Gripla - 01.01.2003, Page 99

FORNALDARSÖGUR AND FLATEYJARBÓK
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Ynglinga saga). These changes would seem to be deliberate inversions of
Scandinavian mythology rather than the folkloristic or popular degeneration
of gods who are no longer worshipped.4 Drawing on comic exaggerations of
Þórr’s thick-headedness or Freyja’s lust would be inappropriate for this par-
ticular narrative, as such a depiction of the gods would make the conversion to
Christianity less of a happy necessity. No less importantly, it would also
diminish the achievement of the retainer of Olaf s who ends the Hjaðningavíg
by slaying all the contestants, and it would scarcely enhance the glory of Olaf
himself, whose “luck” enables his retainer to prevail over the Æsir’s magic
and who thus replaces Oðinn as the controlling figure of the narrative. Like
the embedded material of Tóka þáttr, the framed narrative in Sörla þáttr that
looks so much like an example of the heroic-legend subtype of the farn-
aldarsögur is most likely a didactic artifice, in this case one intended to
demonstrate the wretchedness of life and death under the malevolent do-
minion of the pagan gods. The differing treatments of the story of Sörli and
the dragon-ship also support the conclusion that Sörla þáttr was not composed
using the same generic conventions as the fornaldarsögur, for its grafting of
the Hjaðningavíg onto the life of Högni Hálfdansson was rejected by Sörla
saga sterka, a later adventure-tale fornaldarsaga that ends happily with the
information that Sörli and Högni never sundered their friendship and that it is
not mentioned whether either of them had any children.5
The discussion of these three þættir has brought together analyses from
different perspectives that tum out to reinforce one another: on the basis of
these narratives’ theme and structure, their use of their sources, their manu-
script context or textual matrix, and the apparent intent of their authors or
editors, they should be considered as instances of the pagan-contact þættir,
just as Harris argues, and not as instances of the fornaldarsögur.6 However,
there are other þættir in Flateyjarbók that have also been seen as having some
connection to the fornaldarsögur, and there the different kinds of analyses
4 Margaret Clunies Ross (1992:57) argues that the negative depiction of the Æsir in the Gesta
Danorum is motivated by a similar agenda.
5 “... ok er eigi getit þar um, hvárt þeim hafi bama auðit orðit eða eigi eftir sik” (Fornaldar sög-
ur Norðurlanda [1950] 111:410).
6 It is a coincidence that this conclusion transfers þættir from a saga genre to a þáttr genre. Al-
though there are not many of them, þættir can belong to saga genres. For example, Þorsteins
þáttr stangarhöggs is a miniature Istendingasaga, and Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns is an ex-
ample of the “adventure tale” subgroup of the fornaldarsögur (Mitchell 1993:206b).