Norna-Gests þáttr and Helga þáttr Þórissonar in Icelandic Manuscripts : A Literary Diptych Lost in Time

Abstract

This article aims to reconstruct the relationship between Norna-Gests þáttr and Helga þáttr Þórissonar by assessing their presence first in Icelandic parchment manuscripts and then in younger paper manuscripts. It will argue that these two texts were originally intended to function together as a literary diptych embedded within the narratological framework of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, demonstrating how they are connected through medieval compilation practices on two levels: interdependence and careful insertion within a broader literary context. Although scholarship has briefly commented on the existing relationship between these two þættir, no previous work has extensively tackled the subject by considering their manuscripts alone, which seem to bear witness to the close connection between them. After elucidating their relationship, the article will argue that, although they were originally meant to be interdependent texts, they became separated from each other when they were later committed to paper in the witnesses of their post-medieval reception.