Víglundar 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 ...

. ''Víglundar saga'' utilizes the style and romance that also characterize the

chivalric sagas The ''riddarasögur'' (literally 'sagas of knights', also known in English as 'chivalric sagas', 'romance-sagas', 'knights' sagas', 'sagas of chivalry') are Norse prose Norse saga, sagas of the romance (heroic literature), romance genre. Starting ...

. It is one of the latest of the Icelandic family sagas, dating to the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. The saga is preserved in two leather manuscripts from the 15th century. The saga tells the story of the love between Víglundr and Ketilríðr, who are attached to each other from childhood. The opera ''

Thorgrim ''Thorgrim'' is an opera in four acts with music by the British composer Frederic H. Cowen to a libretto by Joseph Bennett after the Icelandic tale " Viglund the Fair", first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, on 22 April 1890. The pr ...

'' (1890) is based on this saga.

Plot

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, Þorgrímr Eiríksson and the beautiful Olof Þórisdóttir fall in love, but Olof's father arranges for her to be betrothed to a wealthy man named Ketill instead. Þorgrímr and Olof therefore

elope Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. A ...

and flee to

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 ...

, where they settle down and have two sons, Víglundr and Trausti, and a daughter, Helga. As an adult, Víglundr Þorgrímsson begins courting Ketilríðr Hólmkelsdóttir, the daughter of his father's neighbour and friend Hólmkell. This upsets her mother Þorbjǫrg and brothers Einarr and Jǫkull, who begin plotting against Víglundr. Meanwhile in Norway, Ketill has married and has three children – two sons (Sigurðr and Gunnlaugr) and a daughter (Ingibjǫrg). However, he is still obsessed with getting revenge against Þorgrímr, and offers to marry Ingibjǫrg off to an adventurer named Hákon if the latter will go to Iceland and kill Þorgrímr. Hákon duly travels to Iceland and takes up lodging with Hólmkell, finding willing allies in the form of his host's sons Einarr & Jǫkull. The trio ambush Víglundr and Trausti in a field of haystacks. The attackers are all killed, but both Víglundr and Trausti are wounded, and to make matters worse the brothers are also

outlawed An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

for the killings. Ketill sends his sons, Sigurðr and Gunnlaugr, to Iceland to kill Þorgrímr. Travelling incognito, the brothers are taken in by their unsuspecting target, but he is so kind to them that they decide not to go through with their mission. Instead, they help Víglundr and Trausti escape to Norway, and even persuade their father to drop his vendetta against Þorgrímr. The sentences of outlawry against Víglundr and Trausti are eventually lifted, and (unusually for an ''

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

'') the saga has a happy ending, concluding with a quadruple wedding of Víglundr Þorgrímsson to Ketilriðr Hólmkelsdóttir, Trausti Þorgrímsson to Ingibjǫrg Ketilsdóttir, Sigurðr Ketilsson to Helga Þorgrímsdóttir, and Gunnlaugr Ketilsson to Víglundr's cousin Ragnhildr Helgadóttir.

References

Other sources

*Arna-Magnæan manuscript 551 A, 4to: ''Bárðar saga, Víglundar saga, Grettis saga'' (Københavns universitet. Universitetsbibliotek. Copenhagen, Munksgaard, 1954)

External links

The Saga of Viglund the Fair
Full text and translation at the Icelandic Saga Database Sagas of Icelanders Works adapted into operas {{iceland-stub