Beginning of Gull-Þóris saga in AM 561 4to

Gull-Þóris saga (; ) 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 takes place in the west of Iceland during the

Settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle ...

in the second half of the ninth century. It tells the story of Þórir Oddsson (nicknamed Gull-Þórir, "Gold-Þórir"), a chieftain in Þorskafjörður, and his dispute with his neighbour Hallr. Scholars have argued that the saga is the work of

Sturla Þórðarson Sturla Þórðarson ( ; ; 29 July 1214–30 July 1284) was an Icelandic chieftain and writer of sagas and contemporary history during the 13th century. Biography The life of Sturla Þórðarson was chronicled in the Sturlunga saga. Sturla was th ...

Synopsis

Þórir comes to Iceland with his father, Oddr skrauti. Þórir's wife is Ingibjörg, daughter of Gísl, who settled Gilsfjörður. Later, Þórir goes raiding with Hyrningr the son of Hallr of Hofstaðir, and obtains gold in

Finnmark Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024. On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...

, where he defeats some dragons in a cave north of Dumbshaf. When the men come back to Iceland, Hallr wants to get a portion of the gold on behalf of his son, although Hyrningr is satisfied with his lot. This becomes a source of controversy between Þórir and Hallr. Þórir kills both Hallr and his older son Rauðr, but is later reconciled with Hyrningr, who does not get involved in the feud.

Authorship

There is some relationship between material in ''Gull-Þóris saga'' and the 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 over ...

'' compiled by

. Þórhallur Vilmundarson pointed out some further connections between the saga and Sturla's interests and tastes. Elín Bára Magnúsdóttir went further in affirmatively arguing that Sturla had composed the saga, based on an analysis of the vocabulary and themes of the text, which show a consistent similarity with Sturla's known works.

Stylometric Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. It has also been applied successfully to music and to fine-art paintings as well. Argamon, Shlomo, Kevin Burns, and Shlomo Dubnov, eds. The structure of ...

measurements by another team of researchers also link the saga to Sturla's works.Sigurður Ingibergur Björnsson, Steingrímur Páll Kárason and Jón Karl Helgason. 2021. "Stylometry and the Faded Fingerprints of Saga Authors." In ''In Search of the Culprit'' ed. by Stefanie Gropper and Lukas Rösli. De Gruyter. P. 112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725339-005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gull-Thoris Saga Sagas of Icelanders