The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar
Egils saga Skalla Grimssonar is unusual among the Islendingasogur in setting most of its action outside Iceland. Its eponymous central figure lives quietly when at home in south-west Iceland: he does not generally meddle in local affairs, and few are anxious to challenge him. The saga might, therefo...
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ftunivsydneyojs:oai:ojs-prod.library.usyd.edu.au:article/8742 2024-01-21T10:07:18+01:00 The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar Kennedy, John 2023-12-21 application/pdf https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742 eng eng Sydney Studies in Society and Culture https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742/8792 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742 Copyright (c) 2023 Sydney Studies in Society and Culture Sydney Studies in Society and Culture; Vol. 6 (1990) 0812-6402 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 2023 ftunivsydneyojs 2023-12-25T23:26:00Z Egils saga Skalla Grimssonar is unusual among the Islendingasogur in setting most of its action outside Iceland. Its eponymous central figure lives quietly when at home in south-west Iceland: he does not generally meddle in local affairs, and few are anxious to challenge him. The saga might, therefore, seem an unpromising source for a student of the gobar: Icelandic sources very rarely portray gobar exercising their authority outside that country; and the powers and responsibilities of the Icelandic gobar naturally impinged most on those who actively involved themselves in the life of the community. Yet the saga is, in part, the story of the establishment, in their new country, of a powerful and prosperous Icelandic family, the Myramenn, and both Egill and his son, Porsteinn, are gobar. If, as has often been suggested, Egils saga was written by the famous author and statesman Snorri Sturluson (1178/79-1241), it is the work of a man who was a descendant of the early Myramenn, a gobi himself, and a leading panicipant in the thirteenth-century power struggle whose protagonists strove, inter alia, to accumulate goborb ('Chieftainship'), the rights and powers attached to the gobi's office. If, as generally believed, Snorri came to possess the Myramannagoborb, one might expect him to take a shrewd interest in its ninth- and tenth-century origins, and perhaps even to present it in a way which subtly bolstered his own claims to authority in the Borgarfjqor district. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland The University of Sydney: Sydney eScholarship Journals online |
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The University of Sydney: Sydney eScholarship Journals online |
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ftunivsydneyojs |
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English |
description |
Egils saga Skalla Grimssonar is unusual among the Islendingasogur in setting most of its action outside Iceland. Its eponymous central figure lives quietly when at home in south-west Iceland: he does not generally meddle in local affairs, and few are anxious to challenge him. The saga might, therefore, seem an unpromising source for a student of the gobar: Icelandic sources very rarely portray gobar exercising their authority outside that country; and the powers and responsibilities of the Icelandic gobar naturally impinged most on those who actively involved themselves in the life of the community. Yet the saga is, in part, the story of the establishment, in their new country, of a powerful and prosperous Icelandic family, the Myramenn, and both Egill and his son, Porsteinn, are gobar. If, as has often been suggested, Egils saga was written by the famous author and statesman Snorri Sturluson (1178/79-1241), it is the work of a man who was a descendant of the early Myramenn, a gobi himself, and a leading panicipant in the thirteenth-century power struggle whose protagonists strove, inter alia, to accumulate goborb ('Chieftainship'), the rights and powers attached to the gobi's office. If, as generally believed, Snorri came to possess the Myramannagoborb, one might expect him to take a shrewd interest in its ninth- and tenth-century origins, and perhaps even to present it in a way which subtly bolstered his own claims to authority in the Borgarfjqor district. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kennedy, John |
spellingShingle |
Kennedy, John The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
author_facet |
Kennedy, John |
author_sort |
Kennedy, John |
title |
The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
title_short |
The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
title_full |
The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
title_fullStr |
The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Gobar in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar |
title_sort |
gobar in egils saga skalla-grimssonar |
publisher |
Sydney Studies in Society and Culture |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Sydney Studies in Society and Culture; Vol. 6 (1990) 0812-6402 |
op_relation |
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742/8792 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSSC/article/view/8742 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2023 Sydney Studies in Society and Culture |
_version_ |
1788697843668615168 |