Saga of Erik the Red
Eiríks saga rauða (
listen ) or the Saga of Erik the Red is a saga on the Norse exploration of North-America.
The saga chronicles the events that led to Erik the Red's banishment to Greenland as well as Leif Ericson's discovery of Vinland the Good after his longship was blown off course. By geographical details, this place is thought to be present-day Newfoundland, and was probably the first European discovery of the American mainland, some five centuries before Christopher Columbus's voyage to Central America.
The saga is preserved in two manuscripts in somewhat different versions; Hauksbók (14th century) and Skálholtsbók (15th century). Modern philologists believe the Skálholtsbók version to be truer to the original. The original saga is thought to have been written in the 13th century.
Sites mentioned
The saga mentions the following sites beyond Greenland: Helluland, Markland, Bjarney, Kjalarnes, Furdustrandir, Straumfjörð, Straumey, Vinland, Hóp, Einfœtingjaland, Hvítramannaland and the "Irish Ocean".
Translations into English
There have been numerous translations of the saga, some of the most prominent of which are:
- Jones, Gwyn (trans.), 'Eirik the Red's Saga', in The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America, new edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 207–35. Based on Skálholtsbók, showing some variants from Hauksbók.
- Kunz, Keneva (trans.), 'Erik the Red's Saga', in The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection (London: Penguin, 2001), pp. 653–74. Apparently translates the Skálholtsbók text.
- Reeves, Arthur Middleton (ed. and trans.), 'The Saga of Eric the Red, also Called the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefni and Snorri Thorbransson', in The Finding of Wineland the Good: The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America (London: Henry Frowde, 1890), pp. 28–52, available at https://archive.org/details/winelandthegood00reevrich. Based on the Hauksbók text (which Reeves refers to in the apparatus as ÞsK), though the text does draw some readings from Skálholtsbók (which Reeves refers to as EsR). Variants from both Hauksbók and Skálholtsbók are thoroughly listed. Editions and facsimiles of both manuscripts also included (Hauksbók pp. 104–21, Skálholtsbók pp. 122–39).
- Sephton, J. (trans.), Eirik the Red's Saga: A Translation Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, January 12, 1880 (Liverpool: Marples, 1880), available at https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17946 and http://www.sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en (the former version, made by Project Gutenberg, is the closer to the printed version). Passages in square brackets are based on Hauksbók; other passages are based on Skálholtsbók, but with some readings from Hauksbók.
See also
- Vinland sagas
- Grœnlendinga saga.
External links
- Saga of Erik the Red English translation at the Icelandic Saga Database
- Eiríks saga rauða The saga with standardized Old Norse spelling from heimskringla.no
- Arthur Middleton Reeves, North Ludlow Beamish and Rasmus B. Anderson,The Norse Discovery of America (1906)
- The saga with standardized modern Icelandic spelling
- A treatment of the nationality of Leifr Eiríksson
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