Gripla - 01.01.1984, Síða 254

250
GRIPLA
Gísli Konráðsson very probably had access to this book of Birget’s
at some time, which is not surprising as he went to live on Flatey in
1852. He in fact owned a copy of one of the sagas, that of Haki and
Hagbarður, as Magnús tells us, and he composed rímur on the subject.
His translation of Saxo contains some of the verses also found in the
sagas in Birgeta’s book, and some of his references to ‘norrænar heim-
ildir’ clearly refer to the same sagas.
According to Magnús the sagas contained in the Birget’s book con-
cerned the heroes Þorkell aðalfari (Thorkillus), Haddingi Harðgreipar-
fóstri (Hadingus), Fróði frækni, Fróði Friðleifsson, Haki and Hagbarð-
ur, Helgi Hundingsbani (the saga is derived from the Eddic poems), a
saga of Haraldur hilditönn and Brávallabardagi (of which no copy
exists), and two popular medieval romances, Drauma-Jóns saga and
Sigurðar saga þögla.
All but one of the sagas derived from Saxo in this book concern
heroes who were well-known in Icelandic tradition. The author has been
very free with his material and it provided only the bare bones of his
stories, which he padded out generously with the kind of adventures
common in the late sagas. Nearly all of the relevant material in Saxo has
been utilised in some manner, except in the saga of Þorkell aðalfari, but
it has often been changed drastically, sometimes in the interest of the
author’s more complex plots, and because of his desire to retain some
kind of unity of character he has at times attributed adventures to other
heroes than the ones named in Saxo. At other times the changes seem to
have been made purely for reasons of personal taste. These sagas are all
very long because of the large number of adventures they contain and
they needed some such treatment in order to retain their cohesiveness.
The author clearly worked from a version of Saxo that was not
Vedel’s translation, as he included the verses. It is likely that he knew
SchousbOlle’s translation, which means that the sagas were not com-
posed earlier than the mid-eighteenth century. However, in two cases he
may also have been acquainted with earlier sagas based on the same
events in Saxo.
Many of the typical features of the post-medieval Icelandic sagas may
be seen in the first work in Birget’s book, Sagan af Þorkeli adalfara.
Although the same pattern is followed in the saga as in Saxo, the major
characters are given a full introduction and the motivation for the voy-