Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 153

KRISTNI SAGA AND MEDIEVAL CONVERSION HISTORY 151
much longer version in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta gives only the
unknown place-name Drƒfn.
The compiler appears to have had particularly close connections with the
area around Borgarfjör›ur and M‡rar in the West of Iceland, and this is clear
from an episode found only in Kristni saga that was almost certainly put
together by the compiler (Björn M. Ólsen 1893:322-324; Sveinbjörn Rafnsson
1977:24, 26; ÍF XV:22-23). When fiangbrandr attempts to leave Iceland for
the first time, his ship is driven to land at Hítará in M‡rar: „fiar heitir nú
fiangbrandshróf ni›r frá Skipahyl, ok flar stendr enn festarsteinn hans á bergi
einu“ (‘That place is now called ‘fiangbrandr’s Boat-shed’ down from Skipa-
hylr, and the boulder to which he fastened his ship’s cable still stands there on
a rock’). He then proceeds to Krossaholt (‘Hill of Crosses’), where he sings
mass and raises crosses and, somewhat later, he engages in battle against Kolr
and Skeggbjƒrn on the meadowland down from Steinsholt, where the graves
of the victims are still clearly visible: „fiar er haugr Skeggbjarnar á fitinni, en
a›rir váru jar›a›ir í Landraugsholti flar hjá fitinni, ok sér flá enn gƒrla kumlin“
(‘Skeggbjƒrn’s burial mound is there on the meadow, but the others were
buried in Landraugsholt beside the meadow there, and the cairns can still be
clearly seen’). Here not only the place-names, but also the physical shape of
the landscape bears witness to the events of fiangbrandr’s mission, increasing
the saga’s impression of historicity.
MIRACLES AND LEGENDS
Perhaps most interesting is the way in which the compiler handles legendary
and miraculous events, which, as we have seen, posed major problems for
later historians. Many of the implausible anecdotes found in other sources on
the conversion have disappeared, although, it seems, more on the basis of
relevance to the subject than on strictly historical grounds: fiorvaldr’s ex-
emplary rescue of Sveinn Forkbeard, for example, is omitted, while fiang-
brandr’s apocryphal visit to a Bishop Hugbertus (Hubert) of Canterbury, who
was in fact archbishop in 1193-1205, is still in place (ÍF XV:113). One serves
only to glorify fiorvaldr; the other is relevant both to fiangbrandr’s character
as missionary and to his later encounter with Óláfr Tryggvason. The most
wide-ranging changes and omissions belong to fiorvaldr’s mission, which
almost certainly goes back to the work of Gunnlaugr. Whereas Óláfs saga
Tryggvasonar en mesta tells of fiorvaldr’s unpromising youth, the prophecy of