SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

100 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
be resolved. Generations of English readers will have known
Eric the Red as such, and it is like springing an unkind scholarly
trick to tell them that he is really Eirik. Similarly all the
pleasant mystery of Wineland is lost when it is left as Vinland.
Skrrelingar could be written as Indians: Einfrctingaland and
Hvitramannaland ought to be translated, since they mean so little
as they stand. To call Gunnlaug "\\"ormtongue" is quite to
destroy the power of meaning that there is in the title and to
produce a ludicrous effect.
Eirik's Saga - with its lively Gilbertian verses - is one of the
best of a spirited bunch of translations and there seems no reason
why it should not stand at the beginning of the collection. For
the beginner it would certainly be a better introduction than
Hen-Thorir. Of the rest Authun is a work of art, the tone
admirably suiting the translator's arch style. The verses in the
book are accurate and energetic and have the virtue of being
readily comprehensible. An index of names would have been
useful.
A. P. PEARSON
THE ICELANDIC SAGA. By PETER HALLBERG. Translated with
an introduction and notes by PAUL SCHACH. University of
Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1962. xxiv -+ 179 pp.
The need for a popular introduction to the prose literature of
medieval Iceland has long been felt, and this is now provided by
Dr Peter Hallberg, docent in literary history in the University of
Gothenburg. Dr Hallberg studies the literature humanely
against the background of history, and particularly the history of
the thirteenth century, the Sturlung Age. In usetul chapters he
surveys the various theories about the origins of the sagas and the
circumstances under which they developed, giving prominence to
the oral theory of A. Heusler and K. Liestel and the book-prose
theory, most ably expounded by Sigurour Nordal. He even finds
time to mention the eccentric theory of Barril Guomundsson, who
interpreted Njdls saga as a roman a clef from the Sturlung Age.
Dr Hallberg's own views are moderate and carefully balanced.
Dr Hallberg also considers certain similarities between the Family
Sagas and the "hard-boiled narrative technique" of our day, as
represented by Ernest Hemingway, but he finds these similarities
not so profound as might appear at first glance. It might be
suggested that comparison between the detached, objective sagas