component of saga characterization is not easily distinguished from its more rationalized elements, such as the inheritance of family traits, conformity to recognized social and personality types, or even a plausible individual eccentricity. Also the slightly mad, touchy poet may have been a literary type, judging from the protagonists of the other poets’ sagas. The mythic element does not usually involve, as it does with Egil, conformity to aspects of a particular mythic being. Freydis, for example, in
The Saga of the Greenlanders
is a character larger than life and more evil: she brings some of her nature with her from a world of myth and legend rather than from her social or psychological situation. And yet it would be difficult to identify a specific literary prototype illustrated in her character as Odin is for Egil. Perhaps because the important male saga characters are located in significant social and ethical contexts, the mythic component of their characterization is less apparent than is the case with some of the most powerful and memorable women. A fuller and more interesting characterization than Freydis is that of the beautiful, headstrong and wicked Hallgerd, the wife of Gunnar of Hlidarendi in
Njal’s Saga
. Like Freydis, however, Hallgerd comes into the saga with qualities suggestive of an uncanny nature. In the opening scene Hallgerd is playing with some other girls on the floor of the hall, where her father Hoskuld is holding a feast. His half-brother Hrut is the, sitting next to him.
Hoskuld called to her, ‘Come over here.’
She came at once, and he took her by the chin and kissed her. Then she went back.
Then Hoskuld said to Hrut, ‘How do you like this girl? Don’t you find her beautiful?’
Hrut was silent. Hoskuld asked again.
Then Hrut answered, ‘The girl is very beautiful, and many will pay for that. But what I don’t know is how thief’s eyes have come into our family.’
Hoskuld was angry at this, and for a while there was coolness between the brothers.
( Ch. 1 )
The hint of mythic characterization provides a device for building suspense with a prophecy of future events. It illustrates, too, the extreme importance of dialogue in the narrative art of the sagas, which permits the narrator himself very little leeway in commenting on characters or plot. The characters are not often quoted at length, but their remarks do much of the interpretative and thematic work of the saga.
Another brilliantly conceived female character comes into her story with a prophecy. That is Gudrun Osvifsdottir in
The Saga of the People of Laxardal:
They had a daughter named Gudrun. She was the most beautiful woman ever to have grown up in Iceland, and no less clever than she was good-looking. She took great care with her appearance, so much so that the adornments of other women were considered to be mere child’s play in comparison. She was the shrewdest of women, highly articulate, and generous as well.
(Ch. 32)
When she enters the saga this extraordinary woman has had four dreams during the previous winter. They are accurately interpreted for her by a kinsman of hers, the great chieftain Gest Oddleifsson, who has some ability to see into the future, and they foretell the nature of her four marriages. Conceiving of character as to some extent informed by a pattern of events foreordained affects our response to the plot as it unfolds. The outlines have been foretold, so what remains is to see in detail how that anticipated effect comes about. Gudrun’s force of personality and her complex response to her frustrated love for Kjartan Olafsson, whom she does not marry, lead her into a bloody-mindedness that is reminiscent of another Gudrun, the mythological Gudrun Gjukadottir, the heroine of
The Saga of the Volsungs
and of half a dozen poems in the
Poetic Edda
. From the same myth, however, an even more likely precursor is the Valkyrie Brynhild, who alone of the characters is by nature the
The Saga of the Greenlanders
is a character larger than life and more evil: she brings some of her nature with her from a world of myth and legend rather than from her social or psychological situation. And yet it would be difficult to identify a specific literary prototype illustrated in her character as Odin is for Egil. Perhaps because the important male saga characters are located in significant social and ethical contexts, the mythic component of their characterization is less apparent than is the case with some of the most powerful and memorable women. A fuller and more interesting characterization than Freydis is that of the beautiful, headstrong and wicked Hallgerd, the wife of Gunnar of Hlidarendi in
Njal’s Saga
. Like Freydis, however, Hallgerd comes into the saga with qualities suggestive of an uncanny nature. In the opening scene Hallgerd is playing with some other girls on the floor of the hall, where her father Hoskuld is holding a feast. His half-brother Hrut is the, sitting next to him.
Hoskuld called to her, ‘Come over here.’
She came at once, and he took her by the chin and kissed her. Then she went back.
Then Hoskuld said to Hrut, ‘How do you like this girl? Don’t you find her beautiful?’
Hrut was silent. Hoskuld asked again.
Then Hrut answered, ‘The girl is very beautiful, and many will pay for that. But what I don’t know is how thief’s eyes have come into our family.’
Hoskuld was angry at this, and for a while there was coolness between the brothers.
( Ch. 1 )
The hint of mythic characterization provides a device for building suspense with a prophecy of future events. It illustrates, too, the extreme importance of dialogue in the narrative art of the sagas, which permits the narrator himself very little leeway in commenting on characters or plot. The characters are not often quoted at length, but their remarks do much of the interpretative and thematic work of the saga.
Another brilliantly conceived female character comes into her story with a prophecy. That is Gudrun Osvifsdottir in
The Saga of the People of Laxardal:
They had a daughter named Gudrun. She was the most beautiful woman ever to have grown up in Iceland, and no less clever than she was good-looking. She took great care with her appearance, so much so that the adornments of other women were considered to be mere child’s play in comparison. She was the shrewdest of women, highly articulate, and generous as well.
(Ch. 32)
When she enters the saga this extraordinary woman has had four dreams during the previous winter. They are accurately interpreted for her by a kinsman of hers, the great chieftain Gest Oddleifsson, who has some ability to see into the future, and they foretell the nature of her four marriages. Conceiving of character as to some extent informed by a pattern of events foreordained affects our response to the plot as it unfolds. The outlines have been foretold, so what remains is to see in detail how that anticipated effect comes about. Gudrun’s force of personality and her complex response to her frustrated love for Kjartan Olafsson, whom she does not marry, lead her into a bloody-mindedness that is reminiscent of another Gudrun, the mythological Gudrun Gjukadottir, the heroine of
The Saga of the Volsungs
and of half a dozen poems in the
Poetic Edda
. From the same myth, however, an even more likely precursor is the Valkyrie Brynhild, who alone of the characters is by nature the
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