Gripla - 01.01.1984, Side 248

244
GRIPLA
is himself their ferryman. Furthermore, at their destination the heroes
do not come across Guðmundur’s brother, Geirröður as they do in
Saxo, but an old man pierced with an iron rod, whom they see is the
deity Loki. The author of the saga clearly knew Þórsdrápa in Snorra
Edda, as he mentions that this journey had been made previously by
Þórr and Loki, while Saxo only mentions that Þórr had made the
journey, but the fact that he makes Loki Þórr’s victim is a new element
that he must have included himself.
The setting for this first destination has also been influenced by the
setting for the second voyage, and the hall they enter is inside a cave. In
spite of these developments, the author goes on to include an account of
the second voyage of Thorkillus, which diverges less from Saxo. How-
ever, it contains sailing directions not found in the source and the abode
of Útgarðaloki is said to be to the west of Greenland. When they arrive,
Thorkillus has a conversation with Útgarðaloki on the nature of the
afterlife, and Útgarðaloki tells him to pluck a hair from his beard. In
Saxo’s account Útgarðaloki is simply passive.
This saga was apparently unknown to the person who in 1695 wrote
a straight translation of this section of Saxo’s work from Vedel’s version
(JS 625 4to), nor to another Icelander, Páll Pálsson, who also wrote an
account of the first voyage in about 1860, which he knew to be derived
from Saxo (Lbs. 228 8vo). However, it may have been known to an-
other writer who composed a group of sagas based on Saxo, probably
in the early nineteenth century. These will be discussed later.
Also of the late seventeenth century are Ambáles rímur,7 composed
by Páll Bjarnason. These are derived from the tale of Amlethus in Gesta
Danorum. Páll did not, it appears, use a prose saga as his source. He
claims in the rímur that he found the tale in his youth in a German book
(xxi. 6). This may be a reference to the summary of the tale made in
Low German by the monk Gheismer, which was printed in 1485. This
is substantiated by the fact that Páll names his hero Ambáles, while
7 Ambáles rímur and Anibáles saga have been discussed by Israel Gollancz,
Hamlet in Iceland, London 1898: Gollancz printed a text of the saga and also
Gheismer’s summary of the story of Amblethus. More recently the relationships
between the rímur and the saga have been discussed by Hermann Pálsson in his
edition, Ambales rímur, Reykjavík 1952 (Rit Rímnafélagsins V). Another text of
the saga was printed in Reykjavík: Sagan af Ambáles, Kostnaðarmaður Skúli Thor-
oddsen (Prentsmiðja Þjóðviljans), (no date).