Gripla - 20.12.2017, Qupperneq 227

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THEODORE M. ANDERSSON
A NOTE ON CONVERSATION
IN THE SAGAS
the years 1934–1935 saw the appearance of three monographs on
dialogue in the sagas, two German dissertations by Werner Ludwig and
Irmgard Netter and an American dissertation by Margaret Jeffrey.1 Jeffrey
restricted her coverage to just seven sagas: Droplaugarsona saga, Flóamanna
saga, Fóstbrœðra saga, Gísla saga, Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, Hrafnkels saga, and
Víga-Glúms saga. She does not comment on this particular choice of sagas,
but they are perhaps as representative as any others. She focuses through-
out on the narrative effects produced by dialogue. these she subdivides
into three categories: the role of dialogue in advancing the action, the role
in providing characterization, and the role in creating atmosphere.
Ludwig also deals with a restricted number of sagas: Harðar saga
Grímkelssonar, Árons saga Hjǫrleifssonar, Hœnsa-Þóris saga, and Gunnlaugs
saga ormstungu in particular. Ludwig’s interest attaches especially to the
cases in which there are two variant versions of the same action. In these
cases, Ludwig emphasizes the role of deliberate literary recasting. His em-
phasis is understated, but the reader may detect a quiet opposition to the
emphasis on oral variants promoted by andreas Heusler and later Knut
Liestøl. We may also regret that this opposition was not made the central
issue of the book because such opposition was surely justified, but the au-
thority of Heusler and Liestøl may have lain too heavy on the field in 1934
to allow for greater explicitness.
netter’s book is by far the most compendious of the three and includes
no fewer than thirty-nine saga texts, with an overpowering outlay of statis-
1 Werner Ludwig, Untersuchungen über den Entwicklungsgang und die Funktion des Dialogs
in der isländischen Saga (Gräfenhainichen: a. Heine G. m. b. H., 1934); Irmgard Netter,
Die direkte Rede in den Isländersagas (Leipzig: Hermann Eichblatt Verlag, 1935); Margaret
Jeffrey, The Discourse in Seven Icelandic Sagas: Droplaugarsona saga, Hrafnkels saga freysgoða,
Víga-Glúms saga, Gísla saga Súrssonar, Fóstbrœðra saga, Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, Flóamanna
saga (Menasha Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Company, 1934).
Gripla XXVIII (2017): 227–235