Saga - 1962, Page 30

370
BJÖRN SIGFÚSSON
SUMMARY
It is now a generally accepted view, that Hænsa-Þóris Saga
(Hæns.) is a novel, written in the decades 1250—1280 in some
connection with Reykholt, and it cannot be cited as a historical
source for anything, which happened in the Saga-times. Neverthe-
less the experienced historian Sturla Þórðarson, d. 1284, must have
believed in the historical soundness of Hæns. In his old age he altered
a chapter in Landnámabók so that it might conform with the (wrong)
statements of Hœns. Sturla’s inactivity, when facing the fateful
problems of Jónsbók in 1278—1281, must be compared with his un-
critical use of Hæns. at the same time. The latter fact might help
in understanding the former one.
According to this article the setting of the Landslaw in Norway
about 1274 is a terminus post quern Hæns. must be written, and there
is no reason to guess a later writing date than 1280. Few, if any,
Icelandic Sagas can then be more exactly dated. It is most likely,
that its author was not directly influenced by the Norse Landslaw,
but rather influenced by the royalists, who after a careful prepara-
tion (1275 — 1280) succeeded 1281 in passing Jónsbók as a Code of
Law for Iceland. In a chapter mainly taken from the Landslaw, the
code Jónsbók enacts, for the first time in Iceland, a late-medieval
expropriation rule, and it was just this new unpopular rule that the
author of Hæns. wanted to support and illustrate by his good story
from a golden heathen age.
An explanation is given, why the sharp clerical opposition to this
innovation must have been very short-lived after 1281.