Gripla - 01.01.2003, Page 86

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GRIPLA
traditional theory and Bjarni’s revision consider Heiðan’íga saga to be the
older text.
For Bjami, the supposed echoing in Bjarnar saga of names and phrases
from earlier texts represents no more than further evidence of the author’s
magpie recycling of earlier sources to create a fictional text. In his analysis of
Heiðan’íga saga, however, the symbolism read into names is a fundamental
interpretative tool: ‘Menn ná ekki langt í túlkun Heiðarvígasögu án þess að
skilja nöfnin táknrænum skilningi’ (258) [One will not get far with the inter-
pretation of Heiðaivíga saga without interpreting the names symbolically].
Thus the dark forces of unregenerate heathenism and the culture of revenge
are alluded to in the name Barði (sá sem ber) (1993, 151-52), as well as the
more obvious Víga-Stýrr, the name of the bloodthirsty Þuríðr, evolved from
*Þór-ríðr, aligns her with the god Þórr, and her tumble into the stream echoes
the story in Snorra Edda of Þórr’s stmggle in the river Vimur (87-89). By con-
trast all reference to Þórr has been expunged from the name of the more
peaceable Gestr, named Þorgestr in some other sources, to bring into promi-
nence the significance of Gestr as a name for Christ, a guest among men on
earth. But David Evans’s caveat to this highlights the subjectivity of this
method of interpretation: ‘the number of Icelanders in the sagas with Þór- as
the first element in their names must be at least 1500, and they cannot all have
been champions of paganism; Þórlákr inn helgi was not’.31
Clear examples such as the punning on Bjpm’s name in Bjarnar saga
demonstrate that saga authors were alive to the possibility that some names
could be used to express idiosyncrasies of character, though this was more
usually conveyed by the addition of a nickname or the modification of a name
(such as that of Styrbjgrn Svíakappi, originally called Bjgm tout court, until
‘gaf Eirekr konungr honum viðnefni af harðfengi sinni ok styrjöld ok kallaði
hann Styrbjörn’ (Flateyjarbók 1944-45, II 147)). But precisely because so
many Icelandic personal names are also common nouns, it is unsafe to read
into all of them (still less into a selected few) the kind of allegorical
significance signalled by Langland’s ‘Kynde Wit’ or ‘Conscience’ or the
‘False Semblaunt’ of the Romance of the Rose. As Evans’s comment under-
lines, instances where a name appears to bear semantic weight must be
weighed against many others where the same name clearly does not. This con-
sideration, not to mention the frequency of the element Þór- in other names,
31 1997, 364. Evans also points out that Bjami is wrong to claim that Gestr is called Þorgestr in
Eyrbyggja saga.