De Looze, Laurence. Poet, Poem and Poetic Process in Egils Saga

• Author: De Looze, Laurence
• Title: Poet, Poem and Poetic Process in Egils Saga Skalla-Grímssonar
• Published in: Arkiv för nordisk filologi 104
• Year: 1989
• Pages: 123-42
• E-text:
• Reference: De Looze, Laurence. "Poet, Poem and Poetic Process in Egils Saga Skalla-Grímssonar." Arkiv för nordisk filologi 104 (1989): 123-42.

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• Key words: literary elements, poetry (bókmenntaleg einkenni, kveðskapur)

Annotation

A study of the relationship between Egils saga’s prose narrative and its poetic verse, focussing on the centrality of linguistic concerns – the language used and language as subject-matter itself – and showing that Egils saga is simultaneously about the life of Egill and about the poetry he produces about his life. De Looze suggests that the saga is a true hybrid of poetry and narrative prose, with events of the plot and events of poetic composition woven together. This self-reflective quality of the text is most pronounced in episodes such as Egill’s first poem which comprises a mise en abyme.

Lýsing

Rannsókn á sambandinu á milli lausamálstexta Egils sögu og kveðskaparins. De Looze beinir sérstakri athygli að því hvernig tungumálið er í brennidepli í sögunni – bæði tungumálið sem persónur nota og tungumálið sem viðfangsefni – og sýnir fram á hvernig sagan snýst jöfnum höndum um líf Egils og kveðskapinn sem hann semur um þetta sama líf. De Looze segir söguna vera sambræðing kveðskapar og frásagnar, þar sem einstakir frásagnarþættir fléttast saman við lýsingar á skáldlegri sköpun. Textinn er öðrum þræði sjálflýsandi, ekki síst í senum eins og þeirri þegar Egill semur sín fyrstu kvæði en þar má greina athyglisverðan frásagnarspegil (mise-en-abyme) sem varpar ljósi á fagurfræði verksins alls.

References

Chapter 31: var brátt málugur: “To inherit the family characteristics of physical difference is also to inherit poetic and linguistic skills, as is made abundantly clear in the distinction made between Egill and his brother Þórólfr” (p. 126).

Chapter 31: óðar smið finna: “Precocious composition that it is, the poem is about its own precociousness” (p. 127).

Chapter 73: spýju mikla: “Marvellously comic, this scene is also carefully crafted and shrewdly associates various aspects of the poetic process. The base man – in this case Ármóðr – simply spews; the poet, by contrast, transforms his vomit into poetry, and thus redeems baseness and outrage through poetry and art” (p. 134).

Links

• Written by: Jane Appleton
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason