''Flóamanna saga'' ( 'the saga of the men of Flói'), also known as ''Þorgils saga Ørrabeinsstjúps'' ('the saga of Þorgils, foster-son of Ørrabeinn') is one of the

sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

. The saga has been especially noted for the realistic depiction of the main character's journey to Greenland, which may reflect the author's own experience of such a journey, or an informant's.

Summary

The saga extends across four generations, around the years 870-1020, focusing on the hero Þorgils. Chapters 1-9 and 18 are an account of Þorgils's ancestors based on Sturla Þórðarson's version of

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ove ...

.Fornrit 2011
. However, the text also contains some motifs more common in the ''

fornaldarsögur 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 ...

'', not least because the text draws on '' Vǫlsunga saga'' to add to Þorgils's ancestors the legendary heroes Ragnarr Loðbrók, Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, and

Óðinn Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...

. The narrative begins in Norway, recounting the deeds of Atli and his sons, including their disputes with

Ingólfr Arnarson Ingólfr Arnarson, in some sources named Bjǫrnólfsson, ( – ) is commonly recognized as the first permanent Norse settler of Iceland, together with his wife and foster brother Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson. According to tradition, they settled ...

and his foster brother Hjǫrleifr Hróðmarsson. It then tells of Hallsteinn Atlason's migration to Iceland, the setting shifting to south-western Iceland in the Settlement Period.Flóamanna saga
in Store norske leksikon. In his prime, Þorgils is portrayed as a classic hero; one episode, for example, draws on the classic ''

Grettis saga ''Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar'' (modern , reconstructed ), also known as ''Grettla'', ''Grettir's Saga'' or ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It details the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, a bellicose Icelandic out ...

''. Aged 16 he returns to his ancestral home of Norway to seek his patrimony there. He travels to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

and gains both a precious sword and a Scottish bride. However, returning to Iceland, he gives this wife to his best friend and marries an Icelandic woman. He converts to Christianity, facing down the threats of the pagan god Þórr, who appears to him in dreams. He then travels to Greenland, aiming to settle there, but is shipwrecked. His companions are afflicted by disease and his wife is killed, and Þorgils must bring up his infant child. His time in Greenland is further curtailed by a fractious relationship with Eiríkr inn rauði. He returns to Iceland via Ireland and Hálogaland and settles down. In the saga's last section, chapters 29-35, he becomes a stubborn and intractable character. He arguably represents a complex combination of traditional Scandinavian honour-culture with European, spiritually inspired Christian beliefs. In this, the saga may show influence from other sagas such as ''

Eiríks saga rauða The ''Saga of Erik the Red'', in non, Eiríks saga rauða (), is an Icelandic saga on the Norse exploration of North America. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century. It is preserved in somewhat different versions ...

'' and '' Grænlendinga saga'', along with

saints' lives A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...

. Þorgils remarries and dies at the age of 85.

Provenance and manuscripts

The saga is conventionally dated to around 1300;Björn Sigfússon', 'Flóamanna saga', in '' KLNM'' (Gyldendal, 1956-78). Richard Perkins argued specifically for a date certainly between 1290 and 1385, favouring a date between 1290 and 1330. He argued specifically that the saga could have been patronised or composed by

Haukr Erlendsson Haukr or Hauk Erlendsson (died 1334; Modern is, Haukur Erlendsson ) was lawspeaker (lawman) of Iceland, later lawspeaker and knight of Norway, known for having compiled a number of Icelandic sagas and other materials mostly in his own hand, bound ...

. The saga survives today in at least 67 manuscripts, which attest to two medieval versions of the saga: a longer one, known in scholarship as the M-version (primarily attested in AM 445 b, 4o, with some further material in AM 515, 4to), and a shorter one, known as the X-version, from which almost all the other manuscripts descend. One major X-manuscript was the now lost Vatnshyrna, whose text is preserved in a copy by the priest Ketill Jörundarson (Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 516 4o), and as annotations by

Árni Magnússon Árni Magnússon (13 November 1663 – 7 January 1730) was a scholar and collector of manuscripts from Iceland who assembled the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection. Life Árni was born in 1663 at Kvennabrekka in Dalasýsla, in western Iceland ...

to another manuscript, AM 515 4o. The longer M-text probably represents most closely the original form of the saga, but only survives fragmentarily.Richard Perkins (1972)
An edition of Flóamanna saga with a study of its sources and analogues
Dphil. University of Oxford. pp. 4-5.

Editions and translations

* Bliksrud, Hilde A. (trans.), ''Sagaen om Floafolket'' (2014) (

bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...

translation) * Joleik, Albert (trans.), ''Soga um Torgjils Errabeinstjup eller Floamanna saga'' (

nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-N ...

translation).skandinaviske-oversaettelser.net
/ref> * Mendelssohn, Erich (trans.), ''Die Leute aus Floi''. In: ''Grönländer und Färinger Geschichten''. Jena: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1912 (Sammlung Thule - Altnordische Dichtung und Prosa. Thule, Band 13.) (German translation) * Perkins, Richard (ed.), (1972)
An edition of Flóamanna saga with a study of its sources and analogues
Dphil. University of Oxford. * Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson (eds), ''Harðar saga'', Íslenzk fornrit, 13 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritfélag, 1991)

External links

Full text at the Icelandic Saga Databaseheimskringla.no
Danish translation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Floamanna Saga Sagas of Icelanders