Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 35

JÓMSVÍKINGA SAGA
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been shared by the two texts in their independent state. It would also
seem likely that the whole of I (a-b-c) was adapted en bloc from a
single written source, from which certain more emphatic scribal and
linguistic mannerisms have survived. In that postulated source the
first section I (a) may already have shown certain features which
marked it off from the other parts, or it may be that this section has
in some way been more thoroughly revised than the rest. It is not
inconceivable that the man who adapted I as an introduction to II
was himself the author of II.
Part I has a good deal in common with other texts, but there is
much that is obscure about its connections, so that the testing of
such a hypothesis as the one sketched above is attended with grave
difficulties. It is true that the connections between parts I and II are
slight: the interpretation of Klakk-Harald’s second vision and of
Gorm’s third dream in I (a) appear to look forward to Sveinn
Haraldsson’s relations with his father described in part II,18 but
neither is free from obscurity, and Gorm’s dream may as well refer
to the warfare described in I (c) in connection with the Conversion
of Denmark. The other omens are fulfilled in I (a) and I (c). Other-
wise the link between I and II lies only in the person of Haraldr
Gormsson and much more remotely in Hákon jarl. Connections
between the parts of I, on the other hand, are much stronger (see
below), which would speak in favour of the possibility that the whole
had existed in some separate form. Obviously then, the links with II,
such as they are, would have to be regarded as modifications intro-
duced by the man who adapted I to serve as an introduction for II.
The source of I (c) has of course long been recognised: it is
derived, not without alterations and omissions, from the Óláfs saga
Tryggvasonar by Gunnlaugr Leifsson.19 The possibility thus suggests
itself that more material in part I is from the same source. It would
18 So, e. g., Jakob Benediktsson, Arngrimi Jonae Opera Latine Conscripta,
IV; Introduction and Notes (Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XII; Hafniæ 1957),
125; cf. Krijn, 42—43.
10 See Bj. Aðalbjarnarson, 97—98, with refs.
ÍSLENZK TUNCA 3