SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

58 Saga-Book ofthe Viking Society
In the Saga of Eirikr, on the other hand, the sybil,
Porbjorg, who is called Little Sybil (Zitilvalva) , says to
Gu6ri6r:
"I will reward you out of hand for the help you have
given us, for I now see your destiny very clearly. You
will make, here in Greenland, as worthy a match as is
possible, but it will not be long lasting, for your future
path leads to Iceland, and there a great and goodly
lineage will spring from you, and bright rays oflight will
shine over your descendants. Fare well and be hale, my
daughter." 3
In both sagas the reference is obviously to the bishops
who are among the descendants of Gu6ri6r. The
prophecies, which are clearly fictional, cannot be older
than the genealogies in the concluding passages of the
sagas, and were most likely written by the same authors.
It is a strange coincidence, however, that two such
similar prophecies should independently occur to two
writers. Another passage in the Saga of Eirikr throws
some light on this. Here Porsteinn speaks to Gu6ri6r
shortly after his death and the incident is reported thus:
"He also told her of his circumstances and said that
she would have a notable future. But he bade her
beware of marrying a Greenlander."4
It might be expected that the author would here explain
more fully what Gu6ri6r's destiny was to be, since he took
the trouble to mention it at all, but he did not do this, for
it would have meant only a repetition of what he had
already recorded. There seems to be only one explanation
of why the author should mention here for the second
time a prophecy concerning Gu6ri6r's future. He must
have known either the Saga of the Greenlanders or similar
accounts and preserved here relics of these. However, it
3 Sven B. F. Jansson, Sagorna om Vinland I (1944), 43. Cf. islenzk fornrit
IV 208.
• Sagorna om Vinland I, 55; islenzk fornrit IV 216.