Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 19

JOURNEY TO THE NJALA COUNTRY
15
this, other topographical details about Bergþórshvoll in the saga seem
to be right; especially, for instance, those relating to the flight of Kári.
On the other hand words used of the sons of Njáll in chapter 44 could
be taken as evidence of unfamiliarity, for there we are told that Njáll
went out one evening and saw his sons ‘stefna upp á hválinn’, which
suggests that the hill was higher and larger than it actually is. Of course
it could have become lower since that time, but the words ‘stefna upp á’
still suggest a bigger hill than is ever likely to have existed here, and are
therefore suspicious, arguing against the saga-writer having himself
seen the place.
Earlier scholars and other knowledgeable men have adopted one of
two expedients to explain the ‘valley in the hill’.
One way out of the dilemma was to incline to the Flosalág hypo-
thesis. The other was to admit that there was an error in the saga. This,
for example, was the course favoured by Finnur Jónsson, who declared
roundly that the author had obviously never been to Bergþórshvoll; an
admission that must have gone against the grain with him.
But accepting this view, the problem is then to explain the many
correct topographical details about Bergþórshvoll found in the saga,
especially in connexion with the burning. Now, the author’s imagination
is in good working order, and is given full play in the burning episode.
However, correct topographical details are not generally the product of
the human imagination. The most natural explanation would appear to
be that the author based his account on the detailed description of a
man who was thoroughly familiar with the place, some of it possibly in
narrative form. But in the author’s mind details became magnified. He
had heard of the valley in the hill and assumed it to be much bigger—
for example, like the valley at Oddi, behind Gammabrekka, which he
might have seen. And possibly he was influenced by similar hiding-
places used when attacks were made on men in Laxdœla and Heiðar-
víga Saga.
Recently another explanation of the valley in the hill was put for-
ward by Professor Trausti Einarsson in the periodical Saga, 1967. His
arguments are mainly geological. He maintains that the present bed of
the river Affall was once dry, and that this was the ‘valley’ used by the
burners to approach and hide in the eastern side of Bergþórshvoll.
Now I am not a geologist. However, I could not avoid dealing with