Saga - 2005, Qupperneq 69

Abstract
O N VAT N S D Æ L A S A G A A N D K R I S T N I S A G A
The development of the Vatnsdæla Saga is here investigated through excerpts
from two slightly different versions of it that were interpolated into two varying,
13th-century versions of Landnámabók. The preserved text of Vatnsdæla Saga as
a whole is found only in manuscripts from the 14th century. Comparison of
excerpts from the Melabók version of Landnámabók and the 14th-century
Vatnsdæla Saga shows a clear difference in content regarding sensitive political
issues of 13th- and 14th-century Icelandic society. Thus historiography plainly
reveals the fierce struggle of secular Icelandic chieftains during the mid-13th cen-
tury to secure their proprietary churches and land against the claims of the eccle-
siastical authorities. Referred to as the staðamál, this struggle paralleled the chief-
tains’ intensified claim for primacy in society and accompanied the forfeit of their
goðorð (i.e. their sovereignty) to the Norwegian king, from whom they were like-
wise able to obtain support against the Church. In addition to genealogies, these
secular chieftains relied on further sources for justifying their power and ascen-
dancy as courtiers or sheriffs (hirðmenn and sýslumenn) under the king, i.e. sagas
and stories told about their forefathers. Such narratives described how by divine
providence these forefathers had been the first to claim land in Iceland (landnám),
along with their subordinates, how they had originally developed a legally
organised society in that country and led heathen worship, and how they had
eventually taken the lead in accepting Christianity and building churches that
they owned and used for themselves and their subordinates. Not only does this
perspective shine through in several Icelandic sagas and the preserved versions
of Landnámabók, but it also appears in the 13th-century excerpts from
Vatnsdæla Saga, whereas the 14th-century Vatnsdæla Saga seems to have been
modified by clerical standpoints, influenced by the 14th-century text of Ólafs
saga Tryggvasonar hin mesta.
Additionally, this article criticises how the newly published first volume of
the Bishop Sagas, in the series Íslenzk fornrit, regards the Kristni Saga as an inde-
pendent work, despite its only being preserved as an appendix to Landnámabók.
The predominant view of 20th-century research was that it neither is nor ever has
been an independent work, and there are no substantial arguments against this
opinion. Furthermore, slightly different versions of Kristni Saga seem to have
been appended to two versions of Landnámabók: Sturlubók and Hauksbók. A
point is also made of how starkly editors of the Bishop Sagas contrast in regard
to the origins and sources of Kristni Saga.
VAT N S D Æ L A S Ö G U R O G K R I S T N I S Ö G U R 69
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