Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 150

GRIPLA148
for example, is closer to Ari in Kristni saga than in any other work. Where Ari
is lacking, however, other sources are used, both to embellish Ari’s narrative
and to provide information where he gives none. For events in Norway, the
compiler relies heavily on Heimskringla and perhaps also on Laxdœla saga
and, while Gunnlaugr’s work is used as a basis for fiorvaldr’s mission and
probably also Stefnir’s, at least one miraculous episode, Fri›rekr’s victory
over the two berserks, is replaced by a summary of the more believable and
socially meaningful account in Vatnsdœla saga (ÍF XV:8-9; ÍF VIII:124-126).4
Other details have been added either from sources no longer known to us or
from oral tradition: Eyjólfr Valger›arson’s prime-signing, the additional in-
formation about Vetrli›i’s death, Snorri’s role in the conversion of the
Westerners, a verse by Brandr ví›fƒrli on fiorvaldr’s death (ÍF XV:7, 21, 36,
37).5 The impression we are left with is that of a careful historian handling a
large number of sources, struggling like his successors to interpret the
material at his disposition and fit it into a historical mould.
CHRONOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY
One of Maurer’s priorities, as we have seen, was to place the events leading to
the conversion in chronological order, and chronology also seems to have
been a priority for the compiler of Kristni saga (Eiríkur Jónsson and Finnur
Jónsson 1892-1896:lxix, Björn M. Ólsen 1893:315-16, Kahle 1905:v). At the
beginning and end of the saga, there are chronological notices, dating
fiorvaldr’s mission and Gizurr’s death from the settlement, and Ari is followed
closely for the dating of the conversion and for the details of Ísleifr and
Gizurr’s deaths (ÍF XV:4, 36, 39-40, 43-44). Whereas Oddr’s Óláfs saga
4 Again, the editors of Biskupa sögur I (ÍF XV:lxxxvi, clxxv) disagree on this: Sigurgeir Stein-
grímsson argues that Vatnsdœla saga is based on Kristni saga or a text like it, while Ólafur
Halldórsson thinks that Kristni saga used Vatnsdœla saga as a source. This is my own view
(see Duke 2001:350-53).
5 Similar details about Eyjólfr, Vetrli›i and Snorri are recorded in Eyfir›inga sƒgur:237,
Skar›sárbók:164, Eyrbyggja saga:136. The additional information on Vetrli›i may have
come from a lost skaldic poem or drápa on Gu›leifr Arason by Ljó›arkeptr (Ó›ar or Óttarr
keptr, an eleventh-century court poet of Knútr ríki), which is referred to in a marginal
annotation from Melabók and may also have been used by the author of Njáls saga
(Sveinbjörn Rafnsson 1977:26-29). Brandr inn ví›fƒrli is not known from elsewhere, but his
nickname suggests that he had travelled widely in the East (cf. fiorvaldr, Yngvarr; ÍF XV:37).