Gripla - 01.01.2000, Side 185

GIFFARÐSÞÁTTR
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Morkinskinna continues (1932:326);
Þá mælti greifinn: „Lítt em ek skældinn, en heyra kann ek at þetta er
ekki níð. Ok þér er vegr at þessu, Giffarðr, ok lof. Ok kann ek ekki
annan dóm á þetta leggja.“ Giffarðr þykkisk engu svara kunna. Hann
veit þat með sér at honum er þetta háð en eigi lof at því sem efni váru
til, en vildi víst eigi gera þat bert fyri<r> mgnnum hversu hann hafði
fram gengit á Foxemi. Þeir skilja nú við svá búit, ok líkar Giffarði illa
þessi málalok, ok er nú lokit frá þeim at segja.
The little story of the cowardly Norman knight has been neglected in the
research on the Old Norse kings’ sagas.6 Because the episode is not included
in Heimskringla or Fagrskinna,7 and because the Morkinskinna version of
Magnús’s first Swedish campaign contains unmistakable interpolations from
Ágrip, scholars agree that the Giffarðr episode was not part of the Oldest
Morkinskinna (ÆMsk), that is, the compendium from around 1220 that
served as a source for Snorri and for the author of Fagrskinna, and they unan-
imously dismiss it is a later interpolation (Finnur Jónsson 1901:628; Morkin-
skinna 1932:xxvii; Indrebp 1917:22, 213; Bjami Aðalbjamarson 1937:158;
Louis-Jensen 1977:69, 83 n. I).8 Sigurður Nordal (1973:136) drew attention
to the fact that there is a close verbal correspondence between the final sec-
tion of Giffarðsþáttr and the following section from Snorri’s preface to
Heimskringla:
En þat er háttr skálda at lofa þann mest, er þá eru þeir fyrir, en engi
myndi þat þora at segja sjálfum honum þau verk hans, er allir þeir, er
heyrði, vissi, at hégómi væri ok skr<jk, ok svá sjálfr hann. Þat væri þá
háð, en eigi lof. (ÍF XXVI:5).9
6 The story has not been edited separately. For an English translation, see Andersson and Gade
2000:303-05.
7 See ÍF XXVIII:225-28; ÍF XXIX:310-11. The Giffarðr episode is incorporated in the later
compendia Hulda-Hrokkinskinna (Fornmanna sögur VII 1832:56-57, 59-61, Fríssbók
1871:272-74, and Eirspennill 1916:121-22).
8 For the relationship between the different versions of the royal biographies see Louis-Jensen
1977:66-70. For recent overviews of the state of the art of the research on Morkinskinna, see
Ármann Jakobsson 1997:30-34 and Andersson and Gade 2000:1-72. ÆMsk is usually dated
to around 1220 (Bjami Aðalbjamarson 1937:136).
9 The section is also included in the preface to the separate saga of St. Óláfr (ÍF XXVII:422).
Sverrir Tómasson (1988:375-83) gives a detailed discussion of the relations between the two
prefaces and of earlier scholarship in this area. For a discussion of the concepts of praise and
derision in Snorri’s preface, see Sverrir Tómasson 1990, esp.: 260-62.