Gripla - 01.01.2003, Qupperneq 97

FORNALDARSÖGUR AND FLATEYJARBÓK
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saga Tryggvasonar, the issue does not arise as to whether the extant version
could be an adaptation of a lost fornaldarsaga.
If there is now little doubt that Norna-Gests þáttr, which contains retellings
of authentically old heroic legends and the recitation of Eddic poetry, should
be excluded from the corpus of the fornaldarsögur, then there ought to be no
doubt at all that Tóka þáttr Tókasonar should be left out as well. While staying
with King Olaf Haraldsson, Tóki relates his visits to the courts of the ancient
Scandinavian kings Hrólfr kraki and Hálfr. Like Noma-Gestr, Tóki is not a
figure from these legendary traditions himself, but unlike the stories told by
Noma-Gestr, who mostly functions as an observer of the heroic scene, the
focus ofTóki’s anecdotes are his own dealings with these kings. These inter-
actions are surely the invention of the þáttr-author, rather than being part of his
received literary tradition, for they are there solely to elicit a particular re-
sponse from the Christian king, namely, his judgment of his pagan prede-
cessors. In short, although the framed narrative has the appearance of a forn-
aldarsaga, it is actually an imitation of one, created for the same didactic pur-
poses that Harris describes for Norna-Gests þáttr. Indeed, the þáttr as a whole
would seem to be an imitation of Norna-Gests þáttr (Harris and Hill
1989:111), designed to serve a similar function within Oláfs saga helga as
Norna-Gests þáttr does within Oláfs saga Tryggvasonar (Wiirth 1991:108,
131).
Now we come to Sörla þáttr. Harris groups this with Norna-Gests þáttr and
Tóka þáttr among the pagan-contact þættir, because the supematurally
lengthened Hjaðningavíg fills the same role as the supematurally lengthened
life of the visiting stranger. (The spell laid on the battle causes any man who is
killed to rise and fight again, with the result that the pagan warriors are
discovered still engaged in combat one hundred and forty-seven years later by
one of Olaf Tryggvason’s retainers.) Sörla þáttr is interpolated between the
two chapters of Oláfs saga Tryggvasonar that recount how King Olaf first
began his missionary efforts in Norway; it seems to serve as a thematic in-
troduction to the account of that country’s conversion. Like the embedded
material of Norna-Gests þáttr, the embedded material of Sörla þáttr goes back
to the traditions of Scandinavian myth and legend that are found in the
fornaldarsögur proper. This material tums out to be a conflation of two
originally separate traditions featuring a hero named Högni.3 One Högni is the
3 For a detailed discussion, see Rowe (2002), whose arguments are summarized here.