Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 36

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PETER G. FOOTE
not seem difficult at any rate to believe that I (b), the Gull-Haraldr
episode, came from Gunnlaug’s work. It is intimately connected with
the story of the Conversion in I (c) through the person of Hákon
jarl: his obligation to pay tribute to King Haraldr and to come to
his aid, which are important features of the narrative in I (c), are
only understandable on the basis of I (b).20 Gunnlaugr is certainly
likely to have been interested in Hákon as a foil to Oláfr Tryggvason,
and if I (b) as well as I (c) are to be derived from his work, they
might be looked on as an amplification of the brief account in Oddr
Snorrason’s Ólájs saga (possibly derived from Sæmundr) :21
[Hakon] var vitr maðr ok fek yfir komit Haralld grafelld
isinom raðvm oc fell hann at Halsi i Lima firðe oc Gvllharalld
drap hann berliga með vapnvm. Siþan var hann iarl at Noregi
með raðe Dana konungs oc gallt skatt Dana konunge xiii. vetr.
oc voro sva Norðmenn vndir þvi oke. Ok a enno xiii. ari barðiz
Ottv [sic] keisari við Dana konung. ok Hakon oc flyðv þeir
konungr ok iarl ennv siðarasta [sic] sinne. ok gallt Hakon
siþan eigi skatt af Noregi.
Apart from a small interpolation from Agrip, ch. 10 (see 291,
I922—202), this account in I (b) appears to be independent of other
known accounts. (Specific literary connection between the two in the
accounts of Gunnhild’s death, cf. Ágrip, ch. 11, is possible but
20 It seems to me likely that the matter concerning Hákon’s tribute would be
original in Gunnlaug’s work, cf. the passage from Oddr quoted below, though
the conversations between Haraldr Gormsson and Hákon on the subject may
well not be (Bj. Aðalbjarnarson, 97). In AM 61 fol. (Ólafur Halldórsson, Ólájs
saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, I (Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, A, I; Hafniæ 1958),
132 ff.; = Fornmanna sögur, I (Kaupmannahöfn 1825), 120 ff.), where the
text is based directly on Gunnlaug’s work, this matter is absent, but this would
be due to the combination there effected with the text of Heimskringla. Snorri
had a rather different view of the relationship between Haraldr and Hákon.
21 Finnur Jónsson, Saga Olájs Tryggvasonar aj Oddr Snorrason munkr
(Kpbenhavn 1932), 6027—6127 (from the S-version); cf. Bj. Aðalbjarnarson, 81
and 69; on relations between the two main versions of Odd’s saga, see most
recently Ole Widding, „Ave Maria eller Maríuvers i norrpn litteratur," Maal og
minne, 1958, 6—7.