SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications
SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications
IS8 Saga-Book of the Viking Society Aron tells it in order to play for time, to try and keep the strangers there and to guess at their loyalties. Their rather negative comment, that the dream probably has some significance, in no way answers his fears, and underscores the tension by its ambiguity. In 1sZendinga saga Sigurl'5r puts on the mail coat almost as soon as he arrives on the scene, but in Arons saga the act is placed later, and occurs after Siguror's ominous silence to Egill's enquiry: "Muntu alloruggr i vera at veita Aroni, ef hann barf nokkurs vio?" In addition, the characters of the two strangers are developed further. Their hesitations, questionings, and mutual reliance make them partially comic. And the immediate tension, given through this sense of dubious constricted space, is brilliantly augmented by the spinning out of time through the period before the fight. Three references to time Egill's pvi at lior dagrinn, Sigurors tom tiZ at fara, and the narrator's Ok ZeiO d daginn - provide a tight temporal perspective for the scene. Time is passing, nothing is happening; the lull is full of danger. All this has a highly personal touch, and suggests skilful artistic shaping on the author's part, as though he is recognising what might be done with some extra elements in the source and manipulating them for dramatic effect. The close agreement in detail must mean either that the two authors are relying on closely-related sources of information, or that the younger account has profited from a knowledge of the older. We know that Sturla P6rl'5arson used his own experience and a variety of oral and written sources in composing his history. In view of the likely difference of age between 1slendinga saga and Arons saga it can hardly be thought that the two authors had a single oral informant for this episode, and it is my contention that a circulating oral tradition would not have preserved the story of this incident, and the other details already noted, with such exactness. The differences between the two here are not of fact, but of
On Arons saga Hjorleifssonar 159 emphasis, and the conclusion to be drawn is that their relationship is closer than has hitherto been supposed. It is almost incredible to think that an educated man and would-be author living in western Iceland in the first half of the fourteenth century should be unaware of Sturla's writings. The author himself gives a plain indication that he knew of and had read the historian's Hdkonar saga 7 4 and from this alone it is not unreasonable to assume that he was in some way acquainted with the same man's history of his own times. Again, a man setting out to write a biography of Aron Hjorleifsson would in all probability know that some of his exploits were recorded in 1slendinga saga, and it is hardly overfanciful to think that such knowledge may even have been a partial motivation for him. Given this hypothesis the question again presents itself as to why the two accounts differ in the ways shown. If Aron's biographer had read lslendinga saga, how far would he have felt restrained by the version it gives? If his set purpose was to write a laudatory work, historicity then became a secondary consideration for him, the more so perhaps as he was further removed in time from the events he was going to narrate. The author of Arons saga is patently concerned to show his hero in the best possible light, perhaps even to vindicate him, or to straighten the account of him, and to attract sympathy for the men and causes to which he was allied. Like Sturla, he obviously had different sources of information for the events he was writing about, some oral, some written. Like Sturla too, he would use these selectively, adding his own ingredients of art and bias, making judgements, preferences, and mistakes. Bjorn M. Olsen's claim that the biographyis independent of 1slendinga saga has been proved open to doubt. His conclusion that it represents a later stage of oral tradition " In the phrase sem ritat ftnnst, Sturl, II 271.
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IS8 Saga-Book of the <strong>Viking</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />
Aron tells it in order to play for time, to try and keep the<br />
strangers there and to guess at their loyalties. Their<br />
rather negative comment, that the dream probably has<br />
some significance, in no way answers his fears, and<br />
underscores the tension by its ambiguity. In 1sZendinga<br />
saga Sigurl'5r puts on the mail coat almost as soon as he<br />
arrives on the scene, but in Arons saga the act is placed<br />
later, and occurs after Siguror's ominous silence to<br />
Egill's enquiry: "Muntu alloruggr i vera at veita Aroni, ef<br />
hann barf nokkurs vio?" In addition, the characters of<br />
the two strangers are developed further. Their hesitations,<br />
questionings, and mutual reliance make them<br />
partially comic. And the immediate tension, given<br />
through this sense of dubious constricted space, is<br />
brilliantly augmented by the spinning out of time through<br />
the period before the fight. Three references to time <br />
Egill's pvi at lior dagrinn, Sigurors tom tiZ at fara, and the<br />
narrator's Ok ZeiO d daginn - provide a tight temporal<br />
perspective for the scene. Time is passing, nothing is<br />
happening; the lull is full of danger.<br />
All this has a highly personal touch, and suggests skilful<br />
artistic shaping on the author's part, as though he is<br />
recognising what might be done with some extra<br />
elements in the source and manipulating them for<br />
dramatic effect. The close agreement in detail must mean<br />
either that the two authors are relying on closely-related<br />
sources of information, or that the younger account has<br />
profited from a knowledge of the older. We know that<br />
Sturla P6rl'5arson used his own experience and a variety of<br />
oral and written sources in composing his history. In<br />
view of the likely difference of age between 1slendinga saga<br />
and Arons saga it can hardly be thought that the two<br />
authors had a single oral informant for this episode, and it<br />
is my contention that a circulating oral tradition would<br />
not have preserved the story of this incident, and the<br />
other details already noted, with such exactness. The<br />
differences between the two here are not of fact, but of
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