Studia Islandica - 01.06.1967, Síða 86

84
but what remains of the original tales is admittedly very
little. There is a reference to a Konofogor, King of the Irish
(i.e. Conchobar), and the following motifs occur: The hero,
Búi, is a propos de rien called ‘dog’, and he is the only one of
Icelandic champions who is armed with a sling. He is
friendly with a woman, but later he goes overseas and has
an affair with Fríðr, daughter of the giant Dofri ín Norway.
He has a son by her, whom, when he is twelve years old, she
sends to his father. They wrestle with the result that Búi
dies, which is a deviation from the Irish story. I believe,
however, that this is an echo of Irish tales which found their
way to Iceland with settlers who came from the British
Isles, some of whom are known to have lived on the Kjalar-
nes, the district in which the saga takes place.” Einar Ól.
Sveinsson bætir við neðanmáls: “M. Schlauch, Romance in
lceland, 114—116, mentions other examples of the father-son
combat motif (which is, of course, well-nigh universal). She
thinks there is special similarity between the Icelandic and
Irish variants. In my opinion, the king’s name, the sling
and the fact that Búi is called a dog, inconspicuous details,
have a certain importance for the question of origin.” 1
I útgáfu sinni á Kjalnesinga sögu ræðir Jóhannes Hall-
dórsson nokkuð líkindi þessarar sagnar við erlendar sagnir
og fellst á niðurstöður Einars Ól. Sveinssonar.2
I ritdómi um útgáfu Jóhannesar Halldórssonar hefur Her-
mann Pálsson rætt þetta mál og segir: „Það má telja mjög
vafasamt, að arfsagnir um írska frumbyggja Kjalarness hafi
1 Einar Ól. Sveinsson 1959, 15. A. J. Goedheer 1938, 101, vitnar í
orð Hrafns hins rauða i Brjánsbardaga: „Runnit hefir hundr þinn, Pétr
postoli, tysvar til Róms,“ Brennu-Njáls saga 1954, 452. Hann segir síðan:
“A name like this, unusual as it is in Old-Norse literature, is easily re-
cognized as an equivalent of the Irish names beginning with Cú and af-
fords another proof of Irish influence in the Brs.,” það er i Brjáns sögu.
Þetta er hliðstæð hugmynd og þegar Einar Ól. Sveinsson ber saman cú
‘hundur’ í Cú Chulainn og hundr i Kjalnesinga sögu. En i fyrra tilvikinu
hefur Einar Ól. Sveinsson bent á, að „hundr þinn“ sé biblíumál, Brennu-
Njáls saga 1954, 452 nm.
2 Kjalnesinga saga 1959, xv-xvii.