Gripla - 20.12.2005, Blaðsíða 152

GRIPLA150
miraculous. In Kristni saga, on the other hand, he narrowly avoids attack dur-
ing the first year of his mission, take refuge with his family over the winter,
and leaves immediately after his outlawry in the second year (ÓlTm I:310-
311, ÍF XV:15-17). Kristni saga’s account is undeniably the more plausible of
the two, but it is not clear whether this makes it more original or simply better
edited. In both cases, Stefnir’s outlawry (which is intimately connected with
the first Icelandic legislation against Christianity in 996) takes place in the
same year, and it is therefore possible that the changes – whoever made them
– have less to do with plausibility than with the conflicting dates for Stefnir’s
mission, which begins a year earlier in Kristni saga than in Óláfs saga
Tryggvasonar en mesta. Interestingly, Kristni saga is the only source to extend
fiangbrandr’s mission to three full years (it is one or two elsewhere), and this
seems likely to be the compiler’s innovation. It was apparently made to
accommodate Óláfr Tryggvason’s arrival in Norway early in 995 and the
consequent need for the missions to begin a year earlier than they do in any
other source (Björn M. Ólsen 1893:321-322).
Genealogical and topographical information is included throughout the
saga, rooting events more firmly in historical time and space. To the account
of Ko›rán’s conversion, for example, the compiler appends a notice about his
son Ormr’s marriages and children, and further family details are added to the
account of the legal conversion, concerning fiorleifr of Krossavík. In the sec-
tion based on Ari, a brief genealogy of Jón ¯gmundarson follows notice of his
consecration as bishop, detailing his descent from Hallr of Sí›a, and the saga
ends with a somewhat longer genealogy of Hafli›i Másson (ÍF XV:8, 34, 42,
46-47). The compiler also cites a large number of place-names not mentioned
in other accounts of the conversion: Ormr, he tells us, buys land at Hvanneyrr
in Borgarfjƒr›r, fiangbrandr’s ship is wrecked south of Kálfalœkr, the
Westerners are baptised after the legal conversion at Reykjalaug in southern
Reykjadalr, Illugi intends to build a stone church at Brei›abólsta›r in Vestrhóp
(ÍF XV:8, 24, 36, 47). We are told exactly what route fiangbrandr took in his
travels around Iceland, and an effort is made to specify the precise
geographical location of places: Selvágar, where fiangbrandr lands, is „fyrir
nor›an Melrakkanes“ (‘north of Melrakkanes’), Járnmeishƒf›i is situated
„millim Hafnar ok Belgsholts“ (‘between Hƒfn and Belgsholt’), Krossavík is
„fyrir nor›an Rey›arfjƒr›“ (‘to the north of Rey›arfjƒr›r’; ÍF XV:17, 20, 25,
34). In its account of fiorvaldr’s death in Russia, Kristni saga (ÍF XV:37)
mentions Kœnugar›r (Kiev), Nepr (the Dnieper) and Pallteskja (Polotsk) – the