Gripla - 20.12.2016, Side 37

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under-king or some sea-king as many were in those days. Here, apart from
this, are the genealogies from ragnar loðbrók the elder all the way to King
Haraldur hárfagri and to our day, so clear and so completely in agreement
with the chronology, that it seems impossible to find fault with them, and
they are considered reliable and true by all the scholars whom I have read.
one sees also from this that the latter part of this saga is for the most part
considered by all to be good and trustworthy.
In the first part this and that occurs which seems to have much in com-
mon with fables and exaggerated narratives. I have seen it written by the
late very learned professor Árni Magnússon that Sigurður fáfnisbani and
the Búðlungar and Gjúkingar may have lived in the sixth century some-
where in the south along the river rhine, perhaps in the large kingdom
which was called austrasia and contained Burgundia, Switzerland and
many more lands and kingdoms. In Ragnars saga chapter 2, there where
it is telling about the birth of king Völsungur, it is clearly made up and
untrue; the same in the fifth where it tells of the she-wolf which is sup-
posed to have been the mother of king Siggeir. the eighth which tells
of the enchanted shapings106 is of the same mixture.107 So also is much
concerning the dealings of fáfnir, Sigurður and Brynhildur which seems
greatly unbelievable which I will leave aside for others in the future to fur-
ther evaluate. But a great number and almost all of our sagas are branded
with this mark of exaggeration, even also Snorri Sturluson’s own chronicle
which by everyone is considered the most truthful;108 likewise also Ólafs
saga Tryggvasonar one finds everywhere polluted with monkish sayings and
unbelievable exaggerations;109 even King Ólafur’s saga and many others.110
106 these are the enchanted hamar or shapings which Sigmundur and Sinfjötli discover in the
forest and which change them into wolves.
107 For Halldór Völsunga saga comprises the opening chapters of what he calls “ragnars
saga.”
108 Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, ed. Bjarni aðalbjarnason, 3 vols., Íslenzk fornrit 26–28
(reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1941–1951). Halldór seems to be equivocating
here. on the one hand, “everyone” considers the contents of Heimskringla to be true, but
on the other hand the narrative contains “marks of exaggeration,” i.e. fantasy, at least so
far as Halldór is concerned. But these episodes may in fact have been considered true at
the time the work was written, a position he takes when he discusses Sturlunga saga a few
lines further on.
109 Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, ed. ólafur Halldórsson, 3 vols., Editiones Arnamagnæanæ,
series a: 1–3 (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard and reitzels forlag, 1958–2000).
110 Óláfs saga hins Helga: Efter pergamenthaandskrift i Uppsala Universitets-bibliothek, Dela-
HALLDóR JAKOBSSON ON TRUTH AND FICTION