Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 250

GRIPLA248
(p. clxi). The base text of the saga used for this edition of the flættir is AM 61
fol, a manuscript from the second half of the fourteenth century. This is the
first time the conversion episodes from the saga have been extracted in this
way and printed as a corpus, and some readers may question whether there are
substantial advantages to be gained from thus detaching them from their
context in the larger work.
fiorvalds fláttr ví›förla provides a fuller, more eventful, and more enter-
taining version of the life of fiorvaldr Ko›ránsson than that in Kristni saga,
notably featuring an amusing encounter between Bishop Fri›rekr and Ko›-
rán’s spáma›r. The fláttr survives in three versions: A and D are found in texts
of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta and the third (O version) only in a late
paper manuscript (AM 552 k a 4to). The A and O redactions are here printed
one above the other, with the very short D version printed separately after-
wards. In opposition to Sigurgeir Steingrímsson’s introduction to Kristni saga,
Ólafur Halldórsson argues that this material appeared in Gunnlaugr’s Latin
life of Óláfr Tryggvason and was translated into Icelandic, providing a
source for accounts in Kristni saga and in the A and O versions of fiorvalds
fláttr (p. clxxiv).
Stefnis fláttr fiorgilssonar and Af fiangbrandi have both been assembled
from several sections of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta and do not really
form entirely independent narratives. Stefnis fláttr provides more detail on the
background to Stefnir’s Icelandic mission and on events after its failure than
is found in Kristni saga. Af fiangbrandi briefly covers fiangbrandr’s life before
he is sent to Iceland, and his story is continued in the fláttr here entitled
Kristnibo› fiangbrands. Ólafur Halldórsson argues that the compiler of Óláfs
saga Tryggvasonar en mesta and the writer of Kristni saga must have used the
same source for these episodes and suggests this is likely to have been an Ice-
landic translation of Gunnlaugr’s Life of Óláfr Tryggvason (p. clxxxi). Stefn-
is fláttr also has connections with Laxdæla saga which Ólafur Halldórsson
examines at some length.
Af fii›randa ok dísunum is an often translated and much discussed fláttr,
telling of fii›randi Sí›u-Hallsson’s death at the hands of dísir. Ólafur Hall-
dórsson suggests that the reference to this story in Njáls saga could support
Björn M. Ólsen’s view that the episode functioned in Gunnlaugr’s account to
introduce fiangbrandr’s mission, since fiangbrandr later stayed with fii›randi’s
father, Sí›u-Hallr (ÍF XV:cxc).
Sva›a fláttr provides an exemplary story of what happens if one attempts