Gripla - 20.12.2007, Page 16

GRIPLA
4 This relationship was pointed out long ago and has often been discussed. I want to em-
phasize, however, that I do not think there needs to be any direct relationship between the two
narratives, although the same or similar folkloric and legendary motifs occur, v. Magnús
Fjalldal 1998; cf. Marijane Osborne 2007.
a terrible revenant who speaks and kills and behaves even worse than he did
when he was alive. There are many other incredible and fantastic events and
phenomena in this saga, such as the long lasting sex appeal of the much-tor-
mented Yngvildr fƒgurkinn. The lacunas in the text make it difficult to ana-
lyse.
Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls is indeed of similar length as many þættir
and shares some motifs with them. Gunnar is a strong and resourceful fighter
in his youth in Iceland, and his enemies try without success to use magic
against him. When abroad he fights giants and a great champion, a blámaðr,
that the evil Hákon Jarl sets him up against. Back in Iceland he kills an enemy
and is then reconciled with this man’s sister, who is a witch. This is a
somewhat tame ending for a narrative that has strayed into the area of the
fantastic for a while.
The four remaining sagas are the ones where the fantastic elements are best
integrated and of greatest significance in the overall structure.
Grettis saga is best known of all fourteenth century sagas. Grettir is a
typical hero in many ways, fighting and conquering a mound-dweller, twelve
berserks, and a bear in his youth. Although he is one of the most human of
saga heroes, his fate later in life is to fight against a terrible ghost and against
monsters that seem related to Grendel and his mother.4 For a while he is
befriended by a giant, Hallmundr, and in the end conquered when an evil
witch has weakened him with her magic tricks. The implication is that no
human might could have killed him if he had been in good health. Grettir’s
story is a tragic one, and he is defeated by his enemies. His dealings with the
ghost Glámr are the most effective and genuinely fantastic scenes in all saga-
literature. Grettis saga is certainly the most truly fantastic of the sagas in a
modern sense, because it makes the reader hesitate between a natural and a
supernatural explanation of events, as required by Todorov in his much quoted
study (Todorov 1973:33). Obviously, the supernatural is real in the saga,
Glámr and other supernatural beings are real, and Þuríðr, Þorbjörn öngull’s
fostermother is a real witch, but the reader is invited to interpret Grettir’s faults
of character as the primary cause of his misfortunes, although the supernatural
is also offered as a credible alternative appearing almost at every crossroad in
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