Gripla

						168                                                GRIPLA

In chapter I of the shorter version, the berserkr kills Gísli's uncle Ari,

and Gísli's uncle Gísli challenges the berserkr. The sentence following

the challenge is, 'þá tók til orða Ingibjörg [Ari's widow]: Eigi var ek

af því Ara gipt, at ek vilda þik eigi heldr átt hafa.' This stunning revel-

ation is the abbreviator's way of economizing on the fuller, clearer, and

more tasteful presentation of the longer version's introduction of the

sword Grásíða.

Other examples of abbreviation in the opening chapters could be

cited, but since no water-tight demonstration is possible, the argument

that AM 556a 4to is less original than AM 149 fol. (and related MSS)

should rest here. After the opening chapters, the two versions run fairly

close together and little or nothing would be gained by a closer exa-

mination. Nevertheless, 149 and its sister MSS should be taken more

seriously when it comes to such questions as whether or not Vésteinn

committed adultery with Gísli's sister-in-law. Chapter II should not be

used to interpret later events because it is a clumsy and tasteless attempt

to fill a gap in an older text. We shall probably never know whether

the longer version preserves a style of saga-writing antedating the

classical style, or whether it is a post-classical expansion which the

fifteenth-century abbreviator tried to restore to purity and wholeness.

Most probably neither text is the original version, since the penultimate

chapter in the longer version is demonstrably less original than the

corresponding chapter of the abbreviated version.