Vol. 1, 844 — — ed. Diana Whaley
Diana Whaley 2012, ‘(Biography of) Þorfinnr munnr’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 844.
Þorfinnr munnr ‘Mouth’ (Þorf) is numbered among the Icelandic hirðmenn ‘retainers’ of King Óláfr inn helgi Haraldsson (S. Óláfr) in one of the Articuli ‘extracts’ from Styrmir Kárason’s Lífssaga (Flat 1860-8, III, 244). Most of them are skalds, and Þorfinnr is said to be the brother of one Þórðr and to be skaalld mikit ‘a great poet’. The brothers came from northern Iceland, and fought and died at Stiklastaðir (Stiklestad, 1030). Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 253, 261), as well as listing Þorfinnr under Óláfr helgi, also names him, in the U redaction (ibid., 266), as poet to Hákon jarl Sigurðarson (d. c. 995), but the existence of a variant, ‘Þorolfr munnr’, in the 761aˣ redaction (ibid., 256), together with the fact that a former retainer of Hákon who fought at Stiklastaðir would be well over fifty in 1030, leave it somewhat uncertain whether these are one and the same person.
Þorfinnr munnr (Þorf)
11th century
Skj AI, 315; BI, 292
volume 1
main editor: Diana Whaley