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208 Hollander: Jómsv. saga.
H held it to be unnecessary to copy in detail an episode of
his own saga which occurred also in the above-mentioned
works, referring the reader to them for more information,
seems quite acceptable*, unless, indeed, we assume that
these references are by the author of the saga himself, who
did not care to elaborate parts of his history dealing with
episodes of Norwegian history he supposed his readers to
be familiar with, or have no direct bearing on the story
in hand. If so, it would only confirm our high opinion of
the technique of the saga *).
As to alleged interpolations only one deserves serious
consideration. Krijn (p. 14) interprets the double account
of Búi’s jumping overboard (H 30) as, in the second in-
stance, an interpolation (from the larger Olafssaga Trygg-
vasonar?). It is not necessary to assume this. Everything
would be in order, if the encounter with Sigmund Brestis-
son, which is under suspicion, followed directly upon the
cutting in two of Búi’s first antagonist, porkell midlangr.
After Búi has both his hands cut off at the wrist by Sig-
mundr, his winged words ”yfir bord allar Biia lidar” would
come more logically, than after his fight with ^orkell —
why should he give up the struggle while yet vígfœrr?
Also, Sigvaldi can with better reason make good his threat
of withdrawing from the battle, now that he sees his strong-
est champion succumb. This is the only serious lapse in
H. If I may venture a guess the scribe, who otherwise
did admirable work, for once is guilty of an aberration
(Entgleisung). Psychologically this may be accounted for
by the seemingly parallel items on the same page: 1 a)
After the second magic storm Sigvaldi says: Nu vil. ek
brutt flýia and calls on his men to do likewise: 2 a) Yagn
’) ”This critical attitude, inclining to brevity and restraint in mat-
ters not strictly pertaining to the matter in hand is characteristic of the
very best saga style”, F. Jónsson, Lit. Hist. II, 211.
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