Kumlbúa þáttr

{{Short description|Medieval Icelandic tale}}

{{Italic title}}Kumlbúa þáttr (the tale of the cairn-dweller) is a short medieval Icelandic tale (þáttr) set at the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth.{{Cite book|title = Myths, legends, and heroes: Essays on Old Norse and Old English literature in honour of John McKinnell|last = Lindow|first = John|publisher = University of Toronto Press|year = 2011|isbn = 9781442662056|location = Toronto; Buffalo|pages = 81|editor-last = Anlezark|editor-first = Daniel|chapter = Meeting the other: The cases of Draumr Þorsteins Síðu-Hallssonar and Kumlbúa þáttr|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oGPl11DewwgC&dq=Meeting%20the%20Other%3A%20The%20Cases%20of%20Draumr%20%C3%9Eorsteins%20S%C3%AD%C3%B0u-Hallssonar%20and%20Kumlb%C3%BAa%20%C3%BE%C3%A1ttr&pg=PA81}} 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.{{Cite book|title = Myths, legends, and heroes: Essays on Old Norse and Old English literature in honour of John McKinnell|last = Lindow|first = John|publisher = University of Toronto Press|year = 2011|isbn = 9781442662056|location = Toronto; Buffalo|pages = 84|editor-last = Anlezark|editor-first = Daniel|chapter = Meeting the other: The cases of Draumr Þorsteins Síðu-Hallssonar and Kumlbúa þáttr|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oGPl11DewwgC&dq=Meeting%20the%20Other%3A%20The%20Cases%20of%20Draumr%20%C3%9Eorsteins%20S%C3%AD%C3%B0u-Hallssonar%20and%20Kumlb%C3%BAa%20%C3%BE%C3%A1ttr&pg=PA84}} 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{{Cite book|title = Of fire and water: The Old Norse mythical worldview in an eco-mythological perspective|last = Nordvig|first = A. Mathias Valentin |author-link=Mathias Nordvig |year = 2013|location = Aarhus University (PhD dissertation)|pages = 124|url = https://www.academia.edu/7096054}}{{Cite book|title = Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia|last = McKinnell|first = John|publisher = Garland|year = 1993|isbn = 0824047877|location = New York|pages = 690|editor-last = Pulsiano|editor-first = Phillip|editor-last2 = Wolf|editor-first2 = Kirsten|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d-XiZO8V4qUC&dq=Pseudo-Vatnshyrna%E2%80%99&pg=PA689|chapter = Vatnshyrna}} (Pseudo-Vatnshyrna) and in paper copies made by Árni Magnússon of the Vatnshyrna manuscript, which was destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728.{{Cite book|title = Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia|last = McKinnell|first = John|publisher = Garland|year = 1993|isbn = 0824047877|location = New York|pages = 689|editor-last = Pulsiano|editor-first = Phillip|editor-last2 = Wolf|editor-first2 = Kirsten|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d-XiZO8V4qUC&dq=Pseudo-Vatnshyrna%E2%80%99&pg=PA689|chapter = Vatnshyrna}} Like Bergbúa þáttr, it is unusual amongst þættir for not being preserved as part of the kings' sagas manuscripts Flateyjarbók and Morkinskinna.