The Herga and Heydreke Saga (Old Scand. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks ) is an Old Norse saga about ancient times , built in the XIII century by processing much more ancient material. The saga is valuable for its historical information from the 4th century AD. er The last part of the saga tells about the history of medieval Sweden and the Swedish royal dynasty.
| Saga of Herver | |
|---|---|
| ᛋᛆᚵᛆ ᚮᚴ ᚼᛅᛁᚧᚱᛅᚴᛌ | |
| Saga of Herver and Heydrek, Saga of Herver | |
 Hauk book (manuscript AM 544 4) | |
| Date of writing | XIII century |
| Original language | Old Norse |
| A country |
|
| Describes | IV — XII century |
| Content | about the war of the Huns with the Goths, about herver and her descendants |
| Characters | Herver and Heidrek |
| Closely related | Vorozhba Herver |
| Manuscripts | AM 544 4to ; MS 2845 4to; R: 715; AM 203 fol. |
| Storage | Arnamagnæan Institute ; Royal Library ; Univer. bibl. Uppsala ; Un. bibl. Copenhagen |
| Original | compilation of old texts |
The oldest of the three izvodov written on parchment beginning of the XIV century and is part of the set of " Hauksbuk ." It is stored in the Royal Library of Denmark . The saga consists of two parts. In the first part of “ Vorozhba Herver ”, it tells how the warrior maiden, Herver , daughter Angantyura, received a “wonderful sword Turfing ” at the grave of her father, forged by gnomes for King Gardariki named Sirglami .
In the second part, using the oldest layers of the eddic tradition, it tells of the battle between the Huns and the Goths in the Dnieper region . The following is the story of Herver 's son, Heidreke , who reigned in Reidgotland . The saga ends with the enumeration of the semi-legendary Swedish kings, descendants of Heidreck, up to the Swedish king Philip I (died 1118).
The saga served as one of Tolkien’s sources when creating The Lord of the Rings . His son Christopher translated the saga into English in 1960.
Contents
Konunga Gardariki Sirglami had a wonderful sword Turfing and beautiful daughter Eyvura. Both went to Arngrim from Bolm ( Småland ). Evura and Arngrim had 12 Berserker sons. One of the sons (Hyorvard) decided to marry the daughter of the influential Swedish king Ingjald, which led to a duel with rival Hjalmar on Samsø island, where many were killed. However, the eldest of the sons had a daughter, Hervör , who grew up as a robber. Visiting the grave of her father on the island of Samsø, she mined the family sword Turfing. Herver of Höfundr had two sons Angantýr and Heiðrekr.
Heydrick grew up a bad son and once at his father's feast, he fought and killed his abuser. By the law of his time, to avoid revenge he had to run. His mother gave him a sword called Turfing. Heidrek donkey in Reydgotaland ( Reiðgotaland ), where he made a successful career at the court of the local king Harald. Once, during a famine, soothsayers reported the need for human sacrifice. Heydrick agreed to sacrifice his son, but after that he raised a coup and killed his father-in-law Harald. Heydrick's wife hung herself up in grief. Heidrick undertook a campaign against the Huns ( Gunnland , Húnaland ) and the Saxons ( Saxland ). From the daughter of the Hun leader, he had a son Hlöðr ( Hlöðr ). But Heydrick married a Saxon princess, after whose betrayal he returned with his son Angantyur (II) from her to his land. Then Heydrick ended up in Gardariki , where, under strange circumstances, on a hunt, he killed the son of the local king. He nevertheless gave him his daughter, Herver (II), as his wife.
Next to Heydrick, the god Odin is and gives him riddles, at the end they quarrel and God sends a curse on Heidrick. And, indeed, high-born prisoners killed the guards and killed Heydrick himself, stealing the sword Turfing. Heidrik’s place of death is referred to as the Harvadi Mountains ( Harvaða fjöllum ), sometimes interpreted as the Carpathians . Heidrick's son Anganur spent a long time looking for his father's murderers and identified them as fishermen with the sword Turfing. A feast on the occasion of the successful revenge of Anganur as the king is ready to celebrate in Archeimar , on the banks of the Dnieper .
But the joy of Angantura was short-lived, Hled arrived at his brother with a large horde of Huns and demanded half of Heidrick's legacy. But the negotiations failed and a war broke out between the Goths and the Huns in the vicinity of the Mirkvid forest - between the lands of the Goths and the Huns. The Huns gathered a huge army - 33 thousand fighters and attacked the Gothic fortress, which was protected by Herver (III) - sister of Angantyur. The fortress fell and the messenger Ormar ( Ormarr ) traveled all day on horseback to Archeimar to report the sad news. The army was ready to be twice as small and a new battle took place on Dunheide ( Dúnheiði , Danube ). This time the Goths won, and the leader of the Huns, Hlad, fell on the battlefield. The historical equivalent of this battle was the Battle of Nedao (also on the Danube, also between the Goths and the Huns, the victory was also on the side ready). Angantur continues the board in Reidgotaland.
Heidrek Wolf's Skin ( Heiðrekr úlfhamr ) inherited Angantur, he had a daughter Hildr ( Hildr ) - Halddan Snjalla's mother ( Hálfdanar snjalla ), and Halvdan had a son Ivar Wide Embrace . Ivar subdued many countries of Northern Europe from England to Gardariki . Ivar had two grandchildren (through Alvhild's daughter) Harald Boazub and Randver ( Randvér ), who became the Danish king. Randwer was succeeded by his son Sigurd Koltso ( Sigurðr hringr ), while Harald Boazub fell in the internecine war in Götaland . The son of Sigurd, Ragnar , inherited the Danish crown, and the Swedish crown was inherited by Harald Eysteinn . In another feud defeated the clan of Ragnar. His sons received the following countries: Björn Ironbok - Sweden, Sigurd - Denmark , Hvítserkr - Eastern country ( Austrríki ), Ivar Boneless - England . Björn's great-grandson Swedish king Eric Anundsson was a contemporary of the Norwegian king Harald the Beautiful . The son of this Eirik was Bjorn Erickson , and the grandson of Eirik the Victorious . After Eirik Olaf became the king - his son from the Slav Sigrid . Under Olaf, the baptism of Sweden (X century) occurred. After the death of Olaf, first his son Anund Jacob (XI century) succeeded the Swedish crown, and then the other - Emond Stary . After Emunde, Stenkil was elected king of Sweden. After some time, the son of Stenkil Inge I the Elder became king of Sweden. The last Swedish king mentioned in the Saga is nephew Inge Philip (XII century).
Historicity and Value
The Saga of Herver provides valuable historical data and has long attracted the attention of Scandinavian philologists with its antiquity and antiquity of the events depicted in it, which is proved by the authenticity of the Gothic names brought by the saga. In the text, Gothic names are used in a form that has been phased out after 390, and without romanization. For example, it mentions Grýting (Ostrogian variant of the Latin Greutungi) and Tyrfing (West Gothic version of the Latin Tervingi).
The action of the saga takes place where the Goths lived during the war with the Huns. Mentioned capital is ready on the Dnieper - Archeimar .
Although the names and titles mentioned in the saga indicate a historical basis, nevertheless, many of the saga’s events do not correlate with evidence from other sources. The poetic virtues of the saga are also great.
Manuscripts
The saga is contained in a variety of lists. Three main versions of the saga are available under the name H, R and U:
- H presented the " Book of Hauk " from ~ 1325 ( AM 544 4to ). The book is stored in the Arnamagnæan Institute .
- R is represented by a manuscript of the XV century MS 2845 4to , which is stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen .
- U is represented by the manuscript R: 715 , stored in the Uppsala University Library , and AM 203 fol. which is located at the University Library of Copenhagen .
Versions H, R are preserved in parchment manuscripts, and version U was written by Erlandson in the 17th century.
There are also copies of the XVII century AM 281 4to (h1) and AM 597b 4to (h2) .
Links
- Saga in Russian translation
- E.M. Meletinsky . “ Icelandic sagas ” (1984)