Gripla - 2023, Síða 142
140 GRIPLA
The saga’s ending in 1290 arguably leaves out the summation of Árni
Þorláksson’s episcopal career. This was a settlement, brokered in 1297
by King Eiríkr Magnússon of Norway (1273–1299), which marked the
bishop’s victory in the so-called Staðamál (‘The Issues of the Staðir’). The
Staðamál was a protracted conflict over whether the Icelandic Church
or the secular landed elite should ultimately control the Church Farms
(staðir). These were farms that secular landowners had donated to the
Church, yet in many cases landowners and their families had continued
to hold and benefit from these properties. The settlement of 1297 would
eventually transfer to the Church a significant part of Iceland’s landed
wealth.4
As it now stands, Árna saga biskups has in fact two endings, for two of
the three principal classes of the copies from Reykjarfjarðarbók, entitled *B
and J, conclude the saga in a different manner. J signifies a copy made by
Jón Gissurarson from Núpur in Dýrafjörður (1589/90–1648). *B (B1-B3)
stands for redactions made by Björn Jónsson from Skarðsá (1574–1655)
from a lost copy. There is also B4 which, as Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir has
shown, is an autograph copy of an abridged version of Árna saga that the
same Björn made directly from Reykjarfjarðarbók.5 The text of B1, tran-
scribed in Oddi in 1686 and now preserved in the British Museum, best
represents the *B group, and it is used as the base text for both the diplo-
matic edition of 1972 and the Íslenzk fornrit edition of 2018.
In its B1 text, the saga ends with a chapter designated as no. 146 in the
modern editions. By this point – 1290 – Árni Þorláksson had resided for
two years in Niðaróss as a guest of Archbishop Jörundr (1288–1309), hav-
ing left for Norway in the autumn of 1288 as did his adversary and royal
representative, Hrafn Oddsson (1225–1289). The departure of these two
principal disputants in the Staðamál had been prompted by the coming
of Óláfr Ragnríðarson to Iceland earlier in the year.6 The visit of this
Norwegian courtier clearly focused their minds, and they agreed to submit
their case to the judgement of the king and the archbishop. Yet matters
did not run smoothly. While he was in Norway, Bishop Árni, supported
4 Magnús Stefánsson, ‘Um staði og staðamál’, Saga 40.2 (2002): 139–166.
5 Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir, ‘Árna saga biskups og Björn á Skarðsá’, in Sagnaþing helgað
Jónasi Kristjánssyni sjötugum 10. apríl, ed. by Gísli Sigurðsson, Guðrún Kvaran & Sigurgeir
Steingrímsson (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1994), vol. I, 243–256.
6 Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir (ed.), 177.