Gripla - 2020, Side 211

GRIPLA210
something he has made up himself. In this context it is important that
Landnámabók and Gísla saga are relying on totally different traditions
about Ingjaldr in Hergilsey. In Landnámabók he is, as already noted,
a third-generation “Egðr” in Iceland, and the island on which he lives,
Hergilsey, is named after his father, Hergils, who was the first to settle
there. (Islands are often named after the persons who settle there, and
there is no reason to doubt the tradition here.) In Gísla saga, however,
Ingjaldr is referred to as Gísli’s kinsman who arrived in Iceland together
with him; he is introduced as a “systrungr Gísla at frændsemi ok hafði með
honum farit út hingat til íslands”.39 As is pointed out in a comment in the
íF edition, it is likely that the saga author confused Ingjaldr in Hergilsey
with another Ingjaldr, who is introduced earlier in the saga and who actu-
ally was a kinsman of Gísli, i.e. the father of the siblings Geirmundr and
Guðríðr who came with Gísli’s family to Iceland and were divided between
Gísli and Þorkell when they parted households.40 Both Geirmundr and
Guðríðr play central roles later on in the saga.
Another difference between Landnámabók and Gísla saga concerns
what is said about Ingjaldr’s subsequent destiny. In Landnámabók we
are told that because Ingjaldr had given shelter to Gísli, Bǫrkr inn digri
39 Vestfirðinga sǫgur, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson, 78; similar wording in S
(Membrana regia deperdita, ed. Loth, 53).
40 The name of the father is mentioned only in the longer version of the saga (S): “þat voro
born ij, het sveinninn Geirmundr enn mærinn het Guðriðr, þessi voro born Ingialldz frænda
þeira, Guðriðr for med G(isla) enn Geirmundr með Þorkeli” (Membrana regia deperdita, ed.
Loth, 24). The fact that this first Ingjaldr is needed to explain the alternative genealogy that
Ingjaldr in Hergilsey is given in Gísla saga (in both versions) is a strong argument in favour
of the longer version having in this case the most original text. For the relationship between
the different versions of Gísla saga, see Vésteinn ólason and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson,
“Sammenhængen mellem tolkninger og tekstversioner af Gísla saga”, Den fornnordiska
texten i filologisk och litteraturvetenskaplig belysning, ed. by Kristinn Jóhannesson, Karl G.
Johansson and Lars Lönnroth (Göteborg: Litteraturvetenskapliga Institutionen, Göteborgs
Universitet, 2000), 96–120; Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson, “Editing the Three Versions of Gísla
saga súrssonar”, Creating the Medieval saga: versions, variability and Editorial Interpretations
of Old norse saga Literature, ed. by Judy Quinn and Emily Lethbridge (Odense: University
Press of Southern Denmark, 2010), 105–21, as well as Klaus Johan Myrvoll, “Islending
gjeng seg vill i norske fjell og dalar. Dei norske stadnamni i Gísla saga og fylgjone for
teksthistoria”, Þórðargleði slegið upp fyrir Þórð Inga Guðjónsson fimmtugan 3. desember 2018
(Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen, 2018), 57–58.