Gripla - 20.12.2010, Síða 224

GRIPLA224
2108–2114). Egill becomes a retainer of King Óláfr Haraldsson, but falls
out of favour when he frees some Danish prisoners. Egill only regains the
King’s favour when he undertakes the dangerous mission to convert Jarl
Valgautr of Gautland to Christianity. In one particularly interesting epi-
sode King Óláfr permits Egill to bring his wife Þorlaug and daughter
Þorgerðr to court (ÍS III, 2109). When the king sees the maid Þorgerðr he
comments that she will be lucky (hún mundi eigi gæfulaus). The narrator
goes on to observe that she is later the mother of Bishop Jón inn helgi.
Indeed Hallr’s family has many notable descendants including Jón
Ǫgmundarson (first bishop at Hólar from 1106–1121), Magnús Einarsson
(bishop at Skálholt 1134–1148) and later Guðmundr Arason (bishop at
Hólar 1203–1237) among his descendants. Similarly Landnámabók traces
the ancestry of the Sturlusons directly to Þorsteinn (ÍF I, 310) and Sturlunga
saga traces Sæmundr inn fróði to Yngvildr Hallsdóttir (Jón Jóhannesson
1946, I, 10). If one were to imagine an ending to our saga of Síðu-Hallr and
his sons, it might be expected to list some of these genealogies, thereby
tracing a direct line of descent from the kingly ancestors, through the land-
námsmenn, through the heroes of the saga age to the most powerful fami-
lies, most important literary writers and most senior religious leaders of
the society for whom these stories must once have been told.
Considering the saga
What I have tried to do is put together a coherent story from disparate
evidence. I have used only the extant texts and I have not filled in or elabo-
rated. I would not necessarily claim that all of this is actually true (as stated
above, that is beyond the scope of this article), but I have not actually
invented or created anything. What we find is a surprisingly coherent saga.
If we were to imagine that saga, it starts with the settlement of Hallr’s
ancestors and a prophecy foreshadowing the success of the family within
Iceland. This is told relatively briefly with one or two episodes given much
attention (for example Rǫgnvaldr’s discussion with his sons, and perhaps
Haraldr’s sponsorship of Hrollaugr’s voyage). It moves on to narrate a
couple of episodes as precursors to the conversion of Iceland to Chris-
tianity. At this point time moves relatively quickly, but certain episodes are