Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.12.1957, Qupperneq 310

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ing type K arrives at the place in the saga where the ‘anticipated’ portion
of the text originally stood.
The re-shapings which resulted in type K may also be due to other
causes. Scholars have long ago noticed that type K shows a special pre-
dilection for West Iceland. Cf. the above-mentioned extension of Oddr’s
landing-area to Hvitå. We have likewise noted examples of type K’s
tendency to interpolate genealogical information (which several times
proves to be incorrect). At times K also furnishes more information about
localities.
Although in general type M seems to approximate more closely to the
original form of the saga, we sometimes find examples of errors in text
M where text K must be right. Such mistakes have also been pointed out
in the edition of 1956, for instance (notes on text M): p. 33, notes 2 and
3; 36, note 2; 39, note 1; 44, note 4. These examples seem to show that
type K cannot derive from the text of M; they must go back to another
text which was nearer to the primary text of the saga than the M-text is.
In a separate section the author discusses the origin of the stanzas in the
saga. The last of these is found both in M and K, while the five first
appear in M only. Those who have regarded type M as secondary have
usually also considered these five stanzas to be inserted by a later writer.
But the author tries to show that the stanzas generally fit well into their
context; nor can he see that any argument which has been advanced is of
such weight that they must be looked upon as interpolations. He considers
it most probable that all the stanzas were composed by the original writer
of the literary saga.
SECOND MAIN SECTION. LITERARY ASPECTS
Here the author first points to various aspects of the saga which give it
a place by itself among the Icelanders’ sagas. The events happen in the
middle of the eleventh century, i.e. after the classic ‘soguold’ (circa 930—
1030 A.D.). Whereas the Icelanders’ sagas normally expressed an aristo-
cratic outlook on society and persons, the writer who shaped this saga
appears to have been critical not only of individual chiefs in the saga, but
also of the chieftain class in general. Moreover, this saga seems to have a
tendency in the direction of purposely travestying the conventional, serious,
Icelanders’ sagas. Finally, the Bandamanna Saga is the only one among
the Icelanders’ sagas (apart from some frættir) in which comical effect is
given prominence; and it is the one which more than any other resembles
a play. This marked individuality in basic features leads us to think, even
in regard to details, that we can recognize an original source where the
saga departs from the normal pattern.
In a separate section the author analyzes the chief characters of the saga.
Oddr Ofeigsson is the main hero. But in spite of many good details, his
portrait is generally a rather schematic and conventional one. The domin-