Ebook: Egil’s Saga

"Egil's Saga" is one of five major sagas dealing with native Icelandic figures on a scale akin to the epic novel. It was probably written about 1230, and though like most sagas it is anonymous there are good reasons for thinking that it was composed by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), the author of "Heimskringla" and the "Prose Edda". Snorri lived for a while at Borg, where Egil farmed, and spent most of his adult life in the district of Borgarfjord. "Egil's Saga" shares with "Heimskringla" a vision of early Scandinavian and English history, an understanding and subtle illustration of human motives, and a narrative design offering a panoramic view of the viking world from the middle of the ninth century to the end of the tenth. The present translation is based on Sigurður Nordal’s edition of "Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar" in the "Islenzk fornrit" series, vol. 2 (Reykjavik, 1933), whose text is taken from the so-called "Möðruvallabók", a vellum codex written some time between 1320 and 1350.

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Egil's Saga is one of five major sagas dealing with native Icelandic figures on a scale akin to the epic novel. It was probably written about 1230, and though like most sagas it is anonymous there are good reasons for thinking that it was composed by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), the author of "Heimskringla" and the "Prose Edda". Snorri lived for a while at Borg, where Egil farmed, and spent most of his adult life in the district of Borgarfjord. "Egil's Saga" shares with "Heimskringla" a vision of early Scandinavian and English history, an understanding and subtle illustration of human motives, and a narrative design offering a panoramic view of the viking world from the middle of the ninth century to the end of the tenth. The present translation is based on Sigurður Nordal’s edition of "Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar" in the "Islenzk fornrit" series, vol. 2 (Reykjavik, 1933), whose text is taken from the so-called "Möðruvallabók", a vellum codex written some time between 1320 and 1350.