Thorkel and Vestein (Ch. 6)