Bell, L. Michael. Fighting Words in Egils saga

• Author: Bell, L. Michael
• Title: Fighting words in Egils saga: Lexical Pattern and Standard-Bearer
• Published in: Arkiv för nordisk filologi 95
• Year: 1980
• Pages: 89-112
• E-text: journals.lub.lu.se
• Reference: Bell, L. Michael. "Fighting words in Egils saga: Lexical Pattern and Standard-Bearer." Arkiv för nordisk filologi 95 (1980): 89-112.

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• Key words: language and style (mál og stíll)

Annotation

Bell's article discusses words used to describe fighting scenes in Egils saga. He argues that the basic pattern in such scenes is of the type FALL + FLIGHT, i.e. that the events are habitually related by mentioning those that fell and those that fled, e.g. „many fell, some fled“ (ch. 14). This pattern can appear with variants, which are, however, connected to the main type. Bell categorises the battles according to the vocabulary of the pattern and draws the conclusion that the words used in the text describe the importance of the events, i.e. that the word choice depends on the importance of the events they describe. Finally, he provides a list of concepts for battle and fighting, lexical patterns of fall and flight, as well as an index of major and minor conflicts.

Lýsing

Í greininni fjallar Bell um orð sem lýsa átökum í Eglu. Hann gerir grein fyrir að grundvallarmynstrið í þeim senum sé af FALL + FLIGHT gerðinni, þ.e. að slíkum atburðum sé einatt lýst með því að geta þeirra sem féllu og þeirra sem flýðu, t.d. „féll mart, en sumir flýðu“ (kafli 14). Þetta mynstur getur birst með ýmsum tilbrigðum sem þó eru bundin við aðalgerðina. Bell skiptir bardögum upp eftir orðaforða mynstursins og dregur þá ályktun að þau orð sem eru notuð í textanum lýsi mikilvægi atburðanna, eða m.ö.o. að val á orðum fari eftir mikilvægi þess sem þau lýsa. Hann gefur að lokum lista yfir hugtakaforða bardaga og orrusta, falls- og flóttamynstur og birtir skrá um meiri- og minniháttar átök.

References

Chapter 14: flýðu: "Sometimes the report is one of almost epigraphic terseness: "fell mart, en sumir flýðu" (...); more often, the report is (...) an amplification of that pattern. This pattern, which I call the "FALL+FLIGHT" pattern, appears to have a significant, if subtle, role in the delineation of character in the saga." (p. 89)

Chapter 53: flótta: "... the narrative fullness achieves its temporal ultimate in the battle-theme: at times it is virtually blow-by-blow, a temporal extreme in that the events themselves could not have taken more time than the narrating of them. A typical example is Þórólf II's climactic performance at Vínheiðr..." (p. 94)

Links

• Written by: Matteo Tarsi
• English translation: Zuzana Stankovitsová