Die Sturlungen

by Einar Kárason, Kristof Magnusson (Translator)

Sumarið 1276 situr Sturla Þórðarson heima á Staðarhóli og hefur nýlokið við að skrá þann atburð er brúðkaupsgestir voru brenndir inni á Flugumýri. Þá gerir Magnús lagabætir Noregskonungur honum boð um að koma umsvifalaust á sinn fund. Sturla leggur tregur af stað ásamt tveim öðrum íslenskum höfðingjum, Hrafni Oddssyni og Þorvarði Þórarinssyni, en skip þeirra brotnar í óveðri við Færeyjar og þeir félagar þurfa að þreyja þar veturinn. Þessi langa dvöl verður Sturlu tilefni til að rifja upp válega atburði undangenginna fjörutíu ára og sjá þá í nýju samhengi ... Með Skáldi lýkur Einar Kárason Sturlungasögu sinni. Í Óvinafagnaði var Þórður kakali í sögumiðju, í Ofsa þeir Gissur Þorvaldsson og Eyjólfur ofsi, hér er það skáldið Sturla sem lifði þessa róstusömu tíma og færði okkur þá í frásögnum sínum. Nú fær hann sjálfur að sýna okkur í hug sinn, og með honum margir fleiri leikendur í þessari miklu atburðarás.

Genres: Fiction

827 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

After finishing highschool in 1975, Einar studied literature at the University of Iceland, graduating in 1978. He worked a number of part-time jobs during his studies, but since 1978 Einar has been a full time writer.

He sat on the board of the Writer's Union of Iceland from 1984 to 1986, was vice-chairman from 1986 to 1988 and chairman from 1988 to 1992. He has been one of the board members of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival since 1985.
Einar Kárason started his writing career by publishing poetry in literary magazines in the years 1978 – 1980, and his first novel, Þetta eru asnar Guðjón (These Are Idiots, Guðjón), appeared in 1981. He is best-known for his trilogy about life in one of the post war "barracks neighbourhoods" of Reykjavík, Þar sem djöflaeyjan rís (Where Devil's Isle Rises), Gulleyjan (The Isle of Gold) andFyrirheitna landið (The Promised Land). The second book received the DV newspaper's Literature Award in 1986, and was also nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize, and the third was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize in 1989. The trilogy has been adapted into a stage play and a film.
Einar Kárason has also published short stories, children's books and travel books. He lives in Reykjavík andis married with four daughters.

Reviews

[Óli Sóleyjarson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ég ætla rétt að vona að Einar hafi verið að grínast þegar hann reynir að eigna Sturlu Þórðarsyni Færeyinga sögu. Ég gladdist fyrst þegar stíllinn hætti að vera fyrstu persónu gerviheimildarávarp til lesandans en varð mjög leiður þegar hann fór að flakka milli stíla. Síðan kemur skyndilega saga af höfundi sjálfum á tuttugustu öldinni. Sú saga hefði átt heim í neðanmálsgrein. Ég hætti að lesa þegar Færeyingum í Kirkjubæ á seinni hluta þrettándu aldar er lýst þannig að þeir séu meira og minna ólæsir og líti á lestur og skrift sem eins konar galdur. Síðan segja Færeyingar Sturlu einhverjar brotakenndar sögur sem hann tekur og breytir í snilldarverk sem þeir eru alveg dolfallnir yfir.

Að lokum verð ég að spyrja hvers vegna meira og minna allar söguhetjur Einars úr ritröðinni séu fyllibyttur. Það er orðið voðalega þreytandi í þriðju bókinni.

[Óttar Kolbeinsson Proppé · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hafði mjög gaman af heildinni en þessi síðasta bók var verst í fjórleiknum. Fannst mjög skrýtið að víkja allt í einu frá því að hafa alla bókina í fyrstu persónu frásögn og efniviðurinn hér var talsvert meira óspennandi. Mikið litið til baka yfir atburði sem þegar var búið að segja frá í hinum bókunum.
Mæli samt með að lesa þær allar. Skemmtilegt stöff.

[Sigurður Halldór · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ég naut lestursins. Einar er fer vel með þetta tímabil sögu okkar.

[Ösp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Síðasta af þremur um Sturlu Þórðarson sagnaritara. Virkilega skemmtileg og frábærlega vel skrifuð.

[Birgit Herzog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicht ganz mein Stil.

[Dagný · Rating 4 out of 5]

One way to ensure a fertile soil is tilling it anew and growing other crops. Einar Kárason takes well known and chronicled events in Icelandic history and creates something different. The style of the Icelandic sagas trades on the characters deeds and utterances. In Einar Kárason´s books we hear the never uttered soliloquies, the internal fuming, musings and plotting of those very same characters, going along their fated path.

Einar´s undertaking in Skáld (Poet) is brilliant. In this last novel of his trilogy about 13th century Iceland he continues to bring intimacy, even humor, to the fabled characters. Underneath lays the proposition that his main protagonist, Sturla Þórðarson, was the one to write Njáls Saga, the perhaps greatest of the Sagas, whose author is hitherto unknown. Njáls Saga was written about events two to three hundred years earlier but likely written in the 13th century. Sturla Þórðarson is already the reputed writer or chronicler of Sturlunga Sagas, a compendium of contemporary events. Here, eight centuries later, Einar Kárason wants to show that it was also Sturla Þórðarson who had the means and the motives to write Njáls Saga. Skáld supports the claim.

13th century saw harrowing events in Iceland. There were bloody battles, murders and mayhem. There was a burning of a farm during a siege and people were burned inside. Powerful families feuded for supremacy in a society without an executive power, leading to the relinquishing of sovereignty to the Norwegian king. This time is often referred to as Sturlungaöld (the Age of the Sturlungas) after a West Iceland clan. That family was one of powerbrokers. It was also under the auspices of that same family that most of the great Norse literature was collected and created. The most famous of that family is Snorri Sturluson, the uncle of Sturla Þórðarson, the latter being the protagonist of Skáld, but the former featuring as well.

What the novel SHOWS (this is never spoken in plain words) is how it would have been from this terrible burden of intimate knowledge of events from too close a proximity that the idea of writing Njáls Saga, would have taken hold. In Njáls Saga, too, is the feuding, the escalation, the characters, the tragedies, replenished with the burning of Njáll´s farm and the people within. Sturla knew the topics, Sturla was a writer. His furtive writings of Njála carries the narrative thrust of Skáld.

The second of the trilogy, Ofsi (Fury) is actually about the13th century Flugumýrarbrenna (the burning of the farm Flugumýri) (see my review). Ofsi is a very successfully written book, with a flawless tempo and crescendo. To be trapped in those characters minds feels painfully real; they are so believable.
For whatever reason, deadline to publish or lack of sagacious editing, Skáld is not as good as it could be. The underpinnings are solid but the finish feels rushed. What we later realize as Sturla´s undertaking could be clearer. The characters all sound the same, simple and earnest. Odd drinking problems are stand-ins for the main character’s creative humdrums. Timeline is unnecessarily messed up. I wish it had had more time; after all were dealing with a scope of a millenary here. But who am I to complain when what I am offered is something so extraordinary.

[Þorsteinn Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ekki besta bókin í þessum þríleik og sannast sagna þá fór textinn oft hreinlega í taugarnar á mér. Fín persónusköpun engu að síður og gaman að klára þessar þrjár.