SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Treatment of Sources in the Volsunga saga 345
The rather improbable threats uttered by Gudnin's
children when they learn of their mother's murderous
intentions (Am. 78/7-8) are changed into a slightly more
credible expression of the shamefulness of her action (VS
72/26) - probably because the skQmm of the source was
misunderstood by the compiler.
When Atli asks Gudnin what has become of his sons,
she tells him in PE that her answer will cause him no
pleasure (Am. 80/5). In VS the negative is omitted from
Gudnin's answer, and this gives it a more sarcastic and
pithier twist (VS 72/29).
When Gudnin, after stabbing Atli, speaks to him of
earlier days, she mentions Sigurd's death and her grief at
being widowed, adding that it was a greater grief to have
to marry Atli (Am. 100). In the same scene in VS she
tells Atli that to bear the name of widow was nothingher
greatest grief was her marriage to him (VS 73/32).
But Atli (and the reader) know full well how Gudnin
sorrowed over Sigurd, and thus her denial of this in the
context gives her remark to Atli a keener cutting edge.!"
XI
Such possible instances of improvement are rare.
Unfortunately, the compiler is more likely to destroy, often
unnecessarily from the point of view of prose diction,
a particularly striking effect or scene (d. (27) above and
the comment on Car. II 17/5 : VS 62{IO, p. 326 above).
The compiler omits nott vara i bee (HH 2/1 : VS 14/II),
presumably as an unnecessary detail, and the hint of
mystery conveyed by the words is lost.
The vivid picture of Sinfjotli's hoisting his red shield
on the mast as a sign of hostile intent (HH 33/2-4) is
turned into a stereotyped description of his accoutrements
(see above p. 324) and thereby destroyed (VS 16/6).
.. Wieselgren, op, cit., I II8 considers the change discussed here as an
unfortunate one ('wenig glticklich') because it does not accord with her known
feelings. He seems to have missed the point.