Gripla - 20.12.2006, Qupperneq 133

READING FOR SAGA AUTHORSHIP 131
In the Old Icelandic context the last of these arguments – arguments as to
the relative importance of the functions of authorship – has been seen as a duel
between tradition and creativity, interestingly perhaps by the authors them-
selves. In Gísla saga Súrssonar, the ‘argument’ seems close to the surface,
even if it not as easily recognised as the ironic voice of the modern novelist:
Nú sœkja þeir Eyjólfr at fast ok frændr hans; þeir sá, at þar lá við
sœmð þeira ok virðing. Leggja þeir þá til hans með spjótum, svá at út
falla iðrin, en hann sveipar at sér iðrunum ok skyrtunni ok bindr at fyrir
neðan með reipinu. Þá mælti Gísli, at þeir skyldi bíða lítt þat, —
„munu þér nú hafa þau málalok, sem þér vilduð.” Hann kvað þá vísu:
Fals hallar skal Fulla
fagrleit, sús mik teitir,
rekkilƒ́t at rƒkkum,
regns, sínum vin fregna.
Vel hygg ek, þótt eggjar
ítrslegnar mik bíti;
þá gaf sínum sveini
sverðs minn faðir herðu.
Sjá er in síðasta vísa Gísla. (Gísla saga 1943:114-115)
[They attack him fiercely, Eyjolf and his kinsmen; they saw that their
honour was at stake. They wound him then with their spears, so that his
bowels begin to come out; and he gathers the bowels in with his shirt
and ties them underneath with the cord. Then Gisli told them to wait a
little – ‘You will finish up the case as you want to.’ He spoke a verse:
Sheer goddess of shower / Of spear-shaft’s hall, cheer-heart, / Brave,
bids of her lover, / Bold one, the cold tidings. / Fain am I though finely
/ Forged bright edges bite me; / My sire’s true sword temper, / Shows
in his son’s life-close. This is Gisli’s last verse. (Johnston 1963:58)]
‘This is Gísli’s last verse,’ says the prose which brackets the verse, pausing
in much the same way as Gísli’s attackers must pause in order to allow and to
observe Gísli’s self-definition. The sentence contrasts sharply with the tone of
the vísa itself¸ and this allows us to read for an authorial distance, as the au-
thor looks back on the vísa and recognises it as the character’s attempt to
understand and express the situation at hand. The sentence’s narrative finality