SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Treatment of Sources in the Volsunga saga 317
vivid picture of 'letting him get away' is turned into the
plain 'spare him'. (rob) Hyggia myndak might have been
considered too deliberative a phrase, 'I should think'
becoming simply 'I think', but there was no real need to
substitute aila for hyggia, a good prose word. The
compiler may have felt that an alliteration between
horskr and hygg would be undesirable. (IIa) (mynda-)k.
It is worth noting that the compiler regularly avoids the
suffixed ek. (IIb) (er)at. The archaic and poetic verbal
negative suffix -a, -at is regularly discarded in favour of
eigi or a changed construction. (12) The use of horskr by
the compiler is one of the comparatively rare instances of
his retaining a word that hardly ever occurs in prose. The
same word appears e.g. Fm. 35/1 where the compiler
substitutes vitr (VS 34/lO). (13) The addition ofPa mcelti
in fimmta at the beginning of the passage forms an
appropriate transition between two otherwise formally
undifferentiated speakers (cf.(7) above).
C
(Br. 18-19) 'Ixd reyndi pat, / er rioit hafoi, / m60igr, a
vit I min at bioia, I hve hergl(Jtuor I hafoi fyrri I eioom.
haldit I vio inn unga gram: II Benoond of lit, I brugoinn.
gulli, I margdyrr konungr, I a meoal okkar: / eldi ooro
eggiar I titan g(Jrvar, I en eitrdropom / innan [doar .. .'
(VS 59/33-35) 'ok pa reyndi pat, er hann kom til odr, hve
hann helt sina eioa, at hann lagOi okkar i milli it snarpeggjaoa
svero fiat er eitri oar hert.'
The treatment of these stanzas shows tendencies
similar to those already observed. (I4a) Hergloiuor,
'destroyer of hosts', i.e. warrior, is rendered with hann.
(I4b) Benoond, 'wound-wand', appears as seers. (I4c)
m60igr and margdyrr konungr are too high-flown for
the compiler's taste and both are reduced to hann.
(IS) lagoi is substituted for the more poetic of tet.
(16) brugoinn gulli is passed over as an unnecessary
descriptive detail. (I7a) The change from rioit hafoi