Studia Islandica - 01.06.1956, Page 9

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Some remarks will be made on the occurrence of re-
markably long periods, the persons who speak them,
and the situations in which the author uses them.
3. First are given the statistics of the three sagas which
are generally considered to be the oldest, viz. Droplaug-
arsona saga, Heiðarvíga saga (ch. 15-41, not the first
part, written down by Jón Ólafsson) and Fóstbroeðra
saga.
Next follow Egils saga (17 chapters), Gísla saga,
Grettis saga (6 chapters), Hrafnkels saga, Laxdæla
saga (14 chapters), Njáls saga (13 chapters), Reykdœla
saga (ch. 17-30: the Skútu saga) and Víga-Glúms saga.
DROPLAUGARSONA SAGA
EPIC PART DIRECT SPEECH
____A___________, _________A_______
8 PERIODS SYLL. PER PER. SYLL. PER PHRASE PARAT. HYPOT. PERIODS SYLL. PER PER. SYLL. PER PHRASE PARAT. HYPOT.
í. 45 17.8 8.6 35 13 14 14.6 8.5 7 3
2. 51 12.8 7.4 22 15 —
3. 69 16.3 8.7 32 28 8 14.5 9.7 1 3
4. 47 22.6 9.8 41 21 12 24,- 10.3 4 12
5. 22 18.9 8.7 19 9 2 17.- 4.9 2 3
6. 37 20.9 9.6 20 17 1 49,- 9.8 3 1
7. 18 26.8 9.9 20 11 2 10.- 10,- — —
8. 20 20.5 10.8 9 9 3 27,- 10.1 1 4
9. 59 14.9 8.9 23 17 23 21.7 9.4 12 18
10. 59 22.7 9.2 61 26 30 14.3 7.6 16 10
11. 20 19.9 7.9 19 11 4 23.- 9.2 3 3
12. 12 27.3 8.9 17 10 3 9.3 5.6 1 1
13. 57 17.3 8.1 45 21 33 18.5 7.7 12 34
14. 44 14.8 8.6 19 13 20 14.6 7.1 9 12
15. 33 18.8 9.1 21 14 2 20.- 10.- 1 1
593 403 235 157 72 105