Gripla - 20.12.2017, Page 66

GRIPLA66
Conclusion
Þorsteinn Kuggason’s biography cannot be brought into full focus by these
sources, but elements of it have become clearer. He was evidently a good
man to have on one’s side, as the settlements for Bjǫrn’s and Þorgils’s
deaths show, but by the time of his death he had lost many important al-
lies, including his cousins Þorkell Eyjólfsson and Ásmundr hærulangr as
well as Bjǫrn. His forceful approach to legal settlements – and to the land
at Hjarðarholt – made it likely that he would gain enemies of his own, as
is implied by the descriptions that call him ójafnaðarmaðr and ofstopamaðr.
and perhaps there was a hint of bad timing in his move on Hjarðarholt,
coinciding as it did with Snorri goði’s newly-agreed peace with Halldórr
and the other Óláfssynir, and with Snorri’s own efforts to secure good
land and marriages for all of his children. The death of their mutual friend,
Þorkell, may have allowed tensions to reach a climax. In the aftermath,
neither Þorsteinn nor his foster-son Ásgeirr are recorded as having had any
descendants, leaving Þorsteinn’s story squeezed to the edges of the surviv-
ing accounts of eleventh-century jostling for power and land.77
The accounts of the Íslendingasögur in which Þorsteinn appears do not
have to be entirely accurate with regard to to history, nor dismissed as
purely authorial inventions in order to reveal information about Þorsteinn
and other minor characters, not least because such binaries should no
longer be deemed applicable to this complex body of narrative material. By
piecing together the stories of supporting characters such as Þorsteinn, and
considering the often conflicting narrative intentions of different sagas,
we may uncover elements of the shared immanent whole that underlies
them.
Þorsteinn Kuggason is useful to the narrators of sprawling regional
epics like Laxdœla saga and Grettis saga because of his relationship to
people directly involved in these sagas’ plots. He also appears in several
instances because of his connection with specific legal cases. But beyond
this, Þorsteinn’s appearances reveal the blurred edges between saga narra-
tives and immanent traditions. He is not merely useful: Þorsteinn is also
never fully separated from the details that provide a wider context for his
actions, even if they are not directly relevant to the stories being told by
77 Cf. Arnkell Þórólfsson in Eyrbyggja saga.