Gripla - 2020, Page 90

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Another recurrent feature in Fóstbrœðra saga is alliteration, in particular
alliterative pairs of nearly synonymous words: ‘vitr ok vinsæll’, ‘hvatr ok
harðráðr’, etc.64 As Jónas notes, this is found in courtly literature, but it is
also a staple of homiletic and hagiographic literature, sometimes to the
point of extravagance. The IHB has the occasional pair, stretches of pairs,
and sometimes even sequences approaching fornyrðislag. Again, pairs of
nearly synonymous words are particularly common: ‘ǫfund ok illska’,
‘vit ok vísdómr’, etc.65 Unlike the indefinite article, alliteration has a very
natural place in homilies, with their lists of concepts and their emotional
addresses, and we thus find a more conspicuous use of it here than in sagas
of any kind. Alliterative pairs are thus not a late phenomenon, and homi-
letic interference probably explains the presence of alliteration in courtly
literature as well, since it is not present in the French originals.
The question thus becomes why the author of Fóstbrœðra saga opted for
the hyperbolic style found in homilies, hagiography and courtly literature.
Comparable features may be found in sverris saga, the first full-length
saga of an individual king (see discussion below), and Íslendingabók opens
with a Latin-style period.66 This suggests that features such as hyperbole,
simile and alliteration may belong to an early, experimental phase of the
development of kings’s sagas and sagas of Icelanders, but that these char-
acteristics gradually came to be seen as inappropriate for such local, recent
and comparatively realistic topics.
Drawing on Lars Lönnroth, Jónas also discusses the anatomical lore
of some digressions. In this context, it is important that the last five di-
gressions are likely to have been added later, as noted above, and that one
of them is found only in F. Neither Lönnroth nor Jónas takes this into
account.
The first anatomical digression is that on the smallness of Þorgeirr’s
heart, discussed above. The idea that the heart of a brave man is hard is
a rather straightforward metaphor that could be drawn from either local
64 Jónas Kristjánsson, Um ‘Fóstbræðrasögu’, 279–80.
65 See the lists in David Macmillan McDougall, ‘Studies in the Prose Style of the Old Icelandic
and Old Norwegian Homily Books’ (PhD diss., University College London, 1983), 98–127
(see also 26–42).
66 Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. by Jakob Benediktsson. íslenzk fornrit 1 (Reykjavík: Hið
íslenzka fornritafélag, 1986), 4.
Fó STBRœÐ RA SAGA: A MISSING LINK?