View source for Howson, George. The death of Gunnar

* '''Author''': George Howson 
* '''Title''': The Death of Gunnar.  A tribute to Ian Ramsay Maxwell. 
* '''Published in''': Treasures of the Elder Tongue, fifty years of Old Norse in Melbourne,
The Proceedings of the Symposium to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Old Norse at the
University of Melbourne, 14th May 1994
* '''Place, Publisher''': University of Melbourne, Katrina Burge (ed.), John Stanley Martin
(general ed.)
* '''Year''': 1995
* '''Pages''': 115-126
* '''E-text''': 
* '''Reference''': Howson, George. “The Death of Gunnar: A Tribute to Ian Ramsay Maxwell” In: ''Treasures of the Elder Tongue, fifty years of Old Norse in Melbourne, The Proceedings of the Symposium to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Old Norse at the University of Melbourne'', ''14th May 1994,'' p. 115-126, Melbourne: Dept. Of Germanic and Russian Studies, University of Melbourne, 1995.
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* '''Key words''': 



==Annotation== 

This article is a complementary approach to Ian Maxwell's 'Patterns in "Njáls saga"' with a narrow focus on a small section of
the saga, namely the six lines enclosing Gunnar's decision to return to his homestead at
Hlíðarendi in spite of his sentence of outlawry (ch.75: 182, lines 116-122). The author
states that this famous section had been misunderstood, and argues, through a close
analysis of semantics and word-order, that the scene of Gunnar's getting on his horse is a
metaphor of his inner battle and frustration, a no-win he had been backed into repeatedly
in the same way as Njál and Skarpheðinn had been. However, this tragic position is
precisely what allows these characters to enter ''into the saga'', and not being out of it as others
non-memorable characters. 

==Lýsing==



==See also==

Maxwell, Ian Ramsay, “Patterns in Njáls saga”, ''Saga-Book of the Viking Society'',
London: 1957-1961.

==References== 

[https://wikisaga.hi.is/index.php?title=Nj%C3%A1la,_054 Chapter 54] '''“Gunnar [...] stakk niðr atgeirinum ok varp sér í söðulinn [...]”''' “...the clang of
battle in this scene echoes with the deeper, although more distant reverberation of an
almost identical image from an earlier scene in the saga [...] The similarity is unmistakable”
p.199

[https://wikisaga.hi.is/index.php?title=Nj%C3%A1la,_054 Chapter 54] “We are asked to remember what Gunnar was thinking about at the end of that
fateful ride, the ride that encompassed what Njál called “the beginning of [Gunnar's]
manslayings,” and in particular, the still unanswered question that Gunnar ut to Kolskegg:
“I would like to know [...] whether I am more cowardly than others because I think more
of killing men than they do”. p.122-123

[https://wikisaga.hi.is/index.php?title=Nj%C3%A1la,_075 Chapter 75]: '''“Hann stingr niðr... ok fara hvergi”''': “Inlaid this renowned episode lies an insight
into the pattern of the inner life of Gunnar's character, and of the dilemma he faces in the
saga” p. 117-118

==Links==

* ''Written by:'' Marion Poilvez  
* ''Icelandic/English translation:'' 

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