Gripla - 2020, Síða 15

GRIPLA14
a saga.18 Liestøl attributed the differences in narrative structure and infor-
mation – such as character names – to the relative lack of importance of
these, which allowed for a change in detail.19
Bookprose scholars, in particular Björn Sigfússon, saw a challenge in
Erichsen and Liestøl’s arguments that the redactions could be seen as oral
variants. Instead, Björn frames the C-redaction as a historical novelization
of Ljósvetninga saga’s A-redaction,20 arguing for the A-redaction’s linguistic
and stylistic consistency with the rest of the saga – while Erichsen argues
the opposite.21 In his subsequent íslenzk fornrit edition of Ljósvetninga
saga, Björn stressed the awkward style of the C-redaction and argued that
chapters 13–18 function more as an individual þáttr in the C-redaction
than in the A-redaction, where they are more connected to the main nar-
rative.22 Björn argues that the irregularities and clunky style found in the
C-redaction are proof that it was not transmitted orally: in oral transmis-
sion, one would expect these kinds of illogicalities to be smoothed over by
the storytellers.23
Following Anne Holtsmark’s review of Björn Sigfússon’s Um Ljósvet n-
inga sögu, in which she questions Björn’s dismissal of oral transmission as
an explanation for the redactions’ variance,24 Hallvard Magerøy argued
that the differences between these texts stem from a textual connection.25
Magerøy goes through the divergent parts of the A- and C-redactions
Guðbrandur Vigfússon and F. York Powell, 348), but they do not expand their argument
beyond this.
18 Knut Liestøl, the Origin of the Icelandic Family sagas, trans. Arthur Garland Jayne.
Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning. Serie A: Forelesninger; 10 (Oslo:
Asche houg, 1930), 48, translated from Norwegian “einaste trygge dømet” (Knut Liestøl,
Upphavet til den Islendske ættesaga, Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning. Serie
A, Forelesninger 9a (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1929), 50).
19 Liestøl, Origin of the Icelandic Family sagas, 49–51.
20 Björn Sigfússon. Um Ljósvetninga sögu, With a summary in English, Studia Islandica 3
(Reykjavík: ísafoldarprentsmiðja h.f., 1937), 38, 42 (English summary).
21 Björn Sigfússon, Um Ljósvetninga sögu, 11–19.
22 Ljósvetninga saga, xxv.
23 Ljósvetninga saga, xxxix. On Björn’s íslenzk fornrit edition see more below.
24 Anne Holtsmark, “Anmälan av ‘Studia Islandica. Islenzk frœði 1—4, p. 15’” Arkiv för nordisk
Filologi 55 (1940): 138–139.
25 Hallvard Magerøy, sertekstproblemet i Ljósvetninga saga, Afhandlinger utg. av det Norske
videnskaps-akademi i Oslo. 2 Hist.-filos. Klasse 1956, 2 (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1957), 16–17.
See also Andersson, Problem of saga Origins, 155, 158–159.