Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1967, Page 76

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TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
Icelandic the same device is used for
very strong emphasis, often in con-
junction with accounts of violent
events. Although this cannot be as-
serted with total certainty, short of
statistical evidence, it seems prob-
able that understatement is more
common in Old Icelandic. There is
no doubt, however, that it is used
more deliberately in Old Icelandic,
and its effects are more diversified
and more striking, especially as the
result of humor in contexts where
it is least expected.
As to the causes responsible for
this development in Old Icelandic,
we can only speculate. It should, of
course, be mentioned here that the
Old Icelandic sagas, in their present
form, were written during a period
extending roughly from the twelfth
to fourteenth century, i.e. consider-
ably later than the Old English texts
examined here. And, as is pointed
out by Stanley B. Greenfield, the
development of Old English prose
style was interrupted by the Nor-
man Invasion. Greenfield sees the
Old English translation of the ro-
mance Appolonius of Tyre as “a
taste of a narrative style that might
have developed if William had lost
at Hastings.”
It may be that the prominent use
of understatement in Old Icelandic
is the result of pagan attitudes sur-
viving longer in Iceland. Related to
this, the preoccupation with heroic
themes in the sagas may have been
conducive to the use of understate-
ment. In contrast, most Old English
prose is historical or homiletic,
which genres may not have invited
the use of understatement. It seems
likely that preachers, thundering
about the depravity of the age or
the imminent destruction of the
world, would find 1 i 111 e use for
understatement. Wulfstan’s exhor-
tation that it is desirable sume gel-
rýwða habban ús beiwéonum búían
uncræfian — “to have some loyalty
between us without deceit” — might
be taken as an exception.
It is safe to say that the striking
understatements in Old Icelandic
must be the result of a high degree
of sophistication in the technique of
story-telling. The sagas, as we have
them, although developing from an
oral tradition, are clearly the fruit
of a literary tradition in writing, not
just orally transmitted tales sudden-
ly committed to writing. It can be
demonstrated that some s a g a s>
Greltis Saga, for instance, could only
have been written by an author who
had access to a considerable library
of other sagas.