Finnboga saga ramma

Finnboga saga ramma (listenⓘ) (The Saga of Finnbogi the Strong) is an Icelandic saga that recounts the life of Finnbogi rammi. The story takes place in Flateyjardalur in Suður-Þingeyjarsýsla and in other places in Iceland, as well as in Norway. The events supposedly took place in the 10th century. Finnbogi rammi is mentioned in Landnámabók, and Íslendingadrápa.[1]

The saga was likely composed in the fourteenth century, usually grouped with "postclassical" sagas".[1] This ambiguous generic distinction has been argued to be unclear and based on a bias towards a realistic saga style. In fact, Finnboga saga appears in one of the earliest extant manuscripts containing complete sagas of Icelanders.[2] Margrét Eggertsdóttir summaries the saga thus:

Finnboga saga ramma is not one the better-crafted Íslendingasögur. Characterization is flat, and the plot little more than a repetitious series of episodes designed to present the hero in a favorable light. The narrative is nevertheless lively and makes good reading.[1]

A feud in the saga also features in Vatnsdœla saga. Björn M. Ólsen proposed that Finnboga saga ramma was written to present a better version of Finnbogi than that in Vatnsdœla saga.[3] However, van Hamel suggests that the two sagas record different versions of the same incident.[4]

The saga is preserved in two main versions in the vellum manuscripts Möðruvallabók and Tómasarbók as well as a number of seventeenth century paper manuscripts derived from these.[1]

Guðmundr Bergþórsson wrote rímur based on the story in 1686 and there is a Faroese ballad based on the saga or a common source.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e Eggertsdóttir, Margrét (1993). "Finnboga saga ramma". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 194. ISBN 978-0824047870.
  2. ^ Ármann Jakobsson and Yoav Tirosh (2020). ""The 'Decline of Realism' and inefficacious Old Norse literary genres and sub-genres"". Scandia (3): 102–38.
  3. ^ Ólsen, Björn M. (1937–1939). "Um Íslendingasögur: Kaflar úr háskólafyrirlestrum". In Blöndal, Sigfús; Sveinsson, Einar Ól. (eds.). Safn til sögu Íslands. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka bókmentafélag. pp. 336–348.
  4. ^ Van Hamel, A. G. (1934). "Vatnsdœlasaga and Finnbogasaga". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 33 (1): 1–22. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27703857.