Saga de Gísli Súrsson

by Anonymous

The Saga of Gisli was written early in the thirteenth century. It offers an imaginative reconstruction of the story of a man and his family who came to Iceland from Norway about AD 960. Soon after 960 Gisli, the central figure, was outlawed for killing his brother-in-law, and then, for thirteen years or more, he lived in hiding in remote parts of the northwest of Iceland until he was finally caught and killed by his enemies.

Around this imaginative core the author has spun a web of conflicting passions - love, hare and jealousy between man and wife, brother and sister, brother-in-law - intricate emotional bonds which are here seen ironically patterned against a background of inevitable fate. Gisli, the hero, is portrayed not only as a man of strength and courage, but also a poet and dreamer, tormented in his outlawry by nightmarish visions which seem gradualy to sap his will to resist. The author's probing into the emotional depths of his characters, the superbly effective architecture of his narrative leading to the central climax, his sense of the dramatic, and his cool, compelling style all combine to make this one of the most memorable of all the Icelandic sagas.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Mythology, Medieval, Poetry, Scandinavian Literature, School

144 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1200

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Mina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some guy keeps going to talk to your sister, a bit too often, people are saying.

Now, if you were of the TV drama sort, you might raise a fuss. Or you might keep working as reasonable people do - because food is a thing. Then your pops comes to you, says he heard the people talking and, in his reasonable voice, asks to please kill the guy when you have a free moment. Fine. You get off your ass, find the guy and - lay down the facts and can he please stop. Your dad is not impressed, but the guy listens and goes away for a while. As expected, it doesn't last. Your dad calls you a girl. You try talking one more time, and the suitor's dismissive. So you shrug philosophically as he drones on and chop the pest down. Now, back to work. The land won't be tilling itself, you know.

Somehow neither your elder brother, your father or your sister seem very impressed.

These people, man.

Gisli's saga is the story of a normal man turned outlaw. Despite appearances, it mixes an Odysseus-like hero to follow his own code and safeguard against his foes with spirituality and tragedy. The characters surrounding him appear in stark relief: the stalwart, strong-willed Auda, the loyal Vestein, the weak-willed Thorkel, the hounding Eyjolf and Thorgrim's presumption. All these are layered between the two poles of faith, old and new. The old faith is woven atop the thrall's curse through Thorgrim's spell and Gisli's dreams. The new echoes at the fringes and haunts Gisli's dreams as the kind wife.

Speedy, efficient character-building, no one-note characters, father-son conflict, internal conflict, murders, more murders, blood oaths and the beginning of a detective novel. What a delight!

[khaz. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of Gisli. No, not that Gisli. The other Gisli.
Fucking Gisli.

[sofia · Rating 1 out of 5]

i apologise to any book i might have previously accused of containing too many characters, u got nothing on this

[Nomi Kihlström]

Wtf…

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice saga, one of my faves after Laxdæla and Egil's. Aud and Gisli are such a badass couple!

I'm relieved that by the end, Eyjolf is still unsatisfied and dishonorable. Leaves a good feeling in my heart.

The women in this saga are very bold and badass. Aud is the main one, namely when she punches Eyjolf in the nose (and makes him bleed) and tells him to stick his offer [to betray her husband] up his ass. Thordis is a total matriarch as well, namely when she tries to stab Eyjolf by purposely dropping the tray of spoons as a distraction, and then when she divorces Bork right afterward.

**The poetry in this saga is also my favorite I've encountered in the 8 or so sagas I've read.**

I have to say - I was very weirded out by/not at all expecting the way in which Thorkel died. That just came out of the blue and didn't make sense.

Fate and dreams certainly figured prominently in this saga, and it was only a matter of time before Gisli died, but he died heroically, and at least Eyjolf still didn't do too well at the end. Fuck that guy.

**Side note: There's so many Thorgrims in this saga! I'm just like... what is going on. And a bunch of characters with Thor[dis, -kel, ...]. It gets confusing, buckle up.

[Matthías Ólafsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shoutout á ættjörð mína, Haukadal í Dýrafirði.

[Lilas · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5
i'm just not a saga lover + can't they translate it in a way that makes it enjoyable to read??
the story is good but so hard to get into because of all the 55 random characters sharing a total of 5 names and gisli's poorly translated sonnet

(update)

after reading more about it i'd give it 2 stars just because of the foundation it lays for future nordic literature and cause i liked Aud

[a · Rating 3 out of 5]

À noter que les femmes sont les seuls personnages à peu près stables mentalement
3,5

[Henrik Keeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is perhaps my absolute favorite Icelandic saga, and I'm starting to know it by heart. The characters in this texts are so complex and interesting, and the objective narrator makes for some awesome opportunities to interpret what the characters are feeling solely based on their facial expressions and actions. One example is when the main character murders his sisters lover to protect her honour. In the context of that time, this was a fairly unproblematic act, and it is only many years later when she chooses not to support him in the family feud that we get an inkling of what she actually felt back then. This is an indication that she might truly have been in love and that she has harboured resentment for all these years. The ideological transition from norse mythology to Christianity is also interesting to trace in this saga, and the many understatements create a great comical effect sometimes. My favorite is when Gisle's guts fall out of his torn stomach during a fight, but he just sweeps them up, puts them back in, tightens his belt and keeps on fighting. The tightly would plots runs like clockwork in this amazing work of literary art.

[elvira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Värsta jag läst

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much like the epic form, and Norse mythology is fascinating. Also, the Viking people did great exploration, trade, and settlement of uninhabited lands like Iceland and Greenland (or at least the part of Greenland that they settled). I wanted to see what their literature is like and what insights it might give to their mindset. Of course, the Icelandic sagas all seem to have been written or committed to writing in the 11th and 12th centuries which is about 200 years after the conversion of the Vikings of Iceland. So they refer to a time and culture that no longer existed. For scholars this is a fascinating journey in itself -- discerning what is "original" and what is not.

Since I am not a scholar, I would venture to say only that the sagas (which is another word for stories) had such a grip on the mind that they lasted orally until they were written down. Because they are stories and because their style is a complex form of poetry, they had to have as much interest for listeners as a good Netflix series does for us today. I can imagine the hearing of the saga, the puzzling over it, the enjoyment, the discussion of the characters' actions and motivations, the thrills and suspense, the feelings of exultation or sadness, and so forth. In other words, I think they are pretty much the sort of thing we like today!

Well, what about my first sage, the story of Gisli? There is a great backstory, a very large cast of characters (unfortunately, many have the same name!), plenty of "telling" (which means plenty of room for the hearer to assess motivation and choice), and a consistent arc. Gisli is a very nice man -- good husband, good husbandman, good fighter and killer -- who is declared an outlaw because he took the rules of honor and revenge at face value. The sadness of his story is his flight and concealment during the long years of outlawry, the mental torment of a life disrupted and abnormal (presented by way of the visitation by consistent dreams), his loyalty to his wife Aud and hers to him -- the general hopelessness of a life turned upside-down.

Of course, there are attitudes that are not modern: The unconcern for the lives of the unimportant like bondsmen or thralls or the handicapped; the demands of revenge. There is however, one aspect of the attitudes that is quite modern -- the pleasure of putting people down, of putting them into a position of seeming weakness of character, and thus lording it over them in this cheap way, gaining stature from the belittling of another and calling it courage and enterprise.

This is not a story about gods and goddesses, divine intervention, or anything like that. It is a story similar to what we might read in the newspapers. It has no great moral. It tells of a man and what happened to him.

[Isen · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do you know, a saga that respects Chekhov's gun.

As the name suggests, The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw concerns Gisli's outlawry. And, surprisingly, little else. The usual panorama of random episodes of Icelandic life is absent here, and almost everything that is mentioned ties back to the main plot.

The Soursop family is involved in a number of feuds over the promiscuous life of Thordess, Gisli's sister. Eventually they flee to Iceland, where they establish prosperous lives until a new feud, in part sparked by Thordess' old antics, leads Gisli to kill a Gothi and suffer outlawry for the deed. He spends thirteen years avoiding capture before being cornered and killed. For a short and tightly written saga, the characters are remarkably complex. Gisli and his family operate in a mesh of honour ties to family and friends, which often clash, and the way they deal with this is more nuanced than what one normally finds in a saga.

This translation, by George Webbe Dasent, is written in simple, modern English. There's not much flourish in the prose, but it's very easy to read.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The flattest, most wooden translation I've ever read. I found it horribly written, very confusing (with lots of characters and few names between the lot), and with minimal redeeming qualities. There were some nice moments, like where Aud takes the silver offered her for betraying her husband, the outlawed Gisli, and smacks the man in the nose with it, and when Havard refuses to follow his order to kill her for the assault. There was a touch of humanity on occasion, enough for me to gladly read this again in a number of years in a different translation. But I will never read anything more by George Johnston.

I give it two stars for the scholarly matter following the text. Often I gave up after a single chapter of the text to go read some notes, which were surprisingly engaging. The translation deserves -1 star and the story itself 2 or 3 - it is not one of the more interesting sagas. I would not recommend this to anybody who hasn't read the rest of the sagas.

[Saga]

Du som prövat svärdet,
det brukar sägas
att det värsta är att göra
ont och ändå veta. (s. 27)

Vid gott mod är jag,
fast välhamrade eggar
biter mig. Hårt härdad
blev jag av min fader.

Detta blev Gíslis sista strof. Och så snart som han hade sagt den, tog han ett språng ner från klippan och måttade svärdet mot huvudet på Þórð, Eyjólfs släkting, och klöv honom ända till bältet. Men ner över honom föll också Gísli och var i samma stund livlös. Alla Eyjólfs följeslagare var illa sårade. Gísli dog med så många och stora sår att det tycktes ofattbart. Det sägs att han aldrig vek undan, och de kunde inte märka att hans sista hugg var svagare än det första.
Så slutade Gíslis liv, och alla säger att han var den tappraste man som funnits, även om han inte i alla delar var lyckosam. (s. 46)

[Caroline Torbjørnsdal Engeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't particularly like this one. Gisle is cowardly little rat, just look at the stunt he pulled on Tord. And he refuse to take the consequences for his actions. I hate the fact that he is portrayed as this grand man when he is nothing but a creep and a coward. He touches a woman's breasts while she sleeps before killing her husband (who is also sleeping) for crying out loud!

Also, I feel like I say this all the time about these sagas, but the Norwegian transliteration is trash and it should be redone so that it would be easier to understand.

[Mélanie Fléchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Wife so fair, so never failing,
So truly loved, so sorely cross'd,
Thou wilt often miss me wailing,
Thou wilt weep thy hero lost.
But my soul is stout as ever ,
Swords may bite, I feel no smart
Father! better heirloom never
Owned thy son than hardy heart."

So few Norse sagas contain such a love story as the one between Aura and Gisli. This is so rare for this type of fiction to express emotions and feelings that I was absolutely flabbergasted. Overall, a highly recommended saga that doesn't compare nor ressemble the others

[Jurassic Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alors difficile de donner une avis sur les sagas, ce sont des récits assez particuliers qui sont la base des récits épiques et de la mythologie scandinave. Cela reste un récit assez difficile à lire par la particularité de la narration mais j'ai quand même apprécié ma lecture. J'ai aimé suivre les aventures de ses personnages et leur destin.

[Elsa]

Utgåvan jag läste (2016, Bokförlaget Faethon) hade ett bra efterord som förklarade vad som hände + lite kontext. Behövligt, då själva sagan på egen hand bokstavligen fick mig att somna här och där. Inte min typ av litteratur (ännu i alla fall).

[Gustav Larsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully fast-paced page-turner, dealing with issues of infidelity, revenge and exile!

[David Harestad · Rating 4 out of 5]

True norse metal.

Read in norwegian

[Isak Fredrik]

Hvil i fred Vestein 👑 en ung spiller drept for tidlig 🚣🔥💯

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a Norse saga that's properly paced for once and doesn't have too many characters.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

completely justified, would get along very well with Beowulf

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book and it feels like reading the Middle Earth histories of Tolkien

[Elvira Andersson · Rating 2 out of 5]

massa grabbar som heter Torkel dödar varann över bollsport o brudar

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best of the sagas of Icelanders, and in one of the best translation of the sagas (in my humble opinion). The second half of the book degenerates into more of a typical outlaw saga, much more episodic and loose, but the first have is a beautifully constructed tale of secret murder-- it helps to keep in mind that, while most people believe they know who did the killing at the heart of the conflict, the author (at least in the MSS of the saga which this translation is based on) does not actually tell us who did it, and doesn't actually tell us who Gisli thinks did it, though Gisli's actions seem to indicate that he has decided who did it. All in all an engaging Medieval story of feud and murder-- Carol Clover likes to point out that Gisla saga is actually the first "detective novel", rather than Oedipus Rex-- in the latter, the audience always knows who killed the king, while Oedipus is still trying to figure it out, and the audience's knowledge heightens the tragedy-- but in Gisla saga the audience is brought along with Gisli in the effort to discover the identity of the killer. But I think it is actually counter-productive to emphasize the similarity to detective fiction, as the saga is better understood as the attempt not so much to solve a murder, but to resolve it in light of the web of conflicting loyalties at the heart of the story. What is more, saga style tends to keep us out of the minds of the characters, so rather than the main character being in the dark (though perhaps he is), it is the reader/audience who must unravel everything-- what evidence counts, what does Gisli really think, is Gisli supposed to be a martyred hero who defends family honor, a villain/anti-hero who kills his sister's suitors, or just a victim of the web of feud and family, like his sister Thordis? Thordis herself is an incredibly interesting figure, despite the fact that she is not on center stage like Gisli-- but I don't want to go into this too much-- just read the saga!

[Gentry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gisli was a bad man. Or was he a hero? It depends upon where you're standing. The character Gisli is a complex, but not unknowable, one. He loves, is jealous, and has a strong sense of vengeance. We can understand his motives, and even appreciate them in the context of their time and the situations he finds himself in. The mode of the book is dominated by the language of the Icelander, thus by necessity by the translation and the era from which it was told. This mode seems stale and boring at first, and in parts, throughout the book. The ebbed moments between action or drama seem to give little development to any of the characters, and the story is told in a sort of matter of fact manner throughout. While this might not lend to a westerner's brand of reading convention, it however does not distract from the story. There is enough action and dramatic pivots to keep the book interesting and the pages turning. The story is short, the concepts are not difficult, and the read was a satisfying one - if for anything, to absorb the subtleties of the Icelander's prose, ways, and to some extent thought process (at least, back then, and through this translation). I'm glad I read it. I don't think I'd read it again, but I wouldn't mind a genealogical map of all the Thor___ names in Iceland.

[Joseph F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This genre of Icelandic saga is called an outlaw saga, and there are several. Years ago I read Grettir's saga, and I would give that one 5 stars. This one is shorter, and although I did like it, it didn't wow me like that last one did. There are some fine scenes of tension and drama, and the climax is well worth the wait. Gisli's ominous dreams are also a great plot feature.
In addition to the story, there is an essay on Icelandic culture which is worth reading.
The poetry was a tad hard to make out. It may be due to my ignorance of this type of poetry, but I have read verses in other sagas and had no trouble with them. So it is possible that it was this particular translation that I had a problem with. There is also a handy guide to the characters; I found myself constantly switching to it often since there are many characters who also have similar names.

[Hrefna Brynja · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in school. It's one of the old Icelandic vikings sagas. The book was read for the class 'cause the book is written in a very ancient Icelandic language. I loved the story (can't say the same thing about the movie version called Útlaginn)The book is very heroic and the main character Gísli Súrsson is very very very unrealistic, in the book it says that he held a rock so big that it would be called a mountain, really? But it was funny and I really liked it. I'll have to admit that I was sad when the book ended. I do think every Icelandic person should read it but I'm not sure if foreigners would appreciate it. Please try though its quite funny and very short, only around hundred pages.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me about a third of the book to get into the story, especially because I found it nearly impossible at first to sort out who all of the Thorgrims, Thorkells, Thorgeirs, Thordises and Thorbjorns were (not an uncommon difficulty with Icelandic literature), but The Saga of Gisli turned out to be quite a pleasant read, and brief at that. The story moves swiftly. It's hard to pinpoint what I enjoyed so much, but I just liked it a lot, and I'm already looking forward to reading another saga.