Gull-Þóris saga (; ), also known as ''Þorskfirðinga saga'', is one of the

sagas of Icelanders The sagas of Icelanders (, ), also known as family sagas, are a subgenre, or text group, of Icelandic Saga, sagas. They are prose narratives primarily based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and earl ...

. The

saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

takes place in the west of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

during the

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

in the second half of the ninth century. It tells the story of Þórir Oddsson (nicknamed Gull-Þórir, "Gold-Þórir"), a chieftain in

Þorskafjörður Þorskafjörður is a roughly sixteen-kilometre-long fjord in the Iceland, Icelandic county of Austur-Barðastrandarsýsla. Geography Þorskfjörður lies between headlands called Reykjanes and Skálanes. Like other fjords in its area, Þorska ...

, 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. Much academic debate is dedicated to evaluating his life, bias as an historian of medieval Ice ...

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 (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

, where he defeats some dragons in a

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

north of Dumbshaf. When the men come back to

, Hallr wants to get a portion of the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

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. At the end of his life, Þórir hides away his gold and is rumored to have become a

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

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 ov ...

'' 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 A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

and themes of the text, which show a consistent similarity with Sturla's known works. Stylometric 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