Gripla - 01.01.1975, Qupperneq 92

88
GRIPLA
If we now move on to consider the possibility of intemal evidence
in íslendingadrápa, we can immediately establish that there is no
mention whatsoever of any written source, anywhere in the poem.
(This of course does not prove that Haukr did not know the written
sagas.) The poet does, on the other hand, frequently refer to oral
sources. On nine occasions he indicates that he has heard something
about what he is describing by using the expression ‘frá ek’ (verses 6,
7, 11, 12, 13, 19, 21, 23, 25). The expression ‘kváðu þjóðir’ (v. 18)
has exactly the same implication.
If we propose that the manuscript of the drápa was written about
1300, and that the poem itself was composed somewhat earlier, then
we are equally suggesting that the drápa is older than some of the
written sagas, or at least older than their surviving versions. This is
certainly trae of Grettis Saga and of Orms Þáttr Stórólfssonar, and
may possibly apply to Njáls Saga also. Is it not then possible that
Haukr would have used the earlier written sagas as his source ma-
terial, even though he had access to the younger sagas only in oral
form? In fact there is nothing to suggest that he did this. There is
equal inconsistency between the drápa and both the older and younger
sagas. Vápnfirðinga Saga is thought to be one of the oldest sagas,
written in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Reykdæla Saga
is considered slightly younger, and Orms Þáttr is from the fourteenth
century. The relation of the drápa is, in other words, the same, to
older and younger sagas alike.
The main reason why some scholars believe that the drápa is based
on written sagas, is the fact that there is, at a number of points, an
extremely close similarity between the two forms in certain small
details. The main examples of this will now be considered:
Helgi Droplaugarson is described as heathen in stanza six of the
poem, and in Droplaugarsona Saga it is said that he was killed, ‘one
year after the missionary Þangbrandr came to Iceland’, in other words
two years before Christianity was accepted by the Alþing.
In the poem (v. 8) we read that Grímr Droplaugarson went in to
Helgi Ásbjarnarson, and placed a sword through his body (hann ‘gekk
inn at Frey linna foldar’). This should be compared with the thir-
teenth chapter of Droplaugarsona Saga.