Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Blaðsíða 86
84
önn né starf skaltu hafa fyrir um búnað þinn; skal ek þat annask.
(60)
The scene is repeated once more, embellished with more
details and with an even more elaborate staging later in the
saga, when Kjartan Óláfsson, the central hero of the saga,
prepares to depart for Iceland after the Norwegian king
Óláfr Tryggvason has given the Icelanders permission to
leave. Óláfr managed to convert Kjartan to Christianity, but
not before Kjartan had shown himself completely unintim-
idated by the king and even threatened to kill him by burn-
ing down his hall. The king’s speech is elevated through
the use of the royal first-person plural, repeated negative
constructions, and subjunctives:
4) Eigi munu vér þessi orð aptr taka, Kjartan, en þó mæltu vér þetta
ekki síðr til annarra manna en til þín, því at vér virðum svá, Kjartan,
at þú hafir hér setit meir í vingan en gíslingu; vilda ek, at þú fýstisk
eigi út til íslands, þó at þú eigir þar göfga frændr, því at kost muntu
eiga at taka þann ráðakost í Nóregi, er engi mun slíkr á íslandi.
(130)
To which Kjartan replies, making use of one of the few
Christian formulas to be found in the saga:
5) Várr herra launi yðr þann sóma, er þér hafið til mín gört, síðan er
ek kom á yðvart vald. (130)
All of these quotations show the more elevated, gener-
ally more complex, style of the dialogue between foreign
royalty and the saga characters. This is the concrete mani-
festation of the general orientation of these passages. It
remains to be seen how the translators deal with the special
syntactical features in evidence here.
1) We should have taken well your greeting, Hoskuld, even if you
had saluted us sooner; but so shall it be even now. (P 24)