Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Síða 120
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were told in the Norway of the 13th century, we are probably justified
in comparing modern folktales, Icelandic forn aldar s 2 g u r, and the tradi-
tions of Norwegian origin found in Saxo2, i.e. we have to eliminate the
typically Icelandic traits in the fornaldarsaga, details in which the in-
fluence of the art of sagawriting makes itself felt, and the traits where
Saxo’s classical education is most obvious in his tales. I admit that it is
not always easy to decide what is typically “Icelandic” or “classical” in
these tales, but I still think that a theoretical discussion of this kind is
necessary. It is quite possible that some of the Icelandic fornaldarsggur
are fairly good representatives of a kind of popular “literature” that was
well-known, in the form of oral tales, all over Scandinavia, but we cannot
prove it, and the only existing fornaldarsggur are Icelandic, and may to a
large extent be literary products.
The common denominator of the three kinds of tales mentioned above
would be a plain, straighforward story, with the main stress on action
and little if any interest in psychology. The tale begins with the begin-
ning and ends with the end, and the narrator does not intervene, and
pretends to give an objective historical account of what has happened.
This sort of tale must have been familiar to every Norwegian, nobleman
as well as farmer and kotkarl. No doubt there were Icelandic sagnamenn
at the Norwegian court long before the written Sagas of the Kings became
known there, and their tales may have been longer and more effectively
told than those of the ordinary bearers of local traditions, but the method
of telling the tale is essentially the same even in the best of the family
sagas, and differs on many points from the more deliberately artistic
presentation of the plot in the French poems.
A translator, then, who wanted to malte his tale more readily acceptable
to a Norwegian public, would have to take into account the traditional
“literary” conventions of his audience.
The fornaldarsaga is usually a story of adventure; descriptions of travels,
fighting, winning of treasures from giants, etc., follow each other, and
in the end the hero marries a princess and they live happily ever after-
wards. There are a number of resemblances between this kind of tale and
the average chanson de geste. The same lack of interest in psychological
refinement is found in both, the same repetitions and lack of real imagina-
2 Vide Axel Olrik: Kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie II, pp. 279-80; Knut Liestøl:
Norske trollvisor og norrøne sogor, pp. 232-41; id.: Upphavet til den islendske
ættesaga, pp. 17-25.