Egil’s Saga
The best introduction to Icelandic sagas comes in the form of Egil’s Saga, whose earliest manuscript dates back to 1240. Icelandic sagas can be a daunting prospect: they are usually long (hence the popular usage of ‘saga’ to mean a tedious length of time), full of as much detail about subjects as banal as sheep farming as fascinating heroic deeds, and are delivered in a frustratingly objective, pseudo-historical manner. Egil’s Saga is probably the most accessible. Like Beowulf, the text uses the exploits of a probably-fictional character to describe an era of history, in this case the years 850-1000.
The titular character of Egil’s Saga is Egil Skallagrimsson, an Icelandic farmer, Viking, and skald (poet). The saga is arranged around his ancestry and life to relate Icelandic history and the lives of the period’s great characters. This period was the height of the Viking Age, when Scandinavian seafarers travelled to North Africa, Kiev and the Volga, Constantinople and Baghdad, and even as far west as North America (long before Columbus). The Vikings did not only immolate and pillage: they conducted trade in luxury items and served as mercenaries for foreign kings, leaving behind poetry, folklore, and ornamented treasure.
Egil Skallagrimsson composes his first verses at the age of 3, and aged 7 kills another older boy. Soon he is out on Viking raids. These early incidents set the tone for Egil’s life: he is at once violent and artistic, carrying out acts of horrific violence and then reflecting on them through verse. His first murder also demonstrates what is to come, for he feels aggrieved at the older boy causing others to laugh at him, and settles the matter through bloodshed. Multi-talented Egil splits his time between Viking raids in summer and farming back in Scandinavia.
Though a humble farmer, Egil also spends much of his life standing up to the kings of Norway who try to impinge upon him. Most prominent is his feud with King Eirik Bloodaxe (a real 10th century king of Norway and Northumbria), inherited from their fathers and exacerbated by numerous social shunnings, Queen Gunnhild’s hatred of Egil, and several murders. Egil is actually caught by Eirik in England and due to be executed, but manages to save his life by reciting a beautiful skaldic poem. The complex interplay of verse and violence is an important theme in the saga.
Egil’s Saga is also full of humour, much of which derives from the narrator’s disinterested detachment. In Chapter 72, an outrageously-drunk Egil is displeased by his host, the wealthy-landowner Armod. Feeling sick, Egil simply pins Armod to the wall, unleashing a great torrent of vomit all over his face and down his throat. ‘Armod was close to choking, and when he managed to let out his breath, a jet of vomit gushed out with it’. Egil simply protests, ‘don’t blame me for following the master of the house’s example. He’s spewing his guts up just as much as I am.’