Gripla - 01.01.1984, Blaðsíða 252

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GRIPLA
the longer redaction of the saga, reworked these episodes into his re-
telling of this part of Gesta Danorum.
The battle of Brávellir figures prominently in the saga. Again this is
not surprising as it is referred to a number of times in Icelandic litera-
ture as well as by Saxo, and the sources agree that Starkaður was
present. The account in the saga is to a large extent derived from Sögu-
brot af fornkonungum.12 The author even included a detailed diagram
of the manner in which the opposing armies were arranged, and this was
reproduced in a number of the older manuscripts.
The large number of verses contained in the saga have been attributed
to a poet who lived in the north-west of Iceland, the minister Gunnar
Pálsson (1714-91). He was a well-known poet who composed in Latin
as well as Icelandic.13 It is therefore likely that he was the author, and
he may have worked from a Latin edition of Gesta Danorum.
It appears that the verses were composed before the prose saga was
written. Two candidates have been named as the author of the saga. The
first of these, named in several manuscripts, and in Gísli Konráðsson’s
translation of Gesta Danorum, is Halldór Jakobsson (1735-1810), the
sýslumaður in Strandasýsla, also in the north-west of Iceland. Although
it would have been possible for him to have written the saga before
about 1760 when Brávallarímur were composed, it is not very likely that
he was the author. A copy of the saga in his own hand exists (Lbs. 955
4to), which was written in his old age. This is of poor quality compared
to other older manuscripts of the saga and it is unlikely to be a copy of a
work he himself had composed in his youth. Furthermore, it lacks some
of the verses, and it is unlikely that he would have omitted these if he
himself were the author and had based his saga partly upon them.
Guðbrandur Vigfússon names as the author of Starkaðar saga the
minister Snorri Björnsson of Húsafell in the west of Iceland (1710-
1803).14 It may be of relevance that many of those associated with com-
posing or copying the works based on Saxo lived in the west of Iceland.
A final indication of the popularity of tales concerning Starkaður is
that another saga was composed about his grandfather, Starkaður Álu-
12 Sögubrot af fornkonungum in Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, ed. Guðni Jóns-
son and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 3 vols., Reykjavík 1943—44, I, 124-32.
13 íslenzkar œviskrár, ed. Páll Eggert Ólason et al., 6 vols., Reykjavík 1948-76,
II, 205.
14 Sturlunga saga, ed. Oxford 1878, 2 vols., I, lxiv.