SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
literary interest of the Norwegian court as a simple imitation of
the Icelandic Sagnaskemmtun (p. 167)!
I have dwelt mainly on the less satisfying passages of Hermann
Palssori's book, but I must end by congratulating the author on
having written a book full of enthusiasm for the old literature in
an easy and unaffected style. Enthusiasm is of course as least as
valuable as pedantry, but it is best if it is combined with exactness.
The book is well produced by the H6lar Press in Reykjavik.
Whom we must blame for the jacket, I do not know. It bears
a hideous and distorted reproduction of a detail of August
Schlott's well-known painting of a Sagnaskemmtun. It is
fortunate for the painter's reputation that this is nowhere
acknowledged.
HANS BEKKER-NIELSEN
HEMINGS I>ATTR ASLAKSSONAR. Edited by GILLIAN FELLOWS
] ENSEN. Editiones A rnamognceanco, Series B, vol. 3. Copenhagen,
1960. clxxxiv, 160 pp.
It is perhaps not surprising that we have had to wait so long for
an adequate edition of Hemings pattr, for none of the surviving
manuscripts preserves the whole story. There are indeed two
stories: one which has been entitled Hemings pattr and tells the
story of a contest in skills between Heming, the son of Aslak, and
King Harald of Norway, and a second which, after an account of
the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings, tells of the survival
after the latter battle of Harold of England, the son of Earl
Godwine. This second story has often been called T'osta patty
because of the part played in it by Harold's brother Tostig who is
said to have brought about the invasion of England by Harald of
Norway. The only previous edition to amalgamate the two
stories was that of Gu6brandur Vigfusson in the Rolls Series in
1887. Guribrandur was, however, unfortunate in his choice of
manuscripts.
No reconstruction of the original text of Hemings pattl' is now
possible, and Mrs Fellows Jensen has therefore rightly based
her text on the oldest surviving manuscripts. For the first part
of the story, Hemings pattl' propcr, these are Hrokkinshinna and
Flateyjarbok, and these two texts are printed side by side. There
is considerable variation between them, but they both appear
nevertheless to be derived ultimately from one written source.
The second part, T'osta pattl', is now only to be found in Hauksbok
or its derivatives. In the introduction notice is given of all other
surviving manuscripts, of which there are forty-one, and a pains-