Víga-Glúm's Saga and The Story of Ögmund Dytt

Translated from the Old Icelandic with Introductions by Lee M. Hollander. It is understandable why 'Víga-Glúm's Saga' has not attracted translators: unquestionably inferior in depth and emotional appeal to the best of the Sagas of Icelanders, such as 'Egil’s Saga', 'Laxdœla Saga', 'Njál's Saga', and 'Hrafnkel's Saga', its style also lacks the elegance and incisiveness of the best Icelandic prose. Its narrative often is halting and patchy, and there is comparatively little to mitigate the monotony of constant fighting and feuding, alternating with acrimonious litigation. Few sagas are so devoid of eroticism in any sense. Our saga is handed down completely only in the 'Möðruvallabók', a huge compilation of various sagas, which was written down during the first half of the fourteenth century. Besides, there are only inconsiderable fragments. The translation here offered follows the text of Jónas Kristjánsson in his edition of 'Eyfirðinga sögur', Reykjavik, 1956. It is available also in G. Turville-Petre's edition, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960. We append, as a kind of sequel, the 'Story of Ögmund Dytt', which shares with our saga the characters of its hero and his exiled son, Vigfús. This story is incorporated in its entirety in the 'Expanded Saga of King Óláf Tryggvason', where it is found among the legends and tales clustering around that missionary king, who ruled Norway from 995 to 1000.