Einarr Pambarskelfir's Last Shot (1995)

In the morkinskinna version of Haralds saga hardhradha there is a curious passage describing the events that led up to the murders of old Einarr thambarskelfir his son Eindridhi (Msk. 59-60). According to the saga, King Haraldr wanted to better the sour relations between himself the powerful chieftain Einarr, he therefore invited Einarr to a feast. When they had eaten were relaxing on straw cushions with their beverages, the king began to tell stories about his exploits abroad. Einarr paid scant attention to the king's tales was dozing off, an insolence that irritated the king greatly. The saga continues (Msk. 60):(1) The men had drunk deeply by now, Einarr was almost asleep. He sat leaning up against the cushions. The king leaned over whispered to his kinsman Grjotgardhr: Take some he said, and weave it together. Stick it in Einarr's hand let him grasp it firmly. Give him a shove say: 'Let's get ready, Einarr.' Grjotgardhr did so [Einarr] took a firm hold farted in the process. The king went his way. When Einarr learned what had happened, he was very angry returned home that same night. On the following morning Einarr returned with a great following killed the offender Grjotgardhr. That action pushed the already tense relations between Einarr King Haraldr to the breaking point, a few days later Einarr his son Eindridhi were treacherously murdered in the king's quarters. The episode is omitted in Heimskringla (473) Fagrskinna (263), but it is recorded in the later Hulda Hrokkinskinna versions of Haralds saga hardhradha (Fornmanna sogur 279-80).(2) In Flateyjarbok we find the following variant (350): The men had drunk deeply by now, Einarr was almost asleep. He sat leaning up against the cushions. Then he [the king] leaned over whispered to his kinsman Grjotgardhr: Take some straw, kinsman, he said, and weave it together, put it under Einarr's nose. Give him a shove say: 'Let's get ready, Einarr!' Grjotgardhr did so. Einarr got the urge to sneeze when he pushed the straw under his nose, he farted in the process. The king jumped to his feet went his way. When Einarr learned what had happened, he realized that this had been done to shame him, he understood what might have caused it. He at once departed was very much annoyed. The episode is found in the so-called section of Flateyjarbok. That section was added to the codex during the second half of the fifteenth century the main scribe is assumed to have been Thorleifur Bjornsson of Reykjaholar, the owner of Flateyjarbok at the time (Louis-Jensen 1969; 1977:65-6). It is generally believed that the extant Morkinskinna manuscript, Codex Gl. kgl. sml. 1009 fol. (MskMS), from the end of the thirteenth century, derived from a lost version designated Msk2 by Louis-Jensen. Msk2 also served as the exemplar of m, which in turn was the exemplar of both the younger Flateyjarbok the common exemplar (*H) of Hulda Hrokkinskinna (Louis-Jensen 1977:72, 194).(3) Except for minor syntactic variations occasional interpolations, the text of the younger Flateyjarbok usually follows that of Morkinskinna (MskMS) very closely. Because the two versions of the episode recorded in Morkinskinna (MskMS) Hulda-Hrokkinskinna are similar, the episode must have existed in its present form in Msk2. If the sequence of events in the episode as recorded in Morkinskinna, Hulda, Hrokkinskinna is original, it follows that, when copying the text, the scribe of the younger Flateyjarbok must have failed to understand why the bunch of straw was put into Einarr's hand he consequently tried to make sense of the scene by having Grjotgardhr tickle Einarr's nose with the straw, thus urging him to sneeze then to fart. In his opinion, then, it was the passing of gas that constituted the insult, the bunch of straw under the nose was the means of bringing about that humiliation. …