SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE SAGA
OF THE GREENLANDERS
By J6K J6HANKESSOK
Translated by TRYGGVI J. OLESON
Introduction
SHORTLY before his untimely death in 1957, Dr Jon
j ohannesson. Professor of History in the University of
Iceland, published a very important essay on the date of
the composition of the so called Grcenlendinga saga or
pattr (The Saga of the Greenlanders). This appeared in
Icelandic in a Festschrift presented to Professor Sigurour
Nordal on the occasion of his seventieth birthday,
Nordcela (Reykjavik, 1956), under the title of 'Aldur
Gramlendinga sogu'.
As is well known to students of the explorations and
settlements of the Icelanders in the Western Hemisphere,
there has long existed a controversy among scholars as to
the relative age and reliability of the two principle sources
on the settlement of Greenland and the Vinland voyages
around the year A.D. 1000: The Saga of the Greenlanders
and the Saga of Eirikr the Red. On the whole scholars
have up to the present tended to regard the latter as the
older and more trustworthy source,* but in his essay
Dr J ohannesson has added his voice to the few who in the
past have regarded the Saga of the Greenlanders as the
earlier and more valuable source. He has, it seems to me,
advanced very strong arguments in support of his
contention and, if they are accepted, they will of necessity
lead to a large re-assessment, as indeed the author points
out, of the history of the discovery of America and the
pioneering voyages of the Icelanders thither. Because
of the importance of this work and because it is both
buried in a Festschrift and written in a language with
* For a discussion of the problem see Halld6r Herrnannsson, The Vinland
Sagas (Islandica XXX; 1944).