Bókastaðir

Bókastaðir is a free online library that aims to bring together the most important Old Norse texts, in Old Norse spelling. It currently holds 141 texts, over 3 million words, including the complete sagas of Icelanders, Heimskringla, and Sturlunga saga. 140 of them have word-by-word glosses, grammatical parsing and an English translation. Most are transcribed from scanned public-domain editions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; one, Íslendingabók, comes from the openly licensed edition on Menota.

Bókastaðir er ókeypis vefbókasafn sem stefnir að því að safna saman helstu fornnorrænu textunum, með fornri stafsetningu. Í safninu er nú 141 texti, yfir þrjár milljónir orða, þar á meðal Íslendingasögurnar í heild sinni, Heimskringla og Sturlunga saga. Í 140 þeirra eru orðskýringar við hvert orð, málfræðigreining og þýðing, allt á ensku. Flestir eru skrifaðir upp eftir skönnuðum útgáfum frá nítjándu öld og upphafi þeirrar tuttugustu sem eru fallnar úr höfundarrétti; einn þeirra, Íslendingabók, er fenginn úr útgáfu Menota, sem er með opnu leyfi.

How to use

Tap a sentence in a saga for a word-by-word gloss. Tap the word’s dictionary form in that panel for a fuller entry.

Glossed Old Norse source texts have been edited to conform to a mostly standard spelling convention (including ø, ǫ, æ, œ and -sk mediopassives) mirroring the conventions used by modern scholarly editions such as Menota and Íslenzk fornrit. The original source text spelling remains available under Spelling → Source where it differs.

Sagas have an audio track, playable by sentence or by chapter, with or without a live translation. It can be read in either modern Icelandic or reconstructed Old Norse pronunciation (more below).

Transcriptions, translations and glosses were made with the help of AI and may contain errors. Corrections welcome.

If you’re interested in printed editions of any of these texts, Íslenzk fornrit editions are the standard scholarly text, published by Hið íslenzka fornritafélag: fornrit.is.

Sources

• PDF scans of public domain works. These were read using AI; occasional transcription errors may remain:
  • Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek — the scholarly editions of Hugo Gering, R. C. Boer, Finnur Jónsson, Kristian Kålund, Gustaf Cederschiöld and Walther Heinrich Vogt, published between 1892 and 1924, checked against the modern Icelandic text. Volumes used: Egils saga (the second edition, 1924), Eyrbyggja saga, Gísla saga, Grettis saga, Laxdœla saga, Vatnsdœla saga, Örvar-Odds saga and Brennu-Njáls saga, and Clári saga (1907).
  • Íslendinga sögur — the popular editions published in Reykjavík by Sigurður Kristjánsson between 1891 and 1926, most of them edited by Valdimar Ásmundarson, three — Harðar saga, Hœnsa-Þóris saga and the þættir volume — by Þórleifr Jónsson, and Grœnlendinga saga by Benedikt Sveinsson, checked against the modern Icelandic text. Volumes used: Íslendingabók and Landnámabók (1891), Harðar saga ok Hólmverja (1891), Hœnsa-Þóris saga (1892), Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða (1893), Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (1893), Fljótsdœla saga (1896), Ljósvetninga saga, Vápnfirðinga saga, Valla-Ljóts saga, Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu and Finnboga saga ramma (1896, 1897), Þorskfirðinga saga (Gull-Þóris saga, 1897), Víga-Glúms saga, Svarfdœla saga and Flóamanna saga (1897, 1898), Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa (1898), Fóstbræðra saga and Víga-Styrs saga ok Heiðarvíga (1899), Þórðar saga hreðu (1900), Hallfreðar saga (1901), Kjalnesinga saga (1902), Fjörutíu Íslendinga-þættir (1904), which supplies Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka, Brands þáttr örva, Gísls þáttr Illugasonar, both Halldórs þættir Snorrasonar, Hrafns þáttr Hrútfirðings, Hreiðars þáttr heimska, Hrómundar þáttr halta, Íslendings þáttr sögufróða, Ívars þáttr Ingimundarsonar, Odds þáttr Ófeigssonar, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, Sneglu-Halla þáttr, Stúfs þáttr blinda, Svaða þáttr ok Arnórs kerlingarnefs, Ölkofra þáttr, Ögmundar þáttr dytts ok Gunnars helmings, Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls, Þorleifs þáttr jarlsskálds, Þórodds þáttr Snorrasonar, Þorsteins þáttr Austfirðings, Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Þorvalds þáttr tasalda and Þorvarðs þáttr krákunefs, and Grœnlendinga saga (1926).
  • Zwei Isländergeschichten — Andreas Heusler's edition of Hœnsa-Þóris saga and Bandamanna saga (2nd ed., Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1913).
  • Íslenzkar fornsögur — Finnur Jónsson's edition of Reykdæla saga and Valla-Ljóts saga (vol. II, Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmentafélag, 1881), whose apparatus supplies three readings in Valla-Ljóts saga.
  • Icelandic Sagas — Guðbrandur Vigfússon's edition (London, 1887, Rolls Series 88), for Orkneyinga saga (vol. I) and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar (vol. II).
  • Fornaldar sögur Nordrlanda and Jómsvíkinga saga — C. C. Rafn's editions, published in Copenhagen; Jómsvíkinga saga with Þorgeir Guðmundsson, from Rasmus Rask's copy of the Stockholm vellum. Volumes used: Völsunga saga, Ragnars saga loðbrókar, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks and Hrólfs saga kraka (vol. I, 1829), Áns saga bogsveigis, Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka and Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna (vol. II, 1829), Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Göngu-Hrólfs saga, Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana and Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar (vol. III, 1830) and Jómsvíkinga saga (1824). From the same editor and society: Færeyinga saga (Færeyínga saga, 1832, its Icelandic text only), and from its Fornmanna sögur Helga þáttr Þórissonar, Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns and Þorsteins þáttr skelks (vol. III, 1827), Sverris saga (vol. VIII, 1834), the shorter Böglunga saga (vol. IX, 1835) and Knýtlinga saga (vol. XI, 1828).
  • Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold — Sophus Bugge's edition (Christiania, 1864–73), whose Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks supplies the two pages missing from the scan of Rafn's (his pp. 498–499: Hervǫr's last battle and Ormarr's ride to Angantýr), marked in the text as supplied.
  • Þiðriks saga af Bern — Henrik Bertelsen's edition (Copenhagen, 1905–11, two volumes), for Þiðreks saga, printed letter for letter from its manuscripts.
  • Krókarefssaga, Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls og Ölkofra þáttr (Copenhagen, 1866), for Króka-Refs saga and Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls; their chapters are the modern Icelandic edition's.
  • Guðbrandur Vigfússon — Bárðarsaga Snæfellsáss, Víglundarsaga, Þórðarsaga (Copenhagen, 1860), for Bárðar saga and Víglundar saga.
  • Sturlunga saga — Guðbrandur Vigfússon's edition (Oxford, 1878), for Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns, Þorgils saga ok Hafliða, Sturlu saga, Prestssaga Guðmundar góða, Guðmundar saga dýra, Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar (which he prints whole in an appendix) and Íslendinga saga (vol. I and vol. II), which he prints as one text with Þórðar saga kakala, Svínfellinga saga and Þorgils saga skarða inside it.
  • Biskupa sögur — Hið íslenzka bókmentafélag's edition (Copenhagen), for Guðmundar saga Arasonar (vol. II, 1878), and Kristni saga, Þorvalds þáttr víðförla, Ísleifs þáttr biskups, Hungrvaka, Jóns saga helga, Þorláks saga biskups, Oddaverja þáttr, Páls saga biskups, Árna saga biskups and Lárentíus saga biskups (vol. I, 1858).
  • Riddarasögur — Gísli Brynjúlfsson's Saga af Tristram ok Ísönd (Copenhagen, 1878), for Tristrams saga and Möttuls saga, and his edition of the Icelandic Saga af Tristram ok Ísodd in Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed (Copenhagen, 1851); and Eugen Kölbing's Riddarasögur (Strassburg, 1872), for Mírmanns saga.
  • World History, Religion, and Education — C. R. Unger's Alexanders saga (Christiania, 1848) and Stjórn (Christiania, 1862); Keyser, Munch and Unger's Speculum regale: Konungs-skuggsjá (Christiania, 1848); and Konráð Gíslason's Fire og fyrretyve ... Prøver af oldnordisk Sprog og Litteratur (Copenhagen, 1860), for Veraldar saga and Rómverja saga; and the 1913 Reykjavík printing of Trójumanna saga, after Jón Sigurðsson.
  • Heimskringla — Finnur Jónsson's edition of Snorri Sturluson's lives of the Norse kings (Copenhagen, 1911), for the whole of it: the Prologus and all sixteen sagas.
  • Edda Snorra Sturlusonar — Finnur Jónsson's edition of Snorri Sturluson's Edda (Reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1907): the Prologus, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal.
  • Grágás — Vilhjálmur Finsen's edition of the law code in Konungsbók (Copenhagen, 1852).
  • Austfirðinga sögur — Jakob Jakobsen's edition of the sagas of the East Fjords (Copenhagen, 1902-03, Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur XXIX), which supplies Þorsteins saga hvíta, Þorsteins saga Síðu-Hallssonar, Gunnars þáttr Þiðrandabana, Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs and Brandkrossa þáttr, and a second edition of Vápnfirðinga saga, Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða and Droplaugarsona saga.
  • Droplaugarsona saga — Konráð Gíslason's edition of the saga of Droplaug's sons (Copenhagen, 1847, Nordiske Oldskrifter II), the first printing of the saga.
  • Kormáks saga — Theodor Möbius's edition of the saga of Kormákr the poet (Halle, 1886), from Möðruvallabók.
  • Eiríks saga rauða — Gustav Storm's edition of the saga of Eiríkr the Red (Copenhagen, 1891, Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur 21), from Skálholtsbók.
  • Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel — Charles Plummer's edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Oxford, 1892, vol. I), on the basis of John Earle's, which prints the Parker (A) and Laud (E) manuscripts side by side.
• Menota, which has published a scholarly transcription of Möðruvallabók including a full grammatical analysis on nearly every word. Íslendingabók comes from Menota, from AM 113 b fol. Its grammatical analyses were consulted for some of the printed editions.
• Icelandic Saga Database, which has put the sagas online in the public domain. Consulted for reference; no text here comes from it.

Old Norse * (Beta)

Where a saga offers it, the Voice toggle reads the text with Old Norse phonology instead of modern Icelandic: for example, hét with a long é rather than a diphthong.

It is made by taking a neural modern Icelandic voice and altering it sound by sound. It is meant only as an illustration of how the language may have sounded. The modern pronunciation is also available, if preferred.

Most sagas are read in modern Icelandic by an Azure voice. Old Norse *, and the modern reading of a few sagas, use a neural voice from the Language and Voice Lab at Reykjavík University, trained on the Talrómur corpus (CC BY 4.0). Each saga’s page says which voices it uses.

About & Contact

There is nothing else in literature quite like the Icelandic sagas. Gritty but funny, epic but understated, foreign but familiar.

Reading the sagas in the original Old Norse is not easy. It's a tricky language, and though there are excellent books, old and new, there are not many of them. Many of the older printed editions of Old Norse texts are in the public domain, but online they exist only as page scans. This site is an attempt to bring those texts together as searchable, readable text, and to build what's needed to learn to read them: word-by-word glosses, in-context translation help and grammatical detail (where available, more coming).

The texts are transcribed with AI from these page scans, listed under Sources. The glosses, notes and resources were also made with the help of AI: at over 2 million words, it is the only affordable way to gloss a library of this size. Definitions link back to Cleasby-Vigfusson and Zoëga for reference. As with anything AI-generated, the transcriptions, translations, glosses and notes may contain errors. Corrections are welcome.

There is more I hope to add as resources allow, including more texts and additional glossing.

Questions, comments, corrections and requests welcome: [email protected].