The Sagas of Icelanders
Icelandic literature
Also known as: “Egils saga”
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place in Icelandic literature
- In saga: Sagas of Icelanders
Egils saga offers a brilliant study of a complex personality—a ruthless Viking who is also a sensitive poet, a rebel against authority from early childhood who ends his life as a defenseless, blind old man. In several sagas the hero becomes an outlaw fighting a…
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portrayal of Egill Skallagrímsson
- In Egill Skallagrímsson
1220; translated in The Sagas of Icelanders), attributed to Snorri Sturluson. The saga portrays Egill as having a dual nature derived from his mixed descent from fair, extroverted Vikings and dark, taciturn Sami (Lapps). He was headstrong, vengeful, and greedy for gold but also a loyal friend, a…
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