Outlaw: The Saga of Gisli

Plot summary

The story begins with Gisli, Thorgrim, Thorkel, and Vestein making a blood pact to protect one another. Thorgrim refuses to complete the pact because he does not want involvement with Vestein, claiming that taking on Vestein as a brother is more trouble than he can handle. The men storm off, leaving the blood oath incomplete. Thorkel later hears his wife tell Aud, Gisli's wife, that she had amorous feelings for Vestein before marrying Thorkel, leading Thorkel to suspect infidelity.

Vestein is killed one night in Gisli's home by a masked man. Gisli pulls the spear from Vestein's body, ensuring he will avenge the murder. Investigating, Gisli concludes Thorgrim is responsible.

He convinces one of Thorgrim's servants to leave the door open, enters, and stabs Thorgrim with the same spear. After the funeral, Bork, Thorgrim's brother, marries Thorgrim's widow Thordis, who is also Gisli's sister. Thordis tells Bork she believes Gisli killed her first husband and that Bork must kill Gisli for revenge. Some of Bork's men then travel to a sorcerer to place a curse on Thorgrim's murderer.

Relation to source

The film has slight deviations from the Gísla saga. In the saga, Gisli's dreams played a larger role in predicting his fate, but in the film they seem unimportant until the final battle.

The saga did not give faces to the women in Gisli's dreams, whereas the film depicts the good dream woman as Gisli's wife and the bad dream woman as his sister, likely to emphasize the women's critical roles in the story. The text portrays Gisli as a larger-than-life character who died with many great wounds, suggesting a humongous man with an irrefutable spirit. In the film, Gisli is depicted as a man of normal stature with the will to overcome obstacles.