Studia Islandica - 01.06.1956, Side 7

Ari C. Bouman
OBSERVATIONS ON SYNTAX AND STYLE
OF SOME ICELANDIC SAGAS
WITH SPECIAL. REFERENCE TO THE RELATION BETWÉEN
VÍGA-GLÚMS SAGA AND REYKDŒLA SAGA
PART I
1. Part I brings a number of statistical data relating to
syntax and style, with some remarks on individual
sagas, as an introduction to Part n, in which such fea-
tures are brought to bear on the solution of the special
problem indicated in the title.
For the sake of brevity the use of tenses is not dealt
with at large. This requires a separate study, in order
to draw a complete picture of one or more sagas. It is
by this method only that a reliable accoimt and explica-
tion of the tenses can be expected.
2. The starting point for the following study was the
problem of the relationship between Víga-Glúms saga
ch. 16 and Reykdoela saga ch. 26.
I deemed it necessary, as a preliminary to the discus-
sion of this problem in detail, to survey some other
sagas, some of them complete, others in part, in order
to unearth a fundamental aspect. I am well aware of
the fact that these foundations are as yet of a limited
nature; they should be established on a still broader
and more solid bcisis. A survey of all the sagas carried
through in the manner of Wieselgren’s research is not
one man’s task. This spade-work is often tedious and
tiring. It has been done for some monuments of Old