The Advantage of Self-Possession: Knowledge and Advice in fiorgils saga ok Hafli›a
Fiction may be imbued with a truth to life which is equal to if not superior in value to any factual truth. But when the public demand not only human, but also historical reality, if they are to take a story and the message hidden behind the story seriously, they must have that reality too or at lea...
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.609.1094 http://sydney.edu.au/arts/medieval/saga/pdf/429-reid.pdf |
| Summary: | Fiction may be imbued with a truth to life which is equal to if not superior in value to any factual truth. But when the public demand not only human, but also historical reality, if they are to take a story and the message hidden behind the story seriously, they must have that reality too or at least the semblance of it. This consideration became one of the rules of the game, more or less difficult to obey, more or less conflicting with the pure art of story-telling, but all in all beneficial. (Nordal, The Historical Element 35) The issue I have become interested in is the relationship between the problem of authorship in Old Icelandic scholarship and attempts which are made to draw a social history of medieval Iceland out of the family and contemporary sagas. The idea of a medieval Icelandic author is a difficult one to define, and it is not surprising that narrative theory has become an important component of many saga scholars ’ work. Narrative models shift attention away from the author, making analysis less reliant on a clearly defined conception of the author-type. 430 Kári Reid So, in Úlfar Bragason’s thesis on Sturlunga saga, we see a strong emphasis on |
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