Eyrbyggja saga

Eyrbyggja saga (Eng. " Saga of the people on Eyr ") is an Icelandic saga. She plays mostly on the north coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in the west of Iceland, in the early period of the Conquest till the death of the Goden Snorri Thorgrimsson ( 963-1031 ).

Structure

The saga is considered episodic. It has no clear chronological history of how other family sagas. Although Snorri is the hero of the saga, but the text is not disposed to his biography, but is devoted to some places also other figures. Parts of Snorri's life, which are well known from other texts, are not mentioned. For example, the description of his last 18 years of life precipitates only marginal.

Tradition

The Eyrbyggja saga is probably in the mid-13th century Helgafell the former farm Snorri, emerged. As the vast majority of Icelanders sagas is anonymous. Sturla Þórðarson (1214-1248) is listed as a possible author, because he was a descendant of Snorri had access to the library of Helgafell and even wrote some historiographical works.

Five parchment manuscripts are dated to the 14th and 15th centuries. They are divided into three groups by Hugo Gering:

  • A-Class: Allows the Sammelahndschrift Vatnshyrna is meant. This was the only medieval manuscript containing the entire text of the saga, but went in 1728 at a major fire in the University Library of Copenhagen lost. As a reliable transcripts, which are still preserved, are those of Ásgeir Jónsson and Árni Magnússon ( 448, 4 ° ), which was 1686-1688, as well as those of Ketill Jörundarson (442, 4 °). Your name stems from its locality, the court Vatnshorn in Haukadal.
  • B- Class: The most important manuscript of this class is the Wolfenbüttel manuscript from the mid-14th century, which also contains parts of Egils saga.
  • C-Class: Allows the Arnamäische handwriting 445, 4 ​​° is meant.

Reception

The Fróðárunda episode served as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson 's story, The Waif Woman ( 1914).

Expenditure

  • Felix Niedner ( translator's ): The story of Goden Snorri ( " Eyrbyggja saga" ). Diederichs Verlag, Dusseldorf 1964 ( Thule collection; Vol. 7).
  • Klaus Böldl (ed., Translator ): The Saga of the people on Eyr ( " Eyrbyggja saga" ). Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-424-01480- X.
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