Everything about the Gutasaga totally explained
The
Gutasaga is a saga treating the history of
Gotland before its
Christianization. It was recorded in the
13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, the Codex Holm. B 64, dating to ca.
1350, kept at the
Swedish Royal Library in
Stockholm) together with the
Gutalag, the legal code of Gotland. It was written in the
Old Gutnish dialect of
Old Norse.
Foundation and emigration to southern Europe
The saga begins with
Þieluar and his son
Hafþi, who had three sons,
Graipr,
Guti and
Gunfjaun, the ancestors of the
Gutar. The saga tells of an emigration, that's associated with the historical migration of the
Goths during the
Migration period:
» over a long time, the people descended from these three multiplied so much that the land couldn't support them all. Then they draw lots, and every third person was picked to leave, and they could keep everything they owned and take it with them, except for their land. ... they went up the river Dvina, up through Russia. They went so far that they came to the land of the Greeks. ... they settled there, and live there still, and still have something of our language.
That the Goths should have gone "to the land of the Greeks" is consistent with their first appearance in classical sources:
Eusebius of Caesarea reported that they devastated "
Macedonia,
Greece, the
Pontus, and
Asia" in
263.
The emigration would have taken place in the
1st century AD, and loose contact with their homeland would have been maintained for another two centuries, the comment that the emigrant's language "still has something" in common shows awareness of dialectal separation. The events would have needed to be transmitted orally for almost a millennium before the text was written down.
The mention of the
Dvina river is in good agreement with the
Wielbark Culture. Historically, the Goths followed the
Vistula, but during the
Viking Age, the Dvina-
Dniepr waterway succeeded the Vistula as the
main trade route to Greece for the
Gutar (or
Gotar in standard
Old Norse), and it isn't surprising that it also replaced the Vistula in the migration traditions.
Entry into the Swedish kingdom
The Gutasaga contains several references to the relationship between Gotland and
Sweden, and asserts that it's based on mutual agreements, and notes the duties and obligations of the Swedish King and Bishop in relationship to Gotland. It is therefore not only an effort to write down the history of Gotland, but also an effort to assert Gotlands independence from Sweden.
It gives
Awair Strabain as the man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden, and the event would have taken place before the end of the
9th century, when
Wulfstan of Hedeby reported that the island was subject to the Swedes. (See
Consolidation of Sweden)
The text was edited by Tore Gannholm in
Beowulf, Gutarnas nationalepos (ISBN 91-630-1075-5) in 1992.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Gutasaga'.
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