TATTR ABOUT HRAFNA-FLOKI IN ICELANDIC WRITTEN SOURCES

Abstract

One of the most peculiar stories about the naming of the island, which the introductory chapters of The Book of Settlements (Landnámabók) open with, is the þáttr about Hrafna-Flóki, presented completely differently in the early editions of Sturlubók and Hauksbók. The dynamics of plot development, which are similar to those of a fairy tale, fragments that fully coincide in the different editions, the release of three sacrificial ravens and the three main actors (Flóki Vilgerðarson himself and his two companions who bear the rhyming names Þórólfr and Herjólfr) go back to the oral tradition. In the plot of the ‘magic helper’, Faxi, endowed with a name typical for a magic horse in the Old Norse tradition, direct structural and stylistic analogies can be traced in other hydronymic legends of Landnámabók. The þáttr of Flóki is an alternative socioetiological legend, ignored by Ari fróði Þorgilsson due to its inconsistency with his idealised image of the leader of the Norwegian settlers.