Studia Islandica - 01.07.1963, Page 106

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based on definite years. Both works must have been composed before
1259, the year of Ólafr’s death. On the other hand, Knýtlinga would
have been written after his stay at King Valdemar’s court in the
winter 1240—41. And considering Ólafr’s age — he is said to be bom
about 1210 — such a mature and monumental work as Laxdœla can
hardly have been composed before his long travels abroad, beginning
in 1237. It would be more plausible to think of the years around 1250,
a dating which agrees perfectly with the view of leading scholars.
Of the two works here dealt with, Knýtlinga is likely to be the ear-
lier one. At least it seems natural that Ólafr would have set to work
to compose Knýtlinga while the impression and information from Den-
mark were fresh in his memory.
In the light of this inquiry, Ólafr Þórðarson seems as a writer to
have been the equal of his brother Sturla, perhaps even of his great
uncle Snorri, who seems to have been his ideal as an author. Like
Snorri, Ólafr devoted an essay to philological and poetical questions
(“Third grammatical treatise”). In imitation of Snorri and with
Heimskringla as his model he wrote the history of the Danish Kings
(Knýtlinga). But by far his greatest achievement as a prose artist is
Laxdœla, comparable to Snorri’s Egla. (As to the influence on the
vocabulary of Laxdæla from Egla, cf. Studia Islandica 20, pp. 49—50,
Summary pp. 190—91, where the testimony of the pair words is dis-
cussed.)
That, in spite of rather unfavourable auspices, common individual
traits of language should stand out clearly in such works as Knýt-
linga saga and Laxdæla saga has, to the author of this paper, as pro-
bably to most of its readers, been a surprise. But the result in itself
is anything but surprising. Snorri’s nephew, the travelled and clas-
sically educated Lawman Ólafr Þórðarson hvítaskáld, introduced both
at the Norwegian and the Danish Kings’ courts, takes his place in
a most natural way as one of the greatest among the saga writers of
Iceland.