Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1979, Qupperneq 25

15
ana. fa var sett nockot forp ibønom ok let Joat gera fyrst O. konungr"
(ibid.). Fagrskinna contains essentially the same information as this latter
version: “Olafr konongr let æfla kaupstaS i Nibarose, sem a6r var æin
bæle” (ed. F. Jonsson, p. 113, lines 7-8). Indrebø surmised that
Fagrskinna took over the item from Oddr and Snorri elaborated one or
the other or both: “Olåfr konungr får libi sinu ut til Nibaross. M lét
hann reisa far hus å Nibarbakka ok skipabi svå, at far skyldi vera
kaupstabr, gaf monnum far toptir til at gera sér far hus, en hann lét
gera konungsgarb upp frå Skipakrok.”* * 7
How do these passages fit together? Bjarni Abalbjarnarson has argued
in detail that the Arnamagnaean MS of Oddr is more reliable than the
abbreviated version in the Stockholm MS.8 All things being equal, we
should therefore accept the reading of the former: “oc helldu feir inn um
Agfa nes oc til Nibar oss. far var nocquot forp sett oc kaupstabr.” This
reading corresponds exactly to what we find in Theodoricus and
contains no mention of the faet that Olaf founded the trading center.
Olafs auspices must therefore be an addition, which was included in
Fagrskinna and transmitted in this way to Snorri.
The wording of Theodoricus and Oddr (AM 310,4°) is again similar
enough to suggest the phrasing of the underlying source. Can it be
argued that this underlying source was Ari? If we look back at the
passage quoted above from Snorri’s “Prologue,” we observe that among
Ari’s ultimate sourcemen was E>orgeirr afråbskollr, who was “so old that
he lived on Nibarnes when Håkon jarl was killed.” In the following
sentence we read: “f feim sama stab lét Olåfr Tryggvason efna til
kaupangs, far sem nu er.” The passage then continues with an account of
Ari: “Ari prestr kom sjau vetra gamall i Haukadal ...” The little note
about the trading center on Nibarnes in the midst of a lengthy
characterization of Ari can hardly be explained in any other way than as
a citation from Ari’s writings. At the same time, it has been elaborated in
1 Gustav Indrebø, Fagrskinna (Kristiania: Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri, 1917), p. 167.
On this trading center see also Heimskringla, ed. Bjarni Aftalbjarnarson, I, 318 and II, 53,
70.
8 Om de norske kongers sagaer, pp. 61-68, 76-78. In the passage under consideration,
Rolf Heller argues specifically for the priority of AM 310,4° over Sth. 18,4°: “Die Laxdæla
saga: Die literarische Schopfung eines Islanders des 13. Jahrhunderts,” Abhandlungen der
Sachsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philol.-hist. KL, 65, no. 1 (Berlin:
Akademie-Verlag, 1976), 55-56.