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the eventual conflict between Þorsteinn and Þórhaddr. Unlike his mag-
nanimous father, Þorsteinn is eventually goaded to take action against
Þórhaddr. Following a series of incidents in which Þórhaddr needles him,
Þorsteinn attacks and kills Þórhaddr. The latter portion of the saga, fol-
lowing Þórhaddr’s death, is damaged and the account of Þorsteinn’s own
death is missing. A clue to the circumstances of this death can be found in
one of the dreams told by Þórhaddr at a meeting where friends of both
parties had hoped to broker a settlement between the pair. As the discus-
sions descend into arguments Þórhaddr tells two dreams, both of which
foretell his killing by Þorsteinn (ÍF XI, 314). In the first of these a white
bear jumps over Þórhaddr and his sons, but is later killed by a fox. The
bear fetch clearly represents Þorsteinn as a warrior and leader.26 The fox,
however, is less easily understood. In some cases fox fetches in dreams
seem to represent sorcerers (ÍF VI, 349–350; FSN II, 208–209), however
in these cases the animals are vixens whereas the word refr in Þorsteins saga
Síðu-Hallssonar implies a male, or at least a fox of indeterminate sex. The
common medieval association of the fox with cunning (which seems to
have been well established in medieval Iceland) suggests that Þorsteinn was
not killed by a great warrior in fair and open conflict, but by some lowly
character in an underhand manner.
Þorsteinn’s death and with it the explanation of Þórhaddr’s dream are
missing from the extant version of his saga due to a lacuna. An account,
however, is preserved in a separate text referred to as Draumr Þorsteins
Síðu-Hallssonar. In this short text Þorsteinn has three dreams in which
three women appear and warn that a slave, Gilli, is planning to kill him on
account of being castrated (ÍF XI, 323–325). In each dream the women
stand in a different order and the foremost of them speaks a verse. These
verses contain a great deal of allusion to pagan tradition in their imagery
and have a ninth line which is an almost verbatim repetition of the eighth:
a feature of the galdralag metre, particularly associated with supernatural
spirits and magic (Stefán Einarsson 1951). Despite several searches being
made for Gilli, he is not found and later kills Þorsteinn in his bed. There is
26 For other examples of bear fetches see ÍF XIII, 77; ÍF XII, 64–65; FSN I, 77 and 292–
293; FSN II, 116; Atlamál stanza 24, Neckel 1962, 251 – many of these examples relate
specifically to Kings or men with kingly attributes, the later of which might be the case for
Þorsteinn (see Cochrane 2004, 44–45).
SÍÐU-HALLS SAGA OK SONA HANS