Gripla - 01.01.1984, Page 255

SAXO IN ICELAND
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age to the north is quite different. Þorkell is an aristocrat who goes on
a quest for his missing uncles. On the way he acquires his foster-brother,
Gormur, who remains throughout the saga in a subordinate position to
the main hero, Þorkell. He is called Gormur inn gamli in Icelandic
sources from the 1695 retelling onwards, but he is not named this in the
saga from Birget’s book, nor is he envisaged as old in the saga.
Þorkell has been given a magic weapon by his father at the start of
the voyage, a weapon that seems to be derived from a combination of
the magic weapon in Sturlaugs saga starjsama and the magic arrows in
Örvar-Odds saga.16 This stands them in good stead as they make their
voyage north, undergoing perils in storms and in the various other-
wordly kingdoms that they visit. More foster-brothers are acquired on
the way. Finally they arrive at their destination. They are ferried across
the river dividing this country from other lands by a ferryman who bears
a close resemblance to the ferryman in the earlier Sagan af Gorm kóng-
inum gamla. This may have been known to the author of the saga in
Birget’s book.
Geirröður is not mentioned at all in this saga, but the villain is instead
a King Svartur of Dumbshaf. Guðmundur is the name of a henchman of
his, and not an independent king as in Saxo and in the earlier saga.
Svartur has two daughters, who are most probably based on the two
daughters of Geirröður mentioned in the Snorra Edda and in the seven-
teenth-century saga. They are priestesses and are slain along with Svart-
ur, Guðmundur and various other villains. The uncles are rescued and
the heroes return home. No mention is made of the second voyage of
Þorkell to Útgarðaloki, nor does the saga contain any material related
to the popular medieval Þorsteins þáttr bœjarmagns, which contains a
lengthy episode related to Saxo’s story of the journey to Guðmundur
and Geirröður.
It seems unlikely that the author based his saga only on the earlier
Sagan af Gorm kónginum gamla, even though he introduces no material
contained in Saxo but not in this saga, because he must have had access
to a version of Saxo when he was composing his other sagas. However,
in the case of another saga in Birget’s book, that of Haki and Hag-
16 Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, ed. Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 3
vols., Reykjavík 1943-44,1, 293, II, 334.