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Kattar Sonr 153
have the reply about kattar sonr. It seems probable, but
it cannot of course be certain, that this ultimately comes
from the account Stiifr himself gave of his visit to Norway.
If this seems plausible, we must conclude that it offers
evidence that HH I was composed by some older contemporary
of Stufr - just as Alexander Bugge attempted to
demonstrate. But if the anecdote of the meeting between
King Harald and Sttifr is a story-teller's invention, then
it only shows that the HH [ is older than the pattr. The
Morkinskinna compilation is reckoned to be from c. 1200;
the independent pattr must be somewhat older.
Another small problem of literary history is related to
the episode in the Heioaruiga saga in which Snorri g05i sets
the cat - his foster-son or possibly his son - on the boy
whose father has just been killed. lJor5r kottr would not
respond to the urging that time. In the Laxdcela saga
lJor5r kottr is with the other sons of Gu5nin Osvifrsdottir
when they take vengeance for the death of Bolli; here the
"avenger" is supposed to be the twelve-year old Bolli
Bollason. The man who is killed is Helgi Harribeinsson :
his small son, Harobein, ran out of the house, and lJor5r
kottr was on the spot and meant to cut him down at
once - but Bolli came up and said the boy was not to be
harmed. Harobein was saved - and no more is heard of
him in the saga. 21
The episode in the H eioaroiga saga is referred to the year
1008, and then lJor5r kottr could not have been more than
fourteen or fifteen years old. According to the chronology
of the Laxdcela saga, as set out in the Fornrit edition.w
Gu5nin's first marriage was in 989; she was divorced and
remarried, which must have taken a few years, and lJor5r
was the son of her second marriage, born after his father's
death. He must thus in fact have been quite a youngster
in 1008, so that the remark attributed to Snorri
in H eirJarviga saga - ungr skal at ungum vega - is
" Laxdcela saga, ch, 64.
22 Einar 61. Sveinsson, Laxdcela saga (I934), Iix.