SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

346 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
In PE, Signin's delicate, or at least indirect, declaration
of love for Helgi is made after his victory (HH 56/4).
The compiler transfers it to their first meeting where it is
made with more directness (VS 15/16). Sigriin is thus
given a somewhat inappropriate forwardness quite absent
from the source.
The striking description of Gudnin's grief on seeing
Sigurd die, and her scream which penetrates to Brynhild's
bedchamber, is reduced to a wretched En G1Iorun blas
mceoiliga rndunni. Pat heyrir Brynhildr . . . (VS 59/9­
10), this, no doubt, in the interests of excising unnecessary
detail. Brynhild's anguish over her deception, and her
incitement to murder (Sg. 6-12) lose all their force in the
Saga (VS 57/7-13)·
Brynhild's lovely description of the daughter to be born
to Gudnin (Sg. 55) is turned into the stereotyped ...
Svanhildr, er veenst mun fcedd allra kvenna (VS 60/22).
When Brynhild has concluded her final prophecies after
stabbing herself and has made arrangements for her
obsequies, she says in PE that she would continue to speak
were it not that her time was running out, this latter idea
being expressed in the extremely effective line ef mer
mirtuor mdlrum. gafi (Sg. 71/2-3). In VS she says much
the same (VS 61/9-10), but here the effective line of the
source becomes a lame efek tuera eigi sdr.
Gunnar's magnificent rhetoric when he defies Atli (Akv.
26-27) falls comparatively flat in the paraphrase (VS
71/18-20) .
The almost plaintive remarks with which Hamdir and
Sarli finally gave way to Gudnin's demand that they
should avenge Svanhild, ok eigi mumt ver standask fryjuoro,
sud hart sem vb erum eggjaoir (VS 76/23-24), make a poor
substitute for the plasticity of Berio hnossir fram /
Hunakonungal / hefir pu okkr hvatta / at hiprpingi! (Ghv. 6).
Finally, Gudrun's apostrophe to Sigurd, in which she
tells him to come to her from Hel (Ghv. 18/3-6) has lost all
its magnificence in the prose paraphrase (VS 77/7-9).