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Gunnlaugs saga ormstunga | |
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 Gunnlaugur and Helga the Fair meeting by Charles Fairfax Murray |
Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu () or the Saga of Gunnlaugur Serpent-Tongue is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Composed at the end of the 13th century, it is preserved complete in a slightly younger manuscript. It contains 25 verses of skaldic poetry attributed to the main characters.[1]
It is an important work in both Norwegian and Icelandic literary history. Gunnlaugur is sometimes Anglicized as Gunnlaug. The cognomen can also be translated as Worm-Tongue or Snake-Tongue. [2]
The saga has similarities to earlier sagas of poets, such as Kormáks saga and Bjarnar saga, but it is more refined and elegant with strong characterization and emotional impact. Long considered a masterpiece, the saga is often read by beginning students of Old Norse literature.[3] Printed with a Latin translation and commentary in 1775, it was the first of the Icelanders' sagas to be published in a scholarly edition.[4] [5]
- ^ "The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue", Penguin Classics, (Penguin, 2015), inside the front cover
- ^ Knut Ødegård (14 February 2009). "Gunnlaug Ormstunge". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ^ Poole, Russell (2001) Skaldsagas: Text, Vocation, and Desire in the Icelandic Sagas of Poets. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016970-3
- ^ Hansen, Anne Mette et al. (2005) The Book As Artefact: Text And Border. Rodopi. ISBN 90-420-1888-7
- ^ "Romeo and Juliet of The North: Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu". The Saga-Steads of Iceland: A 21st-Century Pilgrimage. 25 September 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2015.