Gripla - 01.01.2003, Side 102

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GRIPLA
A syncretic analysis of Þorsteins þáttr taafóts could marshal the following
evidence. Þorsteinn’s dramatic encounters with the trolls are the narrative’s
chieffornaldarsaga-like plot elements; also suggestive of the fornaldarsögur is
its biographical structure, which features serial adventures in the manner of a
fornaldarsaga like Önw-Odds saga rather than the feuds of a biographically
organized lslendingasaga such as Egils saga. Undermining the relationship
with the fornaldarsögur are the nationality of the hero and the fact that the
whole of the story takes place after the settlement of Iceland. A setting before
the settlement is one of the standard markers of the genre, and perhaps it is for
this reason that Mitchell (1993:206b) does not include Þorsteinsþáttr among
the fomaldarsögur. In terms of its sources and analogues, Þorsteins þáttr draws
as much on Islendingasögur and related texts such as Landnámabók, Grettis
saga, Prests saga Guðmundar góða, and Þorskfirðinga saga (Harðar saga:
clxix-clxxiv) as on texts related to the konungasögur (i.e., Óláfs saga
Tryggvasonar, Sörla þáttr, and Orms þáttr). It also has parallels with Hall-
freðar saga (Binns 1953:52-56), which is another example of a text that
bridges the genres of the Islendingasögur and the konungasögur. Because the
protagonist of Þorsteins þáttr is an Icelander of extraordinary strength who
kills trolls and visits with jarðbúar, his þáttr is aligned to some extent with the
narrative tradition exemplified by Grettis saga, but because the description of
Þorsteinn’s encounter with the jarðbúar is highly influenced by typology and
the troll-killing is simply the mechanism for Þorsteinn’s conversion to
Christianity, the þáttr as we have it now is far more comparable to pagan-
contact þættir such as Sörla þáttr than it is to the fomaldarsögur. In particular,
its theme of finding fathers (biological and spiritual) and serving kings
(terrestrial and heavenly) is the complete opposite of that of Önw-Odds saga,
which is about rejecting one’s father and maintaining one’s independence.
Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts would thus appear to be a text whose overall structure
is less significant generically than the local structure of some of its episodes.
One might even consider it a secondary development of the conversion þættir,
in that it expands what is essentially a conversion þáttr to encompass the entire
life of the protagonist.
The overall structure of Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns, however, cannot be
dismissed so easily. This narrative has the pattem of a centripetal Arthurian
romance like Chretien’s Yvain, in which, after an introductory episode, a
knight of Arthur’s court undergoes a bipartite series of adventures, wins a wife
and lands of his own, experiences a change of personality, and leaves