The Mission Motif in the Fornaldarsǫgur Nordurlanda

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Háskóli Íslands

Hugvísindasvið

Norrænt meistaranám í víkinga- og miðaldafræðum

The mission motif in the Fornaldarsǫgur Nordurlanda

Past, present and future

Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs í Norrænt meistaranám í víkinga- og miðaldafræðum

Vera Hannalore Kemper Kt.: 191291-3529

Leiðbeinandi: Torfi H. Tulinius Maí 2018

The mission motif in the Fornaldarsǫgur Nordurlanda. Past, present and future.

Ritgerð þessi er 30 eininga lokaverkefni til MA-prófs í Norrænt meistaranám í víkinga- og miðaldafræði við Íslensku- og menningardeild, Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands

Formáli

Ég vil þakka leiðbeinanda mínum, Torfa Tulinius, fyrir dýrmæta ráðgjöf. Ég þakka líka foreldrum mínum, Alfons og Monique, fjölskyldu mínum Isabelle og Stein, og Heimi Snæ fyrir stuðninginn í gegnum ferlið.

Þetta lokaverkefni er samið af mér undirritaðri. Ég hef kynnt mér Vísindasiðareglur Háskóla Íslands. Ég hef gætt viðmiða um siðferði í rannsóknum og fyllstu ráðvendni í öflun og miðlun upplýsinga, og túlkun niðurstaðna. Ég vísa til alls efnis sem ég hef sótt til annarra eða fyrri eigin verka, hvort sem um er að ræða ábendingar, myndir, efni eða orðalag. Ég þakka öllum sem lagt hafa mér lið með einum eða öðrum hætti en ber sjálf ábyrgð á því sem missagt kann að vera. Þetta staðfesti ég með undirskrift minni.

Reykjavík, 06. maí 2018

Vera Hannalore Kemper

Ágrip

Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda hafa verið til umfjöllunar meðal fræðimanna frá því að þeim var safnað saman og þar gefnar út. Fyrri fræðimenn hafa undirstrikað að bókmenntagreinin er fjölbreytt og jafnvel sundurleit. Þó hefur einn fræðimaður fremur lagt áherslu á hvað þessar sögur eiga sameiginlegt og eru rannsóknir hennar kveikjan að þesari ritgerð. Í ritgerðinni verður fjallað um kerfsbundna athugun Rosemary Power á fornaldarsögum sem gerð er grein fyrir í doktorsriti hennar frá 1982. Hún sýnir fram á að sögurnar eiga það sammerkt að vera byggðar í kringum leit að einhverju tagi. Leitin er grunn formgerð sem spunnið er út frá í margvíslegum mynstrum. Niðurstaða Power er að fornaldarsögur séu býsna þróuð bókmenntagrein þó þær virðist einfaldar. Enn fremur heldur Power því fram að sjá megi mörg sameiginleg einkenni í sögunum. Þetta gengur gegn fyrri hugmyndum um sundurleitni þeirra og takmarkað bókmenntagildi. Rannsóknir Power hafa enn gildi, einkum fyrir það hvernig henni tekst að draga fram ákveðna þætti sem móta sögurnar og fyrir það hversu vel henni tekst að sýna fram á þróun bókmenntagreinarinnar með því að nálgast hana með heildstæðum hætti. Í þessari ritgerð er gerð tilraun til að lýsa aðferðafræði Power, setja hana í fræðilegt samhengi og bæta við hana. Rannsóknir hennar hafa enn mikið gildi en þarfnast endurtúlkunar og úrbóta. Aukið er við aðferð hennar með því að bæta við hvöt aðalpersónunnar sem nauðsynlegum þætti í formgerð sögunnar en það varpar betra ljósi á einstakar hliðar á söguefninu. Niðurstaða ritgerðarinnar er að doktorsrit Power hefur enn mikið gildi fyrir fræðimenn starfandi í dag, bæði vegna þess hvernig tekið er á fornaldarsögum sem bókmenntagrein og vegna aðferðafræðinnar sem skapa viðmið fyrir rannsóknir af þessu tagi. Niðurstaðan af athugunum sem kynntar eru í ritgerðinni eru þær að fornaldarsögur eru bæði mjög hefðbundnar og heildstæðar og að hvöt sögupersónanna undirstrikar það.

Abstract

The fornaldarsǫgur have been the topic of scholarly discussion from the moment of inception. What has been noted in earlier scholarship is how vastly different the sagas are and how the genre seems to have been brought together somewhat haphazardly. However, there is one earlier scholar who sought out similarities rather than accentuating the differences. It is her work that is put at the center of attention. This thesis places at its centre a 1982 Ph.D. dissertation by Rosemary Power, wherein she approaches the fornaldarsǫgur in a systematic way. This results in quests divided into elements, which she combines to formulate patterns. This leads Power to conclude that the fornaldarsǫgur are refined, despite appearing in a simple literary form. Furthermore, she says the corpus shows many commonalities. This goes against earlier opinions which deemed the corpus incoherent and unworthy of being called ‘literature‘. Power‘s work remains significant in the way she identified certain single elements of stories, but also because of how she captured the literary development of the fornaldarsǫgur by approaching the genre as a whole. This thesis attempts to approach, frame and update Power‘s methodology. Her research is still of great value, but needs some reinterpretation because of certain deficiencies. Her research will be advanced by adding motivation as a necessary factor which leads to more individual insights into the saga material. The thesis concludes that Power‘s dissertation is important for current scholarship, both in the way the fornaldarsǫgur are approached as a genre as well as shaping a methodological standard for this type of research. The research presented here shows that the fornaldarsǫgur are heavily conventional and coherent, and that motivation as a category only underlines conventions.

Table of contents

Formáli ...... 3 Ágrip ...... 4 Abstract ...... 5 Table of contents ...... 6 1 Introduction ...... 7 2 Approaching the genre of the fornaldarsǫgur ...... 9 3 Methodology ...... 14 3.1 Rosemary Power ...... 14 3.2 Methodology and theory in the time of Power ...... 16 3.3 Stand der Forschung ...... 20 4 Content ...... 27 4.1 Who sets the mission? ...... 27 4.2 Who executes the mission? ...... 31 4.3 Mission results ...... 34 5 Motivation ...... 39 5.1 Revenge ...... 39 5.2 Marriage ...... 41 5.3 Adventure ...... 43 5.4 Objects ...... 45 5.5 Fate and foresight ...... 47 5.6 A note on motivation ...... 50 6 Functions and future of the mission motif ...... 52 7 Conclusion ...... 56 8 Bibliography ...... 61 9 Appendix A ...... 71 9.1 Table of missions appearing in the fornaldarsǫgur ...... 71

1 Introduction

Hallbjörn mælti þá: "Nú þykki mér ráð, frændi, að þú takir við fjárvarðveizlu, því að þú ert nú ungr og upprennandi ok til alls vel færr, en ek gerumst gamall og stirðr og til einkis meir." Ketill kvaðst eigi þat vilja. […] Eitt kveld eftir dagsetr tók Ketill öxi sína í hönd sér ok gekk norðr á eyna. En er hann var kominn eigi allskammt í burt frá bænum, sér hann dreka einn fljúga að sér norðan ór björgunum. […] Síðan gekk Ketill heim, ok var faðir hans úti í túni ok heilsar vel syni sínum og spurði, hvárt hann hefði við nokkura glettivætti varr orðit norðr á eynni. Ketill svarar: "Ekki kann ek að færa í frásagnir, hvar ek sé fiska renna, en satt var þat, að sundr hjó ek einn hæng í miðju, hverr sem hrygnuna veiðir frá."1

The quoted passage in the early part of Ketils saga hængs exemplifies the style in which many sagas have been written down. This style is direct to the point of abrupt and direct in contrast to both contemporary and later European literature. Whilst this style is common in the Icelandic Old Norse manuscript corpus, this specific saga has been classified as a so-called fornaldarsaga. The Fornaldarsǫgur Nordurlanda are Nordic tales from ancient times. They have long stirred fascination and debate and continue to intrigue scholars in ever-evolving scholarship. Earlier scholarship deserves appreciation, yet also calls for critique. It is not necessary or fruitful to be overly critical of previous scholarship. Nonetheless, it is potentially worthwhile to voice critique on previous scholars. The ultimate goal of criticism is to assess any value the scholarship may have for the current debate, and if and how a new look into earlier work provides interesting leads for any potential research.

My aim is to re-approach the work of one scholar. This scholar is Rosemary Eileen Power who wrote a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Ulster. The dissertation was subsequently published in 1982 under the name The quests in the Fornaldarsogur Nordurlanda: a study of their themes, composition and development with reference to their sources and analogues and their influence on later works. The

1 Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda (Reykjavik: Odds Björnssonar h.f., 1954) II, 152-153.

dissertation serves as a bridge between older research and subsequent new insights, making the publication old enough to re-evaluate yet young enough for the revaluation to be useful in current research. Looking at the work of Rosemary Power and other scholars will lead to an answer to the main question, which is formulated as follows: How does Rosemary Power’s work needs to be valued, and what consequences does this valuation carry? Some minor yet helpful questions include how Power’s work fits into the contemporary research and what has been added on in later times. This question will allow the work of Rosemary Power to play a substantive role in my research, whilst simultaneously leaving ample space for both earlier and later research. Furthermore, it will allow me to show criticism in a more neutral way thereby allowing me to make more useful comments.

The thesis starts with brief introduction to the fornaldarsǫgur, the corpus of sagas which forms the subject matter. Hereafter, attention will be given towards an extended methodological section. Leading scholarship before, during and after Rosemary Power’s dissertation will be discussed in order to provide a necessary background to my research. The following parts, named Content and Motivation, are my own attempt at a modelled approach to the fornaldarsǫgur. The model I created is included in appendix A. The model is one of many possibilities and needs to be viewed as such. After presenting the model, I will devote the penultimate section of the thesis to expand on possible future implications of all the elements that have been previously presented and explored. Lastly, I will attempt to formulate a comprehensive answer to the main question. Before I can attempt to answer this it is necessary to follow the outline, starting with an overview of the central genre of sagas.

2 Approaching the genre of the fornaldarsǫgur

The Fornaldarsǫgur Norðurlanda or Legendary sagas are a collection of sagas that have aroused scholarly attention since C.C. Rafn gave this group of stories its current name around 1830.2 Though this definition has caused scholarly debate since its inception, it is for lack of better terminology that the term is still in use. Throughout this thesis, I will refer to the corpus as fornaldarsǫgur to adhere to the long-standing scholarly tradition, thereby creating continuity. I will proceed to discuss some characteristics of the genre, followed by an overview of the most significant debate concerning it.

Fornaldarsǫgur were written down by Christian scribes long after the Christianization of the Nordic countries. Since this is the case for all saga material, this poses multiple problems and questions. Amongst these problems are the elapsed time between supposed story and written story, the assumable difference in religion and consequently worldview between subject matter and author, inscrutable motivations for the author regarding choices and the way foreign influences were incorporated in the corpus. What sets the fornaldarsǫgur apart from other genres is that the stories originate from long-standing oral traditions and poetry. They all are firmly set in the Nordic world in the time before the Icelandic settlement, but not in Iceland.3 Another way to tie the corpus together is to highlight shared characters or storylines. This is exemplified by Sandra Straubhaar in a study focusing primarily on female trolls. Herein she discusses

2 This section is based on the following publications. Torfi Tulinius, "Sagas of Icelandic prehistory (fornaldarsögur)," in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 447-461. Judy Quinn, “Interrogating genre in the Fornaldarsögur round-table discussion,” Medieval Scandinavia (2006): 275-296. Lars Lönnroth, "The concept of genre in saga literature," Scandinavian Studies (1975): 419-426. Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, "Genre and the Prosimetra of the Old Icelandic fornaldarsögur," in Genre-Text-Interpretation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Folklore and Beyond, ed. Kaarina Koski and Ulla Savolainen (Helsinki: Hansaprint Oy, 2016), 251-275. 3 Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney (ed.), The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development (Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press, 2012), 61, 125-127. Lars Lönnroth, "The Old Norse Analogue: Eddic Poetry and Fornaldarsaga," in Religion, Myth, and Folklore in the World's Epics, ed. Lauri Honko (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990), 74-75. These assumptions are themselves not problematic, as voiced by Marianne Kalinke in Judy Quinn, “Interrogating genre in the Fornaldarsögur round-table discussion,” Medieval Scandinavia (2006): 275-276.

how troll women looked and what the author intended their function to be both in the storyline as well as for the intended audience.4

Scholars have attempted to further distinguish different types of fornaldarsǫgur. What made this endeavour challenging is the fact that the corpus itself spans a significant timeframe. This means that development is visible between the earlier sagas and later sagas. Earlier sagas are deemed closer to the tradition of heroic legend, whereas later sagas might have been influenced by continental literature, notably romance literature including French romances. This literature influenced the fornaldarsǫgur as a genre. Some prerequisites were already present within the literary tradition, allowing for a relatively smooth adaptation. The genres also share similar issues with regards to the projection of the truth and the position of the author.5 Nonetheless one needs to be aware of the literary development that took place between the two genres. An example of this development is verse. Helen Leslie-Jacobsen recognizes that there are 14 romantic sagas in the fornaldarsǫgur corpus, of which five contain verse. The sagas containing verse are thought to be from earlier times, whereas later fornaldarsǫgur tend to contain less verse.6 Another aspect of the development is the creation of indigenous romance stories. Though not undisputed, scholars recognize a difference between translated and original stories from Iceland.7 The invention of a new type of literature is evidence of literary evolution.

Generally, three types of fornaldarsǫgur are acknowledged: Heroic sagas, Viking sagas and Adventure sagas. Notably, the Viking sagas have proven particularly

4 Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, "Nasty, brutish, and large: Cultural difference and otherness in the figuration of the Trollwomen of the Fornaldar sogur," Scandinavian Studies 73, no. 2 (2001): 105-124. Robert Kellogg, “Literacy and orality in the Poetic Edda,” in Vox intexta: Orality and Textuality in the Middle Ages, ed. Alger Nicolaus Doane (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 96. Ronald George Finch. "The Treatment of Poetic Sources by the Compiler of Vǫlsunga saga," Saga-Book 16, no. 4 (1965): 315-353. 5 Kathryn Hume, "From Saga to Romance: The Use of Monsters in Old Norse Literature," Studies in Philology 77, no. 1 (1980): 22-25. Ralph O’Connor, "History or fiction? Truth-claims and defensive narrators in Icelandic romance-sagas," Mediaeval Scandinavia 15 (2005): 109-110, 149-152. 6 Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, "Genre and the Prosimetra of the Old Icelandic fornaldarsögur," in Genre- Text-Interpretation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Folklore and Beyond, ed. Kaarina Koski and Ulla Savolainen (Helsinki: Hansaprint Oy, 2016), 262-265. 7 Sheryl McDonald Werronen, Popular Romance in Iceland: The Women, Worldviews, and Manuscript Witnesses of Nítíða saga (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016), 17-19. Marianne Kalinke, "Scribe, Redactor, Author: The Emergence and Evolution of Icelandic Romance," Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 8 (2012): 171-198.

problematic as Vikings are present in both other types, calling the usefulness of this distinction into question.8 According to Hermann Pálsson, the Heroic and Adventure sagas formed the entire corpus of the genre. This chain of thought will be followed here.

One of the lengthiest debates amongst scholars of the fornaldarsǫgur is the dichotomy between truth and fiction. There are various reasons for the development of this debate. One of the reasons are the fact that authors added so-called apologiae. Herein they explain or defend certain aspects of the content, particularly elements that are not consistent with Christian teachings. A second reason is the debate surrounding fictive tales known as lygisǫgur, which raises questions regarding the understanding and projection of lies. Scholarly curiosity into what might have been truthful to a contemporary audience is a third reason.9

Notably, the discussion surrounding fact and fiction was elevated by Andreas Heusler in 1914 when distinguishing between what came to be known as the Bookprose versus Freeprose debate.10 The issue was first addressed by Alexander Bugge in his 1909 article called ‘The Origin and Credibility of the Icelandic Saga’. Herein Bugge concludes the sagas are a blend of history and fiction.11 The ensuing debate revolved around the influence of the contemporary society, its tradition, standards and expectations. Also of importance was whether the medieval Christian author was a creator or a copyist. Further aspects were orality, more precisely the idea of a shared extensive oral history, and the reconstruction of the perception of the intended

8 Helga Reuschel, Untersuchungen über stoff und stil der Fornaldarsaga (Konkordia ag für druck und verlag, 1933). Hermann Pálsson, “Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda,” In Dictionary of the middle ages, Vol. 3. ed. Joseph Reese Strayer (Scribner, 1982), 138. Ármann Jakobsson, "Le Roi Chevalier: The Royal Ideology and Genre of "Hrólfi saga kraka"," Scandinavian Studies 71, no. 2 (1999): 140-141. 9 Ralph O’Connor, "History or fiction? Truth-claims and defensive narrators in Icelandic romance- sagas," Mediaeval Scandinavia 15 (2005): 101-169. Annette Lassen, "Origines Gentium and the Learned Origin of Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda," in The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development, ed. Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney (Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press, 2012), 33-58. Marianne Kalinke, “Norse Romance,” in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. A critical guide, ed. Carol Clover and John Lindow (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 318-324. 10 Due to the longevity and intensity of the debate, all names mentioned are mere examples, and there are many more to name. Andreas Heusler, Die Anfänge der isländischen Saga Vol. 9. (Berlin: Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1914), 54–55. For a great overview, see Matthew Driscoll, "What’s truth got to do with it? Views on the historicity of the sagas," Skemmtiligastar Lygisögur. Studies in Honour of Galina Glazyrina (2012): 15-27. 11 Alexander Bugge, "The Origin and Credibility of the Icelandic Saga," The American Historical Review 14, no. 2 (1909): 249-261.

audience.12 The general consensus favours the existence of an oral tradition. Scholarly interest in the oral transmission has led to research into the performative aspects of oral tradition.13

The discussion created a long-standing scholarly divide, with some authors like Theodore Andersson switching between both sides as time went on.14 On the one hand, Freeprose proponents such as Gísli Sigurðsson and Robert Kellogg believe in a strong oral tradition and a shared body of common knowledge between the author and the contemporary audience.15 Due to this traditional framework, it would be unnecessary for the saga author to show creativity as he had access to multiple templates. This shared framework inhibited creativity as the scribe’s patron or intended audience might have had expectations based on the framework. Scholars assume a later yet indigenous origin of the sagas. On the other hand, scholars in favour of the Bookprose standpoint such as Gabriel Turville-Petre and Ronald Finch point towards clues of significant editing by one or more authors.16 Generally Bookprose scholars do not disregard the common framework of shared oral tradition. They merely attach less value to it in favour of the individual capacity, knowledge and style of the saga author. Said author, whilst aware of the shared tradition, might have chosen to actively play with it, or rather was unable to rise above the tradition. The continuous existence of simplistic archetypal characters point towards either his oblivion or his artistic skill. Incapability or disinterest could be shown through archetypal characters, but the opposite can be seen by the author nuancing between for example other characters and the hero.

12 Lars Lönnroth, "The Old Norse Analogue: Eddic Poetry and Fornaldarsaga," in Religion, Myth, and Folklore in the World's Epics, ed. Lauri Honko (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990), 74-75. 13 Jonathan D. Evans, "Semiotics and Traditional Lore: The Medieval Dragon Tradition," Journal of Folklore Research (1985): 85-112. Stephen Mitchell, "Memory, Mediality, and the "Performative Turn": Recontextualizing Remembering in Medieval Scandinavia," Scandinavian Studies 85, no. 3 (2013): 282- 305. Lars Lönnroth, "Old Norse text as performance," Scripta Islandica 60 (2009): 49-60. 14 Theodore M. Andersson, The problem of Icelandic saga origins (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), 67. Theodore M. Andersson, "The displacement of the heroic ideal in the Family Sagas," Speculum 45, no. 4 (1970): 577. 15 Gísli Sigurðsson, The medieval Icelandic saga and oral tradition. A discourse on method (Cambridge: Milman Parry Collection, 2004), 35-37. Robert Kellogg, “Literacy and orality in the Poetic Edda,” in Vox intexta: Orality and Textuality in the Middle Ages, ed. Alger Nicolaus Doane (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 89-91. 16 G. Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), 9. Ronald George Finch, "The Treatment of Poetic Sources by the Compiler of Vǫlsunga saga," Saga-Book 16, no. 4 (1965): 315-353.

Notably, a third middle-way option became widely known through Stephen Mitchell in his influential 1991 book Heroic sagas and ballads. The nuanced stance in between Bookprose and Freeprose was formulated by Joseph Harris in 1986 and was consequently adopted by many later scholars.17 Mitchell proposes via an intricate scheme that the fornaldarsǫgur were a mixture of traditions and individual invention. It is an interesting view combining tradition and Eddic poetry, yet the debate is far from over.18

17 Joseph Harris, "Saga as historical novel," Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism (1986): 187-219. 18 An example of the current debate can be seen in K. A. Kapitan, R. Timothy and T. J. Wills, "Visualising genre relationships in Icelandic manuscripts," Abstract from Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries (2017), 59-62.

3 Methodology

3.1 Rosemary Power

In her 1982 dissertation, Rosemary Power uses a structured approach to the quest motif in the fornaldarsǫgur, dividing the quests in five distinct patterns.19 Power assigns letters alphabetically to each element appearing in a pattern, then applies the patterns to the relevant sagas in order to reveal letter combinations. These combinations allow the author to draw conclusions largely based on the regularity of the pattern or lack thereof. Power starts by approaching the composition of the fornaldarsǫgur. Her main objective is to underline similarities. She does this by generating a generic storyline centralizing the life of the hero. She says quest patterns were likely determined by the hero’s life as well as the individual knowledge, taste and ability of the saga author. The heroism of the main character is made abundantly clear to the audience by youthful deeds, followed by a heroic career including a main adventure. This main adventure generally includes supernatural elements or characters. The supernatural appears in three ways. It can be deployed by the villain, come in the form of supernatural creatures or as supernatural objects. The hero acquires one or multiple foster-brothers as well as a wife during set stages of the adventure. Both the hero and the wife are of a remarkable simplicity. They confirm to basic archetypes who settle down as rulers and have children at the end of the storyline. These heroes are present in all five types of patterns, as explained below.

First, Power identifies the marriage quest (p. 63-99). She says the marriage quest theme was widely popular, which would explain the lack of variety within the theme. However, the quest could be varied but was restricted by contemporary attitudes towards the acquisition of a wife and the demanded qualifications from suitors. The marriage quest is typified by difficulties. These include the woman or her father refusing to be married, problems for the hero in trying to locate the woman as she is

19 This chapter is based on Rosemary Eileen Power, The quests in the Fornaldarsogur Nordurlanda: a study of their themes, composition and development with reference to their sources and analogues and their influence on later works (Ph.D. dissertation: New University of Ulster, 1982).

abducted or lives in a distant land and obstacles that appear when the hero tries to win the woman over. Power notes that the female character is static.20

The second quest is the álög theme quest, wherein a spell from an evil stepmother is central (p. 102-137). The stepmother enters the story when a king remarries and subsequently lays a spell on the stepson or stepdaughter. The spell is a result of rejection, repudiation or insult. Most commonly, the spell entails a physical transformation, a journey or a quest for a lady in an unknown distant land. All of these quests are designed to be so dangerous that the hero is not expected to return. As the character is heroic, he is successful and releases himself from the spell and the stepmother is subsequently punished.

Thirdly, there is the so-called temple quest (p. 140-196). Power says this pattern is not exactly followed by any of the sagas in the group, but all points are shared by multiple sagas. The hero is usually a nobleman’s son who justifiably triggers or angers the king. This king sends him to either collect an object from a temple with an unknown location, or taxes from an unwilling vassal king. Foster-parents and foster-brothers provide aid in the form of advice, magical weapons or companionship overseas to undergo ordeals to acquire relevant information. After the hero’s imminent success in completing the king’s task, he returns and strikes the king with the obtained object. Afterwards he escapes by sea and acts as an independent leader. Later he marries, kills his enemies and inherits a kingdom through his wife.

Otherworld quests form the penultimate category (p. 199-266). Notably, the hero chooses to go on a quest himself. He also chooses his Otherworld destination and companions for his journey, which is usually overseas. He reaches an initial destination, where he is told where his true destination is. This second journey features a challenging border river which needs to be crossed. In the Otherworld the hero finds a hall or similar building. Here he stays drinking, eating and feasting for at least one night, sometimes attending ritual events. The leader of the Otherworld is confronted and killed alongside his following by the hero. The hero leaves the Otherworld unhindered to return home a wealthy and successful man. He marries, settles, but finally returns to

20 As studied by Marianne Kalinke, Bridal-quest romance in medieval Iceland Vol. 46. (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1990).

the Otherworld. Power states that this quest type derives from the combination of two pre-1200 Þórr tale types. These are his journeys to Geirrǫðargarðar and Útgarða-Loki respectively. The Otherworld quest type is an elaborated version of this fixed tale form.

Lastly, Power approaches the grave-mound quests (p. 269-285). A story about a wealthy grave mound of a king or Viking reaches the story’s hero, who sets out to retrieve this wealth with at least one companion. The journey is easy, but the mound is opened with difficulty. Once opened, the hero enters the mound alone, his companion holding him by a rope. The hero gains valuables, including a sword, after which he is attacked. He kills his attackers, but finds his companions had fled upon hearing the fighting noises. The hero ascends without aid from the mound. He shares the spoils from the mound evenly except for the sword. Power believes that this pattern is the most simplistic and did not become more complicated over time. The tale remains rooted in traditional and widely known variants, but fell out of favour later to be replaced by tales including foreign settings and themes.

Rosemary Power concludes that fornaldarsǫgur are very much literary works, and often sophisticated. Romance literature influenced the corpus by diversifying compositional methods. Nonetheless, it did not result in more complex works. Romance literature was only used if it did not impinge on older conventions. The quest motif proved useful when combining different saga material and additional adventures.

3.2 Methodology and theory in the time of Power

Rosemary Power’s dissertation appeared in 1982. In order to understand her publication better, I will briefly discuss the historiographical context of that time.

Well before Power’s dissertation was published, Ludwig Wittgenstein published a book named Philosophical Investigations in 1953. Herein he introduced what came to be known as the concept of family resemblance. This proved to be a significant contribution to genre theory surrounding the fornaldarsǫgur.21 Family resemblance

21 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (New York, 1953). Hjalmar Wennerberg, "The concept of family resemblance in Wittgenstein's later philosophy," Theoria 33, no. 2 (1967): 107-132.

could be applied to a genre wherein the texts are to be regarded as members of a family. This meant that the texts belong together whilst being individualistic and dissimilar. The fornaldarsǫgur could be seen as a fitting example. Genre scholarship showed difficulty in finding shared characteristics within the fornaldarsǫgur. When referring to Wittgenstein, scholars could circumvent this issue by stating that a corpus with little or no likeliness is a corpus nonetheless. Therefore, one avoided having to theoretically defend its variety. Subsequent critique on this theory was formulated around the ease with which Wittgenstein’s idea was applied to several literary corpuses and the circular reasoning of the argument. Nonetheless, its influence on a disputable corpus such as the fornaldarsǫgur was noticeable.22

Other early yet important publications include Maarten van den Toorn’s 1955 book Ethics and moral in Icelandic saga literature. Van den Toorn herein discusses the expected behaviour of a hero. Secondly, Jan de Vries’ Heldenlied und Heldensage was published in 1961. This book featured highly influential heroic models.23 De Vries used a method reminiscent of Power’s dissertation. This method includes lettering elements of an otherwise fixed storyline and conclusions based on the recurrence of these elements. His book is a proponent of a scholarly trend from the 1960s, which sought to place saga literature in a broader European context of medieval literature.24 Scholars were primarily interested in international sources and their adaptation to the Icelandic audience and society. Herein a distinction was made between parts of sagas that could or could not be traced back to this broader context. A scholarly trend that derived from this idea is shown by publications that researched a single aspect throughout the corpus, such as Karen Grimstad who looked at giants, Marlene Ciklamini who focused on journeys to the giant world and Kathryn Hume who shed light on monsters.25 This

22 David Fishelov, “Genre theory and family resemblance revisited,” Poetics 20 (1991): 123-125. 23 Maarten C. van den Toorn, Ethics and moral in Icelandic saga literature (Assen: Van Gorcum & comp. N.V., 1955). Jan de Vries, Heldenlied und Heldensage (Bern: A. Francke AG Verlag, 1961). 24 Joseph Harris and Thomas D. Hill, "Gestr’s ‘Prime Sign’: Source and Signification in Norna-Gests þáttr," Arkiv för nordisk filologi 104 (1989): 103-122. 25 Kaaren Grimstad, "The giant as a heroic model. The case of Egill and Starkaðr," Scandinavian Studies (1976): 284-298. Marlene Ciklamini, "Journeys to the Giant-Kingdom," Scandinavian Studies (1968): 95- 110. Kathryn Hume, "From Saga to Romance: The Use of Monsters in Old Norse Literature," Studies in Philology 77, no. 1 (1980): 1-25.

approach resulted in publications spanning multiple decades. A later example is Theodore Andersson who researched the bridal quest within the corpus in 1985.26

Vladimir Propp is another scholar who influenced this decade. His book Morphology of the Folktale, originally from 1928, saw its first English version appear in 1958. Three years prior Claude Lévi-Strauss had applied a modelling structure to myth.27 Propp sees characters in Russian folklore performing the same functions and actions, which vary according to the author’s means. More fundamentally, these functions form the basic components of a tale and therefore can be extracted and presented.28 In the 1970s, the question of genre resurfaced with a notable publication by Joseph Harris in 1975. Harris mentions folklore and also presents an enquiry into several structured approaches, thereby critiquing Lars Lönnroth’s vision of þættir as dependant stories.29

Of equal importance was the evolution in the German debate away from Andreas Heusler, who had dominated the scholarly sphere since the early twentieth century.30 The most prominent name to mention here is Walter Haug. His publications are centred on the question of fact or fiction. He uses a structured approach in order to understand and explain the existence of different versions of the same folkloristic myth, mostly from the Germanic tradition.31 The work of Haug fits into a broader trend of the structural analysis of various content such as texts. The most important proponent of

26 Theodore M. Andersson, ""Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar" and European Bridal-Quest Narrative," The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 84, no. 1 (1985): 51-75. 27 Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The structural study of myth," The journal of American folklore 68, no. 270 (1955): 428-444. Kingsley Davis, "The myth of functional analysis as a special method in sociology and anthropology," American sociological review (1959): 757-772. 28 Vladimir Propp, "Mythology of the Folk-tale," in Literary theory: An anthology, ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan (Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 73-74. Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folklore (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), 3-65. 29 Joseph Harris, "Genre in the saga literature: a squib," Scandinavian Studies (1975): 427-436. 30 For example with Andreas Heusler, Die Anfänge der isländischen Saga Vol. 9. (Berlin: Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1914). Criticism was widespread, for instance by Walter Haug, "Andreas Heuslers Heldensagenmodell: Prämissen, Kritik und Gegenentwurf," Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 104, no. 4 (1975): 273-292. 31 Walter Haug, "Die historische Dietrichsage: Zum problem der literarisierung geschichtlicher fakten," Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 100, no. 1-2 (1971): 43-62. Walter Haug, "Die Symbolstruktur des höfischen Epos und ihre Auflösung bei Wolfram von Eschenbach," Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 45, no. 4 (1971): 668-705. Walter Haug, "Das Land, von welchem niemand wiederkehrt": Mythos, Fiktion und Wahrheit in Chrétiens" Chevalier de la Charrete", im "Lanzelet" Ulrichs von Zatzikhoven und im "Lancelot"-Prosaroman Vol. 21. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1978).

this trend is Roland Barthes.32 It is safe to say that before the dissertation by Power, structured approaches had gained a firm place within scholarship.

In the early 1980s, Ruth Righter-Gould proposed a structural analysis of the fornaldarsǫgur, more specifically the Adventure sagas and Viking sagas. She presented a generic cycle of events that fits the vast majority of the sagas she incorporated into her study.33 It is interesting how Righter-Gould presents an analysis, yet concludes with a generic saga model. Power and Righter-Gould shared similar structural approaches, yet reached different conclusions as Power did not put forward a generic model. The heroic motif, the genre discussion and different ways of approaching the saga corpus were topics of choice in the decades prior to Power’s work.

In the same year as Rosemary Power, Jesse Byock proposed his well-known theoretic framework for feuds in the sagas. Byock saw several active narrative elements or so-called feudemes clustered together to form episodes or scenes culminating in a feud. Furthermore Byock deemed the authorial influence limited, as feuds showed consistent and logical development and most aspects seem fixed or highly similar. Nonetheless, the literature gave Byock the impression of a wide array of narrative forms.34

Later in the 1980s, some noteworthy scholars did ground-breaking research into gender. Most importantly was the question of how gender was portrayed in literature when compared to other source material. Names connected to this early type of research are Jenny Jochens and Carol Clover.35 This is interesting as the fornaldarsǫgur are claimed to have a certain relationship to the truth and therefore contemporary society. Gender research developed into an approach into the contemporary society.

32 Roland Barthes and Lionel Duisit, "An introduction to the structural analysis of narrative," New literary history 6, no. 2 (1975): 237-272. David Carr, "Narrative and the real world: An argument for continuity," History and Theory 25, no. 2 (1986): 117-131. Roland Barthes, The semiotic challenge (New York: Hill and Wang, 1988). 33 Ruth Righter-Gould, ""The Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda": A structural analysis," Scandinavian Studies 52, no. 4 (1980): 423-441. 34 Jesse Byock, Feud in the Icelandic Saga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 47-62. 35 Jenny Jochens, "Consent in Marriage: Old Norse Law, Life, and Literature," Scandinavian Studies (1986): 142-176. Carol Clover, "Maiden warriors and other sons," The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 85, no. 1 (1986): 35-49.

A second type of research done in the later 1980s involves a renewed interest in Eddic and skaldic poetry. This research revolved partly around the connections between poetry and its presence within the fornaldarsǫgur.36 This interest can be seen as the result of two larger discussions. The aforementioned dichotomy between fact and fiction is the first. The second debate revolved around the question of the age and dating of the corpus. Finally, a last approach looked at cross-cultural connections between similar stories. The intended result was to either corroborate or disprove connections between the Nordic world and the rest of Europe. This approach can be interpreted as a renewal of scholarly interest of the European influence on saga literature from the 1960s. Rosemary Power got involved with this after her dissertation, as did Frederic Amory and G. van Berkel.37 Often scholars used multiple approaches interchangeably or simultaneously. Jenny Jochens, who seeks to understand the position of the woman using Eddic poetry, exemplifies this.38 The most important conclusion is that Rosemary Power’s dissertation adhered largely to both older and newer scholarly trends.

3.3 Stand der Forschung

After Power’s publication, several defining new types and insights of research were proposed. During the 1990s, the role of gender became decidedly more prominent along many publications. This caused the field to stray away from original questions such as the gender difference between author and subject. A noteworthy scholar is Judy Quinn. Originally a literary scholar focusing on poetry and verse, she performed ground- breaking gender research. Of particular interest is her research into dreams and

36 Joseph Harris, "Eddic poetry," in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. A critical guide, ed. Carol Clover and John Lindow (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 68-156. Roberta Frank, "Skaldic poetry," in Old Norse-Icelandic literature. A critical guide, ed. Carol Clover and John Lindow (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 157-196. 37 Rosemary Power, "'An Óige, An Saol agus an Bás', "Feis Tighe Chonáin" and 'Pórr's Visit to Útgarða- Loki'," Béaloideas 1051 (1985): 217-294. Frederic Amory, "Things Greek and the Riddarasögur," Speculum 59, no. 3 (1984): 509-523. G. J. W. van Berkel, "De Indogermaanse verwantschap van het Hildebrandlied," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Älteren Germanistik 23 (1985): 21-36. 38 Jenny Jochens, "Vǫluspá: Matrix of Norse Womanhood," The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 88, no. 3 (1989): 344-362.

foresight.39 Prophetic studies have been an interest for not only Quinn. Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, amongst others, has contributed to gender-related aspects of the sagas. Jóhanna proposed a powerful position for female characters who showed authoritative foresight. This idea became influential, as it was previously held that a woman’s authority was fully derived from her husband or male relatives. This meant that women had no active role or way to improve their situation.40

Apart from looking at foresight and the interpretation of dreams, scholars also pointed at the role of magic. It was only later that magic entered the field of gender. Traditionally magic had been seen as an aspect in the debate surrounding fact and fiction.41 Scholars interpreted the way magic was used as a way of underlying or unspoken authority. A woman in a seemingly inferior position could therefore express full control of her situation and thereby change the course of events in the story. Authority was not being shown through the behaviour or speech of male characters. This strand of research looks at the way power and authority were divided, shown and acted upon. Most important is the notion that a position of power is expressed in dissimilar ways for either women or men. Authors furthermore tended to use more words to describe the status and position of men than they do for women. Gender research expanded later, starting to include questions and problems surrounding masculinity in order to diversify the field and evolve from a predominantly female focus.42 One of the most influential current scholars in the field of gender is Carolyne

39 Quinn, Judy. ""Ok verðr henni ljóð á munni". Eddic Prophecy in the fornaldarsögur." Alvíssmál 8 (1998): 29-50. Judy Quinn, "The gendering of death in Eddic cosmology," in Old Norse Religion in Long- term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, Interactions, ed. Anders Andrén (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006), 54-57. 40 Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir. "Hyggin ok Forsjál. Wisdom and Women’s Counsel in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar," Making History: Essays on the Fornaldarsögur (2010): 69-84. Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir. Women in Old Norse Literature: Bodies, Words, and Power (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013). 41 Jenny Jochens, "Old Norse Magic and Gender: þáttr þorvalds ens Víðfǫrla," Scandinavian Studies (1991): 305-317. Hans Jacob Orning, "The Magical Reality of the Late Middle Ages: exploring the world of the fornaldarsögur," Scandinavian Journal of History 35, no. 1 (2010): 3-20. Stephen Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Sofie Vanherpen, "De heksenkoningin in het Hoge Noorden: een casestudie rond gender, etniciteit en zwarte magie," Annual VOG-day (Vereniging voor Oud-Germanisten) (2010). 42 K. A. Laity, "Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity," The Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 36, no. 2 (2010): 256-258. Carol Clover, "Regardless of sex: men, women, and power in early Northern Europe," Speculum 68, no. 2 (1993): 363-387.

Larrington. Her works cover new areas of gender-related research whilst simultaneously contributing to the older debates surrounding genre and truthfulness.43

There are two fields of interest that have continuously received scholarly attention. Firstly, continued interest into the heroic motive can be seen with publications by Elizabeth Ashman Rowe. She put forward that the style of the sagas had conventions which caused the heroism of the characters to be derived from appearance, words and actions.44 In the same publication, she approaches heroism through the field of emotions. Early publications on emotions stem from the late 1990s, however a few years ago scholarship flourished.45 Some scholars seek to explore this topic in a mainly literary way, whilst others try to establish connections between the literature and reality.46 Secondly, the research that delved into a singular aspect across the corpus remained popular.47 Two recent dissertations based on this angle are by Elizaveta Matveeva and John Shafer.48 Matveeva proposes a comprehensive understanding of the presence of Óðinn within the corpus. Shafer discusses instances wherein characters

43 Carolyne Larrington, "A Viking in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in the Fornaldarsögur," Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 4 (2008): 269-288. Carolyne Larrington, "Awkward adolescents: Male maturation in Norse literature," Youth and Age in the Medieval North (2008): 145-160. Carolyne Larrington, "Þóra and Áslaug in Ragnars saga Loðbrókar. Women, Dragons and Destiny," Making History: Essays on the Fornaldarsögur (2010): 53-68. 44 Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, "Fornaldarsögur and Heroic Legends of the Edda," in Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend, ed. Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2013), 203. Stephen Mitchell, "The heroic and legendary sagas," in The Viking World, ed. Stefan Brink (New York: Routledge, 2008), 319-22. 45 Low Soon Ai, "The mirthless content of Skarpheðinn's grin," Medium ævum 65, no. 1 (1996): 101-108. Joseph Harris, "Sacrifice and Guilt in Sonatorrek," in Studien zum Altgermanischen: Festschrift für Heinrich Beck, Vol. 11 ed. Heiko Uecker (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1994), 173-196. Sif Rikharðsdóttir, "Bound by culture: A comparative study of the Old French and Old Norse versions of la Chanson de Roland," Mediaevalia 26, no. 2 (2005): 243-264. 46 Carolyne Larrington, "Eddic Emotion and Eddic Audiences," in The Sixteenth International Saga Conference Sagas and Space, ed. Jürg Glauser, Klaus Müller-Wille, Anna Katharina Richter and Lukas Rösli (Zürich: ADAG Copy Shop, 2015), 180-181. Anna Hansen, "Bonds of Affection between Children and Their Foster-parents in Early Icelandic Society," in Emotions in the Household, 1200–1900, ed. S. Broomhall (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 38-52. Kristen Mills, "Grief, Gender, and Genre: Male Weeping in Snorri's Account of Baldr's Death, Kings' Sagas, and Gesta Danorum," JEGP, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 113, no. 4 (2014): 472-496. 47 For example Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen, "The Matter of Hrafnista," Quaestio Insularis 11 (2010): 169- 208. Hilda Roderick Ellis, The road to Hel: a study of the conception of the dead in Old Norse literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). 48 Elizaveta Matveeva, Reconsidering the tradition: the Odinic hero as saga protagonist (Ph.D. dissertation: University of Nottingham, 2016). John Shafer, Saga-Accounts of Norse Far-Travellers (Ph.D. dissertation: Durham University, 2010).

travel far in order to reveal the structure of these journeys as well as that of the characters undertaking them.

The current century saw the appearance of multiple noteworthy books. In 2002, Torfi Tulinius’ book The Matter of the North was published. In this highly acclaimed publication, he attempts to shed light on the time of the origin of the fornaldarsǫgur. Torfi seeks to explore and understand what methods and societal structures can be found in the fornaldarsǫgur. In other words, the sagas are seen as belonging to an era which can be approached through the sagas themselves. This is called literary history by the author. The methodology chosen in the book is named narratology. This method presupposes multiple levels on which the text operates, some of which are subconscious. Due to these levels, texts are heavily embedded in the time of their creation. This means that texts contain messages that need to be translated in order to understand this timeframe. Torfi seeks to limit himself to techniques of literary representation, which operate on the surface level of a text. The reason for this is that these techniques are evolutionary and shed light on thirteenth-century Iceland. Furthermore, they illuminate the relationship between author and audience.49 This approach is highly interesting in the way it centralizes the author as someone who adheres to both tradition and invention. The presupposed audience and its importance to the author too has long been underestimated if not ignored completely. Possible shortcomings of this approach include an excessive emphasis on the author as a creator and his free will. Over-emphasis on audience engagement and disregard for other possibilities or nuances between the author as a traditionalist or inventor are other possible shortcomings.

Furthermore, multiple larger works on bigger projects were published in the current century. These are A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture by Rory McTurk, Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: origins, changes, and interactions by Anders Andrén and The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development by Annette Lassen, Agneta Ney, and Ármann Jakobsson. After some common remarks, I will individually discuss the books. What these books have in common is that they are

49 Torfi Tulinius, The matter of the North. The rise of literary fiction in thirteenth-century Iceland (Odense: Odense University Press, 2002), 11-12, 32-43.

overview works. They include specialist chapters written by other authors that deal with only a small part of the book’s subject matter. Furthermore, the last two works are the direct result of one or multiple conferences. These publications are significant in multiple ways. For one, a single author is no longer expected to be a broadly learned scholar writing on wide spreading topics. One can be a true specialist by being asked to write on a smaller problem or question within the larger field without having to introduce the reader to the field altogether. It is also no longer necessary to publish work the size of a book in order to get published in one. Book publishers have found a way to compete with journals while not compromising on scholarly standards. Secondly, conferences become breeding grounds for new publications instead of places where scholars repeat already published arguments and works. In general, all of these books have become part of the staple for the current scholar. It is increasingly difficult to conduct proper research without keeping at least one of them in mind.

Rory McTurk introduces his book from 2005 as a balance between the practical reality wherein literature was produced and the social context of that time. He wants to present a comprehensive book to anyone who wants to understand how, where and why Old Norse literature was produced. McTurk notes that Icelandic literature remains the predominant subject matter, yet proposes that this literature cannot be completely understood without explanative research in adjoining fields such as archaeology and laws.50

Anders Andrén is not a literary scholar, but rather a geographical historian, primarily interested in urbanisation and related issues. His book was published in 2006 and comprises a conference held in Lund in 2004. The introduction states that Andrén is one of fifteen researchers on a large project spanning multiple years and multiple scholarly disciplines. Interdisciplinary projects were, and to an extent still are, leading within scholarship. Despite mentioned difficulties in combining scholarly disciplines, the project has led to productivity and forces scholars to understand various scholarly methods whilst remaining true to a primary discipline.51 Rather than seeking to

50 Rory McTurk, "Introduction." in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 1-6. 51 Anders Andrén (ed.), "The conference and its context," in Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: origins, changes, and interactions, ed. Anders Andrén (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006), 9-10.

understand one larger topic such as McTurk, Andrén and others merely present what has been put forward at the conference. The contributions need not to be understood as aspects of the answer to a large research question, but as aspects of the same field of Old Norse religion.

Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney present their 2012 book in a way reminiscent of McTurk. The three authors seek to comprehensively understand and explain three aspects of the fornaldarsǫgur, namely its origins, development and late development.52 There is no central question that is put forward at the beginning nor answered in the conclusion, yet all contributions deal with aspects that pertain to the larger subject at hand. Unlike McTurk however, these authors have chosen an angle of research that creates more underlying cohesion between the contributions. The articles in McTurk can be interpreted individually as they stand alone. In linguistic or linguistic- historical research as presented by the three authors, it is difficult to interpret a single article on the origin of a certain saga without discussing its later development and vice versa. As such, the authors created dependency between the articles.

The last thing the aforementioned publications show is that saga and medieval Scandinavian research started to branch out. The use of multiple subfields and interdisciplinarity became the preeminent research methods. These types of research date back to the 1990s but dominate in the current century. Subfields include, but are not limited to, archaeology, codicology and palaeography, history and archaeology of religion, as well as historical and archaeological subfields such as migration history and history of law, textile archaeology and the division of power and land.53 One would be

52 Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney (ed.), The Legendary Sagas: Origins and Development (Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press, 2012), 5-6. The authors edited two other books on the Fornaldarsǫgur. Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney (ed.), Fornaldarsagaerne: Myter og virkelighed: Studier i de oldislandske fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2009). Annette Lassen, Ármann Jakobsson and Agneta Ney (ed.), Fornaldarsagornas struktur och ideologi: Handlingar från ett symposium i Uppsala 31.8-2.9 2001 (Uppsala: Swedish Science Press, 2003). 53 Jane Christine Roscoe, The literary significance of clothing in the Icelandic family sagas (Master thesis: Durham University, 1992). Teva Vidal, Houses and domestic life in the Viking Age and medieval period: material perspectives from sagas and archaeology (Ph.D. dissertation: University of Nottingham, 2013). Matthew Driscoll, "The Legendary Legacy: Crunching 600 Years of Saga Manuscript Data," (2017): 71-79. Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, "Expanding Horizons: Recent Trends in Old Norse-Icelandic Manuscript Studies," New Medieval Literatures 14 (2012): 203-233. Ármann Jakobsson, "Magic and Kingship in Medieval Iceland: The Construction of a Discourse of Political Resistance by Nicolas Meylan," Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 10, no. 2 (2015): 247-248. Jón Jóhannesson, A history of the Old Icelandic

able to derive from all aforementioned aspects that interdisciplinary approaches and large research projects would seem desirable. Whilst requiring less from individual scholars, scholarship would be advanced greatly whilst simultaneously reaching a broader audience, thereby increasing funding opportunities.

Notwithstanding the positive aspects, some critical notes are needed. First and foremost, one could say the term ‘interdisciplinary’ in and of itself has been overused, causing the word to become a catchphrase lacking meaning. Secondly, there is no clarity as to what this type of research is supposed to entail on the scholarly side. Often the term is used to signify a degree of collaboration, which might differ according to many elements. Also, it remains to be seen if the results are a simultaneous presentation of several fields or entail a higher degree of amalgamation. Largely due to the fact that the term became a buzzword and carries no scholarly standard, one needs to proceed with caution when conducting this type of research.

Commonwealth: Islendinga Saga Vol. 2. (Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press, 2014). William Ian Miller, Bloodtaking and peacemaking: Feud, law, and society in Saga Iceland (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

4 Content

4.1 Who sets the mission?

A mission can be recognized as such because there is someone who sets the mission. This is most often done by vocalization, whereby a character expresses the wish to start a certain mission which is then followed through by action. This section deals with the character giving the task. Firstly, a distinction needs to be made between missions that are set by the main character and missions that are not. This distinction is important because the involvement of another character as mission-giver has implications for the storyline. An external mission means that both the ordering as well as the executive character have different motivations, and in addition to that they have underlying relations based on power and merit.

There are two variations in which there is another character setting the mission. In the first of these, the relations are unfavourable to the heroic character. This means that the mission-giver occupies a higher position than the hero does in society. Compliance with missions that a superior character sets is often forceful or necessary. This type of mission-giver is a royal character and appears in sixteen of our stories. The commonality of the royally induced mission can hardly be underestimated. The aforementioned forceful nature of a mission incited by a king could take away some literary liberty on behalf of the executive character, and eliminate the need for the author to elaborate on motivation or necessity.

Amongst the many examples are Óláfr konungr sending Yngvarr to resolve a tax dispute for him in Yngvars saga víðfǫrla and Olíus and Alíus who need to prove themselves to Buðli konungr in the early stage of Ásmundr saga kappabana by continuously creating weaponry and other valuables.54 In some cases the royal character is both the mission-giver and the executor. The treacherous fire Ásmundr konungr and his men set which kills Hálfr, the hero of Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka, is an example.

54 Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda (Reykjavik: Odds Björnssonar h.f., 1954), I 385-386, II 433.

Hrólfs saga og kappa hans starts with another example when Froði had his brother Hálfdan killed. Froði could not accept sharing the lands with Hálfdan and subsequently becomes the sole ruler of Denmark.55 Where a king both comes up with and executes the mission at hand, it is for evil goals. These include violent expansion or adventure, revenge and wealth. In the second variation of the external mission-giver, it is a character of seemingly equal standing with the main character. It is the realisation of the mission which will reveal the qualitative differences between the characters, yet at the conception phase the story is set up as if the mission-giver is equal to the main character. Illuminations of this type are provided by multiple stories, amongst which are Bósa saga og Herrauðs, wherein brothers Dagfari and Náttfari request help in the upcoming battle at Brávalla from Bósi and Herrauðr.56 During the battle both Dagfari and Náttfari die yet both Bósi and Herrauðr are severely wounded, thereby showing superiority.

The abovementioned variations of an external mission-giver deal with the male perspective. It is necessary to assess the missions that are set up or requested by women. They seem to fall outside of the power structure that was sketched earlier between the main character and the mission-giver. I will attempt to highlight some lesser examples but start with the Vǫlsunga saga. The story, specifically after Sigurðr’s death, is almost entirely built on revenge ordered by women. One could say women as mission-givers seem dominant in the story, however they carry no real importance as the storyline does not develop significantly anymore in the later part of the saga. Women in the form of mission-givers are not at all common in other stories. Female mission-givers are most likely to occur in revenge missions. When looking at Ásmundr saga kappabana for instance, Ásmundr is asked to avenge the death of the father of his betrothed Æsa in fagra by way of killing Hildibrandr Húnakappi. This revenge mission is set by Æsa after she thought Ásmundr needed to prove his manhood in order to marry her.57 Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar starts with Hárekr járnhauss, who dies during the marriage quest for Húnvǫr as he was challenged by Víkingr. After this event but before he wants to marry, Víkingr goes on a three-year mission for warfare. During this mission he is the victim of

55 Guðni, I 1-3, II 113-116. 56 Ibid., III 303-304. 57 Ibid., I 390-395.

a spell from Dís Kólsdóttir disguised as Sólbjǫrt. Dís set this mission to seek revenge for her brother Hárekr járnlauss. Dís’ spell causes Víkingr to deal with leprosy for a year. When he recovered, Dís egged on a revenge mission with her other brother Jǫkull, yet they are both slayed by Víkingr.58 A final example is one that is not based upon a revenge mission, and can be seen in Hervarar saga og Heiðreks. Bjarmarr jarl’s daughter Hervǫr declares herself to be miserable and sets up what can be described as an adventure mission for herself. During the years that she is on said mission, she assumes a male persona and goes by the name of Hervarðr, who returns tired of the Viking life. She turns into an idealized woman but one is never told if she found the happiness she was after.59

Finally there is a third variety, namely the character giving himself a mission. The mission set by the character himself encompasses a variety of missions. The first one is the adventure mission, as exemplified by Helga þáttr Þórissonar in which Helgi and Þorsteinn conceptualize and execute the mission, Sigurðr who wants to go an adventure in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra and Sǫrli giving himself nearly all of the missions present in Sǫrla saga sterka.60 Other practical missions are illustrated in Ketils saga hængs, wherein Ketill sets himself up to find food as the island he lives on regularly suffers from famines. The same happens to his son Grímr in Gríms saga loðinkinna. However, for practical reasons the urgency of the mission might deter from the fact that it is an adventure mission.61

The second of the character-giving missions is an attack mission. This type of mission is given by a king or has the objective of attacking a king. The first is present in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, wherein Gautrekr konungr launches a self-founded attack on Hringr konungr which is prevented last-minute, whilst the second can be seen in Áns saga bogsveigis, when Án gives himself the mission to attack Ingjaldr konungr.62 An exception can be found in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, where an attack is ordered

58 Ibid., III 3-14. 59 Ibid., II 5-24. 60 Ibid., II 370, III 414, IV 347. 61 Ibid., II 155, 187-188. 62 Ibid., II 394-402, IV 59-61.

and executed by Valr and his band of Vikings against the story’s hero Hálfdan and Sigmunðr.63

In some cases the character ignites a revenge mission. Rather than being told or ordered to take revenge, these characters take matters into their own hands. Víkarr from Gautreks saga for example wants to take revenge on behalf of his father, as does Hálfdan Eysteinsson in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, whereas Óláfr konungr thinks of a revenge mission because Gautrekr, rather than Óláfr, married Ingibjǫrg at the beginning of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.64 In some cases the character gives himself a mission yet executes it with a companion, such as Hrafn who asks his comrade Hrólfr to avenge his late father in order to regain patrimony at the end of Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga.65 Notably the first two are incited as the result of outlawry and the last is the result of a bet.

An adventure mission is also nearly always incited by the character who intends to execute it. Examples include Heiðrekr in Hervarar saga og Heiðreks, Hálfdan in Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra and Egill in Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar beserkjabana.66 An exception to this can be found in Sturlaugs saga starfsama, where it is Ingólfr who sets an adventure mission for Sturlaugr and his foster-brother.67 A sub- type of the self-ignited mission can be identified for the men who set out for raiding missions immediately prior to marriage. A saga carrying the rarer literary element of marriage refusal is Yngvars saga víðfǫrla, wherein the title hero does not marry Silkisif, whom he met on his self-motivated adventure mission, as his objective had not yet been reached.68 This element poses a variation of the more common order of events wherein a raiding or adventure mission is completed before the character seeks out marriage. Marriage is commonly associated with settling down and a less adventurous lifestyle, and is therefore more often found in the latter half of most storylines.

63 Ibid., IV 282-284. 64 Ibid., IV 19, 56, 260. 65 Ibid., III 267-268. 66 Ibid., II 24-27, III 343-344, IV 298-300. 67 Ibid., III 109. 68 Ibid., II 435-438.

4.2 Who executes the mission?

For every mission that is set in the fornaldarsǫgur, there is someone who is attempting to execute it. The most basic distinction within this category is the one between executors who are the mission-givers and those who are not.

Within the category where those who execute are the same as the mission giver, some earlier mentioned aspects will not be repeated here. In addition to what has already been said, characters that execute the mission they are given are also present in different variations. One of these is the story wherein the character who is both architect and creator of the missions dominates the storyline. Sǫrla saga sterka and Ketils saga hængs both show a remarkable amount of missions that are fully bound to the title character, who acts as both mission-giver and executor. Both of these storylines can also be seen as positive stories as the missions generally are executed well and the story ends in what could be seen as a satisfactory manner. The relevant characters settle down contentedly. A smaller strand of this type of a mission-dominating main character can be seen in the þættir. Both Tóka þáttr Tókasonar and Norna-Gests þáttr show a royal dependence upon the main character. Rather than heroic, these characters are personifying past glory and nearing the end of their lives. Despite a kingly character always being present, providing a necessary background in the form of a grand hall and a listening ear to which the main characters tell their stories, this royal figure does not take on the role of mission-giver. The main character is to an unprecedented degree in control of the story. Additional executive characters are however present. They are the king’s retainers in Norna-Gests þáttr who enter into a wager for gold and Óláfr konungr in Tóka þáttr Tókasonar who performs Tóki’s baptism.69 Noticeably, a retainer of Ingjaldr konungr is involved in Áns saga bogsveigis with the inception of a mission to be executed by Án in order to test if he is a strong man, which would involve him fighting Bjǫrn as suggested by the retainer.70

A different executor can be found in multiple shapes, forms and storylines. In some instances, the mission executor is the story’s main character. Sturlaugr, the hero in

69 Ibid., I 311, II 141. 70 Ibid., II 375.

Sturlaugs saga starfsama, is almost always given a mission by several characters but most notably by Haraldr konungr. Only one mission is given by him to Frosti at the end of the storyline. The mission involves the seemingly impossible task of retrieving a small stick which sits on the lap of the daughter of the king of Finnmark. From this mission, Frosti does not return alive.71 In other instances, the one who executes the mission is highly influenced, pressured or entirely set up by another character. A striking example of this can be seen in Vǫlsunga saga. Foster-father Reginn decides to tell young Sigurðr a tale about how Reginn and his brother Fáfnir fell out over gold. The bottom line of the story is that Reginn needs Sigurðr to obtain the gold for him, which is guarded by the dwarf-turned-dragon Fáfnir. Later on in the storyline, Sigurðr’s death is conspired and orchestrated by Brynhildr but executed by her brother Hǫgni.72 Gǫngu- Hrólfs saga too sees Sturlaugr coaxing Hrólfr on to a point at which the latter voices his intention to go on an adventure mission until Hrólfr’s lands are larger than those of Sturlaugr, and in Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar beserkjabana it is Rǫgnvaldr inciting Ásmundar to secure the favour of Hertryggur konungr by fighting Egill. Rǫgnvaldr made Egill out to be a bad character to Ásmundar.73

It deserves mention that these missions end successfully, despite not being the original idea or motivation from the executive character. In other instances, the mission- giver is also the one realising the mission but with help from other characters. Hrólfs saga kraka og kappa hans includes a final mission by Skuldr, who experiences wrongdoing and oppression by Hrólfr konungr. Since Skuldr cannot reach her goal of escaping her situation by herself, she invites her husband Hjǫrvárðr konungr to execute her wishful mission together.74 Other than husbands it is mostly friends who are involved as fellow mission executors. Cases of helping friends occur likely in the saga’s initial mission, which is often an adventure mission. Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra’s main character Illugi is asked to go on the primary mission by Sigurðr, and the same goes for Ǫnundr who is a helping hand for the title character of Yngvars saga víðfǫrla.75 A variation of an extra executor is a mission revolving around a contest or duel. These

71 Ibid., III 147-152. 72 Ibid., I 143-146, 188-190. 73 Ibid., III 173-174, 327-329. 74 Ibid., I 100-105. 75 Ibid., II 432-433, III 414.

missions, such as the swimming contest between Áki and Hálfdan from Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra and the final duel between Sǫrkvir and Grímr in Gríms saga loðinkinna, are initiated in both cases by a single character. Their execution is however impossible without the participation of multiple characters.76 The difference is the fact that the additional executive character is not helping, but is seen as competition or evil. A last example of this is from Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga in which Hrólfr is forced to partake in the realisation of Vilhjálmr’s marriage mission for the hand of Gyða, very much against the will of Hrólfr. He is nonetheless in no position to oppose acting as the mission’s executor.77

Marriage missions are another type of mission that sees variety between the one who sets the mission and the one performing that mission. Furthermore one can also distinguish helpful characters who assist with mission implementation. Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is a saga that incorporates multiple marriage missions. There are three separate marriage missions for Þornbjǫrg, Álof and Ingibjǫrg, with the mission for Þornbjǫrg executed twice. At the time of the marriage missions, Hrólfr had already assumed the royal position of king through inheritance from his father Gautrekr. However, he is never the mission giver throughout the entire story. He acts as an assistant-executor all of the four times, yet is never the giver of any of the missions. Þornbjǫrg proved to be an exceptionally difficult bride to catch. The first attempted mission for her is given by Ketill. Þornbjǫrg is resisting marriage to the degree where she assumes a male persona and is named Þorberg. As Þorberg, she successfully attacks the saga heroes Hrólfr and Ketill, causing the two to abandon the first marriage mission. Ketill is enraged by the attack and wants revenge, thereby turning the original marriage mission into a revenge mission. However Hrólfr underlines his superiority and does not let this happen. After the mission the men enter into an adventure mission over summer. When they return, Þornbjǫrg’s father Eiríkr konungr tells Hrólfr that he can marry Þornbjǫrg when he overcomes the stronghold she built. It is Hrólfr who marries Þornbjǫrg. This result can be seen a partial success. Not only was it never the goal for Hrólfr to marry, it was Ketill who incited the marriage mission and he ended up not marrying. Hrólfr’s help in Ketill’s mission for Álof can therefore be seen as service that

76 Ibid., II 194-195, IV 309. 77 Ibid., III 195-199.

was owed to Ketill, who also received help from Ingjaldr. Together the men go to Russia and fight the berserkers that guard Álof. Ásmundr requests the mission to marry the Irish Ingibjǫrg. Hrólfr again becomes an executor, this time because he and Ásmundr had previously entered into blood brotherhood. The sworn oaths surrounding such a relationship within a storyline means that the blood brother is the one to turn to first for help with any type of mission, with the second blood brother morally unable to refuse his assistance. Hrólfr shows superiority by killing a giant whilst in Russia and a lion on his way out from Ireland.78

What seems most important when looking at the role of mission executor is that it can be one or multiple characters. The characters can be the same or different from the mission-giver. They are present within various mission types for vastly divergent motivations. The executor is related to the character setting the mission to a degree that exceeds a regular friendship. Executors can be family by blood, sworn oaths, marriage or fosterage. In cases wherein the executor is entirely unrelated, the mission generally includes a seemingly impossible challenge or test. This is so common that one could speak of a structure. This structure can be the result of expectations due to the archaic and conventional way the executive characters appear in the corpus.

4.3 Mission results

The missions lead to different results. A distinction needs to be made between results that are the realisation of the initial goal, and results that are not. The first could be seen as archaic or predictable, whereas the latter includes results that are somewhat unforeseen. Both of these options produce different narratives. Power’s dissertation dedicated only a fraction of its pages to the end of the sagas. She explains that this was the point during which the hero settles down and eventually dies.79 However, this explanation is not sufficient in current research. The result of a mission does not necessarily present itself at the end of a saga, nor is the result necessarily successful.

78 Ibid., IV 67-138. 79 Power, 48-49.

This aspect of the mission motif deserves more attention as well as some added nuance, starting with the missions that have a high or perfect success rate.

Missions that result in a success include countless successful battles. Not all battles can be seen as missions, yet nearly all battles fought are won by the main character. Minor battles are generally fought against non-human characters such as the dragons in Ketils saga hængs and Yngvars saga víðfǫrla and both giants and lions in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.80 Trolls and berserkers come to their end by the heroes in Hjálmþés saga og Ǫlvis, Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar berserkjabana and Ǫrvar- Odds saga amongst others.81 Many more battles are fought amongst human characters. Notably, many minor battles take place at the very end of the sagas. Examples of these can be found in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, Gríms saga loðinkinna and Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka.82 Minor human battles are generally between surviving characters or sons after a central battle, and their main purpose is possibly to emphasize continuity by way of illustrating revenge or to tie up loose ends of the storyline. Success in minor battles can function to either establish or underline the heroism of the character winning the battle, or as simple entertainment. Vǫlsunga saga is the only saga in which a battle is the central event within the storyline, but even this battle is overshadowed by underlying features of the storyline such as treachery and jealousy.83

Rescue missions are a second category of missions which seem fool-proof. The missions include a woman who vanished and is held captive or is put under a spell. Abductions of female characters happens notably in Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar berserkjabana. Egill enters the story as he is recommended by Rǫgnvaldr to Hertryggur konungr, who sets up a mission for suitors for his abducted daughter Bekkhildr.84 Missions incorporating a spell always result positively. Breaking the spell can happen both knowing and unknowingly by the main character, though unknowing characters appear to be more common. These men only find out what happened to the women after they are changed back to their former selves, thereby stumbling upon the solution of the mission. A notable exception to this described model is Bjǫrn in Hrólfs saga kraka og

80 Guðni, II 153, 441-452, IV 112, 137. 81 Ibid., III 339, 359, II 250. 82 Ibid., IV 279-280, II 124-126, 194-195. 83 Ibid., I 146-154. 84 Ibid., III 325-326.

kappa hans. He is magically turned into a bear after he insulted Hvítr. After Bjǫrn is expectedly killed, his three sons avenge him and kill Hvítr for casting the spell.85 This story shows both an awareness of the spell and failure to break the spell, resulting in death. An accidental element makes the spell mission different from the rescue mission. Also, the idea that a spell is broken as the result of another type of mission, such as a raiding or adventure mission, is a distinctive factor.

Revenge missions also commonly yield intentional results. The heroic characters who set out for revenge always achieve success. Simultaneously, attempts for avengement by evil or opposing characters result in failure. Revenge is a mission that controls large parts of the storyline, and can be done at multiple stages. This can be seen in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar, amongst others, wherein Hrómundr loses the brothers Kári and Ǫrnúlfr in an early battle against Hrǫngviðr víking. Not only does Hrómundr kill Hrǫngviðr on the spot, but at the end of the story the Swedish Haldingr konungr also loses his life at the hands of Hrómundr for this same deed of killing the brothers.86 A notable exception of unsuccessful revenge can be found at the end of Vǫlsunga saga. Svanhildur meets an untimely death at the hands of Jormunrekr konungr and his counsellor Bikki. She is the daughter of the late Sigurðr Fáfnisbani and Guðrún, and it is Guðrún who incites her sons to avenge this death. Despite the fact Guðrún gives her boys clothing that is steel-resistant, both of them die as the result of stoning at the hands of the following of Jormunrekr konungr.87 This unintended result can mean several things, such as underlining a lack of true heroism in the sons of Sigurðr, an incapability to defend the Vǫlsung family name and that revenge requested by a woman yields little success. This last point is proven when looking at Bera from Hrólfs saga kraka and the revenge for Bjǫrn.

Lastly, missions that entail a wager between a heroic and a non-heroic or even evil character will always end in favour of the story’s hero. This is shown by the swimming contest in Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra between Hálfdan and Áki.88

85 Ibid., I 46-56. 86 Ibid., II 408, 422. 87 Ibid., I 210-213. 88 Ibid., IV 309-310.

Decisively, a successful result of a mission is the result of different elements with an underlying archaic and conventional tone. Positive results are part of conventional expectations from heroic characters. There is a large amount of stories and storylines wherein the result is as expected when the mission is set. The scribe’s skillset and taste are nonetheless influential. The positive or intended result of missions needs to be seen as a blend between the individual author and larger conventions.

There are several types of mission which do not yield the intended result. One of these types could be the adventure mission. Generally there is no real intended result as an expedition entails an unknown result for the characters involved. The initial adventure mission in Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga is an expedition of Eiríkr konungr into Russia. After pillaging and plundering, the mission takes a violent turn when Eiríkr konungr ends up in a battle with Hreggviðr konungr, whom he kills.89 The fallout of this unanticipated death forms the basis of the ensuing storyline. This is different in the start of Áns saga bogsveigis, wherein Þórir ignites a mission to meet Ingjaldr konungr but refuses to take Án with him. Had Án listened to his brother, the saga would have proceeded fundamentally differently. The mission is however altered, as it is not in accordance to Þórir’s original plan.90 There are more examples of initial missions that do not turn out as expected. An unintended death occurs in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns, wherein Þorsteinn accidentally kills Geirrǫðr konungr with one of his magical items in an attempt to impress the king. Unknowingly, he therefore completes the mission of his treacherous companion Goðmundr.91

In most other instances, the missions end in success, at least for the heroic or well-liked characters. There may be setbacks along the way such as treachery, trickery and unfriendly creatures. However, most important characters that started out evil but switched to align with the good characters receive a positive mission result. A prime example of this is Frámarr, who enters into sworn brotherhood with Sturlaugr in Sturlaugs saga starfsama after being defeated by him, and at the end successfully completes a marriage mission of his own.92

89 Ibid., III 167-169. 90 Ibid., II 369. 91 Ibid., IV 338. 92 Ibid., III 125-129, 156-160.

Lastly, in some minor cases one could speak of only relative success. An example can be given from the start of Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Heimir is tasked with the care for Sigurðr’s daughter Áslaug, who fears for her life after Sigurðr’s death. They end up at a farmer’s house, where Heimir is killed and Áslaug raised by the farming couple.93 Technically the girl is safe, however Heimir died, rendering the mission partially successful.

Conclusively, positive or intended results outweigh unexpected results or losses. This is largely due to conventions surrounding heroism. Missions that do not include heroic characters show greater diversity.

93 Ibid., I 221-225.

5 Motivation

5.1 Revenge

Revenge is an extremely common mission. The verb for revenge, að hefna, is present in at least eleven sagas in the corpus. Rather than a lust for fame and fortune or a mission for marriage, in these sagas the young protagonist tries to seek justice. Though justice is commonly acquired, there are several different scenarios that can occur afterwards.

An example of a dominant revenge mission is Þáttur af Ragnars sonum, a story which tells of sons wanting to take revenge on their father’s killer.94 Other characters seeking revenge for their father are Hálfdan in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar and Víkarr in Gautreks saga. In Sǫrla saga sterka it is Hálfdan’s sons who die trying to take revenge on his killer Sǫrli.95 Gautreks saga tells the story of Víkarr. He is taken captive by the man who kills his father, named Herþjófr. Víkarr kills Herþjófr as soon as he gets the chance. Herþjófr however has two brothers, who plot their own revenge on Víkarr as soon as they find out what happened to their brother. Víkarr manages to kill one of the brothers, but the other begged for peace instead of being slain.96 Here, instead of avenging sons there are avenging brothers. This is also present in Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis. Its title character Hjálmþér kills Tóki víking, who wanted to avenge his brother Kollr víking’s death.97 Sometimes revenge is undertaken later in the saga, with many developments in between. This could be seen as a form of punishment that is not impulsive.

In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, one can see multiple aforementioned elements blended together. A young man’s initial feat, cases of revenge later in the saga and a disapproving authorial figure are all present. Óláfr is killed in a game by Þórir at around a third of the saga. His brother Jǫkull grows up and seeks revenge for this deed. Jǫkull does so against the explicit wish of his father the king who is entangled in a brotherhood

94 Ibid., I 291-298. 95 Ibid., IV 260, 291-303, II 385, 402. 96 Ibid., IV 13-26. 97 Ibid., IV 186-188,

with Þórir’s father. Earlier in the saga, it is Hálfdan who enters into foster brotherhood in order to take revenge on Dís Kólsdóttir who avenged her brother Hárekr by giving Hálfdan leprosy.98

An example of both a later revenge as well as a lesser effect of magic on the success of the revenge can be found in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. Hrómundr kills the wizard Váli with his bare hands rather than with his magic sword Mistiltein. The evil nature of Váli was attested early on in the saga, making him a seemingly invincible character. Váli however made the mistake of killing Hrókr to obtain a golden ring he got from Hrómundr. In doing so his death became the goal of Hrómundr’s revenge mission. In spite of his magic powers, Váli dies because Hrómundr is the hero of the story.99

Magic is present in the revenge mission in the form of a spell. This theme was identified by Rosemary Power as the álög theme quest. What makes this theme difficult is that the spell might be cast because of one or multiple motivations such as jealousy, anger and revenge. It is not always revenge that causes a spell to be cast, nor is revenge a primary motivation for the hero breaking the spell. Not only the causes are diverse, so are the nature of the ensuing missions. The obvious mission is to find and rescue the spell’s victim, but adventure and raiding missions are present too. These include raiding out of sadness or anger, or the hero may be unaware that he is breaking the spell.

In Gríms saga loðinkinna it is Lofthæna who does not show up for her wedding to Grímr because a spell is cast on her by her evil stepmother Grímhildr. Grímr finds her accidentally when he is on an expedition to find food due to another famine.100 A saga that proves a stepmother is not necessarily evil is Sturlaugs saga starfsama, wherein Ása’s stepmother Véfreyja helps Sturlaugr in his mission to marry Ása. Later she kills two of Sturlaugr’s enemies because she is afraid of evil spells from one of them. She also forces Sturlaugr into foster brotherhood with Frámarr. Though she is a driving force in the storyline, she seems to be no harmful influence.101

98 Ibid., III 11-13, 22-26. 99 Ibid., II 414-418. 100 Ibid., II 185, 190-193. 101 Ibid., III 117-118, 125-126, 151-152.

Spell-casting female characters could be seen as fitting into a larger theme, which is revenge incited by women. An instance involves Hǫrðr in Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis, but most prominently this is the mission of Brynhildr and Guðrún in Vǫlsunga saga.102 In a single instance, revenge is requested but no action is taken. In Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar it is Ketill who is enraged that he and Hrólfr were attacked by Þorberg and wants revenge. However, since Hrólfr does not want revenge and as he is superior, revenge does not take place.103

5.2 Marriage

In the fornaldarsǫgur, almost all the main characters marry. It is how, when and for what reasons that variation is shown. Multiple sagas incorporate a mission with the goal of marriage with a certain female in the beginning of the storyline, which is always initiated by the man himself.

Sometimes the mission starts with a customary pledge to marry, such as the one Angantýr makes in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. It is only after the pledge that he knows who he should marry, in other cases a character meets a girl and decides he wants to marry her, as illustrated in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, wherein the primary bridal mission is executed twice in order to win Þornbjǫrg, amongst many others.104 Other instances of the same bridal mission do not include actually meeting the female prior to the mission. A well-known example is Þorgnýr jarl from Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga, who vows to marry the Russian princess Ingigerðr whose hair was dropped by a swallow.105

Several sagas introduce the idea of marriage at the end, usually after the main feat of the hero has been accomplished. It can be seen as somewhat of a minor mission. Marriage is not only for the main character, but also for those close to him. In both early and late marriage, the marriage itself can be seen as part of a transition from a young boy to an adult man. Societal expectations remain upheld for elderly men in the sagas,

102 Ibid., IV 211, I 168-211. 103 Ibid., IV 85. 104 Ibid., II 2, IV 56 105 Ibid., III 190.

who are allowed to be widowers yet are expected to remarry.106 Societal structures surrounding both younger and older men can be assumed to be known by contemporary audiences. This makes them somewhat realistic ideas, allowing an easy incorporation in a literary storyline.

Marriage can result in the protagonist or other characters receiving land and wealth through their wives’ families, yet different stories state that the man is already a king prior to marriage. The marriage mission can also be evoked by factors that lie outside of one’s internal motivation, in which case the mission is likely to be a feat initiated by either elderly men or the woman herself. This can work in either of two ways.

In one, there is a princess. She is usually the only surviving child of a widower king. In order to ward off malicious and unworthy suitors, he stipulates one or more feats to be completed before a suitor is able to marry her. It is Ketill himself who in Ketils saga hængs has to be defeated before one can marry his daughter, Hrafnhildr. In this self-induced capacity he kills both Áli Uppdalakappi and Framarr. Finally, Ketill marries his daughter off to Bǫðmóðr who helped him kill Framarr.107

In the second way, an elderly king is attacked or otherwise in trouble and asks the protagonist for his help in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Hálfdan from Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar however refuses to marry Ingigerðr after he helped Eysteinn konungr. Instead he says he was not paying much attention to women nor had he thought about marriage. As a direct result it is his blood brother Úlfkell who ends up marrying her.108

Female characters refusing marriage include Hervǫr from Hervarar saga og Heiðreks and Snotra in Gautreks saga, who claims not to be ready for marriage.109 It needs to be taken into account that Hervǫr is a princess. Princesses are characters who both exude a degree of independence as well as high societal expectations surrounding marriage. Characters like Hervǫr are present in multiple stories, and these stories

106 Power, 105. 107 Guðni, II 165-181. 108 Ibid., IV 254-255. 109 Ibid., II 10-19, IV 5-6.

portray a literary alternative to the plot wherein the princess’ father is in charge. Rather, the princess has secured a position of individual significance and independence. Within these storylines, it is the female herself who creates difficulties for the marriage mission. Girls in this situation are the previously mentioned Þornbjǫrg from Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and Ingibjǫrg in Friðþjófs saga ins frækna.110

A fourth way needs to be noted as a marriage mission without clear advantages or disadvantages. In Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra, Brana incites her foster child Hálfdan to marry Marsibil. There is no mention of remarkable potential gain for Hálfdan nor potential danger or loss for Brana.111 The situation is explained by Brana being a giant, therefore acting in ways that would not be suited to human characters. Rosemary Power noted that the popularity of the marriage quest theme might have had something to do with the lack of variety within the theme.112 Though deeply embedded in societal structures, it seems short-sighted to say the marriage quest is simple as it seemed authors knew and explored plenty of angles and options.

5.3 Adventure

Another way an author could signify the rite of passage between boyhood and adult life is by sending the young character on a rather unspecified adventure or expedition. Rosemary Power believed these feats to be part of youthful deeds. She separated them from the main adventure which would be introduced later. Confusingly, the main adventure is often called the adventure cycle by other authors.113 Power’s opinion is likely determined by the fact that the adventure mission has no clear goal and therefore seemingly lacks a motivational factor on the part of the character. For the sake of clarity, I will only discuss instances that state hernað, ferðir or describe an otherwise unexplained journey by ship or foot. It does not matter if the missions are connected to a smaller feat or the main adventure. It is societal norms and literary conventions that

110 Ibid., IV 67-85, 91-97, III 78. 111 Ibid., IV 305. 112 Power, 73, 99. 113 Power, 48. Righter-Gould, 424, 437-439.

should be taken into regard instead of searching for the character’s motivation when there is nothing tangible to be found.

There are sagas that include adventure with a tangible goal. Yngvarr undertakes a mission to find the source of three rivers in an otherwise unknown location in Russia after helping Óláfr konungr settle a tax dispute in Yngvars saga víðfǫrla.114 Notably, Sǫrla saga sterka is full of smaller adventure missions including a treasure hunt and plundering, nearly all of them incited and executed by Sǫrli himself.115

Viking expeditions are a very common mission. This might have something to do with popularity of the mission by the audience. For the author, the mission might have been an interesting tool as it required little explanation why a character would want to undertake a Viking expedition and the mission did not immediately require a solution or ending. In multiple stories a Viking expedition is initiated, yet later seems to merge with a second yet more important or pressing mission. In other instances Viking raiding, especially over summer, can be seen as a literary bridge between two episodes or a way for the author to note that the characters continue to gain wealth and fame. This is more common in longer stories, such as Ǫrvar-Odds saga, where all the Viking expeditions are the indirect result of Oddr being cursed, and Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga.116

A king seems to be a recurring figure for the adventure mission. Expeditions that take place at the beginning of the story can be undertaken by a king. An example is king Hjǫrleifr, who is said to have wasted his wealth by being generous and has a ship built to undertake a journey to Bjarmaland in Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka.117 Óláfr konungr appears to hold a special place, as both Tóki and Gestr in their respective sagas arrive at the court of Óláfr after many adventures, and the majority of Tóka þáttr Tókasonar and Norna-Gests þáttr consists of the men reciting said adventures.118

More common than a king undertaking an adventure mission or adventurers retelling tales to a king is the adventure mission that is announced to the royal parents and other immediate surroundings. An instance of this can be found when looking at

114 Guðni, II 434. 115 Ibid., II 370-405. 116 Ibid., II 227, III 189. 117 Ibid., II 98. 118 Ibid., II 138, I 313.

Sigurðr, who asks his father the king for ships and men in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra. Sigurðr seeks to achieve the notably vague goals of fame and fortune but is not wealthy enough to have a ship and crew. Notably, he wants Illugi to accompany him, yet Illugi’s mother Hildr deems her son too young as he had not undergone testing prior to this adventure.119 Hildr and her concerns are a marked minority within the corpus, quite possibly as they are common people. Most heroic characters start their adult lives at ages as young as twelve or thirteen, and the adventure mission can be seen as an additional literary tool to distinguish these heroic characters from the rest of the population.

A second instance of an adventure mission proclaimed to parents is the underworld mission from Þorsteinn in his Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns. He suddenly tells his mother he wants to attend a feast in the underworld and therefore he is leaving.120 There is an interesting overlap in the classification of this saga, as Power marked the same saga under her underworld quest type. In her accompanying pattern, she explains that the hero chooses companions to join him to a known destination, with the ultimate goal of defeating an enemy in the underworld.121 The story of Þorsteinn, who is tricked by Goðmundr and accidentally killed a king, seems to bear little resemblance to Power’s pattern. This is partly because of the unintentional nature of the king’s death. Þorsteinn’s initial motivation was to attend a party and possibly experience adventure along the way and is better classified in an adventure mission.

5.4 Objects

Where I have discussed the adventure mission, the mission goal was unknown. There is a mission motif with a very practical goal, namely the object mission. What is notable about this motif is that the object retrieved in the mission is in most cases instrumental and serves as a solution for the underlying mission goal, which is different than the goal to obtain an object. The reason for distinguishing an object mission motif is the vital

119 Ibid., III 414-415. 120 Ibid., IV 322-323. 121 Power, 199-200.

role of the object within the larger mission, reflected in the character’s motivation. Rosemary Power stated that objects are much less common in the corpus than in Romances, which might be true yet does not diminish the appearance of them in the fornaldarsǫgur.122

As shown in the adventure mission, a king is a returning character. The same can be said for the object mission, however in a different capacity. In the object mission, a kingly character often plays the role of mission giver. Missions for objects given by a king can be done for multiple reasons. One is that the executive character is given a choice between his life and going on an object mission. This is shown in Bósa saga og Herrauðs, when Bósi is sent on a successful mission for a vulture’s egg that is inscribed with gold letters after being expelled from the land of Hringr konungr.123 In Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar beserkjabana, Egill has to gain possession of multiple items in order to retain his life after being captured by Hringr konungr. His journey in quest of a fire-resistant cloak, a bottomless horn and a self-playing chess set leads Egill to the underworld where he finds these items and thereby saves his life. Earlier in the saga Egill was given a choice between death and serfdom when he was captured by a giant, and there he chose life as well.124

Sturlaugs saga starfsama sees Sturlaugr choosing to retrieve a long-lost aurox horn over living in fear in the land of Haraldr konungr. Sturlaugr finds it in a temple and violently comes into possession of the horn. Hringr konungr is furious when he sees Sturlaugr again, as the intent of the mission was for Sturlaugr to die trying to find the horn. Sturlaugr ends up leaving the country for good.125 The role of honour is also notable. Solely accomplishing the goal of the mission is not good enough for Sturlaugr if he does not gain the intended respect for the feat.

An instance that does not involve a king is Sigurðr’s mission for the gold guarded by Fáfnir in Vǫlsunga saga. Gold, specifically rings, are the most sought-after objects. The ring from Helgi konungr plays an important role in Hrólfs saga kraka og kappa hans. Helgi konungr gives the ring to Hrólfr konungr. Subsequently Hrókr is

122 Ibid., 61. 123 Guðni, III 296-304. 124 Ibid., III 343, 351-353. 125 Ibid., III 130-144.

encouraged by his mother, Hrólfr’s sister, to obtain the ring as a token for his father’s support in getting vengeance for Hrólfr’s father. Hrókr ends up killing Hrólfr for the ring, causing a cycle of vengeance.126 Rings also appear as reward for services in Ásmundar saga kappabana and Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns, as recognizable item in Egils saga einhenda and a ring with magic properties appears in both Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra and Sǫrla saga sterka.127

It is interesting to see that most object missions come after the initial major fight or other feat of the saga’s main character. The heroism of the character seems to have been established by these earlier deeds. In this way, object missions can be seen as more advanced, as no character in the corpus takes on an object mission as his initial quest.

5.5 Fate and foresight

Inevitability and submitting to circumstances are elements that occur in many sagas across the fornaldarsǫgur. To make these terms palpable, I will first approach the concept of fate, thereafter foresight will be discussed in order to assess how valuable this category is alongside the aforementioned factors.

Fate or destiny play a large role in the corpus. This needs to be seen as a separate type of motivation, as it is generally unexpressed and remains to be interpreted by an audience. It is nonetheless a form of motivation. It requires self-restraint and courage from the character in question and can therefore perhaps be seen as mark of heroism.

Fate guiding the entire storyline is shown in Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Oddr’s life and death are dictated by a visiting vǫlva. Oddr naturally tries to circumvent his prophecy. The story ends when Oddr decides to visit his homestead Hrafnista in Norway and dies in the way predicted by the vǫlva.128 Of similar calibre is Norna-Gests þáttr, wherein it is Gestr who is fated to die when a specific candle is lit. Gestr himself says he wishes to live for a short while, and the king lights the candle and Gestr dies.129 Other stories

126 Ibid., I 20-24. 127 Ibid., I 395, IV 326, III 354, IV 305, II 377. 128 Ibid., II 208-209, 338-363. 129 Ibid., I 333-340.

ending with characters accepting their death are Yngvars saga víðfǫrla, Ragnars saga loðbrókar and Gautreks saga.

In the first of these stories, Yngvarr and his men contract a deadly disease from women. Yngvarr shows agreeable acceptance that his men interacted with these women after he told them not to.130 Secondly, it is Ragnarr who loses his life in Ragnars saga loðbrókar. At this point in the story, he had lost a battle against Ella, the king of England. He was captured and Ella wanted to know his name. Ragnarr is killed when he refuses to reveal his identity to Ella.131 Gautreks saga features the death of king Víkarr by Starkaðr Stórvirksson. Starkaðr, who is Víkarr’s foster brother, ends up attending a meeting of the Old Norse gods. Óðinn and Þórr tell him to kill Víkarr. Starkaðr is justifiably hesitant yet is told by the gods to not go against fate, resulting in Víkarr’s death.132

Of these three stories, it is only Yngvars saga víðfǫrla that finishes after the character is dead. The other two sagas continue on, with the death being at around two- thirds of the storyline. This seems to be a more common pattern, as Vǫlsunga saga follows this line as well. Herein it is Sigurðr who accepted an early death when collecting the gold which Fáfnir was protecting, as the gold itself was cursed. Sigurðr is subsequently killed on behalf of Brynhildr. Despite Sigurðr killing his attacker, he is unable to avoid his death.133 Though the story outlines that his death was the result of the quarrel between Sigurðr’s wife Guðrún and Brynhildr, his fate was sealed when he killed the dragon.

Foresight is a quality needed to obtain knowledge. It is only Hrólfr himself who acquires foresight from Hreggviðr in Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga. In all other cases it is presented by other characters. Examples of stories comprising direct foresight include Ǫrvar-Odds saga, Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka and Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. Hjǫrleifr konungr is the one who receives prophetic verses sung to him by a merman after he makes it known that he is aware of future events in Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka.134 Hringr

130 Ibid., II 439-445. 131 Ibid., I 265-269. 132 Ibid., IV 28-31. 133 Ibid., I 150-156, 178-209. 134 Ibid., II 102-103.

konungr’s wife also shows foresight in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar. This foresight causes her to prevent Gautrekr and Hringr from fighting. Instead, she tells Hringr to ask for Hrólfr in their fosterage, solidifying a friendly bond between the two men.135 Lastly, Svanhvít in Hrómundr saga Gripssonar helps her brother Hrómundr with her foresight considering the evil Váli and Bíldr.136

Most foresight in the fornaldarsǫgur is expressed by females and non-human characters. An exception is Ívarr, who in Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum í Dana og Svíaveldi receives a dream that is interpreted for him by his foster-father Hǫrðr.137 Foresight is more commonly expressed through indirect prophetic dreams rather than directly voiced. These dreams are held as true and are taken seriously, yet are not known until told to another character, and the dreamer chooses this interpreter themselves. Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra includes Ingibjǫrg, who experiences a prophetic dream. She chooses to not tell her maidens but rather her foster-father Þorfiðr jarl. In turn, he tells her that what she dreamt means that war is coming.138 Other prophetic dreams are experienced by Ingigerðr in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and Auður from Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum í Dana og Svíaveldi.139

Lastly, an interesting mix of foresight and fate is expressed in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. The character Blindr inn illi is introduced as a wicked wizard in service of Haldingr konungr. Blindr is able to tell Haldingr konungr about his seven dreams the next winter, and the king interprets them as dooming and says they mean Blindr will be hanged.140 This prophecy becomes a reality when Óláfr konungr attacks Haldingr konungr. Hrómundr, who is fighting alongside Óláfr konungr, kills Haldingr konungr and his followers in this epic battle and Blindr is subsequently bound and hanged.

Other earlier mentioned instances such as Yngvars saga víðfǫrla show acceptance of fate, yet no sign of foresight. In most cases of foresight the characters involved show a defiance against the prophecy. Generally, foresight is an interesting factor to assess the corpus with, and the way characters handle the information can

135 Ibid., IV 59-60. 136 Ibid., II 414. 137 Ibid., I 346-347. 138 Ibid., IV 289-291. 139 Ibid., IV 71, I 342-344. 140 Ibid., II 417-421.

provide more interesting insights into the depth of the character and the way the author wants to portray the character to his audience.

5.6 A note on motivation

When looking at the motivation of the characters involved in a certain mission, it is important to note something other than the direct or indirect objective of that mission. Rather, one should include a more personal dichotomy, namely that of internal and external motivation. The importance of the dichotomy lies in recent research that is starting to delve into not only the individual but the personal and internal elements that are sometimes displayed in the sagas, more often than not between the lines.141 I will attempt to assess what can be seen from this in the corpus, as well as underline future opportunities.

Whilst the mission goal can be seen as a form of external motivation, it does not cover this all-important dichotomy, as the goal might be a result of internal motivation after all. I propose we can make a distinction between missions that are undertaken because of one character’s own motivation and missions that are undertaken because of outside motivation. Within this last category, several varieties could be explored further. There are characters who have a choice between the mission and death, whereas other characters find motivation through their bond with another character. It is due to the successful completion of most missions that one might misinterpret the motivation of the mission-giver with that of the executor. Indeed in multiple cases the origin of the motivation seems to be blurred or otherwise compromised and any type of categorization will be flawed.

Within the ordered mission, the character often seems to adapt to the situation and flourish nonetheless, which could point towards an internalization. Attack and

141 Sif Rikharðsdóttir, "Translating Emotion. Vocalisation and embodiment in Yvain and Ívens saga," in Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature. Body, Mind, Voice, ed. Frank Brandsma, Carolyne Larrington and Corinne Saunders (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2015), 161-180. Carolyne Larrington, "Learning to Feel in the Old Norse Camelot?" Scandinavian Studies 87, no. 1 (2015): 74-94. Edel Porter and Teodoro Manrique Antón, "Flushing in anger, blushing in shame: Somatic markers in Old Norse emotional expressions," Cognitive Linguistic Studies 2, no. 1 (2015): 24-49.

revenge missions are motivated by the individual or a larger concept such as family honour, and define a successful ending as the death of certain characters. In other missions, notably the marriage mission, the motivation is largely one-sided and one is unable to decipher if the woman wants to marry. Consent is a recurrent theme in the promises that fathers in the sagas make to their daughters, yet lacks reflection during the implementation.

Future research into this area of study can reveal how emotion is used by the authors of the sagas. One could think of what words are used to describe it and to what avail this is done, as well as possibly help create more nuance within some seemingly archaic mission structures by expanding on individual and internal desires and reasons. Opportunities also lie in a deeper exploration of the externally motivated mission and the annexation of the same motivation by multiple characters.

6 Functions and future of the mission motif

Several functions can be attributed to the mission motif. One of the most prominent is that the motif highlights both known and unknown parallels within a variable corpus. Knowing how diverse the fornaldarsǫgur are, it seems interesting if not desirable to be able to categorize the missions present in the corpus, albeit rudimentarily. One could be critical of the added value of a categorization that is largely rudimentary. The difficulties of any type of categorization can be seen in the research presented in this thesis. Not only does one need to take into account all aspects that deal with creational conditions, such as authorship, general conventions, personal style, motivation and truthfulness, but also with the text itself. Uncertainty regarding missions within the text can be the result of a minimalistic style of writing, either by the scribe or by larger literary conventions. Ambiguity is perhaps the result of a mistake in the original writing or subsequent copies, or may stem from certain underlying expectations from contemporary or current readers. Modern audiences including scholars are different from the intended and contemporary audience. Therefore, they can misread and misinterpret the text and its negative space.

It may seem the easiest option to hold the scribe accountable for most irregularities or otherwise seemingly unexplainable elements. However, these irregularities could be due to a multitude of other factors, such as a change in taste from the audience or the scribe’s patron, the continued influence of the oral tradition and oral culture which influenced what was written down. It can be argued that due to the existence of unclear motifs and gaps in the missions, the clarifying properties of the motif approach are rather limited. There will always be instances that cannot be categorized. Because of the inevitability of the scenario wherein not everything will fit any single approach, it can be concluded that insight into the corpus with this method cannot be expected to yield satisfactory results. This conclusion forcefully denies clarity as being one of the functions of the methodology. As outlined earlier, insight has been gained from previous and similar research into different areas. The assumption that the same would be the case for the fornaldarsǫgur is compelling, yet unjust.

The question remains whether one can distinguish any other function from the approach at hand. I would like to argue in favour of an experimental function. It is result-driven research that needs to be regarded as a true pitfall. Not all research, in fact almost no scholarship, has led to tangible results, as this was not its intended aim. Once released from an unnecessary focus on results, the systematic missions expose a function as topic of discussion. As a topic, systematic approaches could perhaps fit into the larger debate regarding the genre of the fornaldarsǫgur. Scholarship on structural approaches from sociology and anthropology and their subsequent adaption into the field of medieval Scandinavia show that there are many more things to discover there. Admittedly this is not an immediately exciting endeavour, yet is intriguing.

In a larger way, the mission motif can be used to say something about the Icelandic society around the time when the sagas were written down. This can be seen as the most interesting function. Following the thoughts of Torfi Tulinius outlined earlier, I propose that seemingly mechanistic and even archaic patterns within the texts and throughout the corpus are of the utmost interest when looking at the literary milieu in which the stories were written down. The question arises to what extent contemporary literature provides an insight into a society. Research stemming from this viewpoint may result in extended discussions on the relationship between the author and imagined or real audiences. Furthermore, the audience is an understood or assumed element. Realistically, this only leaves the scribe as a societal factor with all accompanying limitations, such as his gender and his elevated social position. The societal conditions under which fornaldarsǫgur came about can be approached through the evolution within traditions. Assuming evolution can be realized by recognizing elements such as scribal trends, wishes of the patron and what society wants to hear or preserve, Torfi re-centralizes the audience as viable second party in the aforementioned dichotomy between author and audience. In doing so, he revealed the reconstructive function of the mission motif in the way that literary patterns can assist in attempts to reconstruct previous times.142

142 Torfi Tulinius, The matter of the North. The rise of literary fiction in thirteenth-century Iceland (Odense: Odense University Press, 2002), 36. [To grasp the meaning that an author gives a story, it is therefore important to know the world of the audience]

Perhaps a more fundamental function, the mission motif can be extended to other saga corpuses including Riddarasǫgur or Íslendingasǫgur, or contemporary literature in for instance Ireland or England. A sizable problem in this is the lack of any type of unifying standard. Research like this will likely lead to projects that far exceed the workload for any single individual. This could mean the birth of large undertakings spanning across multiple researchers as well as research fields, perhaps in similar vein to the overarching books discussed earlier in the thesis. In the chapter “Stand der Forschung”, it was shown that larger projects are undertaken in the current century, yet variety rather than unification seems to be given more priority. This does not mean that there is no further application for works that have a similar standard, but it does mean that this is not requested or seen as desirable. In order for the type of research like the one outlined here to reach its full potential, the same methods need to be used, upheld and safeguarded throughout. Whilst recognizing the value of the research mentioned, it seems interesting to implement unifying standards amongst scholars. These scholars could be active in the same field instead of expanding into affiliated fields of research.

In terms of function, there seem to be multiple potentially viable functions which the motif approach can take. One question still remains, namely what the use is of applying the mission motif to the fornaldarsǫgur. It is shown by the longstanding interest in this particular saga genre and ensuing scholarship that many questions still remain surrounding the texts and their contents. Approaches that highlight unification or standardization such as the mission motif are useful. Their use lies in the way that they illuminate reasons why scholars could potentially see reasons for approaching the fornaldarsǫgur as a single genre. In doing so, the objective is not to support C. C. Rafn’s initial categorization, but rather critically expand on why current scholarship continues to see these sagas as a corpus. Attempts to seek out motifs in this saga corpus is of interest exactly because of a lack of unification. More often than not this lack was seen as an obstacle affecting results and conclusions. Notwithstanding, a scholarly gap like this is better interpreted as motivation for scholars. The gap can be interpreted as little explored territory. This territory lies between the two major debates surrounding the saga genre and the motif methodology.

It is important to now outline any future implications and possibilities. As mentioned earlier, Rosemary Power ascribed great benefit to the method’s ability to

allow a vastly different corpus such as the fornaldarsǫgur to be approached in a unifying way, whilst being sensitive to minor missions. This conclusion is no longer satisfying with regards to future research. When outlining options for future research into the same matter, the future might not look bright. Scholarship after the 1980s made a decisive turn away from structuralizing approaches. This is partly caused by the underlying unifying purpose which was not deemed wishful any longer. New goals were favoured but perhaps scholars also ran out of content to apply the approach onto.

A sizable amount of scholarship has been dedicated to both the corpus of the fornaldarsǫgur and the structured mission approach. Despite this, there is a definite future for this type of research. I see a potential contribution that research like this could make on multiple larger debates such as the one surrounding genre. These have not reached its full potential and might have become stagnant. The reasons for this have been sufficiently mentioned earlier, yet it is necessary to acknowledge possibilities for future improvement herein as well. A future of the mission motif in the fornaldarsǫgur does exist. Factors for its success include the previously mentioned standardization but also continuous interest in the topic from scholars and non-scholars alike.

My reasoning for highlighting the mission motif in this genre of sagas is not to underline possible similarities within the fornaldarsǫgur by using a method that emphasizes consolidation. Nor do I believe this method incorporates minor missions as well as divergent or unexpected elements in a sufficiently sensible way. The ultimate goal of this research was to see how useful the methodology of Rosemary Power still is. I will dwell on this goal in the following conclusion.

7 Conclusion

With regards to the research I have been attempting to execute in this thesis, several things are to be noted.

Firstly, Rosemary Power’s systematic approach is the result of her focus on the life of the hero. She indicates that his life dominates the composition and storyline and therefore the quests. Power makes it clear that as a genre, the fornaldarsǫgur show remarkably little diversity. One way of underlining this was for Power to look at the diversity amongst the heroic and female characters. According to Power the characters were very simple and represented minor variations on one basic type. A second way of emphasizing a lack of diversity was through the development of the genre. Power claimed that the stories did not become increasingly complex as could have been expected. Storylines remained simpler single strand tales throughout time. The five types of quests outlined in the dissertation are examples illuminating for the lack of variety and adherence to tradition shown throughout the corpus. However Power included speculative scholarship regarding the origin of certain literate elements at times. The aforementioned quests show little variety when Power combines the elements outlined in the quest patterns with the saga storylines. She concludes that some elements are common as they occur in most or all stories whilst others are more aberrant, as one or even none of the stories reflect that aspect.

Despite the impression one might get that Rosemary Power was rather critical of the corpus of sagas, she makes multiple conclusions that suggest quite the opposite. Fornaldarsǫgur are in Power’s opinion unjustifiably demoted from literature. The corpus should be seen as works of literature. The inclusion of a quest proved of use for a scribe who wanted to put together different materials from the sagas and simultaneously allowed further adventures to be added at any point. Romance literature caused an upsurge in the complexity of works produced, and only entered the literature when it did not pose a threat to conventions. The production of works of increased complexity ceased fairly soon after the romance works were no longer conceived as fashionable. This is proven by the simplicity of works that were produced later. Power furthermore concludes that the patterns of quests were determined by two factors: the

hero’s life pattern on the one hand and the skillset and personal taste of the scribe on the other. She sees the life of the hero as an element that is riddled with convention and tradition. Simultaneously she put forward the idea that the works largely based around the life of a hero are surprisingly simple in nature, and do not allow flexibility or free interpretation from an author.

The value of Rosemary Power’s work can be seen as positive though some criticism can be levelled against it. I will start by discussing its merits. Positive aspects of her work include the systematic approach. By looking at the sagas from a more technical viewpoint, one can keep a strong overview of the entire genre or corpus. Another positive point about the approach is that Power was able to classify individual elements either as deviant or as normative. This is something that only comes to the surface with comparative methodologies, and allows for interesting conclusions. What is most valuable however is the way Power was able to place the fornaldarsǫgur in a timeframe by describing the literary development and how the quest types came about. The division of the corpus in the quests she described logically lead her to believe in the literacy of the genre.

Power’s work can however be criticised on several points. She is vague on multiple levels, one of which is the unfounded ease with which she has chosen the different quest types. As shown in my research, some sagas do not adhere to a single type or to multiple types at the same time. Sensitivity is lacking too in the way she combines the quest patterns with the sagas. The patterns are rather limited. The way of combining the two elements does not allow for any other interpretation than whether a certain element is present in the saga or not. Critical limitations and boundaries need to be set, yet the ones Power sets are too rigid.

The valuation of Power’s dissertation, as explored in the paragraph above, has multiple consequences. Some of those can be expressed here, whereas others are topics for further research. First and foremost, it needs to be mentioned that the aforementioned insensitivity as a negative trait does not weigh up against the positive contribution of Power’s final conclusion. One of the most important consequences of her research is the way the fornaldarsǫgur are inherently connected to each other and within their time and literary development. Going all the way back to C.C. Rafn, it is

not hard to imagine the criticism that his division of the sagas into this specific genre aroused. The discussion continued for decades until the present day. Rosemary Power is one of the scholars that likely did not set out to defend the division of the corpus. However her results support underlying similarities much in line with a genre division. The fornaldarsǫgur have often been interpreted as not well suited amongst each other and therefore not worthy to be seen as a genre, yet the systematic approach has shown great overlap. The simplicity of the literary forms in which the stories appear initially is in line with literary development in Iceland. One would be able to re-establish the fornaldarsǫgur as a genre, including all the consequences that this conclusion carries with it. However, how to approach and interpret elements that do not fit or overlap it remains of great interest. Elemental interplay could be the focus of future research. Mission results presented in chapter 4.3 clearly proved that my division is merely one of many possible options. Because of this multitude of possibilities, this singular approach cannot be all-encompassing. Perfection was never the aim, and decisively has not been reached. For the many examples and instances included, there was also at least one exception. Perhaps the corpus of sagas included was too diverse. One could always find both supporting and contradicting elements.

My own research into the fornaldarsǫgur, presented in chapters 4 and 5 and Appendix A, has yielded several conclusions. The first is that there are a lot of conventional elements present in the corpus. These present themselves mostly in the realisation of the mission, and include inhibitive attitudes from minor characters, accidental first encounters with giants and murder being either the start or end of a storyline. A large number of missions end successfully, and serve the purpose of underlining the heroic nature of the main character. The types of missions themselves are largely conventional too, as very few do not fit the types of missions mentioned earlier. Notably, the relationship between mission giver and executor is conventional in the way that the giver is superior. In all the aforementioned aspects of the mission motif there are exceptions too. However, they are few and can be interpreted as variations or elaborations. Conclusively, convention can be found in every aspect of the mission motif and is dominant.

When it comes to motivation, more conventions are visible. This can be seen by the placement within the storyline, with missions for revenge commonly realised earlier

and object missions at a later stage. The recurrent presence of a royal character is conventional and indispensable in explaining why the heroic character would embark on a certain mission. Foresight in general is ill-explained, leading me to believe it is a conventional feature. Things that appear under-explained are more conventional, because they are deemed understood by the audience according to the scribe. The most notable conclusion here is that motivation as a category can be deployed, however results are in line with other categories. These results do not differ from larger or earlier results but only corroborate them.

The amount of conventionalism present in the fornaldarsǫgur goes against the previously mentioned belief that the corpus is too diverse to be considered as a singular genre. My division has shown that even with updated methodology and the addition of motivation as a category, the corpus shows large commonalities. These overlaps cannot be ignored or seen as exceptionalism, and are more important than the exceptions. I previously mentioned that for every example one could also find an exception. This remains to be true, however not to the extent I anticipated as conventions are more prevalent than expected. Future research should take this conventionalism into account before qualifying the entire corpus as incoherent, and approach the corpus without prejudice.

What can best be taken away with regards to the content I added is that the fornaldarsǫgur are to a large degree influenced by literary and societal conventions. Missions across the sagas show overlap, and variation is quite uncommon. The dichotomy between the internal and external world of the main character deserves more attention in future undertakings, as I feel that there are other divisions that might play into this angle better than the one used here.

The methodology used and referred to in this thesis was a form of a structured enquiry into the basic structure of the saga corpus, a structure Power called a quest. What is most important to take away is that the methodology is far from perfect, yet it is exactly in that imperfection where opportunities for exploration and improvement lie. With regards to the main question, it is important to describe a final evaluation of the methodology at hand. As shown throughout the section regarding scholarship after Power, the attention given to structural approaches was to a large extent based on

trends, therefore the foundation was relatively fragile and variable. It is because of the haphazard nature of scholarly attention given to the method that it is underdeveloped, specifically when set against other methodologies that have received more attention.

For the methodology to come to its full fruition, more constant attention needs to be given to methods that fall under this category. This includes looking at other methods developed by scholars working in the massive field of medieval Scandinavia. Because of the exact nature of structured approaches one could think of archaeological methods. Also methodologies originating from literature studies or several studies that centralize comparison or comparative methods come to mind. Despite the obstacles and deficiencies, the methodology has proven useful. The proof being the fact that both Power and myself were able to extract useful information from the fornaldarsǫgur. The extracted information is also easily compatible with scholarship and makes for a seemingly seamless fit within the scholarly tradition. In conclusion, structural and motivational methods, whether referred to as quests, missions or something else, open up a series of concerns that deserve more attention.

8 Bibliography

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9 Appendix A 9.1 Table of missions appearing in the fornaldarsǫgur Fornaldarsaga Mission goal Mission giver Mission executioner Result Additional remarks Gets a chair from dwarf Lítr at age 12 To attend a kings meeting Þórir Þórir and Án Þórir does not want Án to come but does so anyways Gets his nickname by refusing anything but gold from the king he's To fight Bjǫrn Ingjaldr konungr's retainer Án Bjǫrn is defeated and the brothers leave as Án fears revenge Áns saga bogsveigis staying at To kill Án Ingjaldr konungr Ívarr and later Ingjaldr konungr Án is not killed Meets Þórir which is the son he did not know he had when the boy is 18 To battle Ingjaldr konungr Án Án Án defeats Ívarr and battles Ingjaldr konungr who is successfully defeated Loyal female companion Jórunn Olíus and Alíus did not appreciate the king's valuables so he makes them prove themselves and their authenticity but Ásmundr does not know he is related to Hildibrandur To prove themselves to the king Buðli konungr Olíus and Alíus they escape and the king throws the special sword in the water Ásmundr saga kappabana Æsa apologizes afterwards To avenge her father by killing Hildibrandur Húnakappr Æsa in fagra Ásmundr Ásmundr needs to prove his manhood in order to marry Æsa instead of Eyvindr and he kills Hildibrandur and marries Marriage quest Æsa This results in outlawry because he played games too rough To seek fame Herrauðr Herrauðr After Busla appealed this is their chance to save their lives as they were about to be killed because Bósi killed Sjóðr To retrieve the vulture's egg with golden letters Hringr konungr Bósi but he is successful and they are reconciled Both of the brothers started their early life out as outlaws despite being Bósa saga og Herrauðs To help at the battle of Brávalla Dagfari and Náttfari Herrauðr and Bósi Dagfari and Náttfari are killed and the brothers are wounded very different To find Hleiðr Goðmundr konungr Godmunðr konungr He finds her with Hringr konungr who he then kills To retrieve the bride Bósi and Herrauðr Bósi and Herrauðr Smiðr locked the bride inside a harp but the brothers chased him down battle him successfully and retrieve the bride and settle down Bekkhildr is abducted and challenge turns into finding her and killing whoever took her To set a challenge for suitors for his daughters Hertryggur konungr Hertryggur konungr Success as Egill marries Bekkhildr and Ásmundr her sister Brynhildr Rescue mission for Bekkhildr Hertryggur konungr Ásmundr Ásmundr wins and Egill owes him his life To fight Egill to secure the king's favour Ásmundr egged on by Rǫgnvaldr Egill and Ásmundr Ásmundr sets out for Rǫgnvaldr's lands and then wants to go to his homeland and later kills a beserker and finds out Ásmundr already enters the story with his nickname beserkjabana instead To rescue Bekkhildr Hertryggur konungr Ásmundr Hildir took Bekkhildr and he and Egill go to her wedding with Gautr and successfully retrieve Bekkhildr of gaining it during the story Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana To go to giant land Egill Egill Egill becomes a giant's slave to save his life and later sells his eyes to regain his freedom Árán is said to eat horse meat To get his hand back Hringr konungr Egill Egill fetches three magical items but his hand is taken A helpful dwarf To gain items to save his life Egill Egill Egill attends a wedding but gets Agli's hand sown on at first and he takes revenge by killing 90 trolls at the wedding To secure inheritance and legacy and make amends Egill and Ásmundr Ásmundr and gives control of the giant world to Skrǫggi lǫgmaðr Amends are made when Egill's father and Ásmundr's fosterbrother show up at their weddings Marriage with Ingibjǫrg Friðþjófr Friðþjófr He is unsuccessful Friðþjófs saga ins frækna Remarkable little violence as Hringr is befriended before being attacked To prevent Friðþjófr from marrying Hringr Hringr Friðþjófr attacks and befriends Hringr who gives his kingdom and wife to Friðþjófr after his death To catch animals with a dog in spare time Gauti Gauti A slave killed the dog to save his garden and he is rewarded and asked to come with the king Marriage with Snotra Gauti Gauti and Snotra Snotra's parents are dying and she refuses to leave her family yet she births their son Gautrekr Avenge his father Víkarr Víkarr Víkarr kills Herþjófr who killed his father Haraldr At the end of the saga the fosterbond between Refr and Neri is broken as Gautreks saga Avenge their brother Geirþjófr and Friðþjófr Geirþjófr and Friðþjófr Gautrekr and Víkarr kill Geirþjófr and pacify Friðþjófr Neri believes he no longer needs Refr To kill Víkarr the Æsir Starkaðr Stórvirksson Starkaðr kills Víkarr and becomes a fugitive Mission to bring Óláfr konungr gifts in exchange to rule his men for half a Neri Refr The mission is successful and Refr is promised Gautrek's daughter month Expedition for food Grímr Grímr and two men They get caught in a blizzard that forces them to stay in Gandvík and fight with giants and Grímr fights Hreiðarr for a Spell out of jealousy Grímhildr Grímhildr while and gets heavily wounded Gríms saga loðinkinna Avenge the spell Grímr and Lofthæna Grímr had it done Lofthæna becomes an ugly troll but Grímr breaks the spell by sleeping with her The saga ends with a geneaology Wedding Grímr and Lofthæna Grímr and Lofthæna The wedding was planned all along but the spell got in the way Duel Sǫrkvir Sǫrkvir and Grímr On a duelling island Grímr and his men kill Sǫrkvir and all the beserkers Expedition turns violent and Eiríkr konungr battles and kills Hreggviðr konungr 2 magic cloaks Expedition Eiríkr konungr Eiríkr konungr This becomes the motif for all his expeditions special horse Dúlcifal Journey until his lands are bigger than those of Sturlaugr Hrólfr egged on by Sturlaugr Hrólfr Þorgnýr jarl dies trying when he and Hrólfr invade Garðaríki dwarf Mǫndull switches loyalty from Vilhjálmr to Hrólfr when Hrólfr Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga Vow to win the woman whose hair he held or die trying Þorgnýr jarl Þorgnýr jarl and Hrólfr Hrólfr is made to lie about the feats he and Vilhjálmr perform for Gyða's hand and the betrayal is complete when spares his life and proves a faithful companion Treachery for marriage quest for Gyða Vilhjálmr Vilhjálmr and forcibly Hrólfr Vilhjálmr cuts off Hrólfr's feet and leaves him to die Hreggviðr is visited by Hrólfr three times in his grave mound and gains Avenge his father's death and win back patrimony Hrafn Hrafn and Hrólfr Successful battle at Ásatún and Hrólfr becomes king of Russia foresight and wealth Safety for the children Þorfriðr jarl Óttar jarl Ingibjǫrg and Hálfdan grow up with Óttar jarl Prophetic death dream from Ingibjǫrg Expeditions Hálfdan Hálfdan Hálfdan kills trolls and saves Hildr and has a child with his fostermother Brana Hálfdanar saga Brǫnufóstra Áki turns out treacherous and tries to get Hálfdan killed by telling Óláfr Marriage quest for Marsibil Brana Hálfdan He avenges her father by killing Soti and forgets his marriage quest but is reminded by Brana and marries Marsibil konungr that Hálfdan impregnated Marsibil Swimming contest Áki Áki and Hálfdan Hálfdan wins Eysteinn kills Hergeirr konungr and declares to marry the queen Raiding, to defeat Skúli jarl and bring back Ingigerðr konungsdóttir Eysteinn konungr Eysteinn konungr The mission is successful and Úlfkell marries Ingigerðr Spell Eysteinn konungr Úlfkell snillingr and Hálfdan Eysteinsson Úlfkell unsuccessfully tries to gain power after Eysteinn dies The spell is lifted when Skúli defeats Hárekr konungr Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar Revenge Ingigerðr Grímr and Grímr Hálfdan kills both people and a giant on the way Hálfdan is told about life-saver Grímr and his father's killer Skúli by Hriflingr and reaches the castle and avenges his Wants to know who saved his life Hálfdan Eysteinsson Hálfdan Eysteinsson Final battle is the end to most of the quests father with help from Skúli and preventing Úlfkell avenging his dishonour and marries Ingigerðr Battle Valr Valr and Kǫttr and Kisi and Gaukr and Haukr Hálfdan and Sigmunðr kill almost all the Vikings Greed and revenge Jósurr and Víkarr Jósurr and Víkarr Cycle of events predating the birth of the story's hero Prophecy from a merman Expedition to Bjarmaland Hjǫrleifr Hjǫrleifr He marries Hringja Hreiðarsdóttir who dies the next day and has a son with Æsa Hjǫrleifr is killed whilst raiding and Hildr and his sons lived with Ásmundr Raiding Hjǫrolfr Hjǫrolfr He is unsuccessful konungr Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka Raiding Hálfr Hálfr Hálfr is successful with his heroes and becomes king and raided for 18 summers Prophecy of the fall of Hálfr by Innsteinn Treachery Ásmundr konungr Ásmundr konungr Ásmundr tries to burn down the hall the men were in after pledging allegiance and Hálfr and most men die Unsuccessful baby swap by Hagný because her sons by Hjǫrr Hálfsson had Fight out of dislike Úlfr Úlfr and Útsteinn Útsteinn kills Úlfr's sons black skins Trading trip Helgi and Þorsteinn Helgi and Þorsteinn Helgi meets amazon Ingibjǫrg and gets two boxes full of gold and silver Christian influences Helga þáttr Þórissonar Check on the ship Þorsteinn Helgi and Þorsteinn Helgi adorns the ship with Ingibjǫrg's treasures but then disappears for a year Óláfr konungr and his ship mentioned in the final sentence (possibly Come back to family Ingibjǫrg Helgi Helgi left because of Guðmundr konungr and came back blind because Ingibjǫrg could not sleep with him realistic) Customary wedding pledge to marry Ingibjǫrg Angantýr Angantýr Long monologue of Hervǫru and dialogue with Angantýr Hjálmarr kills Angantýr but dies of his wounds afterwards and Ingibjǫrg dies when she saw Hjálmar's body To find happiness Hervǫru Hervǫru Heiðrekr goes out raiding every summer Hervǫru becomes Hjǫrvarðr and lives a viking life and returns when she gets tired of it Forced to leave or die Hǫfundr Heiðrekr Multiple mistresses Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks Heiðrekr decides to leave after killing his brother with magic sword Tyrfing and becomes an outlaw Quest for fame and fortune Heiðrekr Heiðrekr Helga betrays Heiðrekr Seeks advice from his father but decides to ignore it and becomes king and marries Helga Death for striking at him Óðinn Heiðrekr's slaves Heiðrekr worships Frey Heiðrekr dies, Hlǫðr attacks Angantýr with the Huns but Angantýr kills him with Tyrfing Inheritance Hlǫðr Hlǫðr and Angantýr Óðinn disguised as Gestumblindi gives riddles to Heiðrekr Hjálmþér gains an invincible tent Peace and money Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir Hjálmþér kills Kollr víking and his brother Tóki víking spell entails that Hjálmþér cannot rest before finding Hervǫr Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis To prevent marriage Konungr Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir Hjálmþér kills Núdus konungsson Hundingsdóttir except on his ship and in his special tent Anger and revenge for being hit on the nose by casting a spell Hjálmþér's stepmother Hjálmþér's stepmother Hjálmþér breaks the spell by killing the evil spirit shaped like a whale Hjálmþér kills trolls and an ox and becomes a king's retainer

Fornaldarsaga Mission goal Mission giver Mission executioner Result Additional remarks Revenge on Gautrekr for marrying Ingibjǫrg Óláfr konungr Óláfr konungr Bad blood but nothing happens Attack Hringr konungr Gautrekr konungr Gautrekr konungr attack is prevented when Hrólfr Gautreksson is taken into fostrage of Hringr konungr Bridal quest for Þornbjǫrg Ketill Hrólfr konungr unsuccessful which angers Ketill who incites revenge unsuccessfully The queen of Hringr konungr foresees the attack Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar Bridal quest for Þornbjǫrg Eirikr konungr Hrólfr konungr success and marriage Foreseeing dreams by Ingigerðr Bridal quest for Álof Ketill Ketill asks and receives help from Hrólfr and Ingjaldr and successfully marries Hrólfr undertakes Viking expeditions in between bridal quests Bridal quest for Ingibjǫrg Ásmundr Ásmundr and Hrólfr konungr they go to Ireland and Ásmundr successfully marries later gains treaure and kills a giant and a lion and beats Hárek beserk Fróði Fróði Brother Halfdan is killed and Fróði becomes the sole ruler To be the sole ruler of Denmark Reginn Reginn and Vífill and jarl Sævill sons Hroar and Helgi grow up without being found Hide Halfdan's sons Reginn Hroar and Helgi Hroar and Helgi kill king Fróði Revenge Hrókr's mother Hrókr Hroar is killed for the ring To gain a ring Helgi Helgi Hrókr is defeated but not killed Revenge Hrólfs saga kraka ok kappa hans Svipdagr Svipdagr Svipdagr kills beserks but is not rewarded properly and joins king Hrólfr To become part of king Adils' troops the brothers the brothers they gain fame and honour To experience customs of other peoples and kings and not grow old in Sweden Hvítr Hvítr Bjǫrn is enchanted and becomes a bear and is killed Vǫlva Heiðr tells Fróði that the boys are still alive Revenge for insult and jealousy of Bera Bera Bǫðvárr Bjǫrn's son kills queen Hvítr Multiple cases of trickery Revenge Bǫðvárr Hrólfr konungr Hrólfr konungr and the beserks go to Uppsala and part with Adils konungr after defeating him Helgi unknowingly falls in love with daughter Yrsa To stop paying tribute and be oppressed by Hrólfr konungr Skuldr Skuldr and Hjǫrvárðr konungr Hrólfr konungr is defeated Bǫðvárr kills a dragon Challenge Hrǫngviðr Hrǫngviðr and Kári and Ǫrnúlfr The brothers die and Hrómundr Gripsson kills Hrǫngviðr Wealth (hiding after killing a farmer's cow) Hrómundr Hrómundr and Þráinn The men leave the area in search of wealth and get caught up in other missions Hrómundar saga Gripssonar Slander Váli and Bíldr Váli and Bíldr Hrómundr kills Þráinn Þráinn is a dead king in a grave mound with magical treasures Aid brother in the army Svanhvít Hrómundr Hrómundr leaves but the trickery is discovered and Hrómundr kills Váli and Bíldr Trickery was foreseen by Svanhvít Avenge brothers Óláfr konungr Hrómundr Hrómundr takes revenge by killing Haldingr konungr Prophetic death dreams by Blíndr that came true Adventure Sigurðr Sigurðr and Illugi Success Magic spell on Gríðr and Hildur by stemother Grímhildur Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra Sleep with Hildur Gríðr Illugi Breaks spell Sigurðr marries Signý and Illugi marries Hildur Food (famine) Ketill Ketill Success Kills a dragon in his youth Fight Ketill Ketill and Gusir Ketill kills Gusir Ketils saga hængs Gains magic arrows Marriage quest for Sigríður Hallbjǫrn Ketill they bargain and marry Adventure incited by famine Oath that Ketill would not marry daughter Hrafnhildur without her consent Ketill Ketill Hrafnhildur marries Bǫðmóðr after he helped Ketill defeat Framarr Gestr tells many stories after his win Norna-Gests þáttur Wager about gold Gestr Konungsmenn Gestr wins Ends with a prophecy and dies magically Safety Heimir Heimir Heimir gets killed and Áslaug grows up as Kráka Marriage with Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr Ragnarr Ragnarr Ragnarr marries Þóra Áslaug is the daughter of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani but is also known as Kráka Ragnars saga loðbrókar Marriage with Kráka Ragnarr Ragnarr Ragnarr marries Kráka and Randalín Travel to Rome Ragnarr's sons Ragnarr's sons Ragnarr is killed by Ælla konungr in England Revenge Ragnarr's sons Ragnarr's sons Ragnarr's sons kill Ælla konungr Adventure for fame or marriage Ingólfr Sturlaugr and foster-brother They go on an adventure Fight Haraldur konungr Sturlaugr Sturlaugr fights for Haraldr konungr Ása's father Hringr jarl and Sturlaugr's foster mother Véfreyja are pulling Sturlaugs saga starfsama Marriage quest for Ása Kolr and Haraldur konungr Sturlaugr and Kolr wins and marries Ása the strings on the background Quest for the lost aurox horn Haraldur konungr Sturlaugr retrieves the aurox horn Retrieve a small stick in the lap of the king of Finnmark's daughter Sturlaugr Frosti Frosti and Mjǫll are killed by Véfreyja Ívarr konungr Auður goes abroad with all valuables Prophetic dream by Auður Expansion / greed Ívarr konungr Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum í Dana ok Svíaveldi Haralðr konungr hilditǫnn and Sigurðr hringr Ívarr takes the land Prophetic dream by Ívarr leads to the death of himself and fosterfather Honorary battle for power Haralðr konungr hilditǫnn konungr Sigurðr hringr becomes king of Sweden and Denmark Hǫrðr Adventure Sǫrli Sǫrli Helping Mána Sǫrli Sǫrli Adventures all go well Treasure hunt Mána Sǫrli Sǫrla saga sterka Plundering Sǫrli Sǫrli Reconciliation with the brothers Sǫrli Sǫrli Hǫgni initially wins the battle but a second battle is indecisive Revenge for father Hálfdan konungr Hǫgni Hǫgni they become fosterbrothers and settle down Story starts with Freyja receiving a necklace from the dwarves A test of skills Heðinn Heðinn and Hǫgni Test is taken successfully Sǫrla þáttur eða Héðins saga ok Hǫgna The battle was enchanted Retrieving Hildr and drekann Hǫgni Hǫgni Ívarr ljómi helps Heðinn to victory before killing him too Ale of forgetfulness Adventures in the past Toki Toki Tóka þáttr Tókasonar Toki is baptised He is only baptised after telling Óláfr konungr all about his adventures Baptism Toki Óláfr konungr Ale of furgetfulness Capturing the Vǫlsung gold by killing Fáfnir Sigurðr incited by Reginn Sigurðr The gold is retrieved successfully Multiple dragons Jealousy Brynhildr's mother Brynhildr Sigurðr marries Brynhildr instead of Guðrún Transgenerational feud Vǫlsunga saga Revenge Gunnarr incited by Brynhildr Hǫgni Sigurðr is killed by Hǫgni and Brynhildr dies alongside him Carving runes Revenge Guðrún Guðrún's sons Guðrún's sons die unsuccessfully Prophecy Multiple attempts to make men invincible by magic Resolve a tax dispute Óláfr konungr Yngvarr and Ǫnundr Tax dispute resolved successfully Adventure Yngvarr Yngvarr Adventure turns into river-finding mission Yngvarr's bastard son Sveinn ends up marrying Yngvarr's bethrothed Yngvars saga víðfǫrla Finding the source of three rivers Yngvarr Yngvarr Yngvarr finds the source of the rivers Silkisif Raiding until marriage Yngvarr Yngvarr Yngvarr dies after contracting sickness from women after celebrating winning from Jólfr konungr Raiding Eiríkr and Agnarr Eiríkr and Agnarr Eiríkr and Agnarr die Peace Eysteinn konungr Eysteinn konungr Ælla konungr is murdered Þáttur af Ragnars sonum Longstanding transgenerational issues in the background Revenge Ragnar's sons Ragnar's sons Ívarr becomes king of England Inheritance claims Sigurðr Sigurðr Sigurðr becomes king of Ringerike Marriage with Húnvǫr Húnvǫr through servant Eymundr Víkingr Marriage Two helpful dwarfs Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar Revenge Dís Kólsdóttir and Jǫkull Kólsson and Ógautan Dís Kólsdóttir Dís and Jǫkull are slayed and Ógautan magically dies War-waging period for 3 years Breaking the spell Ingjaldr trǫnu Ingibjǫrg free from the spell and marries Þorsteinn All revenge is against the wishes of the fathers who are blood-brothers To attend an underworld gathering Þórsteinn Þórsteinn Þórsteinn comes back with magic items and accidentally kills the king Goðrún did not want to leave her family at first but then saw her father Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns Goðmunðr wants to kill the king Goðmunðr Þórsteinn accidentally Goðmunðr is killed Agði was fated to die Viking expeditions The vǫlva Oddr Oddr goes on many adventures His death was prophecied very early on Ǫrvar-Odds saga Marriage to Silkisif Oddr Oddr After three lifetimes of Viking adventures Oddr is killed by a snake in Hrafnista Oddr unsuccessfully tried to circumvent the prophecy from happening