Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 38

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PETER G. FOOTE
are given, and from Flat. both accounts have been translated by
Arngrímur Jónsson in his Rerum Danicarum fragmenta, following
his translation of the earlier part of S/cjpld.-G In Jvs. in Stock. perg.
7 4to the 291 account appears to have been replaced by the same
account as in AM 61 fol.,27 and a genealogical reference in Hkr. and
the narrative in the þáttr aj Ragnars sonum also point to a similar
source.28 A third variant of the story of Knút’s death is found in Arn-
grímur Jónsson’s translation of Jvs., where the two brothers are on an
expedition to Ireland; this is derived from an unknown source, related
in some way to Saxo’s account. It is thought that the 291 account,
found also in Flat., is the form of the story that is original in Jvs.
If Skjpld. extended to the death of Gormr inn gamli, it must have
had an account of the death of Knútr, since the one invariably
depends on the other, and presumably the scene of his death was in
England. In other respects, however, it is likely that the remainder
of Gorm’s history in Skjpld. was basically identical with the account
in 291. The reason for thinking this lies in the probabilily that the
author of Knýtlinga saga drew on a Jvs. similar to that preserved in
291 for the original introduction to his work.2<J That original intro-
duction was discarded by the man who combined Skjpld. and Knýtl.,
and it has been plausibly argued that he did this because he found
that introduction little more than a repetition of the end of Skjpld.30
There seems, in fact, little doubt but that some of the material in
I (a) in 291 is ultimately derived from Skjpld.31.
20 Arngrimi Jonae Opera, I (Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, IX; Hafniæ 1950),
36130—3623, 36222-33; ibid., IV, 246, note to 36222-35.
27 G. Cederschiöld, Jómsvíkinga saga (Acta Universitatis Lundensis. 1874.
XI. 3; Lund 1875), 5.
28 Finnur Jónsson, Heimskringla (K0benhavn 1893—1900), I (Samfund til
Udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur, XXIII), 268 (Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar,
ch. 9); idem, Hauksbók (K^benhavn 1892—96), 464 ff.
2° Arngrimi Jonae Opera, IV, 116; G. Albeck, Knytlinga (Kj0benhavn
1946), 25.
30 Arngrimi Jonae Opera, IV, 116—117.
31 Cf., e.g., Finnur Jónsson, Litt. Historie, II, 655.