SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications
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SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

vsnrweb.publications.org.uk
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23.03.2013 Views

394 Saga-Book of the Viking Society the best) contain another and previously neglected "second pattern", namely that of destructive sexual passion. The conflicts dominating the structure of these sagas may be traced back to some individual's transgression of the rules for sexual conduct set up by society. Forbidden love ("k

Book Reviews 395 a "love theme", or perhaps rather of a "sex theme", running through the entire saga composition, or at least an important part of it. Bredsdorff has many good things to say about these particular texts, but he is unconvincing when he tries to interpret a work like Egils saga as also somehow essentially dominated by destructive sexual forces. I fail to see, for example, that the feud between Egil and Queen Gunnhild is sexually motivated. And I cannot possibly regard the story of Egil's uncle Thorolf as very sexy just because the illegitimate affair of one very subordinate character in that story may be counted among the many factors that give rise to the conflict (which has otherwise very little to do with sex) I The arguments which Bredsdorff uses to prove his point arc sometimes of a kind that would make almost any story qualify as a drama of sexual passion. Is it not obvious, after all, that sagas concern themselves less with sex and love than almost any other medieval genre? Like many other readers of the sagas, I tend to interpret this fact as a sign that the Icelanders had a comparatively liberal and realistic attitude to sex, so that "forbidden love" was actually less of a problem to them than to many other people in the Middle Ages. Even Njal has an illegitimate child, but the saga mentions it only in passing and without a hint of disapproval. The narrator even appears to regard it as quite natural that Njal's wife is on excellent terms with his former mistress. Should not such apparent indifference to sexual problems warn us against reading too much sexual passion into the saga conflicts even when they do (inevitably!) contain a sexual element? Is it not possible that even the conflict between Kjartan and Gudrun in Laxdcela sagasurely the best example of a sexual conflict we can find in any saga - should be seen more in terms of honor and revenge than in terms of "chaos and love"? One would at least have expected Bredsdorff to discuss such questions to some extent in the presentation of his thesis. Since I feel doubt about Bredsdorff's basic premiss that the "second pattern" is characteristic of classical sagas, I also hesitate to accept his theories about the development of saga-writing. His arguments about literary history are about as impressionistic as his structural analysis, but he is always full of good ideas which may be very useful in building up a somewhat more stable theory about the evolution of saga structure. Perhaps even his central idea of "chaos and love" may somehow be fitted into such a theory. Under all circumstances, however, Bredsdorff deserves gratitude for his willingness to tackle large and important problems which Old Norse philologists rarely dare to touch and for the disarming openness with which he demonstrates his own subjecti-

394<br />

Saga-Book of the <strong>Viking</strong> <strong>Society</strong><br />

the best) contain another and previously neglected "second<br />

pattern", namely that of destructive sexual passion. The<br />

conflicts dominating the structure of these sagas may be traced<br />

back to some individual's transgression of the rules for sexual<br />

conduct set up by society. Forbidden love ("k

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