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4 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
saga? The possibilities are many.
I>orsteinn Kuggason appears in several other sagas, where he is
always a minor character, or is only mentioned in passing. In
Eyrbyggja saga ch. 65 (1935,180) he is described in the same breath
as I>orgils Holluson:
Snorri gooi bj6 i Tungu tuttugu vetr, ok hafOi hann fyrst heldr ofundsamt setr,
rneoan peir lifOustorbokkarnir, l>orsteinn Kuggason ok Porgils Holluson ok enn
fleiri inir strerri menn, peir er ovinir hans varu.
Now it seems fairly likely that there once existed a saga about
I>orgils Holluson, since it is named in Laxdcela saga ch. 67 (1934,
199):
Sazk var a vig pessi, sem i sogu Porgils Hollusonar segir.
There is, of course, a temptation to think there was one about
I>orsteinn, too. Nordal iBorgjirblnga sogur 1938, lxxxii) considered
that the silence of the author of Eyrbyggja saga about these
feuds might indicate that he felt they had been treated adequately
elsewhere, which might perhaps suggest there were sagas about
these men. This, again, is pure conjecture. One could just as easily
argue that he wrote no more about Porsteinn and Porgils because
he knew no more about them.
I>orsteinn is mentioned a few times in Laxdcela saga, and appears
in a longer scene in ch. 75 along with Porkell Eyj61fsson, in the
episode in which the cousins try to force Halld6rr Olafsson into
selling some land by sitting on his cloak, one on either side of him
(1934, 218-21). This episode has a literary purpose in that it
contrasts I>orsteinn's hot temper and I>orkell's good sense and
cool-headedness, thus reinforcing our favourable view of him as a
husband for Guonin. The contrast is underlined by Halld6rr's
prophecy that I>orsteinn will die an ignoble death. In the next
chapter, I>orkell dies tragically, but innocently, by drowning.
The author of Laxdcela saga clearly used the family relationship
between the two men as a base on which to build the contrast of
personalities his narrative required. It is therefore unnecessary to
seek the source of I>orsteinn's appearances in Laxdcela saga in
anything other than the author's imagination.
Porsteinn also appears briefly in chs. 7 and 8 of Fostbrcebra
saga (1925-7, 39-44), in which he prosecutes and outlaws I>orgeirr
Havarsson for the killing of Porgils Maksson, There seems no
reason to suppose that the source for this was a lost *Porsteins
saga.
Apart from Bjarnar saga, the work in which Porsteinn appears