Gripla - 2020, Blaðsíða 79

GRIPLA78
original to the saga. I wish therefore to discuss two instances that, I be-
lieve, bear this out.
One of the most well-known digressions is the anatomical description
of Þorgeirr’s heart (present also in B). The long version reads:
Svá segja sumir menn, at þeir klyfði hann til hjarta ok vildu sjá
hvílíkt væri, svá hugprúðr sem hann var, en menn segja at hjartat
væri harðla lítit, ok hǫfðu sumir menn þat fyrir satt, at minni sé
hug prúðra manna hjǫrtu en huglaussa, því at menn kalla minna blóð
í litlu hjarta en miklu, en kalla hjartablóði hræðslu fylgja, en segja
menn því detta hjarta manna í brjóstinu, at þá hræðiz hjartablóðit
ok hjartat í manninum.30
Some men say that they cleft him to the heart and wanted to see
what it was like, so courageous a man as he was, and men say that
the heart was very small, and some men held it to be true that the
hearts of courageous men are smaller than those of cowards, since
men say that there is less blood in a small heart than in a big one,
and [they] say that fear follows the blood of the heart, and men say
that men lose heart [lit. men’s heart falls in the breast], since then
the blood of the heart and the heart becomes afraid in the man.
Hb simply has:
Þeir skáru upp líkam hans ok vildu sjá hjarta hans, ok var þat eigi
meira en valhnot ok hart sem sigg ok ekki blóð í.31
They cut open his body and wanted to see his heart, and it was no
bigger than a walnut and hard as pork skin and there was no blood
in it.
Hb’s description gives no explanation as to why the men wanted to see
Þorgeirr’s heart. The passage makes cultural sense in Norse literature,
since we find a number of references to the physical appearance of hearts
in mythological texts. Most famously, Hjalli’s shivering heart and Hǫgni’s
30 Fóstbrœðra saga, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson, 125.
31 Fóstbrœðra saga, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson, 125.