Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Blaðsíða 39

Date and background
21*
story was reported by Guðný’s son Þórðr Sturluson, all falls into place.
Hallberg52 suggests that Þórðr’s son Sturla was the actual author of Eyr-
byggja saga. Interestingly, though perhaps not quite decisively, it then
seems that the ancestor of Z Aa could have recorded a genuine tradition;
that ancestor would be likely to have fathered Aj Ak (or their joint source)
too, but perhaps their scribe, or that of an intermediate manuscript, like the
IF editor, could have found this to be “markleysa” and altered it to ‘hun’,
bringing it (by chance?) into line with M and W.
The archaic features in the saga, at any rate in the non A-class recen-
sion(s), have already been commented on. Moreover, W uses a form of
Eyrbyggjar, ‘Aurbyggiar’, that reflects an older orthography, parallel to the
spelling ‘Sauðarfjgrðr’ for SeyðarfjQrör, which Jón Jóhannesson suggests
is an old spelling in Droplaugarsona saga (ÍF XI, p. 158). Einar Ól.
Sveinsson calls the language of the A recension “klassískt, en ekki
forneskjulegt” (‘classical’ rather than ‘archaic’), but concedes it could have
been preceded by a less modern form.53
The legal administration at the time of writing of the saga seems to have
been that of the republic, that is before the submission to the King of
Norway in 1262-64. The legal references seem either to refer to Grágás, or
an even earlier code, and not to any of the Norwegian royal codes.
The cast of the writer’s mind was certainly conservative, though this
need not entail an early date. He is interested in the way things have
changed, and, more than that, uses such changes for the motivation of the
characters’ actions. The fact that Snorri will have to go to an old-fashioned
outside privy enters into Vigfúss’ plan by which Svartr is to stab him from
above; the once fashionable long shoelaces of the thrall Egill lead to his
death; the special system of messing on board ship, by which the members
of crew took turns at cook-duty, led to the quarrel between Arnbjgrn and
Þorleifr kimbi, bringing about serious consequences; Styrr explains to the
berserks that he will give them work to do ‘sem fornir menn’; Þórir was
saved from injury by the knife he wore round his neck: he had ‘tygil knif aa
halsi <sem) þa var sidr til’ (M 45.52). But was the knowledge of how things
used to be obtained from the author’s memory or his listening to old
people? Features that at first suggest a rather primitive world may later
seem to portray a writer who enjoys presenting the past to his con-
temporaries. This backward-looking stance on the part of the author is quite
self-conscious. It is perhaps not surprising that his work so appealed to that
writer of historical novels, Sir Walter Scott, that he produced, with
52 Hallberg 1979.
53 Einar Ól. Sveinsson in ÍFIV, p. li.