The Story Archive

Laxdaela Saga

Anonymous · c. 1250 CE · Novel · Norse / Germanic · Medieval

Four generations of settlers in a western Icelandic valley narrow to Gudrun Osvifrsdottir, married young and twice widowed, and to the foster-brothers Kjartan and Bolli, raised together and sent together to the Norwegian court in the year the king is pressing Iceland to convert. One of them comes home ahead of the other, with news. The most courtly of the family sagas and the only one to put a woman's choosing at the centre of the feud.

Open Laxdaela Saga in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

Attributes

Genre
HistoricalRomanceTragedy
Theme
LoveBetrayalJustice & RevengeLoyaltyWealth & Greed
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
HeroineDoomed LoversAvenger
Plot structure
Generational SagaRevenge CycleTragic Reversal
Symbol / motif
The GarmentGold / TreasureThe Sword
Conflict
vs Personvs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
TragicRealistElegiac
Culture / tradition
Norse / Germanic

Closest analogues