The Saga of Gunnlaug the Worm-tongue and Rafn the Skald (1869)

By William Morris

This early work by William Morris was originally published in 1899 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. William Morris was born in London, England in 1834. Arguably best known as a textile designer, he founded a design partnership which deeply influenced the decoration of churches and homes during the early 20th century. However, he is also considered an important Romantic writer and pioneer of the modern fantasy genre, being a direct influence on authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. As well as fiction, Morris penned poetry and essays. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473367142

William Morris

William Morris (1834-1896) was an English designer, poet, novelist, and socialist. Born in Walthamstow, Essex, he was raised in a wealthy family alongside nine siblings. Morris studied Classics at Oxford, where he was a member of the influential Birmingham Set. Upon graduating, he married embroiderer Jane Burden and befriended prominent Pre-Raphaelites Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. With Neo-Gothic architect Philip Webb, the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, he designed the Red House in Bexleyheath, where he would live with his family from 1859 until moving to London in 1865. As a cofounder of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co., he was one of the Victorian era’s preeminent interior decorators and designers specializing in tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, stained glass, and furniture. Morris also found success as a writer with such works as The Earthly Paradise (1870), News from Nowhere (1890), and The Well at the World’s End (1896). A cofounder of the Socialist League, he was a committed revolutionary socialist who played a major part in the growing acceptance of Marxism and anarchism in English society.

Book preview

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THE STORY OF

GUNNLAUG THE WORM-TONGUE

AND RAVEN THE SKALD.

Translated From The Icelandic

BY EIRIKR MAGNUSSON

AND WILLIAM MORRIS

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

William Morris

CHAPTER I. Of Thorstein Egilson and his Kin.

CHAPTER II. Of Thorsteins Dream.

CHAPTER III. Of the Birth and Fostering of Helga the Fair.

CHAPTER IV. Of Gunnlaug Worm-tongue and his Kin.

CHAPTER V. Of Raven and his Kin.

CHAPTER VI. How Helga was vowed to Gunnlaug, and of Gunnlaug’s faring abroad.

CHAPTER VII. Of Gunnlaug in the East and the West.

CHAPTER VIII. Of Gunnlaug in Ireland.

CHAPTER IX. Of the Quarrel between Gunnlaug and Raven before the Swedish King.

CHAPTER X. How Raven came home to Iceland, and asked for Helga to Wife.

CHAPTER XI. Of how Gunnlaug must needs abide away from Iceland.

CHAPTER XII. Of Gunnlaug’s landing, and how he found Helga wedded to Raven.

CHAPTER XIII. Of the Winter-Wedding at Skaney,

and how Gunnlaug gave the Kings Cloak to Helga.

CHAPTER XIV. Of the Holmgang at the Althing.

CHAPTER XV. How Gunnlaug and Raven agreed to go East to Norway, to try the matter again.

CHAPTER XVI. How the two Foes met and fought at Dingness.

CHAPTER XVII. The News of the Fight brought to Iceland.

CHAPTER XVIII. The Death of Helga the Fair.

William Morris

William Morris was born in London, England in 1834. Arguably best known as a textile designer, he founded a design partnership which deeply influenced the decoration of churches and homes during the early 20th century. However, he is also considered an important Romantic writer and pioneer of the modern fantasy genre, being a direct influence on authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. As well as fiction, Morris penned poetry and essays. Amongst his best-known works are The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball (1888), News from Nowhere (1890), and the fantasy romance The Well at the World’s End (1896). Morris was also an important figure in British socialism, founding the Socialist League in 1884. He died in 1896, aged 62.

CHAPTER I. Of Thorstein Egilson and his Kin.

There was a man called Thorstein, the son of Egil, the son of Skallagrim, the son of Kveldulf the Hersir of Norway. Asgerd was the mother of Thorstein; she was the daughter of Biorn Hold. Thorstein dwelt at Burg in Burg-firth; he was rich of fee, and a great chief, a wise man, meek and of measure in all wise. He was nought of such wondrous growth and strength as his father Egil had been; yet was he a right mighty man, and much beloved of all folk.

Thorstein was goodly to look on, flaxen-haired, and the best-eyed of men; and so say men of lore that many of the kin of the Mere-men, who are come of Egil, have been the goodliest folk; yet, for all that, this kindred have differed much herein, for it is said that some of them have been accounted the most ill-favoured of men: but in that kin have been also many men of great prowess in many wise, such as Kiartan, the son of Olaf Peacock, and Slaying-Bardi, and Skuli, the son of Thorstein. Some have been great bards, too, in that kin, as Biorn, the champion of Hit-dale, priest Einar Skulison, Snorri Sturluson, and many others.

Now, Thorstein had to wife Jofrid, the daughter of Gunnar, the son of Hlifar. This