Gutasaga (''Gutasagan'') is a saga regarding the history of

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

before its

Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...

. It was recorded in the 13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, the Codex Holm. B 64, dating to , kept at the

National Library of Sweden The National Library of Sweden (, ''KB'', meaning "the Royal Library") is Sweden's national library. It collects and preserves all domestic printed and audio-visual materials in Swedish, as well as content with Swedish association published ab ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

together with the Gutalag, the legal code of Gotland. It was written in the

Old Gutnish Old Gutnish was a stage in the development of the North Germanic language Gutnish, spoken on the Baltic Sea, Baltic island of Gotland and Fårö. The extant body of Old Gutnish is small, and Gutalagen and the Guta saga constitute its majority. ...

language, a variety of

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

A local creation myth

The saga begins with Gotland being discovered by a man named Þieluar ( Swedish: Tjälvar,

Gutnish Gutnish ( ), or rarely Gutnic ( or ), is a North Germanic language spoken sporadically on the islands of Gotland and Fårö. The different dialects of Gutnish, while stemming from the Old Gutnish () variety of Old Norse, are sometimes considere ...

: ''Tjelvar''). Gotland is under a spell and under water during the day and out of water only during the night, a spell that is broken by Þieluar lighting a fire on the island. Þieluar had a son named Hafþi (Swedish: Hafþi), who married a woman named Hwitastierna (Swedish: Vitastjärna; English: White-star). After Hafþi's and Hwitastierna's first night together, she has a dream about three snakes entwined in her bosom. Hafþi interprets her dream as a prophecy of her being pregnant with three sons. He gives them names while still in her womb. Here the saga cites an old

alliterative verse In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly s ...

, probably deriving from oral tradition: Alt ir baugum bundit boland al þitta warþa oc faum þria syni aiga. Guti al Gutland aigha Graipr al annar haita oc Gunfiaun þriþi. : “Everything is bound by armlets; this land will become settled, and we will come to own three sons. : Guti will own Gotland; Graipr will the other be called, and Gunfiaun ill bethe third.” These three brothers go on to father the

Gutes The Gutes ( Old West Norse: ''Gotar'', Old Gutnish: ''Gutar'') were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting the island of Gotland. The ethnonym is related to that of the ''Goths'' (''Gutans''), and both names were originally Proto-Germanic *''Gutan ...

. According to the prose they then divided Gotland, so that Graipr, the oldest (and here the prose disagrees with the verse, according to which Gute was the oldest) held the northern third (Old Gutnish: ''þriþiungr'', Swedish: treding), Gute the middle third, and Gunnfjaun the southern third. This division of Gotland into three parts remained legally until 1747 and still remains within the church, which still today retains this division into three Deaneries. Bildsten

Emigration to southern Europe

The saga tells of an emigration that is associated with the historical migration of the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

during the

Migration Period The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

: : ''Thereafter the people descended from these three multiplied so much over a long time that the land could not support them all. Then they drew lots, and every third person was sent away in such a way that they could keep all that they owned and take it with them, except for their land. Thereafter they would leave the land by force, and journeyed to ''Þorsburg'' and dwelled there. Thereafter that land would not tolerate them, but chased them away thence. Thereafter they journeyed away to Faroy, and settled there. There they could not remain, but journeyed to an island close to Estonia, which is called Dagaiþi, and settled there and made a fortress which is still seen. But not even there could they remain, but journeyed forth along the water which is called the Dyna, and up-river through Russia. So far went they that they came to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

.'' That the Goths should have gone Greece is consistent with their first appearance in classical sources:

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

reported that they devastated "

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

ia, Greece, the

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, and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

" in 263. Historically the emigration would have taken place in the 1st century AD, with loose contact with the homeland being maintained for some centuries afterwards. According to the writer the emigrants "settled there, and still dwell

here Here may refer to: Music * ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994 * ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016 * ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979 * ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012 * ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004 * ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...

and still have something of our language." (''bygþus þair þar firir, ok enn byggia, ok enn hafa þair sumt af waru mali''). The mention of the Dvina river is in good agreement with the Wielbark culture. Historically, the Goths followed the

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

, but during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, the Dvina- Dniepr waterway succeeded the Vistula as the main trade route to Greece for the ''Gutes'' (or ''Gotar'' in standard

), and it is not surprising that it also replaced the Vistula in the migration traditions.

Entry into the Kingdom of Sweden

The Gutasaga contains several references to the relationship between Gotland and Sweden. It asserts that it was based on mutual agreements, and notes the duties and obligations of the Swedish king and bishop in relationship to Gotland. It is therefore not only an effort to write down the history of Gotland, but also an effort to assert Gotland's independence from Sweden. The man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden is named as

Awair Strabain Awair Strabain or ''Avar Stråben'' ("straw-legs") was according to the Gutasaga a chieftain from Alva socken on Gotland and a wise and able man. The Gutasaga relates how many kinds attacked the island of Gotland in heathen times, but the gute ...

. That event should have taken place before the end of the 9th century, when

Wulfstan of Hedeby Wulfstan of Hedeby was a late ninth-century traveller and trader. His travel accounts, as well as those of another trader, Ohthere of Hålogaland, were included in the ''Old English Orosius''. It is unclear if Wulfstan was England, English or in ...

reported that the island was subject to the Swedes.

Modern Gotland

Tjelvar and several other names of people from the Gutasaga are used for places, establishments and other Gotland related things like websites. A

stone ship The stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom in Scandinavia, Northern Germany, and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by slabs or stones in the shape of a boat or ship. The ships vary in size and were ...

in Boge is called Tjelvar's Grave. Boge is also the place for the bay Tjäldersvik and the Tjäldersholm island. The Digerrojr

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

in Garde is also known as Graips rojr. In 2011, a competition, hosted by the Swedish Astronomical Society, for

naming Naming is assigning a name to something. Naming may refer to: * Naming (parliamentary procedure), a procedure in certain parliamentary bodies * Naming ceremony, an event at which an infant is named * Product naming, the discipline of deciding wha ...

a newly discovered Apollo asteroid was held in Visby. It was named 137052 Tjelvar after Tjelvar, the mythological first man to bring fire to the island.

References

External links

* {{wikisourcelang-inline, sv, Gutasagan
Original text
(based on Gannholm's 1992 edition)

Sagas Swedish literature Gutnish Gotland