Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 130

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GRIPLA
hit his shield; it sliced off the bottom of the shield and severed his
leg.)
Cook: When Helgi heard this he threw off the cloak. He had been carrying
a sword under his arm, and swung it at one of the men and hit his
shield, and it cut off the lower part of the shield and the man’s leg as
well.
Again, Dasent and Cook have kept from the original the series of “ands,”
while B-H create separate sentences and also conflate two clauses into one
(“and the blow cut off the lower point of the shield”). MM-HP resort to the
present participle twice.
9. Shift from indirect to direct discourse
The sagas have a high percentage of reported speech, both indirect (oratio
obliqua) and direct (oratio directá), as well as a striking number of instances
in which indirect discourse leads, suddenly and without preparation, into
direct.24
Njáll sagði hann vera inn mesta afreksmann — “ok ert þú mjqk reyndr,
en þó munt þú meir síðar, því at margr mun þik gfunda.” (32.84)
Hann [Njáll] kvezk sofit hafa til þessa, en kvezk þá vaka, — “eða hví
ert þú hér komin svá snimma?” (98.251)
hann [Njáll] segir, at þeir mundu fullu verði keypt hafa, — “ok hyggið
atþví, at þér launið eigiþví, sem hann mun vilja.” (108.276)
Flosi tók þá fésjóð afbelti sér ok kvazk vildu gefa honum; hann [Hall-
bjgm sterki] tók viðfénu, en kvezk þó ekki eiga gjafir at Flosa, — “en
þó vil ek vita, hverju þú vill, at ek launa." (134.350)
Flosi tók lítt á þeirraferð ok k\’að þó eigi víst um, hvárt hér næmi stað-
ar;— “er Kári engum manni líki; þeim er nú er á landi váru.” (151.
435)
24 Alfred Jakobsen has counted 109 instances of this shift in Njáls saga: “Om halvreplikker i
norrpnt”, Maal og minne 1980:150-166, at 152.