Gautreks saga (Gautrek's Saga) is a Scandinavian legendary saga put to text towards the end of the 13th century which survives only in much later manuscripts. It seems to have been intended as a compilation of traditional stories, often humorous, about a legendary King Gautrek of West Geatland, to serve as a kind of prequel to the already existing Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar (Saga of Hrólf son of Gautrek). See also king of the Geats.
As it stands, the saga seems incomplete, for a promise is made that the tale will return to King Gautrek of Götaland and his sons, to "the same story as told in Sweden", and that promise is not kept. Indeed, other than the reference to Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar , no sons are mentioned. But it seems that Gautrek was noted in many tales for his generosity and bravery, but not for deep thinking, according to a passage near the end. It is probable there were more amusing anecdotes to that effect that the author planned to include.
There are actually two main versions of Gautreks saga: a shorter, apparently older, version; and a longer, apparently more recent, one. [1]
The shorter version begins by relating how Gautrekr's father-to-be, King Gauti of West Götaland, becomes lost while hunting, and spends the night in an isolated homestead of strange, arguably insane, backwoods bumpkins: a stingy farmer named Skafnörtungr ('Skinflint'), his equally stingy wife Tötra ('Tatters'), and their three sons and three daughters. That night Gauti fathers Gautrekr on Snotra, the eldest of the farmer's daughters and supposedly the most intelligent of the family. The account bristles with grisly humor as it relates how one by one the members of the family go on to kill themselves over the most trivial losses, believing that they will go to Óðinn in Valhöll, until at last only Snotra and her child Gautrekr remain. At that point Snotra takes Gautrekr to Gauti's court; years later, on his deathbed, King Gauti makes Gautrekr his heir. This section is sometimes referred to as Dalafífla þáttr ("The Tale of the Fools in the Valley").
The saga then shifts to a folk-tale-like account of how Refr, the lazy son of a farmer, forces his father's stupendous ox as gift upon the stingy but extraordinarily intelligent Jarl Neri and requests only Neri's advice in return. Jarl Neri normally never accepts gifts because he is too stingy to repay them. But he takes the ox and gives Ref a whetstone in return, telling him how to employ it as a gift to King Gautrekr to get greater wealth. The saga has mentioned Gautrek's marriage to Álfhildr, daughter of King Haraldr of Wendland, and Álfhildr's subsequent death by illness years later, which has driven the grieving Gautrekr somewhat out of his mind: ignoring all matters of state, Gautrekr spends all his time on Álfhildr's burial mound, flying his hawk. On Neri's advice, Refr gives the whetstone to Gautrekr at the moment that the king needs something to throw at his hawk; Gautrekr promptly gives Refr a gold ring. Refr goes on to visit king after king, in each case giving part or all of that which he received from the previous king, and getting in return a greater gift, since none of the kings want to be outdone by Gautrekr, who "gives gold in exchange for pebbles." At last, through Neri's advice and trickery, Refr gains the hand of Gautrekr's daughter Helga and an earldom that Neri held from King Gautrekr. This is often known as Gjafa-Refs þáttr ('the story of Gift-Refr').
The shorter version of the saga ends with an account of King Gautrekr's remarriage to the fair Ingibjörg, daughter of a powerful hersir in the Sogn region of Norway. Ingibjörg chooses Gautrekr for his fame and generosity, despite his age, over the young prince Óláfr who has also asked for her hand. Gautrekr fights off an attack by the rejected and disappointed Óláfr, marries Ingibjörg, and fathers two sons named Keti'l and Hrólfr with her.
The younger and much better known version of the saga includes these two lighthearted tales, but inserts between them an account of the ancestry, birth, and earliest exploits of Starkaðr, who is perhaps the grimmest and strangest of Scandinavian legendary heroes. This account, sometimes known as Víkars þáttr ("The Tale of Víkar"), was probably extracted or retold from a lost saga about Starkaðr; it contains extensive poetry, ostensibly by Starkaðr himself, and it ends tragically. A high point of this section is the evocative episode where Starkaðr's foster-father Grani Horsehair awakens his foster-son Starkaðr at about midnight, takes him to an island where eleven men are at council, and, sitting in a twelfth chair reveals himself as the god Óðinn. In a long dialogue between the gods Þór and Óðinn, the two alternately bestow curses and blessings upon Starkaðr. When this is done, Óðinn requires Starkaðr to sacrifice King Víkar, his sworn lord, friend, and benefactor. Starkaðr persuades Víkar to put his neck in a noose of stretchy calf intestines and be stabbed with a fragile reed, thus undergoing a mock sacrifice. Unfortunately, the sacrifice turns real when the noose becomes rope and the reed turns into a spear, leaving Vikar stabbed and hanged, and bringing down grief and disgrace on Starkaðr for killing his lord.
This middle section is so stylistically unlike the happier stories that "bookend" it that some have questioned whether it should have been included at all. The only obvious link is because King Vikar, who appears prominently in it, is father of Jarl Neri who plays a very important role in the material following and also because Eirík king of Sweden, who appears in it, was prominent in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. Nonetheless, there are themes that connect all three sections of this saga; for example, both Starkaðr and Refr are unpromising youths, and both Neri and Skafnortung are misers. The entire saga seems to be a meditation on generosity: sacrifice to the gods is useless, and stinginess is not admirable—but giving and receiving gifts, participating in networks of reciprocal exchange, is the way to good fortune. [2]
The longer version does not include the story of Gautrekr's remarriage, but essentially the same account appears at the beginning of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar .
Snorri Sturluson introduces Gauti and Gautrek in his Ynglinga saga where Gauti "after whom Gautland (Götaland) is named" is mentioned as the father of Gautrek the Generous the father of King Algaut the father of Gauthild who married Ingjald the son of King Önund of Sweden. This should make Gautrek live in the early 7th century, approximately contemporary with Önund's father Yngvar or possibly Yngvar's father Eystein in whose days, according to Snorri, the Danish king Hrólf Kraki died. And indeed Hrólf Kraki is one of the kings whom Ref visits in the saga. Another king visited by Ref is Ælle of England and the historical King Ælle of Deira could well be contemporary to the legendary Hrólf Kraki of Denmark. However in the section concerning Starkad, the kings of Sweden are the brothers Alrek and Eirík which, if one trusts the order of kings in the Ynglinga saga, would put Gautrek generations earlier.
However in Bósa saga ok Herrauds (The saga of Herraud and Bósi), Gautrek's supposed half-brother Hring is a contemporary of King Harald Wartooth.
Gjafa-Refs þáttr has a close parallel in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum . The parallels are summarised by Michael Chesnutt as follows: [3]
| Gesta Danorum (8.16:1-4) | Gjafa-Refs þáttr |
|---|---|
| Two Icelanders, Refo and Bero, visit King Goto of Norway. | A Norwegian, Refr, brings an ox to Earl Neri of Gautland. |
| The courtiers mock him. | |
| Refo claims that King Gotricus is the greatest giver of gifts. | The earl predicts that King Gautrekr will make Refr a gift. |
| Refo travels to King Gotricus. | Refur travels to King Gautrekr. |
| Some of the courtiers laugh. | |
| The king, sitting on a chair, gives him two gold rings. | The king, sitting on a mound, gives him a gold ring. |
| [More visits to generous kings.] | |
| Refo kills the evil Ulvo. | Refr defeats the evil Refnefr. |
| He abducts the King of Norway's daughter. | He marries the King of Gautland's daughter. |
| Later, Refo serves Gotricus, but he is murdered in Sweden. | Refr is appointed Gautrekr's earl, but it is said that he died young. |
Translated into Swedish in 1664, the saga's depiction of the Ættarstapi gave rise to a fashion in early-modern Sweden for labelling inland cliffs with the Swedish equivalent of that name, Ättestupa . [4] [5]
The saga is one of the key inspirations for Bjarni Bjarnason's 2011 novel Mannorð . [6]
In Norse mythology, Snotra is a goddess associated with wisdom. Snotra is attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the Gautreks Saga, where she is the mother of Gautrek son of Gauti, the eponymous ancestor of the Geats, and Goths, a son of Oðinn as King of Sviþjoð. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the goddess.
Hrólfr Kraki, Hroðulf, Rolfo, Roluo, Rolf Krage was a semi-legendary Danish king who appears in both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition.
The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem Ynglingatal. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings in Beowulf. When Beowulf and Ynglingatal were composed sometime in the eighth to tenth centuries, the respective scop and skald (poet) expected his audience to have a great deal of background information about these kings, which is shown in the allusiveness of the references.
Eadgils, Adils, Aðils, Adillus, Aðísl at Uppsölum, Athisl, Athislus or Adhel was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century.
Ingjald illråde or Ingjaldr hinn illráði was a semi-legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings, son and successor of King Anund, and the father and predecessor of King Olof Trätälja. As with many of the 5th-7th century Yngling Kings of Sweden, his historicity is contested.
Alaric and Eric, according to legend, were two kings of Sweden.
Halfdan was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding (Skjöldung) lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded him in the rule of Denmark, kings named Hroðgar and Halga in the Old English poem Beowulf and named Hróar and Helgi in Old Norse accounts.
Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language (Proto-Norse) have been *Hailaga.
Starkad was either an eight-armed giant or the human grandson of the aforementioned giant in Norse mythology.
A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century. The sagas were probably all written in Iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date, such as Hrólfs saga kraka.
Geatish kings, ruling over the provinces of Götaland (Gautland/Geatland), appear in several sources for early Swedish history. Today, most of them are not considered historical.
Gautrekr was a legendary Geatish king who appears in several sources, such as Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Ynglinga saga, Nafnaþulur and Af Upplendinga konungum.
Bósa saga ok Herrauds or Saga of Bósi and Herraud is a legendary saga, relating the fantastic adventures of the two companions Herraud and Bósi. It is first attested in three manuscripts from the 15th century, AM 343 a 4to, AM 577 4to, and AM 586 4to.
Víkar was a legendary Norwegian king who found himself and his ships becalmed for a long period. To raise a wind, a human blood sacrifice was needed, and the lots fell on King Víkar himself. Starkad (Starkaðr), Víkar's counselor urged a mock hanging from a tree instead, but in giving this advice Starkad had been prompted by the god Odin, who desired Víkar's death. According to the account in Gautreks saga, when Starkad let loose the branch, the apparent reed-stalk with which Starkad stabbed at the king was seen to be a real spear, the stump under Víkar's feet fell away, and the calf guts which had been used instead of rope turned into a strong withy. Víkar died. Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum refers to a similar version relating a magic transformation, but prefers or invents a more rational account in which Starkad tied the osier very tightly so that Víkar could hardly breathe and then stabbed Víkar with his sword. This was the first of Starkad's three great crimes.
Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is a Scandinavian legendary saga which was put to text in Iceland in the 13th century. It has a prequel in Gautreks saga.
Hrólfs saga kraka, the Saga of King Rolf Kraki, is a late legendary saga on the adventures Hrólfr Kraki, a semi-legendary king in what is now Denmark, and his clan, the Skjöldungs. The events can be dated to the late 5th century and the 6th century. A precursor text may have dated to the 13th century, but the saga in the form that survived to this day dates to c. 1400. Forty-four manuscripts survive, but the oldest one of them is from the 17th century, although a manuscript is known to have existed c. 1461 at the monastery of Möðruvellir in Iceland.
Hrólfr Gautreksson was a legendary Geatish king who appears in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and probably in Hyndluljóð.
Helga þáttr Þórissonar is a þáttr or short legendary saga found within the Saga of Ólaf Tryggvason in the Flateyjarbók.
Eddica minor. Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. is a German-language book of Eddic poetry compiled by Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch in 1903. Unlike the Eddic poetry published in the Poetic Edda, the poems in Eddica minora were extracted by the authors mostly from the Legendary sagas.
In Germanic heroic legend, Elgfróði (Elk-Fróði) is the half-man, half-elk elder brother of the hero Bödvar Bjarki and Thorir Houndsfoot. The name is also used to describe mythical creatures with his perceived form, which have been seen as a Norse variant of a centaur, although it is not clear if he was intended to be depicted with two or four legs.