TEXT BY SNORRI STURLUSON IN ÓLÁFS SAGA TRYGGVASONAR EN MESTA BY ÓLAFUR HALLDÓRSSON VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2001 © 2001 Ólafur Halldórsson ISBN: 978 0903521 49 9 Published with the help of a grant from The Icelandic Research Council The Introduction has been translated by Keneva Kunz The cover design is based on a carving on a piece of wood from Bergen Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................iv REFERENCES .....................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION .................................................................................v Passages from Óláfs saga helga in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ..........vi The text of Óláfs saga helga in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ............ xiii Text from Heimskringla in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar.....................xix The first third of Heimskringla in Peder Claussøn ....................... xliv Conclusion ........................................................................................lv The compiler’s selection of material and working methods ........... lvi About this edition ..............................................................................lx MANUSCRIPT INDEX ..................................................................... lxi INDEX TO INTRODUCTION ......................................................... lxii ÓLÁFS SAGA TRYGGVASONAR EN MESTA .................................1 Text from Snorri’s separate Óláfs saga helga ....................................3 Text from Heimskringla ...................................................................21 INDEX TO TEXT ............................................................................. 155 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was largely finished in 1997, but for various reasons its final completion was delayed until the Viking Society for Northern Research agreed to publish it last autumn. I am grateful to Peter Foote for his good offices in bringing this about. Anthony Faulkes has read and corrected my manuscript and done the layout, read the proofs and prepared the work for printing. It is thanks to him and his extraordinary careful work that the book has finally appeared in print. I am also grateful to Desmond Slay, who read the first proof, for very many suggestions for improvements. I must also thank Rannsóknarrá› Íslands (Icelandic Research Council) for its help towards the completion of this work by a grant of 200,000 Icelandic krónur from the limited resources it had available for the sup- port of philological research in 1977. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 15th June 2001 Ólafur Halldórsson REFERENCES Bjarni A›albjarnarson, Om de norske kongers sagaer. Skrifter utgitt av Det norske videnskaps-akademi i Oslo. II. Hist.-filos. klasse 1936. No. 4. Oslo 1937. Jørgensen, Jon Gunnar, ‘Sagaoversettelser i Norge på 1500-tallet’. Collegium Medievale 6, 1993, 169–97. Louis-Jensen, Jonna, Kongesagastudier. Kompilationen Hulda- Hrokkinskinna. Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXXII. København 1977. Ólafur Halldórsson, ‘Sagnaritun Snorra Sturlusonar’. Snorri, átta alda minning. Reykjavík 1979, 113–38. Reprinted in Grettisfærsla. Reykjavík 1990, 376–95. Storm, Gustav, Snorre Sturlassöns Historieskrivning, en kritisk Under- sögelse. Kjöbenhavn 1873. Storm, Gustav, (ed.). P. Claussøn Friis. Samlede Skrifter. Udgivne for den norske historiske Forening. Kristiania 1881. INTRODUCTION Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta (ÓlTr) has been compiled from numerous sources, in all likelihood during the second quarter of the four- teenth century. The person who constructed the saga, the compiler, gath- ered by far the greatest part of the text from written works, sometimes copying them word for word, apart from common copyist’s errors, some- times changing the wording, sometimes adding to it, sometimes shorten- ing or merely summarising it, but there is precious little which appears to have been original writing. His model would have been the separate Óláfs saga helga by Snorri Sturluson (ÓlH) and it is not unlikely that his objec- tive in writing the saga was to honour Óláfr Tryggvason with a saga as long as the one composed by Snorri about Óláfr helgi. Most of the passages taken by the compiler from written sources can still be found preserved in manuscripts and have been published in printed editions. Some of these passages were derived from the same versions of the written sources as those preserved, or very similar ones, but where there is a difference between the text of the saga and corresponding texts in preserved sources it can indicate either that the compiler had access to a text different from the one which has been preserved in other manu- scripts, or that he has re-written the text to some extent by changing the wording and order of the material. Since, however, none of the manu- scripts which he himself used still exists, he cannot be irrefutably caught in the act, so to speak. The main sources of help in any attempt to deter- mine which deviations in the text are the direct responsibility of the com- piler are stylistic characteristics, which are highly evident in those chapters actually written by him, and a special type of deviation which appears in all the text which he has taken from written sources and is generally the result of his attempt to clarify it. The compiler’s principal source was the first third of Heimskringla (Hkr I). From this material he has put together the framework for the saga, into which he has fitted passages and chapters of other sagas, in- cluding one entire saga (Hallfre›ar saga) and a few independent tales (flættir) including, for instance, ¯gmundar fláttr dytts ok Gunnars helmings. He also had access to at least two manuscripts of ÓlH, from which he has taken on occasion a few sentences, or else individual sec- tions, even entire chapters. In the following discussion the attempt will be made to distinguish between passages which are taken from ÓlH and those taken from Heimskringla. The editions referred to and the abbreviations used for their titles are as follows: vi INTRODUCTION FlatChr: Flateyjarbók. En Samling af norske Konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre Fortællinger om Begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt Annaler. Udgiven efter offentlig Foranstaltning. I–III. Christiania 1860–68. FskFJ: Fagrskinna. Nóregs kononga tal. Udgivet for Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur ved Finnur Jónsson. København 1902–03. HkrBA: Snorri Sturluson. Heimskringla. I–III. Bjarni A›albjarnarson gaf út. Íslenzk fornrit XXVI–XXVIII. Reykjavík 1941–51. HkrFJ: Heimskringla. Nóregs konunga sƒgur af Snorri Sturluson. Udgivne for Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel nordisk Litteratur ved Finnur Jónsson. I–IV. København 1893–1901. ÓlHJH: Saga Óláfs konungs hins helga. Den store saga om Olav den hellige. Utgitt for Kjeldeskriftfondet av Oscar Albert Johnsen og Jón Helgason. Oslo 1941. ÓlOFJ: Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar af Oddr Snorrason munk. Udgivet af Finnur Jónsson. København 1932. ÓlTrEA: Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta. Udgivet af Ólafur Halldórsson. Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A, vols. 1–3. København 1958–2000. PCl: Snorre Sturlesøns Norske Kongers Chronica. Udsat paa Danske/ aff H. Peder Claussøn. Kiøbenhafn 1633. Skjd.: Den norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning. Udgiven af Kommissionen for det Arnamagnæanske Legat ved Finnur Jónsson. A. Tekst efter Håndskrifterne. I–II. B. Rettet Tekst. I–II. København 1912–15. References to manuscripts are made in the same manner and using the same abbreviations for names and numbers as in these editions. PASSAGES FROM ÓLÁFS SAGA HELGA IN ÓLÁFS SAGA TRYGGVASONAR The opening chapters of the saga, from ch. 1 to ch. 12, have been gathered mainly from Ynglinga saga, Hálfdanar saga svarta and Haralds saga hárfagra in Heimskringla, but texts from ÓlH are inserted in these chap- ters in eight places: ÓlTrEA I 1.1–6 ‘Haralldr — dæma’, 4.12–14 ‘HAralldr — sinum’, 4.17–6.19 ‘hann — sinna’, 7.8–18 ‘Eiriki — til’, 10.11–11.2 ‘ROgnualldr — Ia›ri’, 14.5–7 ‘™ — ambatt’, 14.19–20 ‘hæ›iligt — son’ and 17.11–18.5 ‘Eptir — konungs.’ Although it is obvious in most places where the text is derived from, there are some passages that are very similar in ÓlH and Hkr where it can be difficult to determine which of the sources the compiler used. The passage I 6.1–19 ‘fla — sinna’ is practically identical in Hkr (HkrFJ I 147.12–148.15) and ÓlH (ÓlHJH 8.1–18), but the deviations from the text as in Hkr common to both ÓlH and ÓlTr indicate clearly that the compiler took this chapter from his manuscript of ÓlH. The first sentence of this chapter provides sufficient evidence of this (in the following ex- amples references give the page and line numbers in HkrFJ I, then the INTRODUCTION vii Kringla reading before the square bracket and the common ÓlH and ÓlTr reading after it): I 147.12–13 Haraldr konungr var flá l. at aldri, er synir hans váru margir rosknir, en sumir dau›ir] fiá er hann var sextøgr at aldri, flá (÷ ÓlTr) váru margir synir hans alrosknir, en sumir dau›ir. The section I 7.8–18 ‘Eiríki — til’ is also practically identical in Hkr and ÓlH, but where there are differences the following readings are common to ÓlH and ÓlTr (Hkr] ÓlH, ÓlTr): I 148.21 hann sjálfr] sjálfr Haraldr konungr. 149.4 ríki] + til forrá›a. 5 sagt er] sƒgur eru til. There is, on the other hand, one reading in ÓlH which has no parallel in Hkr or ÓlTr: I 148.21 hans dag] dag hans ÓlTr, Haralld konung ÓlH. Another reading in ÓlTr points to a connection