Six Sagas of Adventure

by Ben Waggoner (trans)

  A final point of comparison is that some Western films and series operate within the conventions of the genre, while at the same time commenting on the genre itself, or on contemporary society. Some of these are “serious” commentaries on American militarism, racism, and ecological devastation, from The Wild Bunch to Dances With Wolves and Django Unchained. Other Westerns, such as Blazing Saddles and Cat Ballou, parody the Western genre itself; such parody Westerns may be quite funny, but at the same time may have serious points to make. In much the same way, the fornaldarsögur may be entertaining, but they were not written as purely “escapist” entertainment. Many of them comment directly on issues that were very much on the minds of their medieval Icelandic writers and listeners.[15] They provided a space in which issues and problems could be discussed and solutions envisioned. Finally, many of these sagas have humorous moments—and more than one makes a point of parodying scenes and characters from more “serious” sagas.

  The six sagas in this volume form two sets connected by genealogy. Gautreks saga and Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar cover three generations of a kingly family in Gautland, while Bósa saga deals with another branch of the family, although the main hero is not descended from it. The heroes of Sturlaugs saga and Göngu-Hrólfs saga are father and son, while key characters in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar (although, again, not the hero) are said to be descended from Gongu-Hrolf. These six sagas include some of the best Abenteuersagas, and some of the most popular sagas in any genre: there are currently 74 known manuscripts of Göngu-Hrólfs saga, while Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is preserved in 69 manuscripts at last count, squeaking past its prequel Gautreks saga which appears in 63 copies. Assuming that the number of surviving manuscripts accurately reflects the number that were once written and circulated, these three are among the most popular sagas of any kind. Gautreks saga and Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar were the first sagas of any kind to be printed, at Uppsala in 1664; Bósa saga followed in 1666, and Sturlaugs saga in 1694. Bósa saga may well be in line for a Lifetime Achievement Award; known in a respectable forty-six manuscript copies at last count, it also has appeared in eight print editions between 1666 and 1996, and has been translated into nine languages.[16]

  We have to be cautious in interpreting a saga scene as a parody, or indeed as being intended to be funny; medieval criteria for literary truth and fiction were different from our own. Medieval people saw no reason to doubt the existence of giants, dwarves, monsters, and sorcerors, and an episode that seems bizarre and comical to us might not have seemed outlandish at all to the saga’s composers, copyists and readers. For example, the gradiose genealogies that open Bósa saga, proclaiming King Hring’s descent from Odin himself, have been read as a joke that the audience would have taken as such,[17] but there is no real indication that the author or the audience would have taken them to be funny.[18] Still, I think we can safely say that a particular episode or motif is being used parodically when it subverts the meaning that it has the majority of times that it appears. Saga audiences would have known very well how a particular type of scene was “supposed to go”, and a saga author could elicit shock and laughter by “yanking the rug out from under” his audience’s expectations. The motif of going after one’s death to Valhall, the hall of the god Odin, is found in many texts—but in almost all of them, it is a destiny meant only for warriors and kings who die in battle. When a family of stingy farmers attempts to reach Valhall by leaping off a cliff for foolish reasons, the shocking humor is clear. It’s fairly common for saga manuscripts to end with a pious wish for God’s blessing on the teller and the listeners, or even a short prayer[19]—but when a saga ends with a wish for blessing from a “saint” who is in fact a sorcerous, shape-shifting old crone, there’s no question of the writer’s intent. One useful feature of the set of sagas in this book is that readers can contrast the same motif or episode in different sagas—the “straight” stag-hunt in Göngu-Hrólfs saga versus the parody in Gautreks saga, the typical “Gravemound Battle” in Hrómunds saga Gripssonar versus Hrolf’s visit to Hreggvid’s mound in Göngu-Hrólfs saga, and so on.

  The Saga of King Gautrek

  Gautreks saga illustrates how an adventure tale might be assembled. The saga exists in two main recensions, shorter and longer; it is usually thought that the shorter version is older. The shorter version consists of the story of King Gauti and his sojourn with an outlandishly stingy family, variously called Gauta þáttr (“The Tale of Gauti”) and/or Dalafífla þáttr (“The Tale of the Valley-Fools”). In some manuscripts this tale stands alone, but it is usually followed by Gjafa-Refs þáttr (“The Tale of Gift-Ref”), the story of how Ref won wealth, fame, and eventually marriage with the daughter of King Gauti’s son Gautrek.

  Both Gauta þáttr and Gjafa-Refs þáttr are light-hearted. Gauta þáttr in particular is probably meant to be humorous—even if the story’s sense of humor is rather rough. The opening scene, in which King Gauti gets lost while hunting a stag, is a burlesque of the well-known “Guiding Beast” motif: the stag (or sometimes boar) that leads the hero to a supernatural encounter, sometimes in the Otherworld, and often with a fée or similar enchanted lady.[20] Several romances with episodes like this were translated into Norse,[21] and several sagas include scenes of this type that are played more or less seriously.[22] Here, King Gauti is drawn deep into the forest by the stag that he cannot catch, and in a romance, the hunt would lead him to a long adventure in the Otherworld, from which he would return reborn and transformed. In the saga, however, the hunt leads him to a strange but hardly supernatural family, and he impregnates the farmer’s daughter and leaves, completely unchanged and playing almost no further part in the story.[23] Unlike the tales of Graelent, Peredur, or Lancelot, the saga’s focus shifts from the male hero to the disastrous effects on his unwilling hosts. The self-sacrifices of Skafnortung’s family, once interpreted as a plausible remnant of pagan practice,[24] are not considered authentic today, partly because the shorter and probably older version of the saga does not portray the suicides as religious actions.[25] Odin is the patron of kings and giver of wisdom: the idea that a family of stingy farmers could get to Valhalla by peevishly killing themselves off for foolish reasons would have been incongruous (and funny) to an Icelandic audience who knew the old myths.[26]

  Gjafa-Refs þáttr is closely related to folktales in content and structure. The hero’s unpromising beginnings as an “ashlad”, his repetitive quest as he “trades up” each gift for something even better, and his glorious fate all are typical of folktales.[27] A version of the tale was known to Saxo Grammaticus, who mentions a King Gøtrik identified with the historical 9th-century Danish king Godefrid; his Gøtrik handsomely rewards an Icelander named Refo, after Refo plays on his desire to be more generous than other rulers.[28] There is also a family resemblance to the tale of the Icelander Audun, who buys a polar bear in Greenland, transports it to Denmark to sell it to King Svein, receives great wealth from King Svein, and then gives some of it to King Harald of Norway for an even larger reward. All three multiforms seem to draw on animal fables that had diffused into Europe from the Middle East, ultimately from the Indian collection Pañcatantra.[29]

  Gauta þáttr and Gjafa-Refs þáttr are polar opposites, and were presumably written or selected in order to draw the sharpest contrast possible. Gauta þáttr shows how the backwoods family’s miserliness, passivity, and unwillingness to engage with the wider world destroys them. In Gjafa-Refs þáttr, Jarl Neri’s generosity with advice and diplomatic skill (if not with his personal possessions), coupled with Ref’s pluck and determination, benefit them both. While the backwoods family values maintaining their stock of possessions above all else, Ref keeps giving his away, but always to gain something even greater. In fact, the shorter saga has been called, not a fornaldarsaga, but a dæmisaga—an exemplum, a tale that demonstrates a moral lesson.[30]

  The later version of the saga—the basis for most editions and translat
ions—has a very different section, sometimes called Vikars þáttr (“The Tale of [King] Vikar”), sandwiched between the two tales. While Gauta þáttr and Gjafa-Refs þáttr have little poetry, Vikars þáttr is constructed around a long autobiographical poem by the legendary hero Starkad. Such a poem, in which a hero reflects on his own life and noteworthy deeds, is called an ævikviða, “lifespan poem”; similar poems appear in a number of “heroic” and “Viking” fornaldarsögur.[31] And in sharp contrast to Gauta þáttr and Gjafa-Refs þáttr, Vikars þáttr is violent and tragic. Starkad is a firm friend to his liege lord King Vikar, from the day that Vikar rouses Starkad and gives him his first weapons, on through the many battles they fight—until the gods force him to sacrifice Vikar, a deed that not only costs him his foster-kinsman and greatest friend, but ruins his reputation. The only direct connection between Vikars þáttr and the rest of the saga is that Vikars þáttr introduces Jarl Neri.

  Whatever its origin, Vikars þáttr is the only part of Gautreks saga that really looks like a “classic” fornaldarsaga. Starkad’s story is told or alluded to in a number of other sagas,[32] and Starkad’s sacrifice of Vikar appears in Saxo Grammaticus’s History of the Danes, as does his monstrous birth with multiple arms (although in Vikars þáttr, it is a grandfather of the same name who bears the extra arms).[33] He may even make an uncredited cameo appearance in Beowulf as the old warrior whose speech breaks the peace between King Ingeld’s Danes and their adversaries, since he does exactly this, under his own name, in Saxo’s History.[34] Furthermore, the description of Vikar’s sacrifice matches historical accounts of pagan sacrifice by stabbing and/or hanging, from Adam of Bremen’s description of hanged victims at Uppsala to the scene on the Stora Hammars I stone from Götland, Sweden, which shows a sacrificer wounding a man with a spear while another man hangs by the neck from a tree. Odin himself was said to have sacrificed himself by hanging on a tree, stabbed with a spear;[35] not only is a spear said to be his weapon and emblem, but his names in poetry include Hangi, “hanged one”, as well as Hangatýr and Hangaguð “god of the hanged”, among others.[36] Here we really do seem to have an account that is based on pre-Christian myth and practice.

  What is Víkars þáttr doing in Gautreks saga in the first place? Earlier editors considered this “a pure caprice” perpetrated by a “bungler.”[37] But Víkars þáttr actually shares themes with the other two tales, and has probably been shaped to emphasize these themes.[38] Paul Durrenberger suggested that the entire saga reflected a seismic shift in 13th-century Iceland, from a social order held together by reciprocal gift-giving among chieftains and their supporters, to one based on to the legal authority wielded by Church and State.[39] While he missed the fact that Víkars þáttr was probably added well after these changes had come and gone, he does show how the theme of exchange and gift-giving links all three parts of the longer saga. The backwoods family cheerfully sacrifices itself to Odin while giving nothing willingly to outsiders. Ref, their polar opposite, has nothing to do with the pagan gods, but exchanges gifts with all the kings he meets. As Odin’s foster-son and Vikar’s sworn brother, Starkad tries to give to both. He and Vikar maintain a warm friendship, but when Odin demands Vikar’s life as repayment for his own gifts to Starkad, Starkad cannot escape the dilemma.[40] The author of the younger saga thus takes a dim view of sacrifice to the pagan gods; sacrificing to Odin is useless. On the other hand, giving to humans who will reciprocate, engaging in networks of exchange—that brings good fortune.[41]

  The three parts of the younger Gautreks saga are linked further by recurring character types. Starkad and Ref both begin as unpromising kolbítar. Ref and the young Gautrek both give up a prize ox. Skafnortung and Neri are misers. Skafnortung’s family and Vikar are sacrificed to Odin.[42] Jarl Neri becomes the linchpin that connects all three parts: like Starkad, he is a royal advisor who deceives his king; like the Valley-Fools, he is a miser who cannot bear to see his possessions diminish; and like Odin, he is a foster-father who cunningly advises his foster-son.[43] In fact, the author of the younger saga strengthened these links by adding themes that are not in the older saga. The younger saga emphasizes the backwoods family’s stinginess, and adds that their suicide is meant as a sacrifice to Odin in hopes of reward in Valhalla—neither is found in the older saga. The younger Gjafa-Refs þáttr adds the scene in which Neri attempts to repay Ref by giving him a shield, but its loss makes him so miserable that Ref returns it. Ref’s double generosity is then repaid with Neri’s advice, which will bring him far greater reward. All in all, it seems that the younger saga was deliberately crafted as a meditation on the moral rightness of generosity and open-handed exchange with one’s neighbors and peers in the wider world.

  Gautreks saga has survived in 55 manuscripts ranging from the 14th to the 19th centuries.[44] The longer version is translated from the text in Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, edited by Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson.[45] Their text is based on Rafn’s original edition but was also collated with Wilhelm Ranisch’s critical edition from 1900. Ranisch in turn based his text essentially on the 17th-century paper manuscript AM 590b-c 4to (Ranisch’s manuscript A) but with emendations from two other manuscripts: the paper Codex Holm. 11 and the vellum AM 152 fol.[46] AM 152 is the oldest surviving manuscript of the younger redaction, dating to the first quarter of the 16th century. However, AM 590b-c has the most poetry; it contains 39 verses, including 32 verses of Vikarsbálkr. The other two are missing verses: Codex Holm. 11 contains only five verses of Vikarsbálkr, and AM 152 contains eighteen. The texts in these last two manuscripts have also been somewhat shortened.[47]

  The oldest surviving manuscript of the shorter saga is AM 567 XIV g 4to, dated to around 1400; unfortunately, it is only a single page. The manuscripts that Ranisch used for the shorter saga are different enough from each other that he did not establish a single critical text.[48] I translated Ranisch’s manuscript L, which he based on two nearly identical paper manuscripts, AM 194c fol. and AM 203 fol. Ranisch corrected errors in L using the allied Manuscript M (Holm. 1 fol. and ÍB 165 4to).

  The Saga of Hrolf Gautreksson

  Manuscript L of Gautreks saga concludes the saga with what is usually considered the opening of a separate saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. Hrólfs saga might be the most eclectic of all the legendary sagas, bringing together details and motifs from other fornaldarsögur, chivalric romances, folktales, and learned medieval texts. Yet these disparate materials have been woven together skillfully, with vivid descriptive passages and a long and winding plot that hold the reader’s interest.

  Hrólfs saga is the oldest “bridal-quest romance” in Icelandic literature—one whose entire plot is driven by a man’s quest for a suitable wife. The multilayered “bridal quest” plot of Hrólfs saga appears in other European romances of the same age, and was probably inspired originally by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, which was translated into Norse in 1226.[49] However, even if the basic plot was borrowed, the Icelandic author used it to create a richly developed, vivid saga. The basic bridal quest is repeated four times: King Gautrek, his son King Hrolf, his other son Ketil, and Hrolf’s sworn brother Asmund each strive to win suitable brides for themselves. Each quest is more difficult: King Gautrek has to fight off a jilted rival, but King Hrolf has to fight his own would-be bride before she will submit to him. Hrolf and Ketil have to invade Russia with an army and defeat twelve ferocious berserks—and the bride’s father’s armies—before winning Ketil’s bride. Finally, Hrolf, Ketil, Asmund, Hrolf’s ally and former enemy Thorir, and Hrolf’s own wife must all join forces in order to defeat the sorcerous King of Ireland and win a bride for Asmund. This sort of plot development wouldn’t feel out of place in a video game, in which a player must defeat a series of ever more difficult “bosses” in order to keep advancing.

  Common themes link the various quests together into a very satisfying narrative. Marianne Kalinké has pointed out that Gautrek’s bridal q
uest sets the tone for the rest of the saga. Ingibjorg makes a careful and reasoned decision to marry Gautrek—thus avoiding the usual disastrous ending of “May-December” marriages in medieval literature. Their son Hrolf will inherit not only Gautrek’s generosity, but Ingibjorg’s reason and moderation, as seen when Hrolf is given the throne ahead of his impetuous older brother Ketil, and again when he holds back from pursuing Thornbjorg until he feels the time is right. The slander that divides Gautrek and Hring and almost brings them to blows foreshadows the slander that threatens to divide Hrolf and King Ælle of England—in both cases, good sense ultimately prevails.[50] Finally, in many episodes throughout the saga, a woman acts as a wise counsellor, either urging caution and prudence, or else encouraging a man to honor his ties of loyalty. Gautrek’s queen Ingibjörg and Hring’s queen talk sense into their husbands when slander has brought them almost to blows. King Eirek’s queen Ingigerd has significant dreams, interprets them correctly, and urges her husband to act honorably towards Hrolf. Hrolf’s queen Thornbjörg often counsels her husband, and is not above reproaching him when he refuses to help his sworn brothers, while King Halfdan’s daughter reproaches her foster-father Thorir for refusing to fight King Hrolf. Such a role may have been widespread in pre-Christian Germanic culture; Tacitus famously states that German men respected their women’s foresight and prophetic abilities, “so they neither scorn to consult them nor slight their answers”[51]; and Old English poetry depicts queens as advising their menfolk.[52] Old Norse poems such as Sigrdrífumál depict women as giving wise counsel; while women in the “sagas of Icelanders” are noted for inciting their menfolk to deeds of violence, Hrólfs saga depicts women urging their men to make peace and act with gentleness, much more often than they urge their men to fight.[53]