THE NORSE SAGAS AND THE HERO’S JOURNEY
By Baard Titlestad, Publisher and CEO
The Norse sagas can be visualized as a river rushing down from the high mountains. The one who studies the sagas is like a wanderer going from one mountain peak to another in search of the river's source. The saga universe is built up of many different elements that can be classified as mythology, legends, cultural, and historical impulses. They have found an expression shaped by a certain cultural and historical landscape, and by the people who have at various times found meaning and power in these motifs - small rivers that all have their individual courses. Most of them eventually reach the sea. The Norse sagas, as well as all related legends and myths, are the story of life as it has been expressed in Norway, Iceland, and Scandinavia in interaction with the world at large.
The prose part of the Flateyjarbok begins with the story of a man named Eirik. More than anything else, he wished to find the "Field of the Undying" - Paradise. Because of his long journey in search of answers to "the great questions," he was given the nickname the Far-Travelled. Eirik eventually reaches a strange world where he gains an insight that allows him to return home to Norway with a tale of magnificent things that could strengthen people's hope, will, and sense of direction.
This type of journey is often called The Hero's Journey - a rite of passage known from most cultures as far back as we can remember: the hero who exposes himself to existential danger, and who then finds a treasure that he brings back to his people to lift them out of spiritual poverty and destitution. This is in many ways the core story of humanity, which also appears clearly in the Norse sagas, from the Edda poems to the great king sagas, from Harald Fairhair to Haakon Haakonsson.
The painting above by Anders Kvåle Rue, is called the House of Sagas. I comissioned it because I wanted a visualization of the above: Here the sagas are represented as a house, filled with books symbolizing the story of humanity's journey through time, is located at Dovre, where Harald Fairhair, according to Flateyjarbok, was fostered for kingship. The Flateyjarbok lies open, and the adventurous life of Eirik the Far-Travelled is illustrated in the carvings on the wall where four crosses symbolize the rivers flowing from the source of life. With all the problems we have in the world, we must never forget our core story. That we can overcome adversity and build great works, both as fellow human beings, societies, and civilizations. This is the most important message of the sagas. Welcome, friend!