Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Blaðsíða 11

1. THE STORY
The kernel of RauSúlfs þáttr1 is a conventional story of a
type common in folk-tales. There have been thefts in a forest
district of Norway, and the king’s wicked steward, Bjprn,
who is a relation and favourite of the queen, accuses Dagr
and Sigurðr, the sons of Rauðúlfr, a wealthy landowner in
that part of Norway. When the king arrives he hears the
case and it seems to him that they are not guilty. He goes to
stay for three nights with Rauðúlfr. He finds there a splendid
homestead and is given a fine feast. While he is there Dagr
convinces him that the person really responsible for the
thefts is Bjgrn the Steward. The king goes to Bjgrn’s farm
and finds there the bones of the animals he has stolen, and
Bjprn is thereupon banished: he escapes with his life only
because he is the queen’s favourite.2
This story has been put in a historical setting, with King
Óláfr II of Norway (the Saint) as the central character.
There are several references in the þáttr to the events of his
reign (1015—1030). One is to the diplomatic mission of
Bjprn the Marshal to Sweden in 1018. Three others are to
1 Edited diplomatically from St. perg. 4to nr. 4 with full variant
apparatus in ÖH 655—682. References and quotations (which are nor-
malised) in the following are to this edition. The text is translated into
English with a useful introduction by J. E. Turville-Petre in The Story
of RauS and his sons, Viking Society for Northern Research, Payne
memorial series II (1947). Different redactions are found in Fornmanna
sögur V (Kaupmannahöfn 1830), pp. 330—348 (from Tómasskinna) and
the editions of Flateyjarbók.
2 Stories of false accusation are common in the sagas, e.g. HallfreSar
saga (iF VIII 162—163), Þórarins þáttr Nefjúlfssonar (ÓH 805—808);
see also M. Schlauch, Romance in lceland (Princeton 1934), pp. 155-156.