Le Goff, Jacques. Laughter in Brennu-Njáls saga

• Author: Le Goff, Jacques
• Title: Laughter in Brennu-Njáls saga
• Published in: From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland
• Editor: Gísli Pálsson
• Place, Publisher: Enfield Lock, Middlesex: Hisarlik Press
• Year: 1992
• Pages: 161-167
• E-text:
• Reference: Le Goff, Jacques. “Laughter in Brennu-Njáls saga.” From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland, pp. 161-167. Ed. Gísli Pálsson. Middlesex: Hisarlik Press, 1992.

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Annotation

In his contribution to From Sagas to Society, Jacques Le Goff explores instances of laughter in Njáls saga. He begins by summarizing scholarship regarding laughter in the Middle Ages. He identifies two fundamental types of laughter in Christian culture: positive laughter which expresses the vital affirmation of the person laughing, and negative laughter, which he subdivides into mocking laughter meant to deride an individual, and malevolent laughter or sniggering which reveals fundamental character traits of the person laughing. He goes on to argue that laughter in the Early Middle Ages was seen in a negative light in ecclesiastical, particularly monastic, thought. Laughter was a thing of the flesh, base and associated with paganism. It is from this perspective, he argues, that laughter should be viewed in the context of Njáls saga. Within the saga itself, Le Goff establishes a further typological model. He divides the types of laughter as follows: 1. Black humor based on understatement. 2. Derision, goading, and provocation. 3. Sardonic laughter., the “grin of the unfortunate.” 4. Foresight, laughter at ones own impending death or prophesies of the deaths of others. For each of these types, Le Goff cites examples from the body of Njáls saga. He concludes that “laughter here is an introduction to the connection of a society with its past”, that it represents an engagement with paganism by Early Christian writers.

References

Chapter 77: atgeir hans var heima: "The first variety of humor in the saga is black humor based on understatement, likened by Boyer (1987) to the 'tragic humor' defined as a sort of 'minor plot' or 'means of lightning a tale whose atmosphere is often too suffocating.'" (p. 162)

Chapter 34: fór með flimtan: "A second type of laughter is one of derision, an attack provoking an enemy -a kind of weapon in the warrior's armory. Often this kind of laugh is caused or emphasized by special characters, children or women, and in particular through satirical verse. These characters, mainly female, are the so-called 'pointed tongues', who goad others to murder. This is a specialty of Þórhildr, the poet and wife of Þráinn." (p. 163)

Chapter 119: glottir við tönn: "One remarkable, special kind of laughter is the grin of the unfortunate, the man against whom fate regularly turns. This expression is personified in Skarpheðinn (...). Skarpheðinn laughs either through incomprehension of the misfortune awaiting him, or as a form of defence-defiance towards this bad luck. In the latter case, his laughter would resemble the famous tragic laughter of the sagas, the equivalent in a culture far removed in space and time of the sardonic laughter characteristic of the Phoenicians." (p. 163)

Chapter 134: Þeir hlógu að: "Laughter is sometimes the object of parodical foresight (...). Laughter is often associated with death. Mixed with the humor and the defiance, the heroes are often made to laugh in advance at their own deaths. (p. 164)

Links

• Written by: Colin Scott McKinstry
• Icelandic/English translation: