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ings. Instead, ambushes and skirmishes in various locations play out,
instigated variously by Skeggi, Skeggi’s relative Özurr, or other fictive
kin and business partners, as well as by ormur’s brother, Ásbjörn. these
skirmishes take place as Þórður moves from Miðfjörður to Skagafjörður
and back, as he travels to locations where he is building halls or ferry-boats,
picking up building supplies, looking for a horse, or as he returns from
Yuletide celebrations. In all cases, Þórður survives, most often thanks to
the intervention of Skeggi’s son, Eiður, who breaks up the mêlée. Between
encounters, Þórður lodges sometimes with his brothers in Miðfjörður,
but more often with a husband and wife living in Skagafjörður named
Þórhallur and Ólöf, the latter of whom is skilled at healing. In one of the
final battles of the saga, Skeggi kills Þórhallur with the sword Sköfnungur
after being thwarted in his attempt to kill Þórður. Þórður marries the
widow Ólöf towards the end of the saga. a final reconciliation between
Þórður and Skeggi, brought about by Ásbjörn’s change of heart and desire
to marry Sigríður, occurs after one final failed ambush. the saga ends by
saying Þórður lives out his life peacefully with Ólöf, Eiður gets married,
and Ásbjörn and Sigríður return to norway.
the fragmentary version, in its extant form, has a lacuna beginning
before the saga narrative leaves norway and continuing all the way until
near the end, when Þórður asks for Ólöf’s hand in marriage.7 Both the
fragmentary version and the Complete version find their oldest extant
attestation in manuscripts dated to the first half of the fifteenth century.
the fragmentary version in aM 564 a 4to (so-called ‘Pseudo-Vatnshyrna’)
has been dated by John McKinnell and was likely transcribed by one of the
scribes who worked on Vatnshyrna, therefore it may have been produced
in Eyjafjörður.8 the Complete version in aM 551 d β 4to has been dated
by Jonna Louis-Jensen and is believed to have been written by a scribe ac-
tive in the Bishopric of Hólar around 1420.9 thus the differences between
7 the lacuna seems to have occurred after 1609, since Árngrimur’s summary in Crymogæa has
more plot details and is clearly based on the fragmentary version. Jóhannes Halldórsson,
“formáli,” Kjalnesinga saga, ed. Jóhannes Halldórsson, Íslenzk fornrit, vol. 14 (reykjavík:
Híð íslenzka fornritafélag, 1959), xliii.
8 John McKinnell, “the reconstruction of Psuedo-Vatnshyrna,” Opuscula 4 (1970): 304–337,
333.
9 Jonna Louis-Jensen, Kongesagastudier: kompilationen Hulda-Hrokkinskinna (Bibliotheca
arnamagnæana 32. Copenhagen: reitzel, 1977), 11.
COMPLETING Þ Ó R Ð A R S A G A H R E Ð U