SOURCE AND GENRE
Þórðar saga kakala in Sturlunga saga, ch184: Ásbjörn welcomed by Tumi at Hólar farm, treated well over Jól
OLD NORSE
“í góðu yfir-læti um Jólin.”
TRANSLATION
After Ásbjörn separated from Þórðr, he and his companions rode to Hólar around St Þorlákr's Day. Tumi welcomed him; Ásbjörn was treated well during Jól. The account then mentions many other men coming to Tumi.
DIRECTLY ATTESTED
Reception by Tumi, favorable Jól-period treatment of Ásbjörn at Hólar, and arrival of other men to Tumi in the surrounding narrative. The wording góðu yfir-læti expresses good treatment/comfortable circumstances, not a specified menu.
CONTEXTUAL
Christian thirteenth-century Iceland and immediate political conflict among Sturlung factions. Hólar in this episode is a named farm associated with Tumi; do not silently equate it with the bishop's seat Hólar in JÓL-067. This is a distinct narrative and period.
MY INTERPRETATION
This supports a limited literary picture of Jól-season hosting among factional associates; the political function of that hospitality remains interpretive.
NOT ESTABLISHED
A named Jól feast, special foods, drinking, gifts, vows, a pagan cult, or that every person coming to Tumi attended a single Jól banquet.
FIND IT YOURSELF
Directly consulted text: Sturlunga saga Old Norse, electronic edited-text transcription, chapter 184, at https://norroen.info/src/samtid/islendinga/on.html (find the chapter number followed by the distinctive phrase quoted above); consulted 2026-10-14. Scholarly edition used to identify the underlying numbered tradition: Guðbrandur Vigfússon (ed.), Sturlunga Saga: Including the Islendinga Saga of Lawman Sturla Thordsson and Other Works, vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1878); the volume's bibliographic identity was independently checked, but the corresponding printed page image was not examined. Scholarly comparison directly inspected at quotation level: D. M. White, On the Origins of Þórðar saga kakala (UCL thesis, 2021), open repository, pp. 198–199, reproduces the 2010 edition’s wording with English and a locator (Örnólfur Thorsson, ed., Sturlunga saga II [2010], p. 499); the thesis excerpt was consulted, the 2010 printed page itself was not. White, The Saga of Þórður kakali (2020), pp. 151–153, accessible open scholarly publication record was checked bibliographically, not claimed as complete inspected page. Not examined: physical medieval witnesses, full alternative-redaction or modern critical apparatus, complete 1878 printed/facsimile page collation. These unexamined materials do not support variant-specific claims in the card. Source log entries: SL-068-D–F.
VARIANTS AND DEPENDENCIES
The episode is part of the Þórðar saga kakala constituent narrative, not a second Sturlunga witness. A published bilingual edition and UCL scholarly quotation offer comparison; the full contemporary manuscript collation is not performed.
SOURCE / EDITED PASSAGE
Þórðar saga kakala within Sturlunga saga, chapter 184. The paragraph names St Þorlákr's Day as Ásbjörn's departure, then recounts his arrival at Hólar and favorable reception from Tumi over Jól.
Textual, religious and chronological control
Represented setting: Christian Iceland in the thirteenth century, not reconstructed pagan ritual. Testimony: medieval contemporary-saga historiography composed or compiled relatively close to the represented events, with authorial motives and transmission questions not erased by this verification. Witnesses: later medieval Sturlunga saga manuscripts and subsequent editions; no original autograph, parchment leaf or variant apparatus has been personally collated in this phase. The online source's overall heading “Íslendinga saga” does not make these two constituent sagas independent Íslendinga saga eyewitness reports.