Gripla - 2020, Síða 215

GRIPLA214
that it did not have any diagnostic criteria. In other words, from a formal
perspective it is as likely to be authentic as inauthentic. Its status must,
if possible, be established on the basis of other arguments, and it seems
reasonable to place some emphasis on the peculiar kenning Egða andspillir.
This kind of við(r)kenning (see above, p. 204 f.) presupposes some specific
knowledge about the person referred to (in this case Gísli) that would not
necessarily be available to someone outside his closest circle. It depends,
of course, on what exactly the person is kendr við, but in this instance, the
kenning must have been difficult to decipher for someone outside Gísli’s
inner circle even in his own time; the kenning bears a clear stamp of be-
ing a covert nod to a select audience, which is reasonable to believe that
Gísli at any rate would have had during his outlaw years. Since Ingjaldr
in both versions of Gísla saga is made into a relative of Gísli, and the saga
author does not know or ignores the tradition about Ingjaldr and his family
transmitted in Landnámabók and Þorskfirðinga saga, it is highly unlikely
that the author of Gísla saga could have composed st. 17 – even though he
may have been responsible for a few other stanzas in the saga.50 The fact
that the stanza is placed in the narrative two winters before Gísli arrives
at Ingjaldr’s in Hergilsey would seem to support this conclusion, but only
if the stanza in reality was performed for the first time at Ingjaldr’s. The
saga author may not – as is often the case in Old Norse sagas – have been
familiar with the original context of the stanza and has perhaps chosen to
put it in where he thought it would fit.51 This is, however, not necessarily
true here: since Gísli sought refuge with Ingjaldr and was received in such
a friendly manner, they must have known each other well before Gísli ar-
rived in Hergilsey. It would, then, perhaps not be unexpected that Gísli
should allude to this acquaintance in a stanza composed and performed
elsewhere – he might just have invented the kenning to satisfy metrical
requirements. The author of Gísla saga has Gísli recite all his poetic dream
sequences to his wife Auðr in Geirþjófsfjörður. This may or may not be
historically correct – we cannot be certain – but there are some indications
of this in the stanzas themselves: st. 16, whose content is closely connected
to st. 17, describing Gísli entering the hall with the fires, twice addresses
50 See Myrvoll, “The Authenticity of Gísli’s Verse”, 250–51.
51 For some examples of stanzas that appear to have been misplaced in the narrative in Gísla
saga, see Myrvoll, “The Authenticity of Gísli’s Verse”, 254–55.