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64 THE VIKING PERIOD
instances, it is true, we have only the records of events given
by the actors themselves or by eyewitnesses, and we cannot
be certain that such stories had assumed anything like a
fixed form. Far more important is the passage from Harolds
Saga Hardrada, 1
for there the story-teller was not an eye-
witness, but had obtained the story, or the material for it,
from Halld6r Snorrason, an Icelandic follower of King
Harald. From what is said about the length of the saga,
there can be no doubt that it had been worked up in a
very elaborate way. For such elaborate secondhand stories
we have no other definite evidence, but again, considering
the time which the recital is said to have occupied, it would
be unwise to conclude that this later form of the art was
entirely new.
We have, therefore, clearly to distinguish two stages in
the history of the oral saga ; (i)
the story as told by some-
one who had taken part in the events described ; (ii)
the
secondhand story. The story was soon embellished, especially
in the second stage, not merely with such devices as the
records of conversation, but even by the introduction of
imaginary adventures. Indeed we need not assume ’that
even in the first stage the stories were told in strict
accordance with fact. Reference may be made, for instance,
to the passage quoted above from Njdls Saga, where
Gunnarr Lambi’s sou is said to have told the story of the
burning unfairly. Even in the fslendinga and Konunga
Sogur fiction forms a not inconsiderable element : in the
Fornaldar Sogur it is ovbiously much greater.
Yet there is good reason for believing that in the main
the fslendinga and Konunga Sogur are historical. This
may be seen by the general agreement between the various
1
See pp. Go, 61, ante.
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