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can also be illustrated by the story of óláfr taking Hákon captive. the
description of the earl as well as the dialogue between him and Óláfr is also
found in the Legendary Saga from around 1200 but with a number of addi
tions that are omitted in the two later sagas.41 the earl’s vanity is empha
sised; he wants to sail between Óláfr’s two ships – which he believes are
merchant ships – in order to impress the spectators as much as possible,
and he and his men drink heavily while sailing. Both pieces of information
serve to place the earl in bad light and may thus have a moralistic aim simi
lar to Theodericus’s comment about Óláfr’s wish to avoid bloodshed. Most
importantly, after his words to the earl that he may have neither victory
nor defeat any more, óláfr goes on to tell the earl that he may be killed and
gives him an alternative option that the earl turns down. Finally, the two
agree on the same solution as in the two later sagas. To modern readers,
these additions weaken the drama of the story. The two later authors seem
to have thought in the same way and omitted them.42 Thus, whatever the
origin of the story, its classical version appears as a late and refined product
of various versions produced over a period of around forty years. nor does
Snorri confine himself just to narrating good stories; he combines them in
a way that gives them considerable explanatory force. His departure from
the Latin intellectual and rhetorical tradition is the result of deliberate
choice.
nevertheless, the saga style probably has some basis in popular narra
tive or is at least closer to such narrative than classical Latin prose. Some of
its features, such as irony, understatement, silence and acute observation of
the external world, fit well in with a relatively egalitarian or at least non-
hierarchical society of farmers, and resemble the culture of rural society
many places in contemporary Scandinavia.43 Moreover, there is some
resemblance between the saga style and the so-called prófbref in Norway,
41 Leg. saga ch. 19–21.
42 This of course implies that the two authors knew the Legendary saga, which is by no means
certain. However, the two sagas show enough similarities with the Legendary saga that we
can conclude that they must either have used the saga itself or some of its sources, such as
The Oldest Saga. Only fragments survive of this saga, none of which deal with the early part
of óláfr’s reign. See theodore M. Andersson, ”kings’ Sagas,” in Carol Clover and john
Lindow, eds., Old NorseIcelandic Literature. A Critical Guide. Islandica 45 (Ithaca: Cornell
uP, 1985), pp. 204 f., 212 f.
43 eva Österberg, Mentalities and Other Realities. Essays in Medieval and Early Modern
Scandinavian History (Lund: Lund university Press, 1991), 9–30.
noRDIC unIQueneSS In tHe MIDDLe AGeS?