Preface

THE present volume of the Saga Library contains two important sagas — the " Eyrbyggja saga," which we call the E redwellers' story, and the " HeiSarviga saga/' the Story of the Heath-slayings ; the former a complete, the latter a fragmentary record of the events to which they refer.

i. THE ERE-DWELLERS' STORY is in character a mixture of a saga, or dramatically told tale, and a chronicle record of events outside its aim and purpose. It differs from all other Icelandic sagas in having for a central hero a man of peace, yet at the same time revengeful and ruthless when he sees his opportunity, always cool and collected, dissimulating, astute, scheming, and unmistakably hinted at as one devoid of courage. Snorri the Priest figures throughout the story up to the death of the nobly chivalrous Arnkel, when we except his clever outwitting of his cowardly uncle and stepfather, Bork the Thick, as distinctly a secondrate chief, above whom Arnkel towers to such an extent that all the interest of the narrative centres in him. Even when Arnkel is removed in a most ungallant fashion, Steinthor of Ere bids fair to eclipse Snorri altogether; and it is first when peace

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is made after the fights in Swanfirth and Swordfirth, a peace to which Steinthor held loyally ever afterwards, being a man of wisdom and moderation, that Snorri becomes the real central figure of the saga, and remains so to the end. Yet this prestige he owed entirely to the alliance of his turbulent and, at times, highly disrespectful fosterbrothers, the sons of Thorbrand of Swanfirth, who, on the ground of his want of courage and directness, goaded him first unto the slaying of Arnkel, and again into the second brunt of the battle of Swanfirth.

The interest of the narrative centring thus rather in groups of actors than in single persons, when we except Arnkel and Biorn the Broadwickers' Champion, who both drop out of the story long before it comes to an end, the author himself has looked upon it as a historia tripartite!,, in calling it at the end, the Story of the Thorsnessings, the Ere-dwellers, and the Swanfirthers, under which names we find it variously referred to in Icelandic writings of olden times. Curiously enough, the popular mind has preferred to connect it exclusively with the family which takes the least prominent part in it; hence Eyrbyggja saga, or Eredwellers' story, is the title given to it in all the MSS. which contain it.

Between our saga and the Landnamab6k there is a close connection. The genealogies agree absolutely in both records, so far as they go in our saga ; and in this respect the Landnama is unquestionably the source. The author of our story himself even hints as much. In chap, vii., men-

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tioning that Thorolf Mostbeard married in old age a woman called Unn, he goes out of his way to state that Ari the Learned does not, as others do, mention her among the children of Thorstein the Red ; and this is just what the Landnama does not do.

In the biographical notices which in both works are attached to the names of the first settlers and their immediate descendants, a distinct unity of tradition is clearly traceable, yet the discrepancies are such as scarcely to warrant the supposition that our saga drew, except to a slight amount, its information from Landndma, while, on the other hand, the Landnama has, at least in one instance, drawn for information on the Ere-dwellers' story.

It should be borne in mind that the Landnama, as we now have it, is the work of no less than five authors. Originally it was written by two contemporaries, Ari and Kolskegg, each popularly named " hinn froSi," the learned, the latter writing the history of the land-takes for the quarter of the Eastfirths, the former doing all the rest. This joint work was again edited, with some additions no doubt, by Styrmir hinn fr6*8i, prior of ViSey, ob. 1245, and later by Sturla Thordson, ob. 1284, the author of Islendingasaga, the great history of the Sturlung period, and other works. These two editions of the original work, independent of each other, Hawk "the justiciary," son of Erlend, ob. 1 334, amalgamated into one book in such manner that whatever was stated more fully in either copy he embodied in his own, adding apparently nothing beyond bringing his own genealogy down to

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date. How far the two thirteenth century editors respectively added to and interpolated the original work, beyond augmenting it with their own genealogies down to their lifetime, is now difficult to decide in many cases ; in some the interpolations are easily traced.

Naturally it is mostly in the first twelve chapters of our saga that the affinity with Landnama shows itself, they being concerned with the first settlers and their immediate descendants that come into our story. The chief discrepancies between the two records on these people may be briefly noticed. Concerning the westernmost of these families, the Ere-dwellers, our saga only knows that Vestar Thorolfson brought his old father with him to Iceland, settled land east, or, as other recensions of it, probably more correctly, have it, west of Whalefirth, dwelt at Ere, and had a son, Asgeir, who dwelt there after him (ch. vii.). 'But the Landnama, ii. 9, knows that Vestar also had for wife Svana, daughter of Herrod, that he settled the lands of Ere and those of Kirkfirth,1 and that he

1 Vestar's nearest neighbour to the west was Heriolf, son of Sigurd Swinehead, and he, according to Landndma, took land between Bulands-head and KirkjufjorSr, Kirkfirth (ii. 9, p. 91). This, according to Landndma's constant method, means that Heriolf made his own the western, Vestar the eastern littoral of this firth, the natural boundary between their landtakes being the river, or one of the rivers, formed by the watershed of the valley which stretched inland up from the bottom of the bay. The locality of this bay is much in dispute. The name itself cannot be the original one, for both the neighbouring settlers were heathens, coming from Norway. That the description of the landtake of these two settlers is due to Ari the Learned seems removed beyond all doubt. He descended from the

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and his father were laid in howe at Pateness, so called, no doubt, after Vestar's father, whose name

Broadfirthers, lived the first seven years of his life at Holyfell, and spent, in all probability, the largest part of it in the Snowfellness district. He must, therefore, have had it on good authority that the landtakes of the two settlers met in Kirkfirth. Now the firth meant by Landnama seems to be none other than the broadest bay on the northern littoral of Snowfellness, now called GrundarfjorSr (Groundfirth), the name being derived from a homestead at the bottom of it called Grund. This name of the bay, however, does not occur in the Landnama, nor in any of the sagas, and yet it is old, being found in an index of Icelandic bays dating from about 1300, where KirkjufjorSr and Grundarfjor^r are entered as two separate bays (Kalund, ii. 359-72 ; Sturlunga, ii. 474). On the western side of GrundarfjorSr there are localities named from Kirkja, such as Kirkjufell (Kirkfell), a name given both to a mountain and a homestead there ; and it seems but natural that he, who first gave this name to the mountain and the homestead, gave also the name Kirkjufjor^r to the bay, which Kirkfell mountain bounds by the west. Kalund is inclined, on account of the two separate entries in the above-mentioned index, to see Kirkjufjor^r in one or other of the two small creeks that cut in on either side of the peninsula-formed mountain of Kirkjufell, but both seem too insignificant for a natural boundary of landtakes. The most natural construction of the Landnama text is, that Vestar, who took to himself the peninsula called Onward-Ere (short : Ere), on the eastern side of Grundarfjor^r, let its western boundary be the river that runs into the easternmost bight of the bottom of the bay, and that Heriolf s landtake began on the western bank of that river. But this assumption involves, first, that the original name of GrundarfjorSr was either lost, or was indeed Grundarfjorftr until a Christian called it KirkjufjorSr; that the latter name prevailed for a while, till it again gave way to the original Grundarf jorftr, and that later on people made out of two names for one and the same firth two different firths. That so considerable a bay as GrundarfjorSr should not be mentioned or noticed at all in Landnama is, in the highest degree, improbable.

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was Thorolf Bladderpate. Here our saga would seem to be an abbreviated record of Landnama, which, at any rate in this case, has not drawn its information from the E re-dwellers' story.

The nearest settler to Vestar on the east was Audun Stoti, who took to himself the lands of Lavafirth, and about whom Landnama has interesting things to relate. But in our story he is only mentioned in passing as the father-in-law to Thorlak Asgeirson of Ere (ch. xii.), the reason being, no doubt, that he plays no part in any of the events related in the saga.

In what our saga has to tell of Biorn the Easterner, the nearest eastern neighbour to Audun Stoti, it seems to be an independent record of Landnama altogether, and even partly in conflict with it. Our saga makes Biorn remain with his father-in-law, Earl Kiallak of Jamtaland, till his death, and then go to Norway to take to himself his father's lands. By that time enmity had arisen between Hairfair and Flatneb, and the former had confiscated the latter's estates. Biorn drives the king's bailiffs away, and the latter has him declared outlaw throughout Norway under observance of lawful proceedings. But the Landnama, though agreeing here as everywhere else with our saga as to the genealogy, makes Biorn overtake his father's lands, when the latter took command of the expedition against the Western Isles, and makes Hairfair, on hearing of Flatneb's defection, drive Biorn out of his patrimony. Both records seem independently derived from one common tradition. Biorn's nearest neighbour to the east

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. was Thorolf Mostbeard. In the account of his emigration to Iceland our saga gives us fuller information than the Landnama, which, for instance, knows nothing of Thorolf 's consulting the oracle of Thor as to the advisability of either making peace with the king or leaving the land ; nor do'es the Landnama give any description of his preparation for the journey, which is so graphically detailed in our saga (ch. iv.). Much, on the other hand, of what the Landnama (ii. 12, p. 96-99) has to say about Thorolf and his son, Thorstein Codbiter, seems to be an abbreviated record of our saga (chs. ix., x.), and is clearly interpolated, since the story of the fight between Thorstein Codbiter and the Kiallekings is inserted into the story of Thorolf before Thorstein is even properly introduced as his son. This insertion is due to the later editors of Landnama, of course.

By our saga it would seem that Thorolf Haltfoot came out to Iceland for the first time when he took up his abode with his mother, and fought the duel with Ulfar the Champion, but the Landndma states that he came first out with his mother, and together with her stayed the first winter at the house of his uncle, Geirrod of Ere, and the next spring went abroad again, and betook himself to viking business, from which he did not return till after the death of his mother (ii. 13) ; this record also (ii. 12) knows that Thorgeir, the son of Geirrod, was by-named Staple, Kengr, of which our saga, though mentioning Thorgeir as an ally of Codbiter in the Thing-fight, knows nothing.

ii. b '

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On the other hand, it seems obvious that Landnama's digression (ii. 13, p. 101) with regard to the squabble between Arnbiorn of Combe and Thorleif Kimbi in Norway, with its sequel at the Thorsness Thing in Iceland, out of which eventually grew the fights at Swanfirth and Swordfirth, is an incorporation from our saga.

It will thus be seen that, while our saga depends on Ari entirely for its genealogy and chronology (see the chronological list at the end of the Preface), the biography of both records is derived either from a common tradition, or is one of interdependence between both.

As to the time, when our saga was written, two learned critics, Vigfusson, in the preface to his edition of it, 1864, pp. xii, xiii, and Konrad Maurer, Germania, x. 487, 488, have limited the period within which it could have been penned to the thirty years between 1230-1260 (or 1262), chiefly on the following grounds. At the end of the story Gudny, Bodvars daughter, the mother of the famous Sturlusons, is introduced as having witnessed the digging-up and transference to a new church of the bones of Snorri. Gudny died in 1 22 1, and though it is not stated that she was dead, when the sagaman writes, we still gather the impression that it is tacitly given to be understood. Before the death of this lady, therefore, the saga could not have been written. On the other hand, we read in ch. iv., " To that temple must all men pay toll and be bound to follow the temple-priest in all farings, even as now are Thingmen of chiefs ; " and further, in ch. x., " Then they

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moved the Thing up the ness (inn f nesit) where it now is." Further still, after the settlement of the blood-suit for Arnkel, which gave general dissatisfaction, the plaintiffs being only women, we are informed that, " The rulers of the land made this law, that for the time to come no woman and no man under sixteen winters old should be suitors in a blood-suit. And that law has ever been holden to since " (ch. xxxviii.).

These quotations prove really conclusively that in the author's time, and when he wrote down the saga, the old constitution of the commonwealth was still in full force : Thingmen owing the old allegiance to their goSi, or chief ; Things being still under the jurisdiction of the goSar, and women being still excluded from being suitors in a bloodsuit, a restriction of woman's right unknown, as Maurer concisely puts it, to Norwegian law, and having no place in the two codes JarnsfSa and J6nsb6k, the first codes introduced in Iceland after the subjection of the island to the Norwegian kkig. Hence it follows that our saga could not have been written down after the downfall of the constitution of the old commonwealth, 1262.

But we are of opinion that the limitation of the period within which our saga was written may be greatly narrowed yet.

Hitherto the critics have left untouched the question where our saga was written ; but for the answer to that question it contains itself an important piece of evidence. First, it may be observed that the topography of our saga is so absolutely perfect, that the author in no single

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instance is ever at fault. Considering that the localities of' the saga are to outsiders about the most intricate of all localities dealt with in Icelandic sagas, on account of the many narrow and close-set arms of the sea that stretch into the littoral, it is obvious that an author who never fails in giving each its true bearing must have lived and moved in the locality itself.

In ch. viii., p. 9, 20-22, of Vigfusson's edition, the latest and best, we read — " Arnkell het son hans, en GunnfrtfSr d6ttir, er atti J?orbeinir a J?orbeinisstoSum INN a Vatnshalsi inn fra DrapuhlfS " : his son was called Arnkel, but his daughter Gunnfrid, whom Thorbein of Thorbeinstead up on Waterneck east from Drapalithe had to wife (ch. viii., p. 13, of our trans.). Here it is obvious that the first " inn " gives the direction to Thorbeinstead from the place where the author was at the time he penned these words, just as the second " inn " gives the direction in which Thorbeinstead lies from Drapalithe.

Observe, that in this passage no event or movement from one named place to another named place is in question ; but the case is one of stationary condition at both termini of the direction line, of which the terminus a quo is not named, and this is just what makes all the difference here. The first " inn " is not wanted for any topographical purpose ; without it the statement would be just as clear and intelligible as it is with it ; it only serves to throw light upon the bearing of the writer's home to Thorbeinstead, and has dropped from his pen unawares from the force of daily

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habit, and being an unconscious utterance becomes thereby all the more important in evidence.

Used for topographical purposes " inn " in our saga means : i, east, if the direction be from west to east ; 2, south, or up, when the starting-point of the direction is near the sea, and the objectpoint lies in a landward spot on or east of the meridian of the starting-point When, therefore, the author penned the words in question, he unconsciously designated his spot as being either west or north of Thorbeinstead. We can think of no place west of Thorbeinstead likely to have been an alma mater of a saga writer ; but north of it such a place is found at once in the monastery of Holyfell.1 That we maintain is the very place to which the author of the E re-dwellers' story points by his unconscious but fortunate slip.

The author of our story then, being an inmate of the monastery of Holyfell, it is interesting to inquire who among the community of that place in the period from 1221-1260 may be singled out as the likeliest for such a literary enterprise as the composition of a saga.

Out of the monastery of Flatey, which had been founded by Abbot Ogmund Kalfson, A.D. 1172, arose, on the transference of it over to the continent, the monastery of Holyfell, in 1184. The

1 To this day the people of the all but sea-locked Thorsness invariably use the preposition " inn " to define the direction from the ness south or up to the inland localities of the parish of Holyfell, Helgafells-sveit, which lie on or east of the meridian of the ness : " fara inn aft Drdpuhlift, inn i sveit, inn aft Ulfarsfelli" = to fare in to, up to Drapalithe, in to or up into the parish, up to Ulfarsfell, etc.

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fourth abbot of the foundation was Hall Gizurson, who ruled the house for five years, 1221-1225, when he left the place, to take over the abbacy of Thickby, J?ykkvibaer, in eastern Iceland, where he died 1230. He was the son of Gizur Hallson, who by his contemporaries was regarded as the most accomplished man in Iceland. This is the character given him by his younger contemporary, Sturla Thordson, the historian (1214-1284) : " He was both wise and eloquent ; he was marshal to l£ing Sigurd, the father of King Sverrir. Of all clerks who ever have been in Iceland, he was the best. Often he went abroad, and was more highly accounted of in Rome than any man of Iceland kin had ever been before him, by reason of his learning and doings. He knew mucl) far and wide about the southern lands, and thereon he wrote the book which is called Flos peregrinationis " (Sturlunga, ii. 206). This Gizur was the grandson of that Teit, son of Bishop Isleif, who set up the school of Hawkdale, which was an outgrowth of the cathedral school of Skalaholt that his father had organized. Gizur seems in his time to have been the most influential man in Iceland, and was LogsogumaSr, 1181-1200. His three sons were : Magnus, Bishop of Skalaholt, 1216-1236; Thorvald, the founder and first ruler of the monastery ofViSey, 1226-1235; and Hall, the Holyfell abbot. Hall must have received at the school of Hawkdale or Skalaholt the best education that was to be obtained in the land at that time. And it is clear that he must have enjoyed high esteem among his countrymen, since, when his father resigned the

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Speakership-at-law in 1200, Hall was elected his successor. He, however, resigned the office after nine years' tenure, and became a monk, which shows that studious life was more to his taste than the turmoil of public affairs. Among the congregation of Holy fell during the period within which the composition of Eyrbyggja saga must fall, there is, so far as we know, none to be named at all beside Hall as in the least likely to have undertaken the task. And since, on the author's own showing, the saga must have been composed at Holyfell, it is but an obvious inference that it must owe its existence to the only man who can be supposed to have written it. In point of time there are no obstacles at all in the way of the saga's having been written during the period of Hall's abbotship. Thus we consider that a strong case is established in favour of Abbot Hall Gizurson being indeed the author of Eyrbyggja saga. Assuming such to be the case, we can regard Hall as a transplanter of the Skalaholt-Hawkdale school of learning to Holyfell, and thus Vigfusson's talk about the sagaschool of the Broadfirthers, which was somewhat distrustfully dealt with by Maurer twenty-seven years ago, finds a corroboration which Vigfusson himself never dreamt of.

It is abundantly evident, that the author of our saga had access to a library of sagas, which is saying as much as that the Ere-dwellers' story was put to writing in a monastery. This library he seems to have examined with the one main view of at least making note of everything which he found bearing on the life of the principal hero, Snorri.

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This research of his has led exactly to the result that was to be expected. While he seems entirely unacquainted with Snorri's important share in the terrible affairs of Nial and his sons, A.D. 1011-1012, and consequently had no Nial's saga to refer to; and was equally ignorant of Snorri's interest in the affairs of Grettir the Strong, hence had no Grettir's saga at hand ; while, in fact, sagas not specially connected with the Westfirthers' quarter seem to have been beyond his reach ; those that bore on men and matters of Broadfirth, and the Westland generally, he had pretty completely at his command. For the fifty years that Broadfirth had boasted of a seat of learning in the monastery of Flatey- Holyfell, when Hall Gizurson became abbot, we may be sure that the history of its highborn chieftains, some of whom were really great and noble men, had, in particular, arrested the attention of the brotherhood. And it may fairly be assumed that such a work as Brand the Learned's BreiSfirSinga kynsloS (Broadfirthers' race) early found its way into the library of the monastery. Out of the sagas our author drew upon for information, he only mentions two by their titles, the saga of the Laxdalemen (Laxdsela saga), with the events of which Snorri was so intimately connected, and the saga of the Heath-slay ings (HeiSarviga saga), which, by a mistake, as it were (see Introduction to the Story of the Heath-slayings), spun itself out of Snorri's ignoble revenge for the killing of his wrong-doing father-in-law, Stir. It is not on that account, however, that our author brings in a mention of this saga, but he does it for the pur-

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pose of exhibiting Snorri's interest in Bardi, whose affairs, after the Heath-slaughters, but for Snorri's intervention, might have taken a very serious turn, not only for Bardi himself and his allies, but even for the general peace of the land.

Of unnamed sagas our author has known undoubtedly that of Thord the Yeller, which is mentioned as a special saga in Landnama (ii. 16) ; this is to be inferred, not only from the part that Thord takes in the affairs between the Thorsnessings and the Kiallekings, but especially from the reference (p. 18) the author makes to the constitutional law which Yeller carried through A.D. 965 (see vol. i., p. xxxi foil.), full thirty years later than the religious fight at Thorsness Thing took place. This, of all sagas, was the one that might be supposed to have early formed an item of the library of the monastery of Holy fell.

The disjointed notices in chaps, xii. and xiii. about the slaying of Snorri's father, Thorgrim, by Gisli Surson ; the marriage of Thordis, Snorri's mother, to Bork the Thick, and her attempt on the life of Eyolf the Gray, her brother's slayer, are clearly culled from the saga of Gisli Surson, the author contenting himself with incorporating only as much as directly bore on the life of Snorri. Not knowing Nial's saga, he was ignorant of the fact that Snorri himself, being taunted by Skarphedin for not having avenged his father, confessed that that was commonly thrown in his teeth (Nial's saga, chap, cxix.) ; otherwise our author is fond of introducing notices at the expense of Snorri's courage.

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In chap, xxiv., pp. 54-55, we come upon a short account of Eric the Red's voyage of discovery to Greenland. It stands in no connection with the thread of our story, and is inserted here apparently for no other reason than that Snorri is mentioned as agreeing to Stir's request to keep aloof from Eric's enemies and not to meddle in his affairs. The notice is interesting, showing that it is drawn from a saga of Eric the Red which now exists no more. The Eric's saga which we now have, knows nothing of Snorri as mixed up in the affairs of Eric the Red, and is, besides, an abstract of a longer saga of the Greenland discoverer, eked out by matter borrowed from the story of Thorfin Karlsefni (see Reeves, Discovery of Vineland the Good, 1891, which affords excellent opportunity of comparing the two saga texts).

In chap, xlviii., p. 135, we meet the abrupt statement that " Thorgils the Eagle was son of Hallstein, the Priest of Hallstein-ness, the thrallowner," or, more literally, " who owned the thralls." In Landn. ii., xxiii., p. 131, mention is made of these thralls, and the additional information supplied that Hallstein had captured them in a war-raid on Scotland, and sent them out to the islands called Svefneyjar in Broadfirth, for the making of salt. About Hallstein there must once have existed a separate saga. Like his father and brother of Thorsness, he was of an intensely deep religious character, and, according to some ac- • counts, sacrificed to Thor even his own son, that the god might deign to send him high-seat pillars, he himself having come from abroad to Iceland

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before he had become a householder. His prayer was heard, and Thor sent him a large tree, out of which he not only got his own high-seat pillars, but most houses in the "thwart bays" (those cutting into the northern littoral of Broadfirth) besides. Hallstein was a goSi of the Codfirthers (j?orskfirSinga goSi), and of the Codfirth folk there is still extant a saga, j?orskfirSinga saga, also called the saga of Gold-Thorir (GulljxSrir). But this is not the saga from which the incidents of Hallstein's life, in Landnama and in our story, are drawn. The Codfirther's saga, on the contrary, merely alludes to the sacrifice above-mentioned as a story commonly known, and knows nothing about the thralls. Landndma's and our story's reference to Hallstein and his thralls is also only an allusion to what the authors of each record assume as a generally current tale. In the folklore of Iceland of the present day a slight tale is told of these slaves, to the effect that Hallstein came upon them one day sleeping, and hanged them (Islenzkar J7J6Bsogur, ii., 85). If the tale be a traditional descendant of other days, and not a later imaginative gloss on the statement of our saga or that of the Landnama, then the original incident must have been of a nature to impress the hearers deeply. However that may be, it seems that our author has known a now lost saga of Hallstein Thorolfson.

Our author has drawn information as to Biorn the Champion of the Broadwickers from a saga about him which no longer exists, save for the fragments preserved in our story. Biorn' s sojourn in Jomsburg, where evidently the title of Broad-

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wickers' Champion was conferred on him, and his joining Styrbiorn, the Swedes' champion, in his illfated expedition against King Eric the Victorious, is nowhere mentioned, though many historical notices exist relating to Styrbiorn, and a special fragment setting forth the chief events of his life, and a particularly detailed description of the battle of Fyrisfield, where he fell ( Fornmannasogur, v.

245-250We have to deal with a pure romance in the

account of Biorn's last voyage from Iceland (chap, xlvii., p. 134), and Gudleif 's meeting with him in some unknown land (chap. Ixiv., pp. 179-183). Biorn left Iceland when north-eastern winds prevailed mostly for a whole summer season, that is, till they, never changing (!), had brought Biorn to his destination. Gudleif falls in with the same persistent gales west of Ireland, yet comes in spite of that to Biorn's country. Gudleif knows no name for the country, and apparently never was curious enough to ask about it : he falls in with a chieflylooking person talking Icelandic, who refuses to tell his name, but is simple enough to question Gudleif mostly about people whom Biorn knew aforetime, and to send gifts to just the two persons he loved best in Iceland, with the naive declaration that they came from him " who was a greater friend of the goodwife of Frodis- water than of the Priest of Holyfell." It is an obvious matter that this was written after Thorfin Karlsefni's saga had made the Icelanders familiar with the geographical position of the North American continent. It may, of course, be derived from the lost saga of Biorn ;

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but it must not be overlooked that chapters Ixiii. and Ixiv. of our saga occupy a peculiar position in the book. Our saga is really an unfinished work. For some reason or other it leaves the last eighteen years of Snorri's life a perfect blank. Did Abbot Hall, supposing he was the author, leave it in that state, on being transferred to Thickby ? But however that may be, the fact is, that a gap of eighteen years there is at the end of the book between chapters Ixii. and Ixv. This, we take it, struck someone as a drawback and a blemish, and so, not knowing what records to draw upon for further facts relating to Snorri, he dashed in those two chapters to round off the tale, the first dealing with an uncouth popular legend, the second securing for goodman Kiartan of Prodis- water a descent from a real ruler of men, an American goSi, in fact. The language of these chapters, however, appears in no marked manner to differ from the rest of the book, so they must be from a contemporary hand. It must be said in passing, however, that the Gudleif episode is of great beauty, and, together with the weird story of the bull Glossy, relieves the latter part of the saga from the reproach of dulness.

Superstition plays a very conspicuous part in our saga, and the folklore embodied in it bears witness to a very imaginative, author. Touching in its serious simplicity is the heathen's belief in the holy purity of the spot which is regarded as the god's special habitation. In this respect the faith of the Thorsnessings is depicted in our saga in perfect harmony with what we know from elsewhere, about the northern heathen's ideal concep-

xxx Preface.

tion of the purity and delicacy of the personifiedpowers of nature. In the edition of Landndma by Justice Hawk (iv., 7, p. 258), we read : "This was the beginning of the heathen laws, that men should not go to sea in figure-headed ships, but if they did so, they should remove the figure-head before they came in sight of land, nor should they sail up to the land with gaping heads or yawning snouts, lest the land-sprites should take fright thereat." Thorolf Mostbeard's injunction, " that no man unwashed should turn his eyes to Holy fell," proceeds evidently from the same high conception of the pure holiness of the supernatural powers he believed in.

But beside this charming phase of the heathen's belief, we have also the cruder forms of faith in sorcery, represented by Cunning Gils, Katla, Geirrid, and Thorgrima Witchface, in portents such as those of Prodis-water, in ghosts, such as Thorolf H alt- foot, Thorod Scatcatcher and his crew, Thorgunna, Stir, and the revenants of Prodis- water. In the case of Thrand the Strider we have the Christian churchman's idea of the cause to which the " hamremi," or preternatural strength, was due, which, like a fit, would seize the ancient heathen at moments when success or safety depended on desperate efforts. With the heathen this was heredity derived from trolls, with the Christian it was " devilhood " (p. 167). For folklore, a good deal of which seems to be derived from popular songs, the Ere-dwellers' story stands, beside the Grettir's story, pre-eminent among Icelandic sagas. It is evident that the author has been peculiarly fasci-

Preface. xxxi

nated with this kind of literature, realizing how genuinely national it was, and how well it lent itself to treatment by a good story-teller. The whole episode about Thorgunna, chaps, l.-lv., forms a saga within a saga between two chapters which are inseparably connected.

As to the heathen cult, our story contains one of the most important records extant in the literature. The description of the Temple of Thor, built by Thorolf, is as graphic as it is significant, and may be regarded as a locus classicus. There attaches to it the one drawback, that the author has left us in the dark as to the meaning and use of the " regin-naglar," gods' nails, a term which only occurs here, unless the nails that secured the stability of the high-seat pillars were so called. The temple description of our saga is most interestingly supplemented by that of the temple of the " alsherjar-goSi " of Kjalarness, as given in the otherwise romancing Kialnesinga saga : " Thorgrim " (grandson of Ingolf Ernson, the first settler) 4<was a great sacrificer. He had a large temple reared in his homefield, one hundred feet long and sixty feet wide, whereunto all men (all his Thingmen) should pay temple-toll. There Thor was held in highest honour. From the inner end thereof there was a building in the shape of a cap. The temple was arrayed with hangings, and had windows all round. There Thor stood in the middle, and on either hand the other gods. In front thereof (i.e., of the row of the idols) was a stall wrought with great cunning, and lined at the top with iron, whereon there should burn a

xxx ii Preface.

fire that must never go out ; that they called a hallowed fire." Here then, in respect of architectural form, we have the interesting detail given, that the building, which corresponds to that additional room, which in the temple of Thorsness was built to the inner end of it, " of that fashion whereof now is the choir of a church," was in the shape of a cap. The form of the public temple of Keelness cannot be traced now. But at the homestead of Thyrill, some ten miles distant from the spot where the temple of Keelness must have stood, there have been laid bare of late years the ruins of a " blot-hus," house of sacrifice, private temple, which we know from Hord Grimkelson's saga(Islendingasogur, 1847, ii., pp. 109-10), existed in the latter part of the tenth century, at which even its devout owner, Thorstein Goldnob, was slain in October, 986. This private temple was, though not in size, in shape undoubtedly, modelled on the public temple of Keelness. The excavated ground-plan shows clearly that at one end a semicircular chamber was built, divided from the main building by a party wall. It was, in fact, the apse of the temple, appropriately termed by the Icelanders " hiifa " = cap. A nave with a walled-off apse seems to have been the general form of the heathen temples of Iceland.

In its account of the temple rites our saga agrees closely with other existing records. Thus, again, the Keelnessings' saga states that on the stall should lie a stout ring made of silver, which the temple-priest should wear on his arm at all man-motes ; thereon should all oaths be taken in

Preface. xxxiii

matters relating to ordeal cases. On that stall, too, there should stand a bowl of copper, a large one, wherein should be poured all the blood which flowed from animals given to Thor, or to men, which blood they called " hlaut," and the bowl " hlautbolli." The "hlaut" should be sprinkled over the folk and beasts ; but the wealth which was paid to the temple should be used for the entertainment of men, when sacrificial feasts were held. But those men whom they sacrificed should be hurled into that fen which was outside by the door, which fen they called the pit of sacrifice. (Keelness. saga, ch. ii.)

A third record relating to the temple rites we have in Hawk the Justice's edition of Landnama, iv., ch. 7, pp. 258-59: "A ring, weighing two or more (van lee. twenty) ounces should lie on the stall in every head-temple; that ring each goSi should wear on his arm at all Things prescribed by law, such as he was bound to hold himself, having first reddened it in the blood of a neat which he himself had sacrificed there. Any man who had there to do business as by law provided before the court, should first deliver an oath on that ring, and name to himself two witnesses or more, saying these words : I call witnesses thereunto that I take oath on ring, a lawful oath, so help me Frey and Niord and the Almighty god, as I shall this case plead or defend, or witness bear, or verdicts give, or dooms deliver, according as I know rightest and truest and ratherest lawful, and all lawful deeds out of hand turn such as unto my share fall while I be at this Thing. . . . There were men chosen

II. C

xxxiv Preface.

to ward the temples even according to their wisdom and righteousness ; even they should name judges at the Things, and rule the pleading of cases ; hence were they called goSar. Every man should pay toll to temple, even as tithe to churches now."

" Hlaut," n., by its root- vowel, belongs to the gradation series jo (ju, u) -au -u -o, and stands to " hlj6ta," as " skaut," n., offshoot, skirt, to " skj6ta," "saup," n., sip-meat, to "supa," " staup," n., what of more or less solid nature is turned out of a stoup, to " stiipa ; " and since " hljota " means to come by by lot, to come in for as a share, " hlaut " seems simply to mean the blood-lot (collectively speaking) which was kept in the bowl to from the sprinkler fall to every worshipper's share. Accordingly, " hlaut-teinn " would mean allotment rod, distributing rod, sprinkler.

The ring figures here, as elsewhere throughout its interesting history, as an emblem of unity — the unity in one person of two distinct functions : pontifical supremacy in things religious, lordly supremacy in matters of state.

THE STORY OF THE HEATH-SLAYINGS, HeiSarviga saga, as a literary product, is unquestionably the oldest of all the sagas of Iceland. Unfortunately it has come down to us in a sadly mangled state. Ours being the first attempt at an English rendering of the difficult original, we consider that a concise account of the fata libelii containing it, is in place at the head of our prefatory remarks.

It was acquired by purchase from Iceland by the

Preface. xxxv

Royal Academy of Antiquities in Sweden, through the agency of the Icelander, Jon Eggertsson, in the year i682.1 It is now incorporated in the Royal Library at Stockholm, bearing the signature 18 among the Icelandic quartos. At the time of its purchase it may or may not have been a perfect book, probably the latter was the case ; * at any rate, when Ami Magmisson ascertained its existence in Sweden, after 1722, it was but a remnant of a book, consisting of thirty-six leaves. Of these the first 23^ contained a fragment of the story of Slaying Stir and the saga of the Heath-slayings complete, with the exception of one leaf (see our translation, p. 247). The remaining 12^ leaves contained the text of the saga of Gunnlaug the Wormtongue, the best existing of that saga.

Arni Magmisson having applied to the Swedish Academy for the loan of the MS., obtained, fortunately, only the first twelve leaves of it, the obvious reason being that those leaves had become disconnected from the rest, of the existence of which, for a long time afterwards, no one had the least idea. Of these twelve leaves Arni caused his able amanuensis, Jon Olafsson from Grunnavfk (1705-1778), to take a copy, in the latter part of the year 1727 ; but original as well as copy were both destroyed in the Copenhagen conflagration of 1728. In the following year Olafsson wrote down from memory the contents of the destroyed leaves, from which we have drawn the brief introductory

1 See Sturlunga, i., Proleg. cxlvii.

3 Vigfusson says the beginning of it was lost ere it came to Stockholm, Prol. liv.

xxxvi Preface.

matter to the story, pp. 191-99. On a journey of antiquarian research to Stockholm in 1772, Hannes Finnsson (son of the famous Church historian of Iceland, Finnur Jonsson) discovered the lost remainder of the precious fragment, the best edition of which is Jon Sigurdsson's in the second volume of Islendingasogur, 1847. On his edition our translation depends.

Of all the Icelandic sagas this is the most quaint in style. The author knows not yet how to handle prose for the purpose of historical composition. In one and the same sentence allocutive speech and historic narrative are blended together in the most unconscious manner. The author assumes tacitly all throughout that the reader knows all about his tale ; hence he hardly ever takes the trouble to add to the Christian names of the actors the patronymic. In one instance this confidence in the reader's knowledge carries him even so far as in chap, xxxix. to refer to a person mentioned in the beginning of chap, xxxvi. (Thorod Kegward) as " he." This, more than any other Icelandic saga, affords us an insight into what the saga-telling was like during the period of oral tradition. It was the common property of teller' and listener alike. This the former knew, and need not be on his guard against disjointed, loopholed delivery ; the listener's knowledge supplied all troublesome little details, the teller took care of facts, characters, dramatic action.

We deemed we had no choice but to let our translation represent the peculiarity of the style of the original as faithfully as possible.

Preface. xxxvii

With regard to the plot of the story, it is as dramatically arranged a plot as there is in any existing Icelandic saga, and much more naively than in any. The sage of Lechmote, Thorarin, a most perfect type of a devoted foster-father, half distrustful of the ability of his fosterling, arranges the whole thing most quietly and carefully at his Willowdale retreat. He makes his fosterling pray for atonement for his brother, with the most dignified moderation, at the Althing, until, as he calculated, the rash and reckless Gisli should turn everybody's sympathy in favour of Bardi, which, in the event of a blood-feud, would be of the greatest avail to him. Next there were two important things to look to. Since at the hands of the men who stood next to make honourable satisfaction for the slaying of Bardi's brother, Hall, nothing but insult was obtained instead of atonement, and peaceful arrangement was thus excluded, the revenge must be of the most insulting nature possible. No insult could exceed that of being fought, wounded, slain by one's own faithful weapon. So Thorarin secures, in a very slippery way, the best weapon possessed by Gisli' s father, Thorgaut,1 and hands it to Bardi, while from another among the Gislungs he obtains also one for his son Thorberg, weapons that make good execution in the Heath-battle. The second point was to be well informed as to the doings of the Gislungs and other folk in Burgfirth,

1 The parenthesis, p. 194, to the effect that this Gisli was the one that Grettir flogged, goes out. "Thorstein" in the line preceding we ought to have changed into Thorgaut, and have done so in the index.

xxxviii Preface.

without arousing any suspicion of espionage with a view to a sudden raid upon the country. For this purpose the old foster-father caused two pet-horses to be removed from their pastures at Thingvellir during the last Althing at which Bardi craved atonement for his brother, while their owner, Thord of Broadford, from the North country, was attending to public business there. Burgfirth being the nearest country-side with fine pastures to the tracts of Thingvellir, everybody would naturally suppose that Thord's pets must have strayed thither and, not turning up, did elude search hidden in some of Burgfirth's many valleys. Thus Thorarin had a specious pretext for repeatedly sending his spies to Burgfirth to inquire, in Thord of Broadford's name, for these horses while, in reality, they went to find out all about the Gislungs and their numerous allies. These plans of Thorarin, carefully veiled from the outset, are first allowed to come out in their true aim and importance in the story, when the hour of action has struck, and the effect is really artistic. In much the same wary vein are conceived Thorarin's last injunctions as to the tactics to be adopted by Bardi. One third of his company of eighteen was to be stationed up at the Bridge by Biarnisforce as a last reserve, the second third midway between this spot and Goldmead, and the last third, consisting of Bardi himself, his two brothers, two fosterlings of his own house, and his housecarle Thord — as being the most obedient to Bardi's word — were to make the attack on the mowers of Goldmead, Gisli and his brothers. On the field of

Preface. xxxix

deed, therefore, no one knew that the attacking party consisted of more than six, and this, Thorarin accurately calculated, would serve to rouse the ardour of the pursuit to such an extent, that those who got first ready would not care to lose time by waiting for reinforcements coming up. Thus the Southerners plunged into the fight against great odds, and got the worst of it.

Our saga tells of events which throughout the whole saga-age of Iceland most seriously threatened to disturb the general peace of the land. A family feud had developed into a state of war between North and South, and it was really due to the cool peacemaker of Saelingsdaletongue, Snorri, that the end was peace instead of prolonged civil feud. After the general manner of our saga, his interest in Bardi's affair seems at first to have something mysterious about it. Bardi meets him in the dusk with dropped visor, as he is crossing the Blanda in company with Thorgils Arison his brother-in-law, and forthwith Snorri tricks Thorgils, who knows nothing of Bardi's presence, into solemnly proclaiming truce for all present, whereby Thorgils unwittingly dissociated himself from his kindred and friends of Burgfirth as an active ally in case of continued feud. Then Snorri goes to Lechmote, and the two deep chiefs take counsel together, when, we may take for granted, Bardi's alliance to Snorri was first bespoken, and the latter's goodwill in the forthcoming blood-suit secured. Circumstances favoured Bardi all round now. Snorri was not forgetful of old grudges. At the head of a band of four

xl Preface.

hundred strong the Burgfirthers had foiled him but a few years before when seeking to serve a lawful summons on the slayer of his father-in-law. In the blood-suit which afterwards he brought into court at the Althing, he was non-suited by Thorstein Gislison, backed by his Burgfirth kin and neighbours. Then he took Thorstein's life, but came ingloriously out of the blood-suit, as the Ere-dwellers' story clearly hints. Bardi's case was therefore Snorri's opportunity for restoring his shaken prestige. And when at the Althing the Burfirthers saw that he had thrown the great weight of Broadfirth into the scale of the Northlanders, they had no choice but peacefully to make the best of a serious case. In the light of this situation only we can understand, how the Burgfirthers could put up with such a galling award as to have four of their well-born men that fell in the Heath-fight left unatoned.

A remarkable popular tradition, linked to our saga, lives still in the country of Hunawater, to the effect that, after the battle of. the Heath, Bardi built up the work to this day called Burg- Work, and there defended himself against the Burgfirthers, being twice attacked by them in force. The learned Paul Vidalin (1667-1727), in his "Skyringar yfir fornyrSi Iogb6kar J?eirrar er J6nsbok kallast," p. 625, s. v. " virki," thus recounts the legend, as told him by his uncle, Gudbrand, son of Arngrim Jonsson (1568-1648) : "So it is said, that Bardi Gudmundson of Asbiornsness caused the same work to be reared against expected attacks by the Burgfirthers, after he had avenged his brother Hall, and

Preface. xli

this, people aver, is related in the story of the Heath-slay ings. Bardi set out watches in two places, one on Thorey's-nip, to keep a look-out on the Burgfirthers should they ride over Two-days' Heath, the other on Rednip, watching their ride over Ern water Heath, whether descending into Willowdale or Waterdale. As soon as aware of their approach, the watches were to light a beacon. Even as he had guessed the Burgfirthers made their appearance (by what road the tale does not say), and Bardi with his followers went into the work, which the attackers besieged, making several attempts to carry it, but being repulsed, resolved to starve those within it, and invested it for a fortnight ; but the besieged being plentifully provisioned, the Burgfirthers had to retire, having effected nothing. This narrative by Gudbrand Arngrimson, according to tradition, says that the statement is found in the story of the Heath-slayings." Vidalin was evidently much interested in this tradition, and collected further evidence relating to it which, though evidently later, agreed in all essential points with his uncle's.

This Gudbrand was born in 1639 (ob. 1719), and was thus forty-three years of age, when JonEggertsson secured the MS. of our story in Iceland. Gudbrand's father was in his day by a long way the most learned man in Iceland, his great rival, Bishop Brynjolf, appearing on the scene first towards the close of Arngrim's life. He was a collector of MSS. and author of standard works upon the history and antiquities of his country. A learned contemporary of his was Magnus Olafsson, priest

xlii Preface.

of Vellir and Laufas (1591-1636), both livings being within the diocese of Holar, of which Arngrim was officialis for five-and-thirty years (15961628). These two men knew one another well enough, and both were ardent pursuers of one and the same line of study. Now Magnus made himself famous in the literary world by compiling a rearranged edition of the Prose Edda from Codex Wormianus, which goes by the name of Laufas Edda. Into this edition is incorporated a strophe and a half by Guest, son of Thorhall, the slayer of Stir, in which the killing of Stir in particular is commemorated. This being the only edition of Edda containing these verses, it is evident that they were culled from a copy of our saga at least sixand-forty years before that copy which Jon Eggertsson secured left the country, in all probability a good many years earlier. Now J6n Eggertsson got his copy from the Northland, so presumably it was the same that Magmas Olafsson had used for his Edda. It stands obviously to reason that Arngrim the Learned should have known of this work in his friend's possession, and should have obtained the loan of it, and thus a possible link between the tradition known to his son, Gudbrand, and HerSarvfga saga itself would be obtained. On the obliterated page of the original of our saga (pp. 242-243) there certainly is reference made to Bardi's bargaining with friends and kindred for supplies for a "seta," body-guard, but apparently it seems to refer to Asbiornsness. So much seems certain, however, that what Bardi required must have been very considerable,

Preface. xliii

since one man contributed no less than twelve wethers.

But whatever may be the real origin of the popular tradition, the incontestable fact remains, that once upon a time the peak-shaped fell, now called Burg-work (Borgarvirki), towering to the height of some 800 feet above the level of the sea between the two steads of Mickle- Burg (Storaborg) and Little- Burg (Litla-Borg) in Willowdale, was transformed by the labour of man into a military fortress. We ourselves had an opportunity of visiting the work in our trip to Iceland in 1871, and to inspect the by no means inconsiderable fortifications thrown, in the shape of walls made of large flat slabs, across all clefts in the natural basaltic rock which offered access to the top, standing over four feet thick, and in some places as many as ten feet high. An interesting and minute description of the work is given by Dr. B. M. Olsen, a native of the neighbourhood, in "Arbok hins islenzka fornleifafelags 1880 og 1881,° pp. 99-113, accompanied by a critical dissertation on the BurgWork tradition, and he, a first-rate antiquary and scholar, comes to the conclusion that, since in the whole history of that country-side there is no event with which the really great works of fortification on the peak can be connected, unless it be Bardi's war with the Burgfirthers, we are not authorized at present to reject the existing tradition as utterly unhistorical.

The chronology of our saga has given great trouble hitherto. Its central date is, of course, the year of the Heath-slayings, which by some is

xliv Preface.

placed at 1013, others at 1014 or 1018, and by the saga itself at 1021. Vigfusson declares in favour of 1014, relying on the statements of Grettir's saga, " that the Heath-slayings befell in the autumn that Grettir spent in Iceland after his first journey abroad, but that year was 1014" (Timatal, 460, cf. 473-474). He attaches particular weight to the evidence of the old Resenius' annals, which also place the Heath-fight in 1014.

At the time when Vigfusson wrote his Timatal, he, in common with contemporary scholars, believed that the annalistic writings of Iceland were as old as the historical, and the dates of the former were independent of the latter. This opinion, which originated with the Northland annalist, Bjorn Jonsson of SkarSsa, in the seventeenth century, is radically refuted by Gustav Storm in his excellent edition of " Islandske Annaler indtil 1578," where a whole array of evidence is brought together to show, that annalistic writing in Iceland could not have begun till a few years before 1 300. For the saga period, therefore, the evidence of the annals has no real weight, since their dates depend on the evidence of the sagas themselves, according as the annalists were able to reason them out in each particular case. In this instance, thus, the evidence of Resenius' annals falls through as worthless, since evidently it depends on Grettir's saga. But what does that saga's evidence amount to ?

In chapter xxviii. we are told that Grettir came on a visit to his kinsman and former superior playmate, Audun of Audunstead in Willowdale, and let loose his horse to graze in the home-mead

Preface. xlv

" where the grass was highest" (loSnast, highest and thickest). This visit then happened in June, before the mowing of the home-mead began ; mowing of home-fields having at all times in Iceland begun, in ordinary years, at the end of June or in the first week of July. Grettir, wanting to square old scores with Audun, falls to wrestling with him, in the midst of which scuffle Bardi arrives and separates the wrestlers. Grettir now offers Bardi to join his expedition, " for I have heard that thou art bent on going south to Burgfirth this summer." Bardi accepted the offer gladly and (chap, xxxi.) rode home to Asbiornsness, and then to his fosterfather, "who gladly received him, and asked what he had earned in the way of helpful following," etc.

This statement of Grettla's we can pronounce at once as false. It is invented on the basis of the Heath-slayings' story; but as we know it now, at least, there is no mention made in it of any meeting between Bardi and Grettir at any time, much less of Thorarin's disapproval of Bardi's engagement of Grettir, which in Grettir' s saga is circumstantially related, and Thorarin's harangue kept exactly in his wary, half-pious vein and anxious care not to spoil his fosterling's chances by the admission into his band of any whose fetch was one of lucklessness. It would be incomprehensible how such an incident could ever have dropped out of the Heath-fight's story having once got into it. But there are more serious objections to be noted. Grettir could not possibly have heard rumours in June or July of that which was not resolved upon

xlvi Preface.

till " seven weeks were left of summer," i.e., the latter end of August, and then in strict secrecy, no one knowing the least about it till the Sunday, when six weeks were left of summer, that Bardi broke the secret in the folk-mote at Thingere. That Bardi, therefore, as the Grettla clearly gives to understand, should have been abroad recruiting his force in June or July, is out of question, of course. Why, the whole plot of the Heath-slayings' story turns really on one hinge, namely, the observance of absolute secrecy as to Thorarin's intentions, until they could be carried out in a shorter time than it would take the rumour of them to cross the mountains. This statement of Grettla, therefore, which hitherto has served as a key-stone of the chronology of our saga, is in itself of no worth, being a mere fabrication. If it should happen to relate to the right year, it would be by accident only.

Now the landmarks of time that our story itself supplies are the following : the year that Bardi was outlawed at the Althing he went abroad, but was shipwrecked on the northern coast of Iceland, and spent the winter with Gudmund of Maddervales (MoSruvellir) in Eyiafirth ; the next winter he was in Norway ; the next to that in Denmark, and in the following summer he set sail for Iceland, arrived on the north coast, and — " By this time Gudmund was dead." Now the year of Gudmund's death was 1025; so, counting back these years of Bardi's outlawry, we see that he was in Denmark, 1024-1025, in Norway, 1023-1024, at Maddervales, 1022-1023; consequently the Thing

Preface. xlvii

at which he was outlawed was that of 1022, and the Heath-fight accordingly befell in 1021. Against this evidence of the saga itself Grettla's fictitious statement goes for nothing, of course. Vigfusson is by no means indifferent to these chronological facts, though he does not, on account of the great importance he attaches to Grettla's evidence, see his way to accept them. And it cannot be denied that a variety of difficult points is raised by accepting the evidence of our story. But to disallow it, considering that we have to deal with the oldest Icelandic saga, preserved in the oldest of all the saga vellums from Iceland, is obviously contrary to all rules of sound criticism. However, the whole question requires fresh overhauling, which it would be idle to attempt within the limited space of a preface to a translation of the saga.

Finally, one word about our treatment of the songs of these sagas. We have dealt with them even more literally than those of the sagas of the first volume. We have endeavoured to allow to the kenningar or periphrastic expressions the same force in the translation as they bear in the original ; but considering that this method must necessarily carry with it a certain amount of obscurity to a modern reader, we have drawn up a list, under the heading Poetical periphrasis in Index III., "Subject-matter/' of all these kenningar in a way we thought would recommend itself best to students and general readers alike. Our translation of the songs of the Ere-dwellers' saga is based on Vigfusson's prose arrangement of the same at the end

xlviii Preface.

of his edition of that saga, those of the Heathslayings' saga on J6n J?orkelsson's explanation in " Skyringar a vfsum i nokkurum fslenzkum sogum, Reykjavik, 1868."

The chronological list for the E re-dwellers' story follows in all essential points Vigfusson's table at the end of his edition ; for the Heath-slay ings' story we have followed his Timatal (excepting the date of the Heath-battle), not because we think it sound, but because it is the accepted chronology at present, as indeed it was long before he wrote.

Genealogical tables have been added in order to facilitate the perusal of the book.

An abstract of the Ere-dwellers' story, in English, by Walter Scott, was published in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 1813, pp. 475513, reprinted in P. Blackwell's Northern Antiquities, 1847, pp. 517-540. — Of the Lay of the Mewlithers there is found what is meant for a translation into English, in the Corpus Poeticum, vol. ii., pp. 58-60.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST

From Vigfussoris ed. of Eyrbyggja saga, Leipzig, 1864,^. 127-129.

A. THE ERE-DWELLERS' STORY PROPER.

A

RI the Learned was the first to date Ingolfs settlement Iceland. On his chronology that of our saga is

m

based, since it not only mentions Ari as an authority consulted, but starts its time-reckoning from the year that Ari fixed for Ingolfs settlement, namely, 874. "Ten years "afterwards :

A. D. CHAPTER

884. Thorolf Mostbeard took land at Thorsness iiL-iv. 886. Biorn the Easterner and Hallstein, son of

Thorolf, settle in Broadfirth . . . vi. About 892. Aud the Deep-minded comes and settles

" all the Dale-lands " . . . . to.

913. Thorstein Codbiter born vii.

918. Death of Thorolf Mostbeard . . . to. (930. The Althing inaugurated.) 932-934. Feud between Thorsnessings and Kial-

lekings. ...... ix.

About 935. Thorstein Codbiter builds the house of

Holy-Fell . . . . . . xi.

938. Thorstein Codbiter is drowned. His son

Thorgrim born ib.

About 960. Thorgrim weds Thordis Sur's daughter ;

goes to Dyrafirth ..... xii. 963. Thorgrim is slain by Gisli Surson. Snorri

the Priest born xiii.

965. Thord the Yeller's constitution of the

commonwealth carried . . . . x. The West-Quarter Thing set up at Thorsness to. II. d

Chronological List.

A. D. CHAPTER

977. Snorri the Priest goes to Norway . . xiii.

978. Snorri the Priest returns to Iceland . . ib. Eyolf the Gray slays Gisli Surson . . ib.

979-980. Snorri the Priest sets up house at HolyFell xv.

980. Death of Thorgrim Kiallakson . . . xvii. Illugi the Black carries his case at Thors-

ness Thing against Tinforni . . . ib.

981. The Mewlithe affairs . . . xviii.-xix.

982. Strife at Thorsness Thing between the

sons of Thord the Yeller and Eric the

Red ....... xxiv.

Eric the Red discovers Greenland . . ib.

983. Snorri the Priest marries Asdis, daughter

of Slaying Stir xxviii.

985. Thorod, son of Snorri the Priest, born, cf. xliv.

986. Eric the Red goes to settle Greenland . xxiv. 986-993. Rivalry between Snorri and Arnkel . xxx.-xxxvi.

993. The slaying of Arnkel .... xxxvii.

994. The blood-suit after Arnkel . . .xxxviii. New law passed concerning plaintiffs to

blood-suits. Thorleif Kimbi goes abroad ib.

996. Thorleif Kimbi and Biorn the Broadwickers'

Champion return to Iceland xl.

997. Feud between the Ere-dwellers and Snorri

the Priest ..... xxxix.-xlviii. Fight in Swanfirth in autumn . . . xliv. Fight in S wordfirth shortly before Christmas xlv. 997-998. Biorn's visits to Thurid of Frodis-water

renewed ...... xl.

998. Peace made at Thorsness Thing between

the Ere-dwellers and Snorri . . . xlvi. Snorri's attempt on Biorn the Broadwickers'

Champion xlvii.

Biorn's last departure from Iceland in

autumn ...... ib.

1000. Discovery of Vineland. Christianity intro-

duced in Iceland. Departure of Snorri and Thorleif, Thorbrand's sons, for Greenland ...... xlviii.-xlix.

1001. Wonders at Frodis-water . . l.-lv.

Chronological List.

li

A. D.

I006-IOIO.

CHAPTER

Snorri Thorbrandson joins Karlsefni to

settle in Vineland xlviii.

Fight with the Skraelings. Death of Thorbrand Snorrison . . . . . ib.

1008. Snorri and Gudrun, the daughter of Osvif,

exchange abodes Ivi.

1009. Strife at Thorsness Thing between Snorri

and Thorstein of Hafsfirthisle, who sets up the chiefship of Redmel (RauSmelinga goSorS) and an independent Thing at Streamfirth .... ib.

ioio-1012. Snorri's dealings with Uspak in Bitter and

his band of robbers

Ivii.-lxii.

1031.

Death of Snorri the Priest in his sixty-eighth year

Ixv.

B. THE SLAYING-STIR AND HEATH-SLAYINGS'

STORY AS EMBODIED IN THAT OF THE

ERE-DWELLERS.

Commonly accepted chronology.

1007. The slaying of Stir . . . . . Ivi.

1008. Snorri goes to Burgfirth with a band of

four hundred strong to summon Guest, the slayer of Stir. Foiled, he sets out in autumn with fifteen men, and kills Thorstein Gislison and his son Gunnar. . ib.

1009. Blood-suit at the Althing after Thorstein . ib.

By Jon Olafsson's rehearsal from memory of the lost fragment of the saga of Slaying Stir, Thorstein, son of Stir, undertakes to avenge his father ; follows Guest to Norway, then to Constantinople, but missing every chance of him, returns to Iceland j and then first Snorri takes up the blood-suit. In this pursuit Thorstein spent three years ; evidently a good deal more. From these memorial jottings,

Hi Chronological List.

considering what their accuracy amounts to, in points where they can be controlled, no bona-fide inference in favour of the Heath-fight having befallen in 1014 can be drawn.

C. THE GENUINE FRAGMENT OF THE HEATHSLAYINGS' STORY (CF. PREFACE).

A. D. CHAPTER

1 02 1. Fight on the Heath xxx.

1022. Peace made at the Althing. Bardi at Madder-

vales xxxvi.-xxxvii.

1023. Bardi in Norway ...... xxxix.

1024. in Denmark ...... ib.

1025. returns to Iceland, and marries Unn,

Snorri's daughter xxxix.-xl.

1026. spends partly at Snorri's, partly in the

North xl.

1027. goes to Norway with his wife . . . ib.

1028. dwells with Svein, son of Harek, in Thiotta ;

divorces Unn xl.-xli.

1029. goes to Russia xli.

The notice in ch. xl. (p. 257, zz): "and as good friends they parted, Snorri and Bardi " (ok skiljast )>eir goSir vinir Bardi ok Snorri) would be singularly out of place there unless the author had in his mind a fact, whereby the friendship then existing was destroyed. From this we infer that Bardi divorced Unn while Snorri was yet alive, as the saga gives to understand, not after his death, as Vigfusson suggests, Timatal, 462.

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.

Page 12, line n, "Gro, the daughter of Geirleif of Bardstrand," read Gro, the daughter of Geirleif, sister to Oddleif of Bardstrand.

„ 21, line 13, "Audum," read Audurin.

„ 29, „ 29, "Gest,"mwr Guest

„ 37, ,, 27, dele" the prayer."

>» 52» »» 25> " Laxriver," raw? Laxrivers, cf. Index II., s. v.

,, 53, ,, 6, "thee,"m*</ye.

,, 83, „ 25, "at Thorswater-dale," raw? in Thorswaterdale.

„ 112, line 22, "shoulder," read Shoulder.

„ 124, „ 13, " up to Much Bank," read out to Much Bank.

,,156, „ 21, "Rhine-fires," read Rhine-fire's.

» 179, „ 9, " Gunnlaug," read Gudlaug.

,,184, „ 31, "Laxdale," rai*/ Laxwater-dale.

„ 201, „ 31, dele the comma after "nought."

„ 213, „ 2, dele " (for food)."

„ 222, „ 33, " Copse," read Copsedale.

„ 231, „ 29, " Hallkeldstead," read Hallkelstead.

,, 239, „ 30, " Thorgisl and Eric and Thorod." Thorgisl and Thorod are the Ternmere brothers, sons of Hermund, Bardi's uncle.

„ 239, line 31, "Thorgisl/' *.*., Thorgisl the Hewer.

„ 240, „ 3, " Now Thorgisl (Hermundson)," read Now Thorgisl (the Hewer).

„ 240, line 8, "Then spake Thorgisl (the Hewer)," read Then spake Thorgisl (Hermundson) ; cf. note to p. 240, lines n, 12.

„ 250, line 26 ff., read "He and his had handselled their land and stock, in case this should be the end of the matter ; the which they could not surely tell beforehand. That man (to whom land and stock were handselled) was hight Thorod ... he was to have (the handselled land and stock) for three winters." This explains his refusal to rescind the contract, when called upon in the following year to do so ; cf. notes to p. 254, lines 20, 27 (p. 304).

„ 312, footnote, " Gudmundson," read Solmundson.

For other corrections see Notes.

THE STORY

OF

THE ERE-DWELLERS,

ii.

m

THE STORY

OF

THE ERE-DWELLERS.