Gripla - 01.01.2003, Page 95

ELIZABETH ASHMAN ROWE
FORNALDARSÖGUR
AND FLATEYJARBÓK
SlXTEXTS found in the manuscript Flateyjarbók (GKS 1005 fol) — Fundinn
Noregr, Helga þáttr Þórissonar, Hversu Noregr byggðisk, Norna-Gests þáttr,
Sörla þáttr, and Tóka þáttr Tókasonar — have been seen as having varying
relationships with the genre of the fornaldarsögur.1 Carl Christian Rafn includ-
ed Fundinn Noregr, Hversu Noregr byggðisk, Norna-Gests þáttr, and Sörla
þáttr in his canonical collection Fornaldar sögur Nordrlanda (1829-1830) not
because he considered them actual fornaldarsögur but because he held them to
be related to the fornaldarsögur. Bjami Vilhjálmsson and Guðni Jónsson’s
1943-1944 edition of the corpus included those four texts, as well as Helga
þáttr Þórissonar and Tóka þáttr Tókasonar, which Rafn had omitted. Bjami
and Guðni also dropped the distinction between ‘ fornaldarsögur” and “related
works” and treated the six Flateyjarbók texts as no different from the others.
Since then, however, various studies of these works have found it more
productive to consider them in terms of other genres. For example, Margaret
Clunies Ross (1983) located Fundinn Noregr and Hversu Noregr byggðisk in
the context of Snorri’s Edda, Andrew Hamer (1973) interpreted Helga þáttr
Þórissonar as a didactic work making use of Augustinian theology, and Joseph
Harris (1980, 1986) identified Sörla þáttr, Norna-Gests þáttr, and Tóka þáttr as
what could be called “pagan-contact” þættir, a subgroup of the conversion
þættir.1 2 By 1993, Stephen Mitchell judged that of the six Flateyjarbók texts,
1 For a recent introduction to the fornatdarsögur, see Torfi H. Tulinius (1993:167-246). The
diplomatic edition of Hateyjarbók is the three-volume work of Guðbrandur Vigfússon and C.
R. Unger (1860, 1862, 1868). Fundinn Noregr is in 1:219-221, Helga þáltr Þárissonar is in
1:359-362, Hversu Noregr byggðisk is in 1:21-24, Norna-Gests þáttr is in 1:346-359, Söiia
þáttr is in 1:275-283, and Tóka þáttr Tókasonar is in 11:135-138.
2 The other “pagan-contact” þáttr that Harris analyzes is Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu. The con-
version þættir (Rögnvalds þáltr ok Rauðs, Eindriða þáttr ilbreiðs, Völsa þáttr, Sveins þáttr ok
Finns, Helga þáttr ok Úlfs, Svaða þáltr ok Arnórs kerlinganefs, and Þórhalls þáttr knapps)
“comprise as their central narrative moment a conflict or opposition of Christianity and