Gripla - 01.01.1977, Page 17

JOURNEY TO THE NJALA COUNTRY
13
ed into the saddle’, and that when the brothers rode over the river flats
after the killing, they rode fast, and Gunnar then ‘leapt off and landed
on his feet’. The saga-writer would undoubtedly have considered it
undignified for Gunnar to fall off his horse. Heroes do not fall off.
3) The third point is the cause of Gunnar’s turning back. In the verse
said to have been spoken by him in the burial mound there is the de-
claration that he chose rather to fall before his enemies with weapon in
hand than yield; as in the case of Gunnar and Högni, the Burgundian
kings. But in the actual account of his turning back it is assumed that
he was overcome by love for his native district and its beauty. ‘Fogr er
hlíðin’ (fair is the slope) are his words in the saga. It may well be sup-
posed that here we have a case of two divergent opinions regarding the
incident, but to me it seems more likely that the author envisaged a
mixture of feelings. Such occurs frequently in the saga.
It is likely, too, that here we have echoes from an incident in
Alexanders Saga.
King Alexander has sailed eastwards over the ocean to Asia, which
he intends to conquer. At daybreak he climbs a high mountain, whence
he surveys the land.
There on every side he sees fagra vgllu, bleika akra, great forests,
flower-gardens, fortresses, strong cities. And as the king surveyed
all this fairness (fegrð), then spoke he thus to his chosen band:
‘This kingdom, that I now behold, do I intend for myself. But
Greece, my patrimony, will I now give up to you,’ said the chief,
and so did he now trust in his fortune that it seemed to him as
though this lay at his disposal.
The words of Njála: ‘Fogr er hlíðin, svá at mér hefir hon aldri jafn-
fggr sýnzk, bleikir akrar ok slegin tún, ok mun ek heim ríða ok fara
hvergi’ are very remininscent of the text of Alexanders Saga. The two
narratives are linked here by the words fggr . . . fogr, and bleikir akrar,
but at the same time it should be noted that whereas Alexander talks of
planes which he sees looking down from the mountain, Gunnar looks
up to the slopes and farm at Hlíðarendi. Alexander has left home and
gives away his patrimony; Gunnar turns back homewards and rejects
all that other lands may have to offer him. His homesickness is obvious.
Both heroes express a sense of beauty, but Gunnar’s is purer, being
unmixed with any desire for wealth and possessions.