Gripla - 20.12.2006, Page 139

READING FOR SAGA AUTHORSHIP 137
significance of the appearance, in narratives, of mythical beings and other
famous characters of the past.17
In a similar way, reports often function to relate information from a char-
acter’s perspective or in a way that reflects the disposition of the characters
listening. Important saga characters, especially kings who are assisted by a
large body of retainers, rely on others to report events that will affect them. In
Sturlunga saga, too, spies are employed to discover the movement of oppos-
ing forces, and the ability to judge the accuracy or inaccuracy of their reports
appears to be one of the key skills of a thirteenth century chieftain. The ora-
tory skill of such figures, too, seems to have been of interest to authors and
audiences. Perhaps the kings’ sagas informed leaders about the successful con-
duct of political careers, in which case the oratorical skill of saga characters
must have been valuable because its forms and structures could, even in the
Icelandic social context, be copied for tone and content (see Bagge 1991 and
1996). Similarly, patterns of advice in the kings’ sagas can be regarded as part
of the sagas’ overarching function as paradigms of advice.18
Elevated direct speech, or dialogue between characters that carries special
significance for the plot, though often brief, can be regarded as a key aspect of
saga characterisation and as a moment in which an author’s conception of is-
sues facing the saga society comes to the fore. I have in mind characters’ speech
during critical moments, such as when key decisions are made, when final
words during battles are spoken, in death scenes, or in those moments when
saga authors appear to betray something of a character’s inner world – enig-
matic phrases like fƒgr er hlíðin and en nú falla vƒtn ƒll til Dýrafjarðar are
17 Significant dream narratives feature in the family sagas, the kings’ sagas, and in Sturlunga
saga (see Glendinning’s two studies of Sturla Þórðarson’s dreams in Íslendinga saga). As
Clunies Ross observes, intertextual aspects of characterisation in Íslendinga saga help to
enhance the status of thirteenth century political figures like Snorri (1994: 680-683; cf. Boyer
1975). Central characters’ relationship with the past in Heimskringla are more problematic.
For those who, like the two Óláfrs, are pressing for conversion to Christianity, the heathen
past represents an opposition force, one that must either be negotiated or overcome. One of
Óláfr Tryggvason’s victories over his heathen opponents comes when he is able to interrupt
the relationship which the bændr conceive between themselves and the heathen gods: Óláfr
insists on a sacrifice of the leading men in the district (Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ch. 67, 315-
316). For our study of secondary authorship, Óláfr’s discussion of the past is interesting
because it appears to recognize a difference of past and current heathen practice, and mani-
pulates that difference in order to achieve a political point.
18 Speeches of this kind are rare in the family sagas, but, as Brown argues, Þorgils saga ok Haf-
liða does share the kings’ sagas’ pleasure in kingly rhetoric.