THREE ICELANDIC OUTLAW SAGAS THREE ICELANDIC OUTLAW SAGAS THE SAGA OF GISLI THE SAGA OF GRETTIR THE SAGA OF HORD VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2004 Selection, introduction and other critical apparatus © J. M. Dent 2001 Translation of The Saga of Grettir and The Saga of Hord © J. M. Dent 2001 Translation of The Saga of Gisli © J. M. Dent 1963 This edition first published by Everyman Paperbacks in 2001 Reissued by Viking Society for Northern Research in 2004 Reprinted with minor corrections in 2014 ISBN 978 0 903521 66 6 The maps are based on those in various volumes of Íslensk fornrit. The cover illustration is of Grettir Ásmundarson from AM 426 fol., a late seventeenth-century Icelandic manuscript in Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, Reykjavík Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS Preface ............................................................................................ vii Chronology .................................................................................... viii Introduction ..................................................................................... xi Note on the Text .......................................................................... xxvi THE SAGA OF GISLI ..................................................................... 1 THE SAGA OF GRETTIR ............................................................. 69 THE SAGA OF HORD ................................................................ 265 Text Summaries ............................................................................ 329 Genealogical Tables ...................................................................... 340 Bibliography ................................................................................. 341 The Verses..................................................................................... 343 Glossary of Icelandic Terms ......................................................... 351 Index of names ............................................................................. 357 MAPS Iceland ................................................................................... xvi–xvii Haukadal ........................................................................................... 2 North-West Iceland ..................................................................... 20–1 Hvalfiord....................................................................................... 266 Central West Iceland ................................................................. 276–7 South-West Iceland ....................................................................... 328 PREFACE The translation of The Saga of Gisli in this volume was made by George Johnston and first published in Everyman’s University Library in 1963 with Notes and an Introductory Essay by Peter Foote. It is here repro- duced with only minor changes. The Saga of Grettir was published in G. A. Hight’s translation in Everyman’s Library in 1914 and reissued with an Introduction and Notes by Peter Foote in 1965. This new trans- lation is by Anthony Faulkes, as is that of The Saga of Hord, which has not appeared in Everyman’s Library before. The Introduction, Notes and Index in this volume are also by Anthony Faulkes but use material from Peter Foote’s Notes and Essay on The Saga of Gisli (including the account of the metre of dróttkvætt on p. 343), from his Introduction and Notes to The Saga of Grettir (the Glossary has also benefitted from several more recent suggestions made by him), and from Anthony Faulkes’s Introduction to The Saga of Hord and the Holm-Dwellers, translated by Alan Boucher, published by Iceland Review, Reykjavík, Iceland in 1983. viii CHRONOLOGY CHRONOLOGY In this chronology many dates are uncertain; some of the events recorded in the sagas are probably not historical, and the dates given for them here are those that fit in with other events in the sagas. AD HISTORICAL EVENTS EVENTS IN THE OUTLAW SAGAS c.725 Beowulf written 793 First viking raid on Northumbria c.850 Beginning of viking settlement in England c.870 Beginning of viking settlement in Iceland 871 Alfred the Great becomes king of England c.885 Battle of Hafrsfiord. Harald Finehair becomes king of all Norway c.900 Onund Wooden-leg comes to Iceland 930 Foundation of Althing c.945 Birth of Asmund Hærulang 949 Birth of Geir Grimsson 950 Birth of Hord Grimkelsson 952 Thorbiorn Sur goes to Iceland 960 Gisli’s failed attempt at sworn brotherhood 962 Division of Iceland into Quarters 964 Gisli made outlaw 965 Hord and Geir go abroad 969 Geir returns to Iceland 977/8 Gisli killed 980 Hord returns to Iceland Thorstein Dromund born 984 Hord outlawed c.985 Beginning of settlement of Greenland 989 Deaths of Hord and the Holm- dwellers CHRONOLOGY ix AD HISTORICAL EVENTS EVENTS IN THE OUTLAW SAGAS 995 Olaf Tryggvason becomes king of Norway 996 Birth of Grettir Asmundarson 999–1000 Christianity accepted in Iceland c.1005 Fifth court established 1010 Burning of Nial 1011 Grettir kills Skeggi, is made outlaw and goes to Norway 1013 Grettir’s brother Illugi born 1014 Battle of Clontarf Grettir returns to Iceland The Battle of the Heath 1015 Battle of the Nesses Grettir goes to Norway again 1016 Grettir made full outlaw at Althing and returns to Iceland 1024 Death of Biorn Hitdælakappi 1024–5 Grettir in Thorisdal 1027 Death of Thorstein Kuggason 1028 Grettir goes to Drangey 1030 Fall of St Olaf. Death of Lawspeaker Skapti 1031 Death of Snorri Godi Deaths of Grettir and Illugi 1033 Death of Thorbiorn Ongul 1047 Thorstein Dromund and Spes go to Rome 1056 First bishop at Skalholt. Sæmund the wise born 1066 Fall of Harald Hardradi in England 1067 Ari the wise born 1096 Tithe laws introduced in Iceland 1106 First bishop at Holar 1117–18 Icelandic Laws first written down c.1130 The Book of the Icelanders compiled 1133 First Icelandic monastery founded (at Thingeyrar) c.1150 Earliest Icelandic manuscript fragments 1153 Archbishopric established at Nidaros in Norway 1179 Birth of Snorri Sturluson 1199 Bishop Thorlak declared saint 1214 Birth of Sturla Thordarson 1217 Hakon Hakonarson becomes king of Norway x CHRONOLOGY AD HISTORICAL EVENTS EVENTS IN THE OUTLAW SAGAS c.1220 Snorri Sturluson’s Edda 1226 Tristrams saga c.1230 The Saga of Gisli written 1241 Snorri Sturluson killed 1245 Death of Styrmir the Wise c.1250 Oldest surviving manuscript of a saga of Icelanders (Egils saga) 1262 Iceland ceded to king of Norway 1263 Death of King Hakon c.1275 Codex Regius of eddic poems c.1280 Nials saga. Hrafnkels saga 1284 Sturla Thordarson dies c.1320 The Saga of Grettir written c.1340 Birth of Chaucer c.1350 Modruvallabok written 1350–1400 The Saga of Hord written 1382 Flateyjarbok begun c.1400 Oldest surviving manuscript frag- ments of The Saga of Gisli and The Saga of Hord written c.1500 Principal manuscripts of The Saga of Grettir, The Saga of Hord and The Saga of Gisli written 1550 Reformation in Iceland 1944 Iceland regains complete independence CHRONOLOGY xi INTRODUCTION The three sagas translated from Old Icelandic in this volume are all about Icelanders in the Middle Ages who lived and died as outlaws in the Icelandic countryside. Like all other sagas of Icelanders, these three are anonymous, but they were certainly written by Icelanders, prob- ably in the west or north-west of Iceland. They are very difficult to date precisely, but it is likely that The Saga of Gisli was written in the first half of the thirteenth century, perhaps about 1230, and thus is part of the first flowering of ‘classical’ Icelandic sagas. The Saga of Grettir is quite a lot later, from the fourteenth century, probably from about 1320 and later than most other sagas of Icelanders. Indeed the most recent editor of the saga (Örnólfur Thorsson, 1994) suggests that it may be from as late as the end of the fourteenth century. The Saga of Hord (called Holmveria saga, ‘the Saga of the Holm-dwellers’, in the principal manuscript) is also a late saga, probably from the second half of the fourteenth century. These two sagas were therefore written quite a long time after the Icelandic Commonwealth was ceded to the Norwegian Crown in 1262–3, possibly even as late as the time of the union of the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish crowns (1397); and also after translated Romances and Heroic Sagas (fornaldar sögur, Sagas of Ancient Time or Legendary Sagas) may be regarded as having to a large extent superseded Sagas of Icelanders as the primary expression of Icelandic identity and values. The three heroes of the outlaw sagas lived in the so-called ‘Saga Age’, the century from the time of the completion of the settlement of Iceland and the foundation of the Althing or General Assembly, when the Icelandic legal system was first formalised, traditionally dated AD 930, to the death of St Olaf, king of Norway, in 1030. To the extent that all three sagas contain some accurate information about that period of Icelandic history, they must be based on earlier sources such as The Book of Settlements, other Sagas of Icelanders like Eyrbyggja saga, Laxdæla saga and Egils saga; and oral sources such as poetry com- posed by Icelanders of the intermediate period and oral prose stories handed down from the time of the three heroes. The Saga of Grettir xii INTRODUCTION and The Saga of Hord refer to statements by Icelandic historians of the thirteenth century (Sturla Thordarson, 1214–84; Styrmir Karason, d. 1245) which are not found in their surviving writings, and this has led some people to think that Sturla