Gripla - 2020, Qupperneq 98

97
tion of Fóstbrœðra saga is further corroborated by its use in Grettis saga – a
point that calls for some elaboration.
Þorgeirsdrápa forms the poetic backdrop of the first part of Fóstbrœðra
saga and has no independent transmission, except one stanza which is
quoted in Grettis saga.93 The line of borrowing – from Fóstbrœðra saga
to Grettis saga – is suggested by the quotation of a stanza by Grettir in
kviðuháttr in both sagas.94 In Grettis saga, this is the third of a group of four
kviðuháttr stanzas on the topic of how Þorbjǫrg saved Grettir. At least two
of these can be deemed spurious, since they draw on Snorri’s Edda, and the
remaining one is highly likely to be, since it employs wordplay (marþaks
fjǫrðr ‘sea­roof’s [ice’s] fjord [Ísafjǫrðr]), which is typical of the style of
Pseudo-Grettir.95 The stanza found in both sagas differs from the other
three in being stylistically simple, and it is probably authentic. It is likely
that this stanza is what prompted the author of Grettis saga to compose
the additional ones, in the same metre but with the elaborate style that he
had devised for Grettir. Like Þorgeirsdrápa, this stanza has no independent
transmission, and it would thus appear that the author of Grettis saga got
both Grettir’s stanza and the stanza from Þorgeirsdrápa from Fóstbrœðra
saga.96 The author of Grettis saga was active in northwestern Iceland, and
it seems likely that he was in contact with the monastery at Þingeyrar, if
he did not belong to it.97
Þingeyrar was an important centre for the development of kings’
sagas in the decades around 1200: Karl Jónsson composed sverris saga and
Oddr munkr and Gunnlaugr Leifsson both composed Latin sagas about
óláfr Tryggvason there – Oddr’s saga was soon translated into Norse.
93 skj A I, 277–81; Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, ed. by Guðni Jónsson, íslenzk fornrit 7
(Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1936), 92–93.
94 Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson assume that the influence went from Grettis saga
to Fóstbrœðra saga in this instance, since the episode is missing in F (Vestfirðinga sǫgur, ed.
Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson, lxix). In F, however, Fóstbrœðra saga has been
split into three sections and inserted at various points in óláfs saga helga. The saga heroes,
Þormóðr and Þorgeirr, both had dealings with the king, but Grettir did not. Under these
circumstances, the Grettir episode became unnecessary, and it is likely that it was dropped
for that reason.
95 Males, the Poetic Genesis, 266–67, but there I do not discuss the special status of the stanza
preserved in both sagas.
96 skj A I, 310 (6).
97 Grettis saga, ed. Guðni Jónsson, lxxi–lxxv.
Fó STBRœÐ RA SAGA: A MISSING LINK?