The Gutasaga was recorded in the 13th century
and survives in only a single manuscript, the Codex Holm. B 64, dating to ca. 1350, kept at the Swedish Royal Library in Stockholm) together with the Gutalag , the legal code of Gotland. It was written in the Old Gutnish dialect of Old Norse.
The saga treats the history of Gotland before its Christianization. It begins with Tielvar and his son Havde , who had three sons, Graip , Guti and Gunfjaun , the ancestors of the Geats. The saga tells of an emigration, that is associated with the historical migration of the Goths during the Migration period:
- over a long time, the people descended from these three multiplied so much that the land couldn't support them all. Then they draw lots, and every third person was picked to leave, and they could keep everything they owned and take it with them, except for their land. ... they went up the river Dvina, up through Russia. They went so far that they came to the land of the Greeks. ... they settled there, and live there still, and still have something of our language.
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