Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 76

Færeyinga saga, chapter forty
Peter Foote
Sigmundr Brestisson, I>órir Beinisson and Einarsuðreyingr
took to the sea when Erándr í Gotu and his men attacked
their home on Skúvoy. They swam towards Suðuroy.
Einar died on the way; í>órir was drowned in the surf
off the island; Sigmundr came ashore but next morning,
as he lay exhausted among the seaweed, he was murdered
by the local farmer, Torgrímr, and his sons. They hid his
body and the body of Tórir, who had been washed ashore.
Later on, Tóra Sigmundsdóttir agrees to marry Leifr Ozurar*
son if it can be proved that he was not responsible for
her father’s death and if it can be discovered how Sigmundr
died. f>rándr undertakes to do this. They go to the home
of Torgrímr on Suðuroy and Trándr accuses him and his
sons of killing Sigmundr. Despite their denials, they are
bound. Then comes this welbknown passage:* 1)
!) This part of the saga appears only in Flateyjarbók, quoted here
from the edition by C. R. Unger and Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1860—68),
I 556; cf. the editions by Rafn cited in the following list and Færey-
ingasaga, ed. Finnur Jónsson (1927), 59. The following names are used
to stand for the translations cited: Ellis: H. R. Ellis, The Road to Hel
(1943), 161; Grieg: Sigmund Brestessøns saga oversat av R. Grieg (1924),
75; Hammershaimb: Foroyingasóga umsett eftir V. U. Hammershaimb
(2nd ed., 1919), 75; Lid: Nils Lid, Folketru (Nordisk Kultur XIX, 1935),
14; Meissner: R. Meissner in Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir Volkskunde 27
(1917), 100 note 1; Mohnike: Færeyínga saga. Herausgegeben von C. C.