Chapter III
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CHAPTER III
THE ICELANDIC SAGAS
I
Iceland and the Heroic Age
The close of Teutonic Epic—in Germany the old forms were lost, but not the old stories, in the later Middle Ages179
England kept the alliterative verse through the Middle Ages180
Heroic themes in Danish ballads, and elsewhere181
Place of Iceland in the heroic tradition—a new heroic literature in prose182
II
Matter and Form
The Sagas are not pure fiction184
Difficulty of giving form to genealogical details185
Miscellaneous incidents186
Literary value of the historical basis—the characters well known and recognisable187
The coherent Sagas—the tragic motive189
Plan of Njála of Laxdæla of Egils Saga190 191 192
Vápnfirðinga Saga, a story of two generations193
Víga-Glúms Saga, a biography without tragedy193
Reykdæla Saga194
Grettis Saga and Gísla Saga clearly worked out195
Passages of romance in these histories196
Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoða, a tragic idyll, well proportioned198
Great differences of scale among the Sagas—analogies with the heroic poems198
III
The Heroic Ideal
Unheroic matters of fact in the Sagas200
Heroic characters201
Heroic rhetoric203
Danger of exaggeration—Kjartan in Laxdæla204
The heroic ideal not made too explicit or formal206
IV
Tragic Imagination
Tragic contradictions in the Sagas—Gisli, Njal207
Fantasy208
Laxdæla, a reduction of the story of Sigurd and Brynhild to the terms of common life209
Compare Ibsen's Warriors in Helgeland209
The Sagas are a late stage in the progress of heroic literature210
The Northern rationalism212
Self-restraint and irony213
The elegiac mood infrequent215
The story of Howard of Icefirth—ironical pathos216
The conventional Viking218
The harmonies of Njála and of Laxdæla219 222
The two speeches of Gudrun223
V
Comedy
The Sagas not bound by solemn conventions225
Comic humours226
Bjorn and his wife in Njála228
Bandamanna Saga: "The Confederates," a comedy229
Satirical criticism of the "heroic age"231
Tragic incidents in Bandamanna Saga233
Neither the comedy nor tragedy of the Sagas is monotonous or abstract234
VI
The Art of Narrative
Organic unity of the best Sagas235
Method of representing occurrences as they appear at the time236
Instance from Þorgils Saga238
Another method—the death of Kjartan as it appeared to a churl240
Psychology (not analytical)244
Impartiality—justice to the hero's adversaries (Færeyinga Saga)245
VII
Epic and History
Form of Saga used for contemporary history in the thirteenth century246
The historians, Ari (1067-1148) and Snorri (1178-1241)248
The Life of King Sverre, by Abbot Karl Jónsson249
Sturla (c. 1214-1284), his history of Iceland in his own time (Islendinga or Sturlunga Saga)249
The matter ready to his hand250
Biographies incorporated in Sturlunga: Thorgils and Haflidi252
Sturlu Saga253
The midnight raid (a.d. 1171)254
Lives of Bishop Gudmund, Hrafn, and Aron256
Sturla's own work (Islendinga Saga)257
The burning of Flugumyri259
Traces of the heroic manner264
The character of this history brought out by contrast with Sturla's other work, the Life of King Hacon of Norway267
Norwegian and Icelandic politics in the thirteenth century267
Norway more fortunate than Iceland—the history less interesting267
Sturla and Joinville contemporaries269
Their methods of narrative compared270
VIII
The Northern Prose Romances
Romantic interpolations in the Sagas—the ornamental version of Fóstbræðra Saga275
The secondary romantic Sagas—Frithiof277
French romance imported (Strengleikar, Tristram's Saga, etc.)278
Romantic Sagas made out of heroic poems (Volsunga Saga, etc.) and out of authentic Sagas by repetition of common forms and motives279 280
Romantic conventions in the original Sagas280
Laxdæla and Gunnlaug's Saga—Thorstein the White281
Thorstein Staffsmitten282
Sagas turned into rhyming romances (Rímur) and into ballads in the Faroes283 284