Gripla - 20.12.2017, Síða 45

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of how well he contrasts with his more important relatives: relatives
whose personalities are perfectly clear even before their interactions with
Þorsteinn Kuggason. In the following analysis, I argue that this is not
reason enough for someone to have “imagined” Þorsteinn’s presence –
as opposed to anyone else’s – in these scenes. Why some characters or
details were included in the sagas, and others were not, is a question that
has a more complex answer than subjective recourses to narrative “style”.18
Paying attention to these details can allow us to understand more about
material that has not been preserved, as well as improving our understand-
ing of the relationships between surviving sagas and the attitudes of those
in the thirteenth century, and later, who shaped the narratives into their
current forms.
*Ævisaga Þorsteins Kuggasonar
In roughly chronological order, I will give an account of the events of
Þorsteinn Kuggason’s life that can be pieced together from the sagas and
annals. The account demonstrates that the stories concerning Þorsteinn
are varied enough to come from multiple sources. I will follow this sum-
mary with a brief examination of Þorsteinn’s personality in these sources,
which is remarkably consistent. this summary of his “biography” and
character provide the context for the ensuing analysis of scenes involving
Þorsteinn.
Bjarnar saga ch. 27; Grettis saga ch. 26; Laxdœla saga chs. 7, 31, 40.
Þorsteinn was the son of Þorkell kuggi Þórðarson gellis and Þuríðr
Ásgeirsdóttir œðikolls. He was born towards the end of the tenth century.
He married Þorfinna, daughter of Vermundr mjóvi Þorgrímsson and
Þorbjǫrg digra Óláfsdóttir. Þorsteinn and Þorfinna lived at Ljárskógar in
Western Iceland.
Fóstbrœðra saga chs. 7–8; Grettis saga chs. 26–27 and passim.; Laxdœla
saga ch. 40.
after the death of Kjartan Óláfsson (Þorsteinn’s uncle by marriage) in the
early eleventh century, Þorsteinn fostered Kjartan’s young son, Ásgeirr.
18 Theodore M. Andersson, The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas 1200–1250, Is-
landica, vol. 55 (Ithaca, nY: Cornell university Press, 2012), 26; cf. Sigurður nordal, In -
troduction to Borgfirðingasögur, lxxxiii.
THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF ÞORSTEINN KUGGASON