Clunies Ross, Margaret. The Skald Sagas as a Genre

• Author: Clunies Ross, Margaret
• Title: The Skald Sagas as a Genre: Definitions and Typical Features Skaldsagas
• Published in: Text, Vocation and Desire in the Icelandic Sagas of Poets
• Editor: Russell Poole
• Place, Publisher: Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter
• Year: 2001
• Pages: 25-49
• E-text:
• Reference: Clunies Ross, Margaret. "The Skald Sagas as a Genre: Definitions and Typical Features Skaldsagas." Skaldsagas. Text, Vocation and Desire in the Icelandic Sagas of Poets, pp. 25-49. Ed. Russell Poole. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2001.

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Lýsing

Clunies Ross fjallar um þau hugtök og þau efnislegu og bókmenntalegu einkenni sem fræðimenn hafa notað til að skilgreina „skáldasögur“ sem bókmenntagrein. Samkvæmt henni mynda fjórar sögur (Kormáks saga, Hallfreðar saga, Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa og Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu) kjarna þessa flokks Íslendingasagna. Þó að uppbygging og minni Egils sögu séu svipuð og í áðurnefndum sögum, er unnið með þessi minni með nokkuð öðrum hætti og sagan inniheldur einnig töluvert mikið af annars konar efni. Clunies Ross fjallar um eðli og innra líf skáldsins sem aðalpersónu í öllum þessum fimm skáldasögum og heldur því fram að sköpunargáfa þessara skálda gefi lífi þeirra bæði tilgang og ánægju en valdi líka ógæfu þeirra. Egill Skallagrímsson en engin undantekning í þessu efni.

References

1. “The underlying hypothesis of the skald sagas seems to be that [the poets of the skald sagas], being aggressive by nature, are naturally disposed to composing poetry of an agonistic character.” (p. 44) 2. “[T]he composer of Egils saga adopts a stronger interest in the poet’s production of verse in a personalised context than in his composition of court poetry for foreign rulers [...].” (p. 37) 3. “Love and sexual passion are only weakly represented in [Egill’s] repertoire, however, and in that respect one may say that one of the main defining characteristics of the skald saga is vestigial here.” (p. 38) 4. “[T]he skald sagas represent the poetic temperament itself as to a considerable degree responsible for the difficulties these men encounter.” (p. 48)

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