Hume, Kathryn. Beginnings and Endings in the Icelandic Family Sagas

• Author: Hume, Kathryn
• Title: Beginnings and Endings in the Icelandic Family Sagas
• Published in: Modern Language Review 68. 3
• Year: 1973
• Pages: 593-606
• E-text: Jstore
• Reference: Hume, Kathryn. "Beginnings and Endings in the Icelandic Family Sagas." Modern Language Review 68/3 (1973): 593-606.

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• Key words: literary elements, structure, intertextuality, reception (bókmenntaleg einkenni, bygging, textatengsl, viðtökur)

Annotation

The article deals with the nature and function of narrative material in beginnings and endings of Sagas of Icelanders that fall outside a unified action sequence and thus fail to meet with modern expectations of plot. These are compared with endings and beginnings in types of sagas “more in line with European tradition” (p. 594), almost all of which conform to either the romance or the vita (biographical) structural pattern. These patterns also influence the family sagas to a degree. Hence, Hume links the ending of Egils saga with the vita form, but points out that Egil’s death is an unclimatic, realistic one, rather than an ending following a narrative pattern. She disagrees with Andersson’s (1967) suggestion that introductory material has the role of scholarly preface as such material in Egils saga and certain other sagas seems to be more extensive than a preface and is given more importance. She considers contemporary reception of the family sagas by a Sturlung-age audience and argues that beginning and ending narratives are a technique of separating the saga from the continuum of Icelandic history.

Lýsing

Greinin fjallar um eðli og hlutverk frásagnarefnis í upphafi og enda Íslendingasagnanna sem er ekki hluti af heildstæðri atburðarás og brýtur því í bága við nútímalegar væntingar manna um söguþráð . Þetta efni er borið saman við upphaf og enda í þeim sögum sem eru "í betra samræmi við hina evrópsku hefð" (s. 594), en þær fylgja svo að segja allar byggingu rómönsunnar eða lífssögunnar (lat. vita). Þessar bókmenntagreinar hafa sín áhrif á Íslendingasögurnar. Þannig tengir Hume sögulok Egils sögu við form lífssögunnar en vekur athygli á að dauði Egils er raunsæislegur og myndar engan hápunkt, og er að því leyti óhefðbundinn. Hún er ósammála þeirri tilgátu Anderssons (1967) að sundurleitt frásagnarefni í upphafi sagna gegni hlutverki lærðs formála; í Eglu og fleiri sögum er það of viðamikið og mikilvægt til að sú kenning standist. Hume ræðir viðtökur á Íslendingasögunum á Sturlungaöld og færir rök fyrir því að frásagnarefnið í upphafi og lok sagnanna þjóni því hlutverki að skilja þær frá straumi sjálfrar Íslandssögunnar.

References

Chapter 89: bein Egils: „ In Egils saga, after the miracle, we learn much about his later kin; that they perpetuate the dark/fair genetic contrast, that many are skalds, that Helga in fagra is of his line and exerted fatal attraction on two skalds, Gunnlaugr and Hrafn. We saw the list of miracles adapted to secular uses in the kings' and bishops' sagas. In the family sagas, the most common equivalent is a listing or discussion of descendants, a device we might have anticipated from the concerns displayed in the opening passages. Though not organic, such an ending is comprehensible. “ (s. 599)==Links==

• Written by: Katelin Parsons
• Icelandic translation: Jón Karl Helgason