Bjarni Einarsson. Foreword, Afterword

• Author: Bjarni Einarsson
• Title: Foreword, Afterword.
• Published in: Egils saga
• Editor: Bjarni Einarsson
• Place, Publisher: London: Viking Society for Nothern Research. University College
• Year: 2003
• Pages: ix-xvi, 183-89
• E-text:
• Reference: Bjarni Einarsson. "Foreword" and "Afterword". Egils saga, pp. ix-xvi, 183-89. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. London: Viking Society for Nothern Research. University College, 2003.

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Annotation

Bjarni Einarsson introduces the version of Egils Saga as aiming to give English-speaking students the opportunity to read the saga in its original language via the aid of annotations as well as to offer an improved version based on a new reading of Möðruvallabók. He details the various extant fragments of the saga and compares their different contents. He points out that this edition does not provide the complete evidence from the manuscripts, but he pulls on work from more than one redaction. The edition uses normalized orthography and while the chapters are not numbered in the manuscript, Bjarni has added chapter numbers. He gives a brief history of the printed editions and translations of the saga. In his Afterword, Bjarni gives a short summary of the saga and proceeds to illustrate its context and background within the Sagas of Icelanders. He places the events of the saga among the situations in other countries in western Europe at the time. He highlights the possible oral roots of the saga and its poetry, as well as comparing and contrasting it with the Kings' Sagas. Bjarni discusses scholars' views on whether the poetry in the saga is genuine 9th and 10th century work, and concludes that it cannot be, even if the author assumed so at the time of writing. There is a short passage on Egill's heroism and poetic skill and Bjarni concludes by tentatively agreeing that Egils Saga was indeed probably written by Snorri Sturluson.

References

Chapter 50: Elfráður hinn ríki: "The battle at Vínheiðr has some similarities with the great battle of Brunanburh in 937, recorded in English sources, according to which King Athelstan won a famous victory against invading Northmen supported by forces from Scotland and Wales (see the poem The Battle of Brunanburh in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the description of the battle in William of Malmesbury’s De Gestis Regum Anglorum). It seems reasonable to assume an English source for the outlines of the episode in Egils saga, from the account of King Elfráðr inn ríki (Alfred the Great) in Ch. 50 to the end of the battle in Ch. 54" (p. ??).

Links

• Written by: Cecilia Emily Clare White
• Icelandic/English translation: