Þar sagði svá, at Grettir hafi bein þessi ór hellinum haft. En er prestr kom til kirkju um morgininn, fann hann keflit ok þat sem fylgdi, ok las rúnarnar. En Grettir hafði farit heim til Sandhauga.
En þá er prestr fann Gretti, spurði hann inniliga eptir atburðum; en hann sagði alla sǫgu um ferð sína, ok kvað prest ótrúliga hafa haldit festinni. Prestr lét þat á sannaz. Þóttuz menn þat vita, at þessar óvættir mundu valdit hafa mannahvǫrfum þar í dalnum. Varð ok aldri mein af aptrgǫngum eða reimleikum þar í dalnum síðan. Þótti Grettir þar gǫrt hafa mikla landhreinsan. Prestr jarðaði bein þessi í kirkjugarði.
Translation of Extracts from Grettis Saga
The Grettis saga was first printed in the middle of the eighteenth century, in Iceland (Marcússon, Nockrer Marg-frooder Sogu-þatter, 1756, pp. 81-163). It was edited by Magnússon and Thordarson, Copenhagen, 1853, with a Danish translation, and again by Boer (Altnordische Saga-bibliothek, Halle, 1900). An edition was also printed at Reykjavik in 1900, edited by V. Ásmundarson.
There are over forty MSS of the saga: Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a (quoted in the notes below as A) forms the basis of all three modern editions. Boer has investigated the relationship of the MSS (Die handschriftliche überlieferung der Grettissaga, Z.f.d.Ph. XXXI, 40-60), and has published, in an appendix to his edition, the readings of five of the more important, in so far as he considers that they can be utilized to amend the text supplied by A.
The reader who consults the editions of both Magnússon and Boer will be struck by the differences in the text, although both are following the same MS. Many of these differences are, of course, due to the fact that the editors are normalizing the spelling, but on different principles: many others, however, are due to the extraordinary difficulty of the MS itself. Mr Sigfús Blöndal, of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, has examined Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a for me, and he writes:
"It is the very worst MS I have ever met with. The writing is small, almost every word is abbreviated, and, worst of all, the writing is in many places effaced, partly by smoke (I suppose the MS needs must have been lying for years in some smoky and damp baðstofa) rendering the parchment almost as black as shoe-leather, but still more owing to the use of chemicals, which modern editors have been obliged to use, to make sure of what there really was in the text. By the use of much patience and a lens, one can read it, though, in most places. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the Glámur episode, a big portion of which belongs to the very worst part of the MS, and the readings of that portion are therefore rather uncertain."
The Icelandic text given above agrees in the main with that in the excellent edition of Boer, to whom, in common with all students of the Grettis saga, I am much indebted: but I have frequently adopted in preference a spelling or wording nearer to that of Magnússon. In several of these instances (notably the spelling of the verses attributed to Grettir) I think Prof. Boer would probably himself agree.
The words or letters placed between square brackets are those which are not to be found in Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a.
To Mr Blöndal, who has been at the labour of collating with the MS, for my benefit, both the passages given above, my grateful thanks are due.
There are English translations of the Grettis saga by Morris and E. Magnússon (1869, and in Morris' Works, 1911, vol. VII) and by G. A. Hight (Everyman's Library, 1914).
For a discussion of the relationship of the Grettis saga to other stories, see also Boer, Zur Grettissaga, in Z.f.d.Ph. XXX, 1-71.
(a) Glam episode (p. [146] above)
There was a man called Thorhall, who lived at Thorhall's Farm in Shadow-dale. Shadow-dale runs up from Water-dale. Thorhall was son of Grim, son of Thorhall, son of Frithmund, who settled Shadow-dale. Thorhall's wife was called Guthrun: their son was Grim, and Thurith their daughter—they were grown up.
p. [147]
Thorhall was a wealthy man, and especially in cattle, so that no man had as much live stock as he. He was not a chief, yet a substantial yeoman. The place was much haunted, and he found it hard to get a shepherd to suit him. He sought counsel of many wise men, what device he should follow, but he got no counsel which was of use to him. Thorhall rode each summer to the All-Thing; he had good horses. That was one summer at the All-Thing, that Thorhall went to the booth of Skapti Thoroddsson, the Law-man.