Sävborg, Daniel. Konsten att läsa sagor
- Author: Sävborg, Daniel
- Title: Konsten att läsa sagor. Om tolkningen av trosskiftets betydelse i Njáls saga
- Published in: Gripla 22
- Year: 2011
- Pages: 181-209
- E-text: Tímarit.is
- Reference: Sävborg, Daniel. "Konsten att läsa sagor. Om tolkningen av trosskiftets betydelse i Njáls saga." Gripla 22 (2011): 181-209.
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Annotation
In this article Sävborg directly addresses previous works on Njáls saga by Swedish scholar Lars Lönnroth. Sävborg disagrees with Lönnroth’s general viewpoint that sagas (and Njáls saga in particular) communicate religious messages, which existed in Iceland when sagas were written down. Sävborg argues that even though saga writers might have been influenced by contemporary Christian models and ideals, the individual events, characters and actions represented in sagas represents ideas of heathen Iceland as well as Christian Iceland. In contrast to Lönnroth, Sävborg believes that sagas’ elements are not to be seen as representation of religious ideals or allegories to how Christian reconciliation overcomes heretical Icelandic laws or, especially, as allusions to certain religious texts. Scholar believes that both revenge and reconciliation are important motives in saga literature in general and the choice depends on the personal character of the decision maker rather than on his/hers religious believes. This leads to a conclusion that, contrary to Lönnroth´s beliefs, the writer(s) of Njáls saga followed common saga tradition rather than religious didactic works.
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References
Chapter 78: „ að drepa menn nokkura í hefnd : “Blodig hämnd är självklar för honom [Njal]; att avstå från den är den svåraste skam han kan föreställa sig. […] Det handlar om att fienderna skall avstå från våld, inte om att hans familj och vänner skallgöra det. Någon principiell syn på hämnd uttrycker inte hans strävan efter fredlig förlikning.” (p. 189)
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- Written by: Ieva Paškauskaitė
- Icelandic/English translation:
