SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

316 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
(5) Instead of merely substituting a more prosaic phrase
for Ran or hendi, the compiler formally identifies the ship's
escape from the waves with Signin's saving help (um
barg) which is now expressed in specific, concrete terms:
'Sigrun ... directed them to a good harbour .. .', where
'them' does duty for both men and ship, and i g60a hofn is
an explanatory addition. An historic present, swyr, has
been substituted for the past tense of the original verb.
(6) The emphatic sidlfom is considered unnecessary, as is
ramliga, in the new version, and both are passed over.
(7) The addition of the introductory Ixd kom par provides
a transition, suitable to prose narrative, between two
situations, and the newer heitir after hof« is also
appropriate to prose style.
B
(Fm. 36) 'Erat sod horskr I hildimeior, I sem ek hers iaoar I
hyggia myndak, I ef hann br60ur lair I a brott komaz I en
hann porom hefr I aldrs of syniat:' (VS 34/12-14) Ird
mrelti in fimmta, 'Eigi er hann sud horskr sem ek ceila ef hann
vregir honum, en drepit dar broour hans.' (8) Again
kennings are avoided: hildimeior becomes simply hann,
and hers iaaar is omitted altogether - for prose style it is
at any rate an unnecessary repetition. (oa) The change
from aldrs ofsyniat to the plain drepit is a typical instance
of the substitution of a bald prose word or phrase for
markedly poetic diction. (gb) Again, honum - br60ur
hans for br60ur - porom gives a more natural prose style.
(roa) An unnecessary change from the point of view of
prose diction is that from lcetr a brott komaz to oagir;
admittedly, the latter is the most succinct way possible
of putting it. The change is hardly due to a desire to
avoid alliteration with br60ur since in the remodelled
sentence brott could be kept without leaving an impression
of metre. It is also an instance of the contrary procedure
to that exemplified in (5) where a general action was
described in specific terms: here, the specific, comparatively