Heiðarvíga saga (listenⓘ) or The Story of the Heath-Slayings is one of the
Icelanders' sagas. It is badly preserved; 12 leaves of the only surviving manuscript were destroyed along with their only copy in the
fire of Copenhagen in 1728. The content of the destroyed portion is only known through a summary written from memory by Icelandic scholar
Jón Grunnvíkingur (1705–1779). This is the only form in which the saga's contents survive today. The saga has been taken by some scholars as possibly among the oldest Icelanders' sagas.
The saga tells of the descendants of
Egil Skallagrímsson and the long-standing disputes and conflicts which culminated in the battle and subsequent slayings on the heath, the
eponymous Heath-Slayings (Heiðarvíg).[1]
Viðar Hreinsson (1997) The complete sagas of Icelanders, including 49 tales (Leifur Eiríksson Pub)
ISBN978-9979929307
Alexander Wilson (2022) "Dissonant Voices in the Prosimetrum of Heiðarvíga saga." In: Anna Katharina Heiniger, Rebecca Merkelbach, and Alexander Wilson (eds.). Þáttasyrpa — Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 179–87.
External links
[1] Full text and English translation (The Saga of the Heath Slayings) at the Icelandic Saga Database
Heiðarvíga Saga The saga with standardized Modern Icelandic spelling