Gripla - 01.01.2003, Side 85

INTERPRETATION OR OVER-INTERPRETATION
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Bjami claims to detect a similar free association of literary echoes, which
he dubs ‘kálfamir’ after this example, derived by Bjamar saga from Heiðar-
víga saga. Here he follows the lead of Bjami Einarsson, who was also inclined
to see Bjarnar saga as pure fiction, and found parallels between the death of
Bjpm and that of Þorbjgm Brúnason in Heiðarvíga saga (Bjami Einarsson
1961,254):
Þorbjöm er snemma á fótum og matast; húskarl hans kemur þegar við
sögu. Þorbjöm hefur dreymt erfiðlega og segir draum sinn og fer með
tvær vísur (sem hann kveðst hafa ort í draumnum); sverð hans er ekki
heima (er í láni, sbr. ÍFIII280) og minnist hann þess í síðari vísunni að
betra væri sér að bera ‘ókostalausan benvpnd í gný randa’. Þorbjöm
missir annan fótinn í bardaganum ‘ok eigi bersk hann at síðr’, sækja þá
að honum synir Guðbrands; Þorbjöm mælti við þá: ‘Leitið ykkr
annars fœris; ekki hafði þat ungmennis verit fyrr meir at keppask við
oss’. Eftir það er sagt frá viðureign Þorbjamar við Barða og fellur
Þorbjöm fyrir honum við gott orð.29
Bjami Guðnason adds to this the suggestion that the unusual adjective
brúnvglr ‘frowning’, used of Bjprn Hítdœlakappi before his last fight, repre-
sents an echo of the name of Þorbjgm Brúnason: ‘Hin andlega starfssemi er
þannig: Þor-björn Brúna-son og Björn brún-\ölur’ (1993, 224; see also 1994,
75). But coincidence accounts more adequately for this ‘echo’ too. The ad-
jective may be unusual, but reference to the brows as an index of anxiety or
anger is extremely common.30 The suggestion of influence from Heiðai-víga
saga on Bjarnar saga does not affect the issue of relative dating, since both the
29 ‘Þorbjöm is up early and has a meal; his servant comes into the narrative immediately.
Þorbjöm has had a troubled dream and tells his dream which is accompanied by two verses
(which he claims to have composed in the dream); his sword is not at home (cf. IF III 280)
and he recalls in his last verse that it would have been better for him to have carried “a
faultless wand of wounds in the clash of shields”. Þorbjöm loses one foot in the battle “and
he fought on no less fiercely”, then the sons of Guðbrandr attack him; Þorbjöm said to them,
“find yourselves another match; it has not before been for boys to fight against me”. After
that the exchange of Þorbjöm and Barði is related, and Þorbjöm falls before him with brave
words.’
30 As in the phrases bítr í hrúm ‘makes (sby) furrow his brow, (sby) becomes concemed’, bregda
íbrún [e-m] ‘disquiet (sby)’, láta brún síga ‘show disapproval/anger’ (DONP, II 857). The
form brúnvglr occurs only in Bjamar saga, but Fritzner gives four citations of the equivalents
brúnvQlvi, brúnglfi (1886, I 200); in one of these instances, a variant text has reidugligur
(DONP, II 870).