Gripla - 20.12.2016, Síða 93

93
ELISABETH I . WARD
COMPLETING ÞÓRÐAR SAGA HREÐU:
A Regional Saga in Disguise1
1. Introduction
Þórðar saga hreðu, sometimes translated as the “Saga of thord the
Menace”, is an Íslendingasaga about a talented carpenter, poet, and warrior.
It seems to have once been a popular saga. there are 43 attestations in
extant manuscripts, including six in pre-reformation parchment manu-
scripts, making it one of the better attested sagas.2 Its popularity lasted
into the nineteenth century in Iceland, seeing two separate rímur treat-
ments develop.3 today, community members in northern Iceland still
discuss the saga with interest.4
there are also two different versions of the saga. although there was
an attempt in one manuscript, aM 486 4to,5 to combine the two versions
into a single saga, the Íslenzk fornrit editors choose instead to print both
versions, plus a summary by Árngrímur the Learned in his 1609 work
Crymogæa. they explain this unusual editorial decision thus: “um Þorð
1 this article is a refinement and expansion of arguments in Elisabeth Ward, “nested
narrative: Þórðar saga hreðu and Material Engagement” (PhD dissertation, university
of California at Berkeley, 2012). I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of the
article for their feedback, and colleagues at Berkeley and Árnastofnun for inspiration, and
the audience members who heard and commented upon versions or parts of this article at
conferences from 2008 to 2014.
2 Emily Lethbridge, “‘Hvorki glansar gull á mér / né glæstir safir í línum’: Some observations on
Íslendingasögur Manuscripts and the Case of Njáls saga,” Arkiv för nordisk filologi 129 (2014):
55–89, at 84–88.
3 Hans Kuhn, “Þórðr hreða in saga and rímur,” in The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic
Literature. Sagas and the British Isles. Preprint Papers of the 13th International Saga Conference,
Durham and York 6th–12th August 2006, ed. John McKinnell et al, 524–532 (Durham:
Centre for Medieval and renaissance Studies, 2006).
4 See Sigurjón Páll Ísaksson, “Hugleiðingar um staðfræði Þórðar sögu hreðu,” Skagfirðingabók
32 (2010): 137–152.
5 “Brot af Þórðar saga hreðu,” in Kjalnesinga saga, ed. Jóhannes Halldórsson, íslenzk fornrit,
vol. 14 (reykjavík: Híð íslenzka fornritafélag, 1959), 239.
Gripla XXVII (2016): 93–125