Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Page 20

10
This model explains the verbal correspondences between Oddr and
Theodoricus and accounts at the same time for the extremely thin
evidence that Theodoricus’ book was actually known in Iceland.
Whether we believe in a common source or in Oddr’s direct reliance
on Theodoricus, we must of course also explain why Oddr omitted from
this sequence the pseudonym Åli, the conversion of the Orkneys, and the
landing at Mostr. It is clear that Oddr was aware of these items because
he records them elsewhere. The name Åli occurs in chaps. 14-15, the
conversion of the Orkneys in chap. 26, and the landing at Mostr in chap.
27. The impersonation of Åli was removed from the passage under
discussion because Oddr decided to shift Olafs location at this juncture
of the story from England to Russia, where the impersonation had no
function (aside from the faet that the motif had already been used up in
the earlier mention of Olafs stay in England). The omission of the
Orkneys was prompted by a decision to account for all of Olafs
conversion activity only after he had become king. Finally, the
elimination of the landing at Mostr was forced by the stipulation
allowing Olafs uncles to reveal their treachery as soon as they landed. A
stop at Mostr had become impossible because Oddr had altered the
stipulation from a form which allowed for a revelation at E>jålfahellir to a
form which allowed for a revelation as soon as Olaf set Joot on Norwegian
soil. The retention of Mostr would therefore have required that the
treachery be revealed there, in contradiction to Theodoricus, and
presumably the common source, which dictated a revelation at
f>jålfahellir.
We can go one step further in the demonstration that Oddr knew an
account of the Orkney conversion akin to what we find in Theodoricus.
The following correspondences are significant:
Theodoricus
Oddr
(MHN, p. 16, lines 23-24)
(AM 310,4°, p. 92)
Olavus vero discedens ex Anglia
recto cursu tetendit ad Orcadas
insulas, et quia ipsæ subjectæ sunt
regi Norwagiensi, convenit Sigwar-
dum comitem ut christianus fieret, qui
tune eisdem insulis præerat.
Oc er Olafr konungr var buiN sigldu
feir til Orkneyia. En far red Jirir
Sigurfr .j. LoSues s.