Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 123

„1236: ÓRÆKJA MEIDDR OK HEILL GQRR
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to leave the country. It is also noteworthy that, in later literature re-
cording the miracles of Saint Þorlákr, there is no mention of divine in-
tervention on Orækja’s behalf: if, indeed, the clerical opinion in thir-
teenth-century Iceland had been that Órækja’s healing could be attri-
buted to Saint Þorlákr, such a miracle would certainly have been
recorded among Þorlákr’s jartein.
Thus, all the facts point in one direction: not only did the maiming
in Surtshellir never take place, but Sturla Þórðarson must also have
been perfectly aware of what really had transpired. This view is sup-
ported by the entry under the year 1236 in the „Annales Reseniani,“
usually attributed to Sturla, which reads as follows: „Órækja meiddr,“
thus omitting all references to healing and divine intervention.11 The
question is, then, what prompted Sturla Sighvatsson’s version of the
events, which clearly formed the basis for Sturla Þórðarson’s account,
and why would the latter, if he knew what had taken place in Surts-
hellir, suppress that information in favor of a story clouded in miracle
mongering?
In a comment on the preliminary version of this article, Helgi Þor-
láksson suggested that Órækja had been excommunicated at the time
of the Surtshellir incident, and that Sturla Þórðarson’s need to go to
confession and his subsequent penance were caused by his having as-
sociated with his excommunicated cousin. That view Helgi found sup-
ported by the fact that Sturla Þórðarson explicitly mentions that
Órækja and his men and the company of Sturla Sighvatsson kept sepa-
rate households on the two occasions they stayed together during the
spring and early summer of 1236.14 Furthermore, on March 28, 1236,
Sturla Sighvatsson raided Órækja’s farm at Stafaholt, carried food out
of the church, and justified this sacrilege with the comment that
„kirkja ætti eigi at halda bannsettra manna fé.“15 Sturla’s statement on
that occasion is obscure, because there is no evidence, either in íslend-
inga saga or in the annals, that Órækja was under the ban of the
13 Storm. Islandske annaler, p. 25. Stefán Karlsson, „Alfræði Sturlu Þórðarsonar," in
Sturlustefna (ed. Guðrún Asa Grímsdóttir and Jónas Kristjánsson, Reykjavík, 1988), pp.
47-50; 54, argues convincingly that Sturla Þórðarson was responsible for the first part of
the „Annales Reseniani" (until the year 1283).
14 fsl, p. 393.
Ibid., p. 392.
15