Gripla - 20.12.2006, Page 132

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speak for themselves, and the author’s frequent recourse to proverbs suggests
that he is unsure of the effect action can have on an audience if it is not ac-
companied by commentary of some sort. Generational tensions feature in this
saga, as they do in many, but the author adopts the theme clumsily in his
characterisation of Þorsteinn and Ingimundr (for example, when the former is
thinking of his father’s harsh words as he takes on the preterhuman Jƒkull).10
The representation of the relationship between Ingimundr and his father
Þorsteinn suffers from too much authorial interest: a falsely ominous air sur-
rounds Ingimundr’s youthful arrogance at the same time as his egoistical com-
ments are praised, and it seems that the author struggles to find the right bal-
ance between his portrayal of Ingimundr’s foolhardy youth and his desire to
show that there is general community approval of Ingimundr’s heroic quali-
ties. The author has not abandoned objective saga style altogether but, perhaps
when his confidence in the ability of the scene to carry the saga’s moral rhet-
oric falters, he attempts an internal dialogue. This openness on the part of the
author of Vatnsdæla saga contrasts vividly with the ability of many saga au-
thors to develop their characters in understated ways.
After a brief comparison of the narrative voices in Eyrbyggja saga and
Vatnsdæla saga we see that saga authors perceived their role differently, as
well as the types of characters their stories would produce. It is unfortunate,
then, that twentieth-century approaches tended to bind the saga authors to fix-
ed types and looked for either tradition or individual creativity. If we translate
the problem into contemporary theoretical terms, we might say that in the past
saga authorship has been equated to intention rather than function, that despite
their anonymity, saga authors were to be accorded personality and one set of
aims or the other. Perhaps Julian Barnes’ admittedly very modern conception
of authorship as a range of aims and functions is a better starting point:
… the argument that every writer and reader has with himself or her-
self, the argument art never ceases to have with itself: Beauty v. Unity,
Contemporary Relevance v. Future Durability, Primacy of Form v. Ur-
gency of Message, Style v. Content, The Artist as Controlling Creator
v. The Artist as Played-Upon Instrument, and so on. (217-218)
10 Regarding generational tensions in the sagas, see Schach 1977 and Bragg who observes that
‘literary themes and motifs having to do with father-son relations are quite common in the
saga literature in general and must therefore have been of wide interest in the society that
produced the sagas’ (1997:8).