Gunnlaugr ormstunga (Worm-Tongue)

Gunnlaug Worm-Tongue is the gifted, doomed young skald of one of the most perfect short sagas — named for the sharpness of his verse and undone by the same sharpness. Hot-tempered and brilliant, he wins fame at the courts of kings and the betrothal of the beautiful Helga the Fair, then sails abroad to make his name and lingers a season too long. By the time he returns, Helga has been married to his rival, the smoother poet Hrafn — and the two skalds fall into a deadly quarrel that ends in a duel abroad and both their deaths. The tongue that made Gunnlaug a poet made him enemies; the gift that won Helga's love could not keep it against his own pride and bad timing. Helga dies still holding the cloak he gave her. The saga's exquisite, miniature tragedy of the word as both glory and ruin.