Faroe-Islander Saga by Robert K. Painter

Author:Robert K. Painter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2017-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

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1. According to the Jómsvíkinga saga in Flateyjarbók, the Jomsvikings were an elite band of viking warriors, adhering to a strict code of discipline, who raided from an quasi-mythical base called Jómsborg on the island of Wollin on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. They invaded Norway as part of a Danish plot in c. 986 (see introduction in Blake 1962). Further accounts of the Jomsvikings appear also in Olafs saga Tryggvasonar. Regrettably, much of the present chapter is missing in the text of Faroe-Islander Saga. Appendix A provides an excerpt of the story from Jómsvíkinga saga which covers much of the battle which is missing from Faroe-Islander Saga.

2. Part of the saga text is missing here.

3. In Jomsviking Saga, the primarily leaders are named as Bui, Sigvaldi, and Vagn; see Appendix A.

4. A very different and fantastic account as to how the battle was won is given in Jómsvíkinga saga, where Earl Hakon himself is reported to turn the tide of battle; see Appendix A. The present account gives prominence to a Faroe-Islander’s role in this epic (and quite possibly fictional) battle, which is perhaps not unexpected in a saga about Faroe-Islanders.

5. Very little is known about the first two sources, Hallbjarn Cow-Tail and Steingrimur Thorarsson. However, Ari Thorgilsson the Learned (1068–1148) is renowned as the first Icelandic historian to record events in the Icelandic language (with Latin being used by earlier writers); he is rightly famed for writing Islendingabók (The Book of the Icelanders), which sketches the detail of the earliest history of the people of Iceland, and he probably wrote the original version of the important Landnámabók (‘Book of Settlements’), which relates biographical details of the earliest settlers of Iceland and their original land claims. See the introduction to Pálsson and Edwards (2012, 3ff).

6. Part of the saga is missing here and in the next paragraph; the missing passages likely would have detailed the death of Earl Hakon and the rise of Olaf Tryggvason to power.

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