SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Scandinavian Baltic as a "factory" of legend and lay. Indeed,
the heroic legends and lays upon which Beowulfis ultimately based
must stem chiefly from those regions, and not from Germany.
The legends of Goths and Huns and of Ermanaric might indeed
have reached Scandinavia from the Black Sea area by the eastern
route and not through Germany. There is no strong reason for
believing that the legend of Volundr originated in Germany, and
still less that the VQlundarkviaa is a German poem. The heroes
travel on skis (skrioa) like Lapps, and the redactor of the Codex
Regius places the scene in Sweden. Dr Einar's suggestion
(pp. 236-7) that the legend stems from the Baltic regions may not
be wide of the mark. If so, the surprising similarity with the
story of Daedalus (p. 419) may partly be explained; the motives
could have reached Scandinavia by the eastern route.
In a short review of a long and outstanding book, I have found
it impossible to do more than touch upon and discuss a few salient
points. Every student of Old Icelandic literature needs this book,
and we must hope that vols. II and III will be published before
long, and that the whole work will be translated into English.
The style of the Icelandic is beautiful, but it is not always easy for
a foreigner to understand.
G. TURV1LLE-PETRE
UM SKJOLDUNGASOGU. By BJ ARN1 GUDNASON. B 6kautgdfa
Menningarsj60s. Reykjavik, I9()3. xx, 325 pp.
Since Axel Olrik published most of Arngrimur J onssou's version
of SkjQldunga saga, together with a discussion of the text, in
Aarbeger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (1894), 83-164, this
lost saga has been the subject of much comment and called
forth several conflicting opinions. Jakob Benediktsson edited
Arngrim's works in Bibliotheca Arnamagnreana IX-XII and in his
introduction (XII 107-17) he gives a detailed discussion of the
passages which he considered that Arngrimur had derived from
SkjQldunga saga. In addition he published an admirably lucid
account of the matter of the saga in 'Icelandic Traditions of the
Scyldings', Saga-Book XV (1957-5')), 48-66. In the present book
Dr Bjarni Gu6nason now presents a much more extensive treatment
of SlIjQldunga saga.
He begins by attempting to reconstruct the original text of the
saga by examining all the related sources and comparing those he
considers most reliable, i.e. UPphaf, Snorra Edda and Ynglinga
saga, with Amgrtms Latin recension in the pa:"ages where
SkjQldzmga saga would appea,' to have been his principal source.