Gripla - 20.12.2016, Side 34

GRIPLA34
Örvar-Odds saga, (who possesses in one person what belongs to many
individuals), Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and more of a similar kind. To this
group belongs the Saga af Eigli og Ásmundi which follows hereafter. But
whether or not I ought to esteem Þiðreks saga af Bern so much, I do not
know. It seems to me for the most part to belong to the purely made up
sagas because its chronology in no way at all agrees with the Langobardic
chronicles,94 and throughout it is full of recognizably false stories and use-
less fables. also one does not find in any history or chronicle which I have
read that those people have existed which it tells so magnificently about
except for Þiðrekur (whom the histories95 call theodoricus de Verona)
himself, King Attila and Siguður Fáfnisbani.96 But in no way am I able to
confirm that all of these rulers might have been contemporaries at the time.
there is no doubt concerning Sigurðar saga þögla that it is obviously made
up and likewise its source, Flóres saga og Blankiflúr, which it cites. 97
3. the sagas of ragnar loðbrók and Án bogsveigir are, of all the ones
written here, in my view, most closely connected to the truth, although
there is in them this and that which really has the flavour of being rather
94 Paulus Diaconus, De gestis Langobardorum libri VI. there are several sixteenth-century edi-
tions, the most recent appearing in Leiden in 1595 and again in Leiden in 1617 as part of:
Gothicarum et Langobardicarum rerum scriptores aliquot veteres. In 1781, Halldór published
his Chronologiæ tentamen edur Tima-Tals Registurs Ágrip (Hrappsey: Magnús Móberg, 1781).
this appeared in two states in the same year, an earlier one with the sub-title Fr Upphafe
allra Skapadra Hluta til vorra Daga, and a latter state with a re-set title page lacking the
sub-title. this version also adds new front matter including a dedication of the volume (in
Danish) to bishop finnur Jónsson (v–viii). In this work at a4r–v, Halldór lists the pub-
lished chronologies he drew upon and states: “Þá auctores sem miner originales citera hefe
eg bona fide anfært á margine üt undann hveriu árstali” (‘those authors which my sources
cite, I have in good faith placed in the margin alongside each chronological entry’) (a4v ).
Paulus Diaconus first appears alongside the entry for 552 C.E. (E2r). This suggests that he
may have never actually consulted Paul’s work.
95 Here sögurnar must mean historical works in Latin such as Paulus orosius, Adversus pag-
anos historiarum libri septem, of which there are numerous early editions including one
published in Leiden in 1738. In his Chronologiæ tentamen, Halldór first mentions Orosius
at D1v in connection with the entry for 108 C.E.
96 In his Chronologiæ tentamen, E1r, Halldór notes the death of Þiðrekur in a battle against
Attila, A.D. 451.
97 In Sigurðar saga þögla chapter 3, which concerns Sedantíana, the daughter of flóres and
Blantzeflúr, reference is made to Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr. See Loth, Late Medieval Icelandic
Romances, 2: 93–259 at 99–100; Riddarasögur, Ed. Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 6 vols. (reykjavík:
Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, Haukadalsútgáfan, 1954), 3: 95–267 at 102 [here chapter 2]).