Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 129

„1236: ÓRÆKJA MEIDDR OK HEILL GQRR“ 127
stigator of the punishment, visited Hákon’s court in Norway 1230, and,
according to the Chronicle of Man, Óláfr, as well as Páll Bálkason and
the victim, Guðrpðr, took part in Hákon’s expedition to the Hebrides
and Man in 1230-31.31 There can be no doubt, then, that the incidents
reported from the northern isles at this time (including the maiming of
Guðrpðr at the hands of Óláfr and Páll Bálkason, who was killed by
Guðrpðr in the Hebrides later that year), were based on first-hand in-
formation that was current in Norway as well as in Iceland.32
As to the events recorded in Orkneyinga saga, scholars agree that a
copy of the original Orkneyinga saga was available to Snorri and used
by him when he worked on his Heimskringla,33 It has further been ar-
gued that the original version of the saga was reworked at Reykjaholt
around 1230 under Snorri’s supervision, and speculations have been
made to the effect that Sturla Sighvatsson did the copying of Orkney-
inga saga.M Whatever the case may be, there can be no doubt that a
version of Orkneyinga saga was one of the sagas available to Sturla
Sighvatsson during his stay at Reykjaholt in 1230, when he was preoc-
cupied with writing sagas from those books that Snorri put together.35
The episode in Orkneyinga saga involving the maiming and mira-
culous healing of the bishop of Caithness, however, occurs in a later
addition to Orkneyinga saga. The informant of this and of later epi-
sodes concerning events in Caithness is usually believed to be Andréas
Hrafnsson, son of the lawman of Caithness, who in the winter of
1234-35 visited Iceland in the company of Andréas Gunnason, grand-
grandson of Sveinn Ásleifarson of Orkney.36 What scholars have failed
to realize, however, is the close connection between Andréas Hrafns-
son and the Sturlungs, in particular Órækja and Sturla Þórðarson. Ac-
cording to íslendinga saga, Andréas Hrafnsson gave Órækja the sword
„Sættarspillir," a sword that was coveted by such important personages
as Böðvarr frá Stað, Þorleifr ór Görðum, and Gizurr Þorvaldsson, and,
after having been forced to return to Iceland by bad weather in the fall
31 Flat III, 101; Anderson, Early Sources, p. 472.
32 Flat III, 103.
33 Orkneyinga saga, p. vi.
34 Ibid., pp. cvii-cviii.
35 ísl, p. 342.
’6 Sigurður Nordal, Orkneyinga saga (Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk littera-
tur 44, Copenhagen, 1913-16), p. 1; Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Sagnaritun, p. 37; cf. ísl, p. 387.