Studia Islandica - 01.06.1983, Page 136

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old feature. In the following chapters, specific episodes of the Fródá
Wonders are examined in a chronological sequence.
7. Blood Rain. This omen presages the Fródá Wonders, while at
the same time causing the death of Thórgunna. In certain foreign
parts, a natural explanation is not far to seek: airbome red dust
from deserts. Similar omens, sometimes just hlood of unknown origin,
occur frequently in the Icelandic Sagas, but a direct model for the
episode in question cannot be established. Other types of portents are
fairly common in the Sagas, though the foreshadowing is not always
easy to interpret. It seems plausible that the blood rain was a con-
tribution by the author of Eyrbyggja Saga, rather than an integral
part of the oral account.
8. Transportation of a Corpse. Thórgunna takes steps to have her
body brought to Skálholt for burial. On the way, she rises to secure
hospitality for the party. One reason for Thórguxma’s order is that
she knows that priests at Skálholt will inter her with proper cere-
monies — while the burial of the Fródá men in unhallowed ground
is a premise for their appearance as living corpses. Part of Thórgunna’s
thinking, too, is her knowledge that Skálholt will become a key
ecclesiastical centre; the episode seems to parallel Laxdaela Saga’s
accoimt of the transportation of Gestur Oddleifsson’s body to Helga-
fell — possibly influence from oral tradition. There might also be
some connection, presumably oral, with the description of Lýsufjördur
Wonders in the Saga of Eric the Red. The story of Thórgunna’s
burial, nevertheless, seems to be the creation of the Eyrbyggja Saga
author to a substantial extent.
9. Moon of Doom. This sinister omen is a half-moon that circles
counterclockwise inside the kitchen at Fródá. This kind of phenomenon
it not mentioned elsewhere in the Sagas, but it figures diversely in
later Icelandic folklore, at times as a fetch of sorts (fylgja) — which
argues somewhat against the possibility that this omen was invented
by the writer of Eyrbyggja Saga.
10. The Shepherd and Thórir Wooden-Leg. The first round of the
real Fródá Wonders starts when the shepherd succumbs to a mental
depression, an ailment that seems caused by evil spirits. He dies
while asleep but “walks again”. Thórir Wooden-Leg dies after wres-
tling with the living corpse, and illness subsequently claims other lives.
Apart from the mystery surrounding the shepherd’s condition, the
episode seems to be a composite of several well-known motifs that
attached themselves to oral tales of the Fródá Wonders.