Studia Islandica - 01.06.1956, Blaðsíða 74

72
A reference to the story told in ch. 27 is made in the
Melabók version of Landnámabók; the story here is dif-
ferent, but the verses quoted are the same.
We can agree with Turville-Petre that there is every
reason to reject the story told in Mel. on the historical
evidence of other sources.
At the same time one stylistic feature of ch. 27 might
be taken into account before passing judgement as to
its authenticity.
Is it mere coincidence ch. 27 showing all by itself the
most abnormally high percentage of parataxis in the
whole saga: 50 parataxis as against only 14 cases of
hypotaxis?
I do not wish to press this point further, although
one might feel tempted to figure out a similar source
as we proposed for R. V in ch. 16 of Glúma. It is only
in the case of parataxis that ch. 27 makes a peculiar
impression; in its use of tenses and length of periods
and phrases it is quite conform to type.