I n this article, I will discuss the Old Norse concept of ógæfa, typically translated as misfortune or lucklessness. 1 Scholars have pointed out that it was connected to a person’s fate and sometimes caused by another’s curse or witchcraft. It could also be part of the person’s stable character or an irreversible burden laid on him by Óðinn. Ógæfa additionally implied a lack of happiness or a destiny that the individual him/herself freely chose, either by striving for the wrong or failing to achieve the right goals. Killing a kinsman or committing other such niðingsverk (villainy) were among the possible causes of ógæfa. In recent scholarship, ógæfa has been given Christian connota- tions, and gæfumaðr, a man of fortune, has been seen as denoting a good Christian in the pre-Christian period (Hallberg; Hermann Páls- son “Icelandic Sagas”; Hermann Pálsson “Um gæfumenn”; Lönnroth “Kroppen”; Sejbjerg Sommer). Ógæfa as an Emotion in Thirteenth-Century Iceland K. T. Kanerva University of Turku I wish to acknowledge the guidance and encouragement as well as the support and advice given by Alaric Hall and Marjo Kaartinen, and Philip Line for his useful comments and corrections of my English. This essay is based on my “‘... siltikään hän ei ollut onnen mies.’ Epäonnen käsite ja epäonnen kulttuuriset merkitykset 1200–1300-luvun Islannissa saagan Gísla saga Súrssonar valossa” (available in Finnish only, at https://oa.doria.i/ handle/10024/35954; the title in English is “‘... still he became no man of fortune’: The Concept of Ógæfa and the Cultural Meanings of Ógæfa in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- century Iceland in the Light of Gísla saga Súrssonar”). Unpublished Master’s Thesis. University of Turku, Finland, 2007. 1. In this discussion, I will mainly concentrate only on one word for misfortune, ógæfa. Other similar words with their possible luck counterparts are gipta/ógipta, hamingja/ óhamingja, tími/ótími, farsæld/ófarsæld, lukka, heill/óheill, heppni/óheppni, happ/óhapp, lán/ ólán, and auðna. See CGV, and Hermann Pálsson “Um gæfumenn” 138 for these concepts.