Gripla - 20.12.2004, Qupperneq 101

Gripla - 20.12.2004, Qupperneq 101
THE PAST AS GUEST 99 King Hálfr used to own this ring, and the Hálfsrekkar had it in their pos- session at the time that they did something heroic, though to whom, exactly, is unclear.6 The freeholder Lo›mundr, who gave Hnitu›r to Úlfr, seems to be no one special however, and we know nothing of how Hnitu›r passed from King Hálfr to this bóndi. That, at least, we can say of the genealogies of the two treasures: that of Nornagest’s gull is clearer, with fewer steps. Sigur›r himself has given it to Nornagestr. The saddle ring fragment is also purer gold, as the King himself declares. More reliable claims attach to the fragment, claims about purity of content and directness of historical trajectory. If we interpret it as a fragment of the past, then it seems fair to see it as symbolic of pure, direct, reliable access to or contact with that past, more specifically with Sig- ur›r Fáfnisbani. Sigur›’s associations are at least a partially known quantity. Sigur›r ap- pears to be emblematic of the best of the heroic heathen past, the part that is still worth making a claim on in the Christian era. His not infrequent appear- ance in the ornament of stave churches may have to do with Norwegian royal claims to Völsung lineage (Byock 1990). Sigur›r is portrayed as admirable, if damned, and he contrasts with the cowardly regicide Starka›r in fiorsteins fláttr skelks. In Nornagests fláttr itself, in Nornagest’s account, Sigur›r was the foremost of his brothers, even greater than Sinfjötli and Helgi Hundingsbani, and voru fleir umfram alla menn um afl ok vöxt. Furthermore, er mönnum flat 6 Probably Cipolla is right that j Ylfing is an error for simply Ylfing, as the word appears in AM 62 fol. That would make this not Hálfdan at Ylfing but rather Hálfdan the Ylfingr (of the Ylfingar, corresponding to OE Wulfingas) perhaps even the Hálfdan Ylfingr mentioned in Sögubrot as the slayer of Ella (Cipolla 1996:176 n. 54). If we are meant to understand Hálf- dan as Danish, then Hnitu›r might be a token of Norwegian superiority over the Danes by virtue of its connection with Hálfr at the moment when he triumphed over Hálfdan. Hálfr certainly embodies Norwegian superiority over the Danes in the fornöld in Tóka fláttr, as Harris and Hill and later Cipolla have noted (Harris and Hill 1989); (Cipolla 1996:176 n. 53). Then again, the Yflingar are at least sometimes synonomous with the Völsungar, as in the prose introduction of Helgakvi›a Hundingsbana II, where we learn that ‘Sigmundr konungr ok hans ættmenn hétu Völsungar ok Ylfingar’ (Neckel and Kuhn 1983: 146). Perhaps the superiority of Sigur›’s saddle ring to Hálf’s arm ring is part of a re-ordering of Norway’s heros. If Hnitu›r is connected to Hálfr having been superior enough to a Völsungr to extort payment from him, then the superiority of Sigur›’s ring to Hálf’s puts a Völsungr back on the top, comparatively speaking. When the King asks Nornagestr where he found it best to stay, Sigur›r and the Gjúkungar make the list (mest gle›i flótti mér me› Sigur›i ok Gjúkungum), whereas Hálfr and the Hálfsrekkar do not. It is difficult to know just what to read into the role of Sigur›r, Hálfr, and the more mysterious Hálfdan in the stories attached to the two gold items without forcing the Flateyjarbók text beyond the limits of compelling interpretation.
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