THE SAGA OF GUNNLAUG THE WORM-TONGUE AND RAVEN THE SKALD - A Norse/Viking Saga: A Norse/Viking Saga
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About this ebook
The story opens with a prophetic dream of two eagles fighting over a swan, prefiguring the love triangle in the story. The rivalry is initially fought using verse, but later with weapons, when Gunnlaug challenges Hrafn to a holmgang -- a duel, the recognised Norse way of settling disputes. The narrative follows Gunnlaugr and is sympathetic towards him as it describes his ambitious career as a court poet across Scandinavia and the British Isles.
The saga has similarities to earlier sagas of poets, such as Kormáks saga and Bjarnar saga, but it is more refined and elegant with strong characterization and emotional impact. Long considered a masterpiece, the saga is often read by new students of Old Norse literature.
William Morris is normally thought of as a fantasy precursor of Tolkien, having written The Wood Beyond the World among other works. But he was also a translator, along with Eiríkr Magnússon, of more than just a few Norse Sagas. Originally written in the old Icelandic language, considered to be the closest tongue to that spoken by the Vikings, Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and Raven the Skald is but one of those efforts.
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TAGS: Viking Saga, Norse, Norway, Gunnlaug, Worm-Tongue, Raven The Skald, Iceland, Greenland, Thorstein Egilson, Kin, Dream, Birth, Fostering, Helga The Fair, Raven, Vow, Faring, Abroad, East, West, Ireland, Quarrel, Swedish King, Wife, Abide Away, Landing, Wedding, Skaney, Kings Cloak, Two Foes, Fight, Dingness, News, Death Of Helga
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THE SAGA OF GUNNLAUG THE WORM-TONGUE AND RAVEN THE SKALD - A Norse/Viking Saga - Anon E. Mouse
Translated from the Icelandic
by
Eirikr Magnusson & William Morris
Originally Published
1875
Resurrected by
Abela Publishing, London
[2018]
The Saga of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue
and Raven the Skald
Typographical arrangement of this edition
© Abela Publishing 2018
This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Abela Publishing
London
United Kingdom
2018
ISBN-13: 978-x-xxxxxx-xx-x
Books@AbelaPublishing.com
Webpage
www.AbelaPublishing.com
Transcriber's Note:
[Thought to be written in the 13th Century]
Even as Ari Thorgilson the learned, the priest, hath told it, who was the man of all Iceland most learned in tales of the land's inhabiting and in lore of time agone.
The Last Parting of Helga and Gunnlaug
(Charles Fairfax Murray)
Acknowledgements
Abela Publishing acknowledges the work that
Eirikr Magnusson & William Morris
did in translating and publishing
The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue
and Raven the Skald
in a time well before any electronic media was in use.
* * * * * * *
10% of the net profit from the sale of this book
will be donated to charity
* * * * * * *
Abela Publishing,
republishing
YESTERDAY’S BOOKS
for
TODAY’S CHARITIES
Contents
Title Page
Transcriber’s Note
Acknowledgements
Contents
CHAPTER I. Of Thorstein Egilson and his Kin
CHAPTER II. Of Thorsteins Dream
CHAPTER III. Of the Birth and Fostering of Helga the Fair
CHAPTER IV. Of Gunnlaug Worm-tongue and his Kin
CHAPTER V. Of Raven and his Kin
CHAPTER VI. How Helga was vowed to Gunnlaug, and of
Gunnlaug's faring abroad
CHAPTER VII. Of Gunnlaug in the East and the West
CHAPTER VIII. Of Gunnlaug in Ireland
CHAPTER IX. Of the Quarrel between Gunnlaug and Raven
before the Swedish King
CHAPTER X. How Raven came home to Iceland, and asked
for Helga to Wife
CHAPTER XI. Of how Gunnlaug must needs abide away from
Iceland
CHAPTER XII. Of Gunnlaug's landing, and how he found
Helga wedded to Raven
CHAPTER XIII. Of the Winter-Wedding at Skaney, and how
Gunnlaug gave the Kings Cloak to Helga
CHAPTER XIV. Of the Holmgang at the Althing
CHAPTER XVI. How the two Foes met and fought at
Dingness
CHAPTER XVII. The News of the Fight brought to Iceland
CHAPTER XVIII. The Death of Helga the Fair
CHAPTER I.
Of Thorstein Egilson
and his Kin
There was a man called Thorstein, the son of Egil, the son of Skallagrim, the son of Kveldulf the Hersir of Norway. Asgerd was the mother of Thorstein; she was the daughter of Biorn Hold. Thorstein dwelt at Burg in Burg-firth; he was rich of fee, and a great chief, a wise man, meek and of measure in all wise. He was nought of such wondrous growth and strength as his father Egil had been; yet was he a right mighty man, and much beloved of all folk.
Thorstein was goodly to look on, flaxen-haired, and the best-eyed of men; and so say men of lore that many of the kin of the Mere-men, who are come of Egil, have been the goodliest folk; yet, for all that, this kindred have differed much herein, for it is said that some of them have been accounted the most ill-favoured of men: but in that kin have been also many men of great prowess in many wise, such as Kiartan, the son of Olaf Peacock, and Slaying-Bardi, and Skuli, the son of Thorstein. Some have been great bards, too, in that kin, as Biorn, the champion of Hit-dale, priest Einar Skulison, Snorri Sturluson, and many others.
Now, Thorstein had to wife Jofrid, the daughter of Gunnar, the son of Hlifar. This Gunnar was the best skilled in weapons, and the lithest of limb of all bonderfolk who have been in Iceland; the second was Gunnar of Lithend; but Steinthor of Ere was the third. Jofrid was eighteen winters old when Thorstein wedded her; she was a widow, for Thorodd, son of Odd of Tongue, had had her to wife aforetime. Their