The Story Archive

The Saga of Gisli

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

Four men in a western Icelandic fjord agree to swear blood-brotherhood and then break off the ceremony half-finished, and within the year one of them is speared in his bed by a hand nobody will own. Vengeance falls to a brother-in-law bound by marriage to both sides, and his answer puts him outside the law for thirteen years, visited in sleep by two dream-women. The most inward of the family sagas.

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Attributes

Genre
HistoricalTragedy
Theme
LoyaltyBetrayalJustice & RevengeIsolation & AlienationDuty & Honor
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Rebel / OutlawAvengerWandererTragic Hero
Plot structure
Revenge CycleDream VisionTragic Reversal
Symbol / motif
BloodThe Oath / BargainThe DreamThe Sword
Conflict
vs Personvs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
TragicElegiacRealist
Culture / tradition
Norse / Germanic

Closest analogues