''Kumlbúa þáttr'' (the tale of the cairn-dweller) is a short
medieval Icelandic tale (
þáttr
The ''þættir'' (Old Norse singular ''þáttr'', literally meaning a "strand" of rope or yarn)O'Donoghue (2004:226). are short stories written mostly in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries.
The majority of ''þættir'' occur in two compend ...
) set at the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth.
It tells the story of Þorsteinn Þorvarðsson who stumbles upon a burial cairn and takes a sword from it. After he returns home he goes to bed and is visited in a dream by the cairn-dweller. The man, who wields a huge pole-axe, demands the return of the sword and threatens Þorsteinn. Þorsteinn's wife wakes him to ask why he is sleeping so poorly but he does not tell her and goes back to sleep at once. The cairn-dweller reappears and declaims a threatening verse. However, Þorsteinn retorts with a more technically proficient verse which 'caps' that of the cairn-dweller who then leaves Þorsteinn. The following day Þorsteinn goes to look for the cairn but cannot find it. He returns home and tells his wife and other people the story.
The text survives in fragmentary form in AM 564a 4to
(''
Pseudo-Vatnshyrna'') and in paper copies made by
Árni Magnússon
Árni Magnússon (13 November 1663 – 7 January 1730) was a scholar and collector of manuscripts from Iceland who assembled the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection.
Life
Árni was born in 1663 at Kvennabrekka in Dalasýsla, in western Iceland ...
of the ''
Vatnshyrna
''Vatnshyrna'' was a major Icelandic saga codex destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728. It was copied between 1391 and 1395 by Magnús Þórhallsson for Jón Hákonarson in northern Iceland. The codex was first called ''Vatnshyrna'' by Arngr ...
'' manuscript, which was destroyed in the
Copenhagen Fire of 1728
The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by cou ...
.
Like ''
Bergbúa þáttr
''Bergbúa þáttr'' ('The Tale of the Mountain-Dweller') is a short medieval Icelandic tale (þáttr). It tells of Þórðr and his companion who get lost on their way to church one winter and take refuge in a cave. Once inside, after they have s ...
'', it is unusual amongst ''þættir'' for not being preserved as part of the
kings' sagas
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were comp ...
manuscripts ''
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...
'' and ''
Morkinskinna
''Morkinskinna'' is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275.
The name ''Morkinskinn ...
''.
Critical reception
Stephen Mitchell considers ''Kumlbúa þáttr'' to be "a story that achieves neither a satisfying nor harmonious conclusion"
and one that communicates a message that "there are forces at loose in the world which cannot be countered, whose source of power is unclear, and whose design we do not understand."
Bibliography
Editions
* Digitised at heimskringla.no
*
* Modern Icelandic edition a
snerpa.is
Translations
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumlbua thattr
Þættir