Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.10.2003, Page 43
Date and background
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treatment), written sources (some worked up into sagas, others in briefer
form), and oral tradition and folklore. The saga also contains a number of
alliterating proverbial phrases such as “Grautr er gefinn / Gíslabana”,
“Margir eru marlíðendr; / (eru ok) opt flQgð í fpgru skinni” and the already
quoted words about ‘the old eagle’.
Einar 01. Sveinsson begins by claiming that the skaldic verses are
Eyrbyggja saga’s most striking feature. The vísur have attracted much
attention from critics and argue a well-schooled author. In relatively recent
times Paul Bibire has illustrated that the verses carry out the function of
‘pointing' salient features of the story, or stories. The most interesting of
them, accredited to Þórarinn of Mávahlíð, are used in the Hauksbók version
of Landnámabók, where they are given the title of Máhlíðingamál. (Snorri
Sturluson used one of the stanzas in the “Háttatal” section of his Prose
Edda.) Bibire also comments on the archaic and ritual nature of their
presentation.70 Russell Poole has examined Máhlíðingamál in particular
and discussed its origin(s). In a very closely argued exposition he con-
cludes that originally the stanzas, rather than acting as items in a more or
less extempore account of the sequel of the fight at Mávahlíð, more
probably formed a single flokkr, and that this, later, was adeptly worked
into a conversation sequence by the author of the saga - one more example
of his versatility.71
Bernadine McCreesh72 and Kjartan G. Ottósson both stress the pre-
viously underestimated Christian influence on the saga, even though it is
true, as Rory McTurk points out, that the Conversion does not in Eyrbyggja
saga have the importance it has in Laxdœla saga and Njáls sagaP Such
Christian, or at any rate ecclesiastical, influence is undoubtedly strong
when Þórgunna prophesies that Skálaholt will one day be the most revered
place in Iceland.
Vésteinn Olason, in an article that evinces a great deal of common sense,
finds a sound reason for the surprising fact that the author of Eyrbyggja
saga, instead of carrying out his usual policy of not repeating material
already used by other writers, does retell the story of the death of the
berserks, even though it had already appeared in Heiðarvíga saga - more
accurately Víga-Styrs saga, the part of Heiðarvíga saga that was drawn
from the memory of Jón Ólafsson.74 That reason is the author’s fascination
with what goes on in the minds of human beings. This leads him to extend
70 Bibire 1973.
71 Poole 1985.
72 McCreesh 1978-9.
73 McTurk 1986.
74 Vésteinn Ólason 1989.