Gripla - 01.01.1995, Blaðsíða 130

128
GRIPLA
of 1235, Andréas and his companion, Svarthöfði Dufgusson, joined
Órækja and Sturla Þórðarson during the following winter.37 Finally,
when Órækja was forced to leave Iceland after the alleged maiming,
he took passage with Andréas Hrafnsson to Norway.38
It is clear, then, that Sturla Sighvatsson, as well as Órækja and Sturla
Þórðarson, were privy to first-hand information about the events in
the northern isles, in particular about the events in Orkney and Caith-
ness, and the presence of Andréas Hrafnsson of Caithness in the com-
pany of Órækja and Sturla Þórðarson in 1235-36 testifies to the novel-
ty and immediacy of that information. It is very likely, therefore, that
the events described in Orkneyinga saga (and reported by Andréas
Hrafnsson) served as the model for the Surtshellir incident. In compli-
ance with King Hákon’s command, Sturla Sighvatsson refrained from
killing his adversary Órækja, an action that certainly would have had
severe repercussions for Sturla and would have placed him at odds
with his powerful uncles Snorri and Þórðr. Instead, Sturla decided to
compel Órækja to leave the country, and to achieve that goal, he re-
sorted to means that were known to him through saga literature and
hearsay. The question is whether Sturla Sighvatsson was the sole in-
stigator of this ingenious plot. Although he certainly knew the episode
of the alleged maiming of Earl Páll from Orkneyinga saga, there is no
evidence that he had immediate access to any information from
Andréas Hrafnsson, who spent time in the company of Órækja and
Sturla Þórðarson, but seems to have had scant opportunity to interact
with Sturla Sighvatsson. We may ask, then, whether Sturla Þórðarson,
the saga author, could possibly have played an active part in the
conspiracy.
V Sturla Þórðarson’s Complicity
Sturla’s version of the incident as told in íslendinga saga is distanced
and noncommittal: he relates the events in the third person, records
the story of the maiming as he heard it from Sturla Sighvatsson and
Játvarðr, and makes no mention of his own implicit knowledge. In Há-
konar saga, he devotes an entire section to Sturla Sighvatsson’s con-
37 ísl, pp. 387, 389.
38 Ibid., p. 396.