Gripla - 20.12.2008, Qupperneq 137

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“Þessi” was Gautur Jónsson, a lendur man at the court and a controversial
figure, as we may sense from the king’s request and its context in the saga.
The verse was picked up by Ólafur hvítaskáld in the Third Grammatical
Treatise, with the explanatory comment: “hér er eiginlig líking milli Óðins
ok nokkurs illgjarns manns.”31
Before leaving Óðinn, let us poke the curious fact mentioned above:
father and son being linked to Óðinn in two different ways in two differ-
ent sagas. Is it a coincidence? Probably not. The incident in Sturlu saga
is quite memorable, and forms an important link in the chain of events
that led to Sturla’s defeat in the dispute and Snorri’s fostering at Oddi.
Deildartungumál were in many ways unusual for their time, and Þorbjörg’s
intimate greeting and action were probably infamous. Snorri, in his strug-
gle towards the status of stórgoði in Borgarfjörður, must himself have added
to the memory of Deildartungumál when he, around 1206, took over the
staður in Reykholt.32 As has been argued elsewhere, Snorri’s choice of
Reykholt as his primary seat of power in Borgarfjörður was probably no less
symbolic than strategic: it symbolized the advancement of the Sturlungar
family and increased Snorri’s honor as a political föður betrungur.33 It is
quite possible in this context that Snorri’s unique self-reference to Óðinn
was a calculated move in this very game of honor, and that he was playing
with the past in the name Valhöll: Sturla was likened to Óðinn in a degrad-
ing sense, but now the wheel of fortune had turned and Snorri made the
positive reference himself. He named his búð Valhöll with, at least in part,
his father’s incident in mind.
We will leave Óðinn with another equally attractive explanation
of the same. It is possible that Hvamm-Sturla himself gave the búð of
Snorrungagoðorð the name Valhöll, and that it survived beyond his days.
That would explain why Snorri named his búð Grýla at first, but is then
found in Valhöll exactly the first summer in which he has power over
Relating To The Settlements And Descents Of The Northmen On The British Isles II, Rerum
Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 88 (London: H. M. Stationary Office, 1887), 172–
173.
31 The text is normalized. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed
de grammatiske afhandlinges prolog og to andre tillæg, ed. Björn M. Ólsen, Samfundet til udgi-
velse af gammel nordisk literatur 12 (Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, 1884), 117.
32 Sturlunga saga I, 241–242.
33 Viðar Pálsson, “‘Var engi höfðingi slíkr sem Snorri‘”: 73–74.
PAGAN MYTHOLOGY IN CHRISTIAN SOCIETY