SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

318 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
(a vit) to kom (til var) is not essential for prose style and
may be due to a desire to avoid alliteration. The change
from a pluperfect to a preterite, helt for hafdi haldit, is
probably a slight syntactic improvement. (17b) The
substitution of milli for medal is quite unnecessary (i
medal occurs in VS 50/2). (18) The initial ok links
together the paraphrase of two separate stanzas, thus
making for a less abrupt style. (19a) The omission of
min at bioia and vio inn unga gram reveals a general
tendency akin to (6) above, viz. to omit details superfluous
in the context. The reason for Sigurd's visit to
Brynhild is sufficiently obvious to need no special
mention, and to whom but Gunnar (inn ungi gramr)
should Sigurd have kept his oaths? (19b) fyrri seems to
imply a contrast between Sigurd who 'on the first relevant
occasion' kept his oath, and Gunnar who afterwards broke
his. But Brynhild has already included Gunnar in the
term eiarofa (VS 59/30) and referred to him as having
betrayed Sigurd (VS 59/32); moreover, the compiler, now
basing his narrative on Sg., has in the next sentence
snemma riOu per til saka vio hann. In this context fyrri
may well be considered superfluous and the compiler
passed it over. (20) The prose version of Br. 19/5-8 shows
more clearly characteristics touched on in (5). At times,
the compiler's paraphrase amounts to an explanation or
clarification of his poetic source. The treatment of the
sword's edges with fire means that they were made sharp
- and the compiler says so, referring to it snarpeggjaoa
soert: At least one of the reasons for the use of venom in
the making of a sword was to strengthen or harden the
metal - and this, too, is clearly brought out in the
paraphrase, pat er eitri var heri.
D
(Gor. II 2-3) Sud var Siguror / of sonom Giuka, / sem ueri
green»: laukr / 6r grasi vaxinn, / eaa hiortr hdbeinn. / um
hvpssom dyrom, / eaa gull gl6iJrautt / af grd silfri. // Unz