Heiðarvíga saga

Heiðarvíga saga() orThe Story of the Heath-Slayingsis one of theIcelanders' sagas.It is badly preserved; 12 leaves of the only surviving manuscript were destroyed along with their only copy in thefire of Copenhagenin 1728. The content of the destroyed portion is only known through a summary written from memory by Icelandic scholarJón Grunnvíkingur(1705–1779). This is the only form in which the saga's contents survive today. The saga has been taken by some scholars as possibly among the oldest Icelanders' sagas.

Heiðarvíga sagafrom a copy of the University of Copenhagen.

The saga tells of the descendants ofEgil Skallagrímssonand the long-standing disputes and conflicts which culminated in the battle and subsequent slayings on the heath, theeponymousHeath-Slayings (Heiðarvíg).

Related reading

• Joanne Shortt Butler (2020) "Considering Otherness on the Page: How Do Lacunae Affect the Way We Interact with Saga Narrative?"in Merkelbach, Rebecca; Knight, Gwendolyne (eds.),Margins, Monsters, Deviants,Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, pp. 129–156
• Jesse Byock(1993)Feud in the Icelandic Saga(University of California Press)ISBN978-0520082595
• Viðar Hreinsson (1997)The complete sagas of Icelanders, including 49 tales(Leifur Eiríksson Pub)ISBN978-9979929307
• Alexander Wilson (2022) "Dissonant Voices in the Prosimetrum of Heiðarvíga saga." In: Anna Katharina Heiniger, Rebecca Merkelbach, and Alexander Wilson (eds.).Þáttasyrpa — Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa.Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 179–87.

External links

• [1]Full text and English translation (The Saga of the Heath Slayings) at the Icelandic Saga Database
• Heiðarvíga SagaThe saga with standardized Modern Icelandic spelling
• Two Borgfirðinga sögur: the oldest or the youngest Íslendingasögur?Alison Finlay, University of London
• Proverbs and proverbial materials inHeiðarvíga saga