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takes on a further significance because of its implications for where the
Íslendingasögur – both as a whole corpus, and as individual narratives –
might be placed on the spectrum of writing which has ‘genuine’ historical
tradition at one end and fiction at the other (albeit fiction that was not
necessarily intended as overt fabrication but more reconstruction of ‘what
might have been’).
the high concentration of place-name explanations in Harðar saga and
Bárðar saga has led critics to suspect that significant parts of these narra-
tives are most likely to have been constructed on the basis of local place-
names. Þórhallur Vilmundarson, in the discussion about Harðar saga in his
introduction to Íslenzk fornrit volume 13, asserts that there is much “sem
vekur efasemdir um áreiðanleik frásagnanna af Herði Hólmverjakappa”
[‘that causes doubt with regard to the reliability of narratives about Hörðr
Hólmverjakappi’].25 Þórhallur presents and analyses a number of examples
of what he believes to be indisputable place-name folk-etymologies found
throughout the narrative (Katanes, Geldingadragi, Gorvík, Kúhallardalur,
Svínadalur, Leiðvöllur, Dögurðarnes).26 He adds to this list 16 additional
place-names that feature in the saga and have been thought by critics to
derive more reliably from historical characters’ names: Þórhallur is not
convinced, however, and finds them equally suspect with regard to their
value as ‘historical sources’.27
Þórhallur provides alternative etymologies for each of these place-
names (Kattarhöfði, Skroppugil, auðsstaðir, Bollastaðir, Indriðastaðir,
Indriðastígur, Brandsflesjar, Bláskeggsár, Geirshólmur, Geirstangi, Helgu-
sund, Helguskarð, Hagavík) and points out too that it is odd that not a sin-
gle place-name in the saga is said to be derived from the name of the saga’s
hero, Hörður.28 Kristian Kålund mentions the place-name ‘Harðarhæð’ on
the promontory/spit Þyrilsnes and which, according to oral tradition as
understood by Kristian Kålund, is said to be the place where Hörður died
after having fought off his enemies and incurred great injuries.29 But this
25 Introduction to Harðar saga. Bárðar saga. Þorksfirðinga saga. Flóamanna saga, ed. Þórhallur
Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Íslenzk fornrit, vol. 13 (reykjavík: Hið íslenzka
fornritafélag, 1991), xxx.
26 Introduction, xxx–xxxiii.
27 Introduction, xxxiii.
28 Introduction, xxxiii–xli.
29 Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk beskrivelse af Island (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1877), I, 291.
THE ICELANDIC SAGAS AND SAGA LANDSCAPES