Meli, Marcello. Preface to La saga di Egill

• Author: Meli, Marcello
• Title: Prefazione
• Published in: La saga di Egill
• Translator: Marcello Meli
• Place, Publisher: Milano: Mondadori
• Year: 1997
• Pages: v-xxii
• E-text:
• Reference: Meli, Marcello. Prefazione. La saga di Egill. Transl. Marcello Meli. Milano: Mondadori, 1997, pp. v-xxii.

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• Key words: literary elements, law, social reality, characterization (bókmenntaleg einkenni, lög, samfélagsmynd, persónusköpun)

Annotation

The Italian translation of Egil's saga is prefaced by a thorough elucidation of the thematic cores which imbue this ‘collective biography’. Light is first cast on hereditary law and social relations, with particular attention to the warden-ward and the king-retinue relationships. Attention is then drawn to the centrality of the banqueting hall, where the outstanding scald is presented as the respectable ‘goldsmith of sound’. A description of Egil’s eccentric personality follows in accordance with that.

Lýsing

Ítalskri þýðingu Egils sögu fylgir formáli þar sem sem fjallað er um þau meginþemu sem finna má í þessari "raðævisögu". Fyrst er ljósi varpað á erfðarétt og félagstengsl, og lögð þar sérstök áhersla á samband hirðmanns og konungs. Þá er athygli vakinn á hve mikilvægur veisluskálinn var á miðöldum, enda var það þar sem hirðskáldin voru kynnt til sögunnar sem gullsmiðir orðanna. Í beinu framhaldi fylgir lýsing á sérstæðum persónuleika Egils.

References

Chapter 66: Stýfum Ljót af lífi: "The psychosis of the berserkr is present in Egil [...] along with the ability of composing poetry. Like the berserkr, the poet goes out of himself, and he is so fully immersed in the composition of his verses that he allows to believe he is ill, while humbling himself in silence and concentration [cf. Odin’s furor]". (Italian text: “La psicosi del berserkr è dunque presente in Egill […] coniugata con la poesia. Come il berserkr, il poeta esce da sé stesso, è assorbito nella composizione dei suoi versi, tanto da lasciar credere che venga afflitto da qualche malattia, annullandosi nel silenzio e nella concentrazione [cfr. il furore di Odino]” (p. xv).)

Links

• Written by: Martina Ceolin
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason