Bergbúa þáttr

Bergbúa þáttr ('the tale of the mountain-dweller') is a short medieval Icelandic tale (þáttr).[1] It tells of Þórðr and his companion who get lost on their way to church one winter and take refuge in a cave.[1] Once inside, after they have settled down for the evening, they hear noises from the back of the cave.[1] Later they see two huge eyes and hear a voice which recites a poem of twelve stanzas,[1] now known as Hallmundarkviða.[2] The speaker of these verses refers to himself as a giant, and repeats the poem three time across the course of the night.[1] The giant instructs the humans to remember the poem or suffer a forfeit.[1] Þórðr memorises the poem but his companion does not and subsequently dies the following year.[1]

Hallmundarkviða makes many references to volcanic activity,[3] and it has been suggested that it may refer to a specific Icelandic volcanic eruption. Determining which depends on the date of the poem. Bergbúa þáttr was probably written some time in the thirteenth century,[1] but Hallmundarkviða may be considerably older.[4] Guðmundur Finnbogason suggested that it may refer to the 1262 eruption at Sólheimajökull.[4] The name Hallmundarkviða is only attested from 1844[4] but it has been proposed that the poem refers to the tenth century eruption at Hallmundarhraun.[4][5]

The text survives in fragmentary form in AM 564a 4to[4][6] (Pseudo-Vatnshyrna) and in paper copies made by Árni Magnússon of the Vatnshyrna manuscript, which was destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728.[7] It is unusual amongst þættir for not being preserved as part of the kings' sagas manuscripts Flateyjarbók and Morkinskinna.[8] Kumlbúa þáttr, which is thematically similar to Bergbúa þáttr, was likewise recorded outside of the kings' sagas manuscripts in Vatnshyrna and Pseudo-Vatnshyrna.[8]

References
  1. Lindow, John (2002) [2001]. Norse mythology: A guide to gods, heroes, rituals, and beliefs. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN 0195153820.
  2. "skaldic project". abdn.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  3. Nordvig, A. Mathias Valentin (2013). Of fire and water: The Old Norse mythical worldview in an eco-mythological perspective. Aarhus University (PhD dissertation). p. 123.
  4. Nordvig, A. Mathias Valentin (2013). Of fire and water: The Old Norse mythical worldview in an eco-mythological perspective. Aarhus University (PhD dissertation). p. 124.
  5. Lindow, John (2014). Trolls: An unnatural history. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 31, 147–148. ISBN 9781780232898.
    • Lindow refers to the work of Árni Hjartarson, now published as Árni Hjartarson (2014). "Hallmundarkviða, eldforn lýsing á eldgosi". Náttúrufræðingurinn. 84: 27–37.
    • An association between the poem and the Hallmundarhraun eruption was made earlier, here: Pál Bergþórsson (2006-03-25). "Þýtr í þungu grjóti: þrír eskimars svíra". Lesbók Morgunblaðsins. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  6. McKinnell, John (1993). "Vatnshyrna". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 690. ISBN 0824047877.
  7. McKinnell, John (1993). "Vatnshyrna". In Pulsiano, Phillip; Wolf, Kirsten (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia. New York: Garland. p. 689. ISBN 0824047877.
  8. Ármann Jakobsson (2013). "The life and death of the medieval Icelandic short story". JEGP, Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 112: 279.
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