Description: This illustration of Gefjon going to the giant's cave is from Ynglingesoga, the first saga
in Kongesagaer, in Gustav
Storm's Norwegian translation
of Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla. This illustration is not in the first
edition.
Source: Kongesagaer
Folio or Page: 13
Medium: pen and ink drawing printed by means of
zincography
Date: 1900
Dimensions (mm): 68 x 52
Provenance:
This copy of Kongesagaer does
not bear any indication as to its previous owners.
P.A. Baer purchased this copy of Kongesagaer from AbeBooks.com in 2007.
Rights:
Illustrations from the 1900 edition of Kongesagaer are in the Public Domain.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Sturluson,
Snorri.
Kongesagaer.
Translated by
Gustav
Storm,
Kristiania: J. M.
Stenersen, 1899.
Secondary Sources
Cleasby, Richard
and
Vigfússon
Guðbrandur
. An Icelandic-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1957.
Sturluson,
Snorri. The
Heimskringla: Or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway.
Translated by
Samuel
Laing,
London: Longman, Brown, Green, and
Longmans, 1844.
―. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.
Translated by
Lee M.
Hollander,
Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1964.
Gefjon (non.)
A goddess in Snorri's Edda but a part of the
group of people who travel with Óðinn from Asia to the northern lands in
Heimskringla. She plays the
same role in both sources in tricking King Gylfi of Sweden into giving
her a plough share of land which she and her four giant sons, whom she
has changed into oxen, drag away to the coast of Denmark.
Source Materials:
Heimskringla (is.)
History of the Kings of Norway (en.)
This account of the history of the kings of Norway and is generally
believed to have been written by Snorri Sturluson in Iceland in 1230. It
begins with the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, who were the
subject matter of the skaldic poem Ynglingtal, and ends with the reign
of the Norwegian king, Magnus Erlingson (died 1184).
Kongesagaer (1900 ed.) (no.)
The second edition of Gustaf Storm's Norwegian translation of Heimskringla.
Ynglinga saga (is.)
Ynglingesoga (no.)
Saga of the Ynglings (en.)
The first saga in Heimskringla.
It was based on the ninth-century skaldic poem Ynglingatal and concerns
the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings.
Source Persons
Snorri
Sturluson (is.)
b. 1179
d. 1241
Nationality: Icelandic
Snorri was an Icelandic statesman, scholar, and author who is credited
with writing Heimskringla, The
Prose Edda, and possibly Egil's
Saga.
Werenskiold,
Erik (no.)
b. 1855
d. 1938
Nationality: Norwegian
Werenskiold was a painter and illustrator who was in charge of the
illustrations and the team of artists for Gustav Storm's editions of
Kongesagaer in 1899 and 1900.
