The priest Are Frode (the learned), a son of Thorgils the son of Geller,
was the first man in this country who wrote down in the Norse language
narratives of events both old and new. In the beginning of his book he
wrote principally about the first settlements in Iceland, the laws and
government, and next of the lagmen, and how long each had administered
the law; and he reckoned the years at first, until the time when
Christianity was introduced into Iceland, and afterwards reckoned from
that to his own times. To this he added many other subjects, such as
the lives and times of kings of Norway and Denmark, and also of England;
beside accounts of great events which have taken place in this country
itself. His narratives are considered by many men of knowledge to be the
most remarkable of all; because he was a man of good understanding,
and so old that his birth was as far back as the year after Harald
Sigurdson's fall. He wrote, as he himself says, the lives and times of
the kings of Norway from the report of Od Kolson, a grandson of Hal of
Sida. Od again took his information from Thorgeir Afradskol, who was an
intelligent man, and so old that when Earl Hakon the Great was killed
he was dwelling at Nidarnes--the same place at which King Olaf Trygvason
afterwards laid the foundation of the merchant town of Nidaros (i.e.,
Throndhjem) which is now there. The priest Are came, when seven years
old, to Haukadal to Hal Thorarinson, and was there fourteen years. Hal
was a man of great knowledge and of excellent memory; and he could even
remember being baptized, when he was three years old, by the priest
Thanghrand, the year before Christianity was established by law in
Iceland. Are was twelve years of age when Bishop Isleif died, and at
his death eighty years had elapsed since the fall of Olaf Trygvason. Hal
died nine years later than Bishop Isleif, and had attained nearly the
age of ninety-four years. Hal had traded between the two countries, and
had enjoyed intercourse with King Olaf the Saint, by which he had
gained greatly in reputation, and he had become well acquainted with the
kingdom of Norway. He had fixed his residence in Haukadal when he was
thirty years of age, and he had dwelt there sixty-four years, as Are
tells us. Teit, a son of Bishop Isleif, was fostered in the house of
Hal at Haukadal, and afterwards dwelt there himself. He taught Are the
priest, and gave him information about many circumstances which Are
afterwards wrote down. Are also got many a piece of information from
Thurid, a daughter of the gode Snorre. She was wise and intelligent, and
remembered her father Snorre, who was nearly thirty-five years of age
when Christianity was introduced into Iceland, and died a year after
King Olaf the Saint's fall. So it is not wonderful that Are the priest
had good information about ancient events both here in Iceland,
and abroad, being a man anxious for information, intelligent and of
excellent memory, and having besides learned much from old intelligent
persons. But the songs seem to me most reliable if they are sung
correctly, and judiciously interpreted.