Fichtner, Edward G.. The Narrative Structure of Egils saga

• Author: Fichtner, Edward G.
• Title: The narrative structure of Egils saga
• Published in: Les sagas de Chevaliers (Riddarasögur). Actes de la V. Conférence Internationale sur les Saga
• Place, Publisher: Toulon: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne
• Year: 1982
• Pages: 355-69
• E-text:
• Reference: Fichtner, Edward G. "The narrative structure of Egils saga." Les sagas de Chevaliers (Riddarasögur). Actes de la V. Conférence Internationale sur les Saga, pp. 355-69. Toulon: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 1982.

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• Key words: structure (uppbygging)

Annotation

The narrative structure of Egils saga has been criticised as lacking focus; Walther Vogt suggests that its last 21 chapters signal a loss of direction and the end of the saga proper. The saga's 87 chapters can, however, be divided into three 29-chapter sections: Kveld-Úlfr (1-29), Skalla-Grímur (30-58) and Egill (59-87). Within each of these sections is a pair of chapters introducing the section, a pair of chapters concluding the section and five groups of five chapters each ("pentads"). The third and central chapter of each pentad is typically pivotal, either containing a significant event within the pentad or an event that can be later seen as having great importance within the story. A second structural system within the saga is the sequence of chapter 11 and every 11th chapter after this, which Fichtner calls "a kind of barometer which shows the state of the relations between Kveld-Úlfr and his descendants and the Norwegian kings" (p. 362). Fichtner concludes that these arithmetical symmetries show the saga to be a single, complete work - a "case study in social dislocation" (p. 356) centred around the succession of generations, their conflicts (often arising from property inheritance disputes) and the subsequent restoration of equilibrium. An appendix deals with issues of numerical composition and the structure of Egils saga raised following the presentation of the paper.

Links

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: