SOURCE AND GENRE

Sturlaugs saga starfsama ch XXI — first Jól-evening vows

OLD NORSE

Nú skal hefja heitstrenging … fyrir in þriðju jól eða deyja ella.

This is a deliberately short excerpt from the checked Guðni Jónsson–Bjarni Vilhjálmsson edited passage, not a manuscript facsimile or full diplomatic quotation. The continuous passage also names Framar and Sighvatr.

TRANSLATION

“Now vow-making shall begin … before the third Jól, or else die.” In context Sturlaugr pledges to discover the origin of the aurochs horn; Framar swears to reach Ingibjǫrg's bed and kiss her, a troubling pledge concerning sexual access; Sighvatr pledges to accompany his sworn companions. Those are individual vows, not a standard formula for all guests.

DIRECTLY ATTESTED

In this edited form, the narrator places a feast with invited notables in the winter and formal heitstrengingar as the guests take their seats on the first Jól evening. Sturlaugr introduces vow-making as entertainment for those assembled. The vow deadlines of fyrir in þriðju jól concern future annual occurrences, not a three-year-long feast. The narrative later sends guests home with gifts.

CONTEXTUAL

This is late fornaldarsaga prose presenting a legendary past. The chapter's relation to other textual versions is contested, and Finnur Jónsson specifically identifies a version omitting the ending.

MY INTERPRETATION

A medieval literary association of first-Jól-evening gatherings with oath-like pledges is demonstrable in this redaction. Social performance, competition and narrative foreshadowing may help explain the scene; none proves its performance in Viking-Age ritual.

NOT ESTABLISHED

Universal Jól oath ceremony, sacral oath obligations, boar sacrifice, a full-chapter presence in all manuscript redactions, actual Viking-Age performance, or a literal three-year festival.

FIND IT YOURSELF

Original language actually consulted: Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson (eds.), “Sturlaugs saga starfsama,” Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda II (Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan Forni, 1943–44), pp. 309–355, ch. XXI, beginning En um vetrinn eptir hafði Sturlaugr jólaveizlu (direct edited passage). Additional commentary actually consulted: Árni Magnússon Institute, “Heitstrengingar á jólum: ævagamall drykkjuleikur” (16 November 2020), quoted passage; Finnur Jónsson, Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie, II, 1923, §18, Sturlaugs saga entry. NOT examined: 1969 Zitzelsberger parallel-version edition/English translation, relevant manuscript images and full published variant apparatus. The English above is an independent working translation, not attributed to an unseen printed English translation.

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CHRONOLOGIES

Represented: fictional/legendary pre-Christian setting without a dateable event. Textual composition: medieval legendary-saga transmission, plausibly late thirteenth/early fourteenth-century, with chapters subject to rewriting. Surviving evidence: medieval and later textual branches, including the A-related manuscript AM 335 4to (c. 1400, not directly inspected) and other witnesses; the reported AM 171 fol. absence concerns a different textual version.

VARIANTS AND DEPENDENCIES

JÓL-047, -048 and -049 are episodes in one work, not independent corroborating works. Finnur Jónsson's statement about the omitted ending is historical scholarship consulted, not a new personal manuscript collation. Whether the surviving recensions vary further in small words remains uncollated; it does not overturn what the specifically inspected edited chapter says.