Gripla - 01.01.1990, Page 321

OLD NORSE RELIGION IN THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS
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in Droplaugarsona saga, in the passage where Grím Droplaugarson
kills Helgi Ásbjarnarson at Eiðar. This is how it goes:
Þá gekk Grímr í hvflugólf þat, er var hjá sæng þeira Helga, ok
setti þar niðr fyrir framan þat, er hann hafði í hendi, ok gekk
síðan at sænginni ok lagði af Helga klæðin. Hann vaknaði við ok
mælti: ‘Tóktu á mér, Þórdís, eða hví var svá kpld hpnd þín?’
‘Eigi tók ek á þér,’ sagði hon, ‘ok óvarr ert þú. Uggir mik, at til
mikils dragi um.’ Ok eptir þat sofnuðu þau. Þá gekk Grímr at
Helga ok tók hpnd Þórdísar af honum, er hon hafði lagt yfir
hann. Grímr mælti: ‘Vaki þú, Helgi, fullsofit er.’ En síðan lagði
Grímr sverðinu á Helga, svá at stóð í gegnum hann.40
Then Grím went into the closet enclosing the bed of Helgi and
Þórdís, setting down in front of it what he was carrying [i.e. the
small round stick]. Next he went to the bed and turned the bed-
clothes off Helgi. He woke at this, and said, ‘Did you touch me,
Þórdís, and why was your hand so cold?’ ‘I didn’t touch you,’
said she, ‘and you are reckless. I fear that great trouble is on the
way.’ And after that they fell asleep. Grím then went to Helgi
and lifted off the arm that Þórdís had thrown over him. Grím
said, ‘Wake up, Helgi, you have slept long enough.’ And then
Grím struck Helgi with the sword and ran him through.
Scholars soon noticed the similarity of these two accounts, but have
not agreed on which of the two has drawn on the other.41 Jón Jóhann-
esson alludes to these researches in his introduction to Austfirðinga
sögur in íslenzk fornrit: ‘For a long time, Droplaugarsona saga was
taken to be the borrower, but most recent researches have demon-
strated the opposite, there can be no doubt about it, for the poem ís-
lendinga drápa supports the nucleus of the saga account.’42 The re-
searches that Jón Jóhannesson refers to are found in the introduction
to the edition of Gísla saga by Björn K. Þórólfsson in íslenzk fornrit.
This editor compares the two accounts, and finds two decisive points
to show that Gísla saga is here drawing on Droplaugarsona saga. One
40 Droplaugarsona saga ed. Jón Jóhannesson (ÍF XI, 1950), p. 170.
41 ÍF VI, p. xx n. 1 and works there cited.
42 ÍF XI, p. lxxiii.