Studia Islandica - 01.06.1956, Side 26

PART II
The SKÚTU-ÞÁTTR in VÍGA-GLÚMS SAGA
and REYKDŒLA SAGA
1. The striking similarity between ch. 16 of Víga-Glúms
saga (V.Gl.) and ch. 26 of Reykdœla saga (R.) and the
problems connected with it have been the subject of
learned discussion for more than a century.
This similarity is evident in several respects.
Ch. 16 of V. Gl. tells of a clash between Glúmr, the
hero of the saga, and Víga-Skúta, the hero of Reykdœla
saga, but it falls outside the plan of the story. ‘It breaks
the sequence of events and if extracted it would leave
no trace’ (G. Turville-Petre) 1
Reykdœla saga ch. 26 is in many points a verbal
paralled of ch. 16 in V. Gl.; but the story in R. is linked
with the foregoing chapters, in which both heroes have
their place.
Strikingly similar stylistic features, observed by other
scholars, are:
a. in ch. 16 of V.Gl. the so-called historic present tense
is used nearly three times as frequently as it is in
other parts of the saga; in ch. 26 of R. this tense
occurs even more frequently.
b. the abundance of direct speech in ch. 26 of R., of
which it forms about two-fifths, while in other parts
of the saga the author tends to avoid it.
1) In the Introduction of his edition of Víga-Glúms saga, Ox-
ford, 1940, p. xxiii.