THIS translation of Hrafnkel’s Saga is based on a paper MS dating from the early seventeenth century (AM 551c, 4to) 1; this MS is defective, and the gaps have been filled from a copy written at the beginning of the eighteenth century when it was in a better state than now (AM 451, 4to). However, several doubtful readings in this version have been replaced by passages from other seventeenth century MSS (AM 156, fol., AM 158, fol. and AM 443, 4to). Apart from a single leaf on vellum, the saga survives only in paper MSS. There exists no definitive edition of Hrafnkel’s Saga, but the best printed version of it is Jón Helgason’s edition in the Nordisk Filologi series: Hrafnkel’s Saga Freysgoða, Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen, 1950. (It has been reprinted several times since.) A critical edition of the saga, based on all the known MSS is now being prepared by Peter Springborg for the Editiones Arnamagnæanæ series. The chapter division of the saga in the present translation is based on Helgason’s edition, but the chapter headings are my own.
Thorstein the Staff-Struck (‘Þorsteins þáttr stangar-höggs’), Ale-hood (Ölkofra þáttr’), Halldor Snorrason (Halldórs þáttr Snorrasonar’) and Hreidar the Fool (‘Hreiðars þáttr heimska’) are translated from the text in the Íslenzk Fornrit series (vols. XI, V, X). Audun’s Story (‘Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka’) is taken from the version preserved in Flateyjarbόk (edited by Guðbrandr Vigfússon and C. R. Unger, 1859–68), and Ivar’s Story (‘Ivars þáttr Ingimundarsonar’) from Morkinskinna (edited by Finnur Jónsson, 1932).
All the stories in the volume have been translated before, and a number of books and articles have been written about them. For editions, previous translations and other works relating to these stories, see ISLANDICA (Cornell University Press), vols. I, III, XXIV, XXVI and XXXVIII, and BIBLIOGRAPHY of Old Norse-Icelandic Studies, Munksgaard, Copenhagen, 1963–.
It is my pleasant duty to thank my friends Professor Denton Fox and Paul Edwards M.A. for reading the translation in manuscript and weeding out a good many infelicities and inaccuracies that otherwise would have marred this book. I am also greatly indebted to Mrs Betty Radice and Miss Julia Vellacott for scrutinizing the final version of the text and making many valuable suggestions.
Hermann Pálsson
Edinburgh, June 1969