Færeyinga Saga
Introduction
Sigmund's big gold horn is said to have been dug up at Skuvey in consequence of a dream and sent to the King of Denmark, who enriched the finders. (29)
In Sandey the site of Snæulf's homestead is pointed out, and it is not Housewick. The moot-place was at Ting-storan by Örðavík. Southrey local knowledge supplies particulars of Sigmund's swim. He could not have leaped into the sea at Thorarenni (30) (Thore's brent), the cliff is far too high; rather we may suppose them to have taken to the water at North Hook, aiming for Dimun probably. But swimming out west at first to dodge pursuit, they fell into the West-fall (one of the two great currents), and were taken down to Southrey, off which the East-fall would sweep them down on Flosesness by Qualvík. It is two hours' row from Skufey to Southrey, and must have taken a good while to swim in that sea; but there is nothing at all incredible, according to the experts, in the feat. A shingle heap, Mulia, near the homestead at Qualvík is believed to be the very spot where the murder was done. At Eastrey Streomuválur is the site of the old local moot-stead. The Streamsey moot-stead at Thorshaven, on an isthmus, is clearly marked still with the Gallowsbank to the west of the court. It was at the south point of Eastrey, at Kirkby, that the bishop's see and cathedral (of which ruins remain) stood. There are in the Northreys traces in place names of former intercourse with Iceland. And the Sagas confirm this; for example, in 1277, Sturla Thordsson, Rafn, and Thorward wintered in the Færeys (Diplomatarium Islandium, i. 664).
As to Sigmund's presence and prowess at Heorunga-Voe, the Stockholm MS. of Jómsvíkinga Saga (edited from Rask's transcript at Copenhagen, 1824) contains two versions of Bue's death, the first, and as it seems the original, ascribing it to Thorkell midlong. After telling of Sigwalde's cowardly flight and Wagn's curse, it goes on—"And at that moment Thorkell midlong leapt from his ship aboard of Bue's, and cut at him then and there all of a sudden; he slashed the lips off him and down right through the jaw, and the teeth flew out of his head. Then said Bue, 'The Danish girls will not think us better to kiss in Bornholm!' And then Bue smote back at Thorkell; but it was slippery on the deck, and he (Thorkell) fell on the shield rail as he was trying to stand up, and the blow lit on Thorkell's waist and cut him in two on the bulwark. And with that Bue caught up his two chests of gold, and shouted 'Overboard all Bue's crew!' and then leapt overboard with the chests." The second version, a gloss slipt in lower down in the MS., runs thus: "With that Sigmund Brestesson, the greatest champion, sprang up and made at Bue, and it ended with Sigmund hewing off both Bue's arms at the elbow. Then Bue thrust both stumps into the ring handles of the chests and shouted, 'Overboard all Bue's crew!'" Both these versions are abridged, and the full text of the former occurs in A.M. 291, 4, of Jómsvíkinga Saga (edited by C. af Petersens, Copenhagen, 1882), where Bue's death precedes the curse of Wagn on the flying Sigwalde. Flateybook has the fullest text of the second or Sigmund version as we have seen above (p. ix.), and the A.M. 510 of Jómsvíkinga, ch. 47 (edited by Carl af Petersens, Lond. 1879), runs parallel to A.M. 291. A.M. 61 is the foundation of the text that is given in chapter 27 below, and it seems (as C. Ch. Rafn thought) to suit the Saga better than the more elaborate Flateybook version. We may conclude that Sigmund's part in Heorunga-Voe, whatever it was, was not noticed in the early texts of Jómsvíkinga Saga, nor do the other references to the famous victory of Earl Hacon give any hint of Sigmund's presence. Still, he is not unlikely to have been at Heorunga-Voe, and it was a clever bit of romancing to attribute to his swordsmanship the overthrow of Bue and the credit of reducing that renowned warrior to heave his chests overboard with the "stumps of his arms." Thorkell midlong at least stands in the list of the chief warriors which Jómsvíkinga Saga has preserved.
That the compiler of our Saga knew Egil's Saga (composed by some one of the Snorre School) we can hardly doubt; the difference between Earl Hacon and Sigmund over Harold Iron-pate is a poor thin copy of the famous story of how Arinbeorn saved Egil from Eric Bloodaxe. The story in Egil's Saga is supported by Egil's own authentic verses. Here the account is incredible. True, the ballad makes our Harold a sworn brother of Sigmund; and Harold is not an impossible name for a Dane at this date, whom Sigmund may have made friends with in his exile. And this is an argument for Harold's having had some place in the story as it was remembered in the Færeys. But Harold seems in the ballad to have the place one would rather expect Einar the Southrey-man to occupy, the place our Saga gives him, indeed, in the last scene of Sigmund's life. Anyhow, the name in the ballad cannot be used as an argument for the truth of the fictitious story in ch. 21, though it is a confirmation of the mention of the man in ch. 23. Harold's presence in the Færeys is only noticed in the Flateybook text, but Flateybook is often less abridged in this Saga than the other two MSS. of the Kings' Lives (A.M. 61, 62, &c.). It is on Flateybook that the names Cecilia and Thora [4] rest, and the mention of the quarrel of Einar and Eldearn [4,5,6], which last episode is indeed of a common type, and not beyond the powers of any Icelandic story-teller or scribe to apply here.
The classic Icelandic Sagas supply but few mentions of the Færey Islands; chief among them are these of Landnámabóc (I. 2; 2. 3). "It is told that men were faring out of Norway to the Færey --- some name Naddod (31) the wicking among them --- but they were driven west into the deep and there found a great land; they went ashore, in Eastfrith, up a high mountain, and looked far and wide to see if they could see smoke or any token to show that the land was inhabited, but they could see nothing. They put back to the Færeys in the harvest-tide, and when they were sailing away from the land, there fell much snow on the mountains, and so they called it Snow-land. They praised the country highly. The place they came to is now called Reydfell in Eastfrith."" Thus spoke Sæmund the historian. And of Floce Wilgerdssen, a Norwegian wicking, it is told further that "he set out from Roga-land to seek Snow-land. They lay in Butter-sound (Smiör-sund). He made ready a great sacrifice, and hallowed three ravens that were to tell him his way. They built a cairn where the sacrifice had been made, and called it Floce's Beacon --- it stands where Horda-land and Roga-land meet. Floce first went to Shetland and lay in Floce's Voe; there his daughter Garhild was lost in Garhild's mere. There was on board with Floce a franklin named Thorolf, another named Hereolf, and Faxe, a Southrey-man. Floce sailed thence to the Færeys, and there he gave his daughter in marriage; from her is come Thrond o' Gate." The relationship between Floce and Thrond is given in the tables of genealogy below, on a theory that will fit the chronology; but we have no other real information on the subject save the above passage.(32)
From the Icelandic bishops' genealogies we get a notice of "Guðorm's daughter, that was the wife of Einar of the Færeys" (see appendices to Sturlunga Saga, ed. Vigfússon).
In Nial's Saga, ch. 158 (a passage which may possibly be cited from the Saga of Brian the Irish King), we are told of prodigies in the Færeys at the time of the great and fateful battle of Clontarf, Good Friday, 1014, for after telling the story of the Lay of Darts (known so well from Gray's translation), the Saga goes on, "The like happening appeared to Brand Gneistason in the Færeys." Place-names in the Færeys that testify to old traditions now almost lost are Ketil's howes, called also Gold howes, where a wicking is said to be buried with his booty. (33) There are modern (seemingly antiquarian) stories of King Frode founded on place-names in Southrey; Beine in Southrey, Solmund in Eastrig, Harold in Kuney, are among the persons commemorated in Færey geography, but most of the island place-names are descriptive (after the Celtic fashion): Mid-eyre, Wick, Strand, Head, Mewness, Sand, and the like. Horg or Harrow in Sumba witnesses to old heathendom, as Kirkby in Streamsey and Kirk in Fowley do to the Christianity that supplanted it.
Notes:
29. Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, i. 374. Save in this tale, there is no such "olifant" ascribed to Sigmund. [Back]
30. This name would, however, seem to approve the Saga's name for Sigmund's trusty cousin. [Back]
31. The name Naddod is found on a well-known Ogham inscription in North Britain. Nial's Saga speaks of one Runolf, son of Naddod the Færeyman, and his descendants. [Back]
32. Modern scholiasts have made Hafgrim son of an Irish king's daughter, and given Floce's daughter to Thorolf's brother, whose son Skegge marries Olof, Thorstan's daughter. They have also made Gille the lawman grandson of another Gille. But all this is, I take it, guesswork. Gille seems to witness to Irish or North British connections. [Back]
33. This would have been some chieftain of Norwegian extraction, kinsman may be of Cetil Find himself. [Back]
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