Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Literary Influence. The Sagas of Iceland and Ireland
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
sagas, since the same characters constantly reappear, and
there is little inconsistency with regard to their circumstances
or personal traits. Again, the description of houses, ships,
weapons, and other articles seems generally to correspond
to those known to date from the period to which the stories
refer. There is, moreover, one feature which points to a
more or less fixed tradition dating from the closing years
of the tenth century, namely, the attitude towards those
characters who figured prominently in the struggle between
Christianity and heathenism. Thus there are indications
that the rather unsympathetic representation of Harold
Greycloak and his brothers may be due to the fact that they
were Christians. Still more significant is the attitude of
the sagas towards Haakon the Bad, whose character seems
to undergo a great change—probably a reflection of the
change in the popular opinion of Christianity.
Sagas like those of Egill and Kormak relating to the
middle or first part of the twelfth century are few in number
and usually contain a considerable amount of poetry; in
fact, the prose is not infrequently based upon the poetry.
Stories dealing with early Icelandic history from A.D. 874
onwards and Norwegian history of the same period are much
less full. In general they appear to be trustworthy, but
the details are such as might have been preserved by local
or family tradition without the special faculty which is
characteristic of the sagas.
Of a totally different character are the sagas relating to
times before the settlement of Iceland (A.D. 874). Some
of these, such as Völsunga Saga and Hervarar Saga, deal
with events as far back as the fifth century, and are, to a
great extent, paraphrases of poems, many of which have
come down to us. Very frequently, too, whether based on
poems or not, the narrative bears the stamp of fiction.¹
1
Cf, the references to Hrómundar Saga, pp. 69, 70, ante.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
