''Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana'', or ''The Story of
Egil One-Hand Egil One-Hand is a berserker hero from the Icelandic legendary saga Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana.
Life
Egil was the son of Hring ruler of Småland and Ingibjorg, daughter of Earl Bjarkmar of Gautland. Egil was a troublesome youn ...
and
Asmund Berserkers-Slayer'', is a
legendary saga
A legendary saga or ''fornaldarsaga'' (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.The article ''Fornaldarsagor'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1991) ...
, which takes place in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
(''Rússía''), a country located between
Gardariki and
Hunaland
Hunaland and its people are mentioned several times in the Poetic Edda, and in the Fornaldarsagas.
Its origins are partly the old Frankish kingdom (the Franks were once called ''Hugones'', in Latin, and ''Hūgas'' in Old English) and partly in the ...
, the land of the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
. There are also adventures in
Halogaland and
Jotunheim, the realm of giants (
Jotuns). Asmund is also known as Gnodar-Asmund and under this name he is mentioned in various other sagas. His foster-father was Illugi, who has a saga of his own in ''
Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra
Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra is a ''fornaldarsaga'' about a young Dane named Illugi who delivers a female troll and her daughter from a curse. The earliest manuscript (of 36 which are known to exist) dates from the first half of the 16th century (AM ...
''.
As the name suggests, it deals with battles between
berserker
In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...
s.
The saga is believed to have been written down in the 14th century. It is known through Icelandic manuscripts, the oldest attested ones from the early 15th century. Its first printed edition was published by the Swedish scholar Petter Salan in 1693, under the title ''Fortissimorum pugilum Egilli et Asmundi historiam antqvo gothico sermone exaratam.''
[Upsala, O. Rudbecks, 1693.]
References
External links
The saga in Old Norse at heimskringla.no
Legendary sagas
{{saga-stub