SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

On Arons saga Hjbrleifssonar 139
and the ever-present danger of sudden death, which is
only narrowly averted on several occasions. Aron did
not seem to be able to bear the strain of outlawry as well
as some of his more famous predecessors in the
profession. After four unsettled years on the run he
managed in 1226 to obtain a passage to Norway, with the
help of Haraldr Ssemundarson and his brothers (the
grandsons of Jon Loptsson of Oddi), but before he went
he dealt one further blow against his enemies by killing
Sigmundr snagi, who had been in Sturla's force on
Grimsey.
On arrival in I>rcindheimr he again met up with Bishop
Gu5mundr and spent the first winter in the retinue of
Earl Skuli, whom he deserted in order to make his
famous pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Jordan. On his
return he joined the household of King Hakon in Bergen.
Even here Sturla sought him out, but owing to Aron's
powerful protection, had to be content with piercing his
former companion only with a glare. Now, in contrast
to his earlier experiences, Aron enjoyed many favours and
lived in great comfort and honour until his death about
1255.
II
Although we have a fairly cohesive and coherent
account of Aron's life, it is only by a series of
historical accidents that we are able to piece it together
at all. The saga no longer exists as a whole in its original
form. We find the last half of it in a vellum fragment
from the first half of the fifteenth century (AM 551 d B
4to). This once belonged to Bishop Brynjolfur Sveinsson
of Skalholt, in whose time it was apparently much more
complete than it is now, since his scribe, Jon Erlendsson,
made a copy of it some time before the year 1665 (AM
212 fo1.). Originally this copy contained only two lacunse,
representing gaps in the exemplar, but since then two
other sections of it have been lost. Fortunately most of