Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 180

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GRIPLA
literature where a whole literary genre depends on folk tradition and
has nevertheless become an artistic literary prose of high standard.
If Icelandic prose literature seems to be unique in this respect, it
is worth considering the presuppositions for such a development. I
want to mention only a few, but probably one can find some more:
a) Oral traditions must be considered important to the people or
people must at least be interested in them.
b) Already the oral tradition must contain some formal or artistic
tendencies in composing or narrating a story.
c) There must be an impulse to literarise such native traditions,
probably inspired by other literary genres or works or by in-
fluence from foreign literature.
d) There must be men who are familiar with the native traditions
as well as with the literary impulse, especially the one coming
from foreign literature.
With the first of these suppositions—people’s interest in oral tradi-
tions—I want to deal later. The second one has recently become
again an object of scholarly discussion.1 Investigating early works of
Old Norse literature, particularly translations, historical and theo-
logical works, some scholars have found scenes or episodes narrated
in a manner we know from konungasogur or íslendingasogur. I tend
to agree with these scholars that here the written works show at an
early stage of Old Norse literature the manner of oral narration.
There are not many examples of this kind, but enough to prove the
existence of a kind of narrative art already preformed in oral tradi-
tion. Of course by this I do not advocate the old ‘free prose theory’
in its extreme form; today nobody still believes that oral sagas were
like the written ones. But the fact that oral traditions existed before
the written sagas and were connected with them, shows at least the
existence of some inherent foimal tendencies, for instance the way to
compose a scene or to tender a dialogue. These are not artistic laws
or rules, just as the so-called saga-style is not determined by rules but
1 E.g. Jan de Vries: Die island. Saga und die miindl. Uberlieferung, in: Fest-
schrift f. F. v. d. Leyen, Miinchen 1963, S. 169-176; D. Hofmann: Die miindl. Vor-
stufe der altnord. Prosaerzáhlkunst, in: Annales Universitatis Saraviensis 10, 1961,
S. 163-178; also: Vers u. Prosa in d. miindl. gepflegten mittelalterl. Erzahlkunst d.
german. Lander, in: Friihmittelalterliche Studien 5, 1971, S. 135-175.