''Eireks Saga Víðförla'' 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) ...
about a Norwegian, Eric the Traveller. He travels to
Miklagard
The city of Istanbul has been known by a number of different names. The most notable names besides the modern Turkish name are Byzantium, Constantinople, and Stamboul. Different names are associated with different phases of its history, with diffe ...
, modern
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
, with Eric the Dane. There he interacts with a King, possibly the Eastern Roman Emperor, who informs him on Christianity and
Údáinsakr. After a period of study he then journeys to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and beyond in search of
Údáinsakr (the Deathless Acre), and returns. Modern analysis have concluded that the place mentioned is likely in modern Yemen at Aden. This version of the epic was transcribed almost 400 years after the facts reported. This telling merges the Údáinsakr of
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
with the notion of
heaven in Christianity
In Christianity, heaven is traditionally the location of the throne of God and the angels of God,Ehrman, Bart. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend. Oxford University Press, USA. 2006. and in most forms ...
to create a theological bridge between the belief systems. This however was a later addition to the written version, which has been compromised by later bias. Due to this fact, the composition is now regarded as largely mythical, despite being taught as Icelandic history for centuries. The lone source on the Life of Eric the Traveller is the Icelandic manuscript ''
Skálholtsbók
Reykjavík, AM 557 4to, known as Skálholtsbók (, the Book of Skálholt), is an Icelandic saga-manuscript. It is now fragmentary: three gatherings of eight leaves and twenty individual leaves have been lost, leaving only 48 leaves. Nevertheless, ...
''.
External links
The saga in Old Norse at «heimskringla.no»*
*
Legendary sagas
Istanbul in fiction
{{saga-stub