Anonymous, Þorvalds þáttr víðförla

Alessia Bauer (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1200

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

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The short narrative,

þáttr

, is named after an Icelander who left Iceland to see the world (hence his nickname “the Far-Travelled”), came back accompanied by a German bishop and tried to Christianize his countrymen in the late tenth century. After having failed in their mission, Þorvaldr and the bishop left Iceland and the Icelander ended his life in a monastery in Ladoga.

The narrative was probably composed around 1200 by the Icelandic cleric Gunnlaugr Leifsson (†1218 or 1219). It is preserved in two different versions – the longer A-redaction (AM 61 fol) and the short D-redaction (AM 62 fol and Flateyjarbók) – both of them integrated in the fourteenth century compendiae of Ólafr Tryggvason, Óláfs saga in mesta. Within the larger narrative frame, the protagonist of the

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176 words

Citation: Bauer, Alessia. "Þorvalds þáttr víðförla". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41022, accessed 04 May 2024.]

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