Gripla - 20.12.2016, Side 24

GRIPLA24
other hand, he is not yet ready to dismiss out of hand those sagas that are
full of fantastic elements. this cautious approach was the one to be adopt-
ed by most influential writers and publishers for a long time thereafter.
8. Subsequent Developments
In 1886, nearly a century after Halldór penned his Formáli, the Reykjavik
bookseller, Sigurður Kristjánsson (1854–1952),56 published the first part
of what was intended to be one or more volumes in a series he titled
“Ævintýra-sögur”. Each part was to cost 30 aura, but if one subscribed to
the series, the price was reduced to 20 aura. the project was not a success
and only two parts appeared,57 but of particular interest is Sigurður’s
introduction to the collection, which appeared on the inside of the front
and back covers of the first part. He planned to assemble a collection of
sagas, most of which had yet to appear in print:
Það eru sögur sem margir kann að segja um, að þær hafa lítinn
sögulegan sannleika við að styðjast; en þótt það verði eigi sannað að
viðburðir þeir, er þessar sögur segja frá, hafi átt sjer stað á þann hátt,
sem í sögunum segir, þá verður því aldrei neitað, að slíkar sögur hafa
í sjer fólginn mikinn sannleika, en hann liggur opt dýpra en svo, að
hver maður geti þreifað á honum.58
56 He subsequently gained fame by publishing an inexpensive edition of the family Sagas:
Íslendingasögur, 38 vols. (reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1891–1902).
57 Ingvars saga víðförla, Ævintýra-sögur 1 (reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1886); Erex saga.
Ævintýra-sögur 2 (reykjavík: Sigurður Kristjánsson, 1886). the projected third volume,
Hektors saga ok kappa hans, announced at the bottom of the back cover to the second volume,
never appeared, and it was not until 1962 that this saga was published as Ectors saga, Late
Medieval Icelandic Romances, ed. Agnete Loth, 5 vols., Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, Series B
20–24 (Copenhagen Munksgaard, 1962–1965), 1: 79–186.
58 Ingvars saga víðförla, inside cover. ‘there are sagas which many have a definite opinion on,
that they have little historical truth to support them; but although it may not be verifiable
that those events which these sagas narrate took place in that particular way as told in the
sagas, it may on the other hand never be denied, that such sagas have hidden in them a
great deal of truth, and it lies often deeper than every individual may be able to grasp it.’
Sigurður goes on to praise these sagas for their language and for their insights into the
popular customs, culture, and ways of thinking of the nation at the time when these sagas
were written down in the fourteenth century and later.