Gautreks saga
Also known as: Gautrek's Saga, Saga of Gautrek, Gautreks saga konungs
A legendary Icelandic saga that intertwines the lineage of King Gautrek with the mythic career of the warrior-poet Starkaðr, including Odin’s shaping of his fate and the sacrificial death of King Vikar.
Description
Gautreks saga is a fornaldarsaga (Legendary Saga) blending royal genealogy with mythic biography. Its best-known episodes center on Starkaðr, a formidable yet conflicted champion whose destiny is marked by the opposing gifts and curses of Odin and Thor. The saga narrates Starkaðr’s youth, his initiation and obligations to Odin, and the fateful episode in which he is compelled to sacrifice King Vikar—an act that stains his fame while fulfilling divine decree. Around this core, the saga situates Gautrek and his kin, sketching a Geatish royal milieu and linking heroic exploits to broader Scandinavian tradition. Multiple medieval redactions preserve variant orderings and emphases, but the Starkaðr-Vikar cycle remains the tale’s gravitational center, connecting the saga to parallel Danish and Icelandic testimonies about the hero’s celebrated and troubling deeds.
Historiography
The saga survives in more than one medieval redaction (commonly designated A and B), with differing arrangement and scope; both belong to the fornaldarsögur corpus. Its Starkaðr episodes share motifs with Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum and likely draw on older poetic traditions. Modern editions typically print the text alongside related legendary sagas, and translations often appear in anthologies of Viking romances. Scholarly attention has focused on the Odin–Thor ‘gift and bane’ motif and on the sacrificial death of King Vikar as a window into Norse ritual memory.
Date Notes
Legendary material on Starkaðr and King Vikar is older; the surviving prose saga exists in at least two medieval recensions (often labeled A and B) from late 13th–early 14th century Iceland.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Gautrek
- Starkad
- Vikar
- Ref the Sly
Myths
- The Trials of King Gautrek
- Starkaðr’s Threefold Fate
- The Sacrifice of King Víkarr
- Odin’s Gift and Doom to Starkaðr
Facts
- Belongs to the fornaldarsögur (Legendary Sagas) corpus.
- Preserved in at least two medieval redactions, often labeled A and B.
- Centers on Starkaðr and the ritual killing of King Vikar under Odin’s decree.
- Depicts Odin granting Starkaðr gifts while Thor imposes counter-banes.
- Interlaces Geatish royal traditions with mythic biography.
- Shares motifs and narrative blocks with Saxo’s account of Starkad.
- Reflects Norse notions of fate (wyrd/ørlög) and ambivalent heroism.
- Frequently anthologized in modern ‘Viking romances’ translations.
- Manuscript tradition situates composition in late 13th–early 14th-century Iceland.
- Often read alongside Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar for dynastic continuity.