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Egil's Saga

A big part of Egil's Saga takes place in Borgarfjordur area in West Iceland. Egil's Saga is preserved in a number of vellum manuscripts and fragments dating from the second half of the thirteenth century onwards, although the most important is Modruvallabok. Composed in the second quarter of the thirteenth century, the saga is generally attributed on stylistic and other grounds to Iceland's greatest medieval historian, Snorri Sturluson who lived in Reykholt in Borgarfjordur but he was a descendant of Egil. If the attribution is correct, Egil's Saga is the only one whose author is known.

Here below you can read different parts of Egil's Saga but the whole Saga is close to two hundred pages and aivalable in bookstores and souvenir shops in West Iceland.

Time of action: 850 - 1000
Time of writing: 1220 - 1240

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- Skallagrim took the land from mountain to shore, all of the Myrar marshland out to Selalon (Seal lagoon) and the land up to the Borgarhraun lava field, and south to the Hafnarfjoll mountains, and all the land crossed by the rivers down to the sea. The following spring he brought his ship south into the bay closest to where Kveldulf, his father had been washed ashore, built a farmstead there and called it Borg. He called the fjord Borgarfjord, and they named the entire district after it. -

- Skallagrim and Bera had many children, but the first ones all died. They then had a son, named Thorolf and two daughters named Saeunn and Thorunn, all of them promising children.
Skallagrim and his wife had another son who was sprinkled with water and named Egil. As he grew up, it soon became clear he would turn out very ugly and resemble his father, with black hair. When he was three years old, he was a big and strong as a boy of six or seven. He became talkative at an early age and had a gift for words, but tended to be difficult to deal with in his games with other children. -

-Skallagrim took a great delight in trials of strength and games, and liked talking about them. Ball games were common in those days, and there were plenty of strong men in the district at that time. A ball game was arranged early in winter on the plains by the river Hvita, and crowds of people came to it from all over the district. Many of Skallagrim's men attended, and Thord Granason was their leader. Egil asked Thord if he could go to the game with him; he was in his seventh year then. Thord let him, and seated Egil behind him when he rode there. When they reached the games meeting, the players were divided up into teams. A lot of small boys were there as well, and they formed teams to play their own games.
Egil was paired against a boy called Grim, the son of Hegg from Heggsstadir. Grim was ten or eleven old, and strong for his age. When they started playing the game, Egil proved to be weaker than Grim, who showed off his strenght as much as he could. Egil lost his temper, wielded the bat and struck Grim, who seized him and dashed him to the ground roughly, warning him that he would suffer for it if he did not learn how to behave. When Egil got back on his feet he left the game, and the boys jeered at him.
Egil went to see Thord Granason and told him what had happened. Thord said, "I'll go with you and we'll take our revenge." Thord handed Egil an axe he had been holding, a common type of weapon in those days. They walked over to where the boyes were playing their game. Grim had caught the ball and was running with the other boys chasing him. Egil ran up to Grim and drove the axe into his head, right through to the brain. Then Egil and Thord walked away to their people. The people from Myrar seized their weapons, and so dit the others. As a result , a quarrel developed between the two groups, they fought a battle at Laxfit, by the river Grimsa, where seven men were killed.
When Egil returned home, Skallagrim seemed indifferent to what had happened, but Bera said he had the makings of a true Viking when he was old enough to be put in command of warships. Then Egil spoke this verse:


-When Egil was twelve, he wasso big that few grown men were big and strong enough that he could not beat them at games. Once during winter there was a ball game at Borg, in Sandvik to the south. Egil and Thord played against Skallagrim, who grew tired and they came off better. But that evening after sunset, Egil and Thord began losing. Skallagrim was filled with such strengt that he seized Thord and dashed him to the ground so fiercely that he was crushed by the blow and died on the spot. Then he seized Egil.
Skallagrim had a servant woman named Thorgerd Brak, who had fostered Egil when he was child. She was an imposing woman, as strong as man and well versed in the magic arts. Brak said, "You're attacking you own son like a mad beast, Skallagrim."
Skallagrim let Egil go, but went for her instead. She fled, with Skallagrim in pursuit. They came to the shore at the end of Digranes, and she ran off the edge of the cliff and swam away. Skallagrim threw a huge boulder after her which struck her between the shoulder blades. Neither the woman nor the boulder ever came up afterwards. That spot is now called Brakarsund (Brak's Sound).
Later that evening, when they returned to Borg, Egil was furious. By the time Skallagrim and the other members of the household sat down at the table, Egil had not come to his seat. Then he walked into the room and went over to Skallgrim's favourite, a man who was in charge of the workers an ran the farm with him. Egil killed him with a single blow, then went to his seat. Skallagrim did not mention the matter and it was let rest afterwards, but father and son did not speak to each other, neither kind nor unkind words, and so it remained through the winter. -



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