''Vatnsdæla saga'' ( Icelandic: ; ;

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

: ''Vatnsdœla 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 remains in manuscripts
AM 559 4to
an
138 fol
''Vatnsdæla Saga'' is essentially a family chronicle probably written just after the middle of the thirteenth century. It relates to residents of Vatnsdalur, a valley that runs south from

Húnaflói Húnaflói (, "Huna Bay") is a large bay between Strandir and Skagaströnd in Iceland. It is about wide and long. The towns Blönduós and Skagaströnd are located on the bay's eastern side. Fauna The bay has been proposed as a protected ...

, a large bay in the north of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

. The principal protagonist is Ingemund (''Ingimundr Þorsteinsson'') who fought for King

Harald Fairhair Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagre Modern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of No ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

at the

Battle of Hafrsfjord The Battle of Hafrsfjord ( no, Slaget i Hafrsfjord) was a great naval battle fought in Hafrsfjord sometime between 872 and 900 that resulted in the unification of Norway, later known as the Kingdom of Norway. After the battle, the victorious Vikin ...

winning his friendship and an amulet. At the instigation of a sorceress, he moved to Iceland to settle at Vatnsdalur in Húnaþing. The saga follows several generations of his family until the arrival of Christianity in the late tenth century.

References

Other sources

* Jane Smiley (2001) ''The Sagas of the Icelanders'' (Penguin Classics)

External links

"Proverbs of Vatnsdœla Saga and the Sword of Jokull: The Oral Backgrounds of Grettir Ásmundarson's Flawed Heroism"
by Harris, Richard L. (2010) in ''Essays in honor of George Clark'', Robin Waugh and James Weldon (eds.), (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University . pages 150 - 170. )
Full text at the Icelandic Saga Database
Sagas of Icelanders {{Iceland-saga-stub