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WORKS Like Landnámabók (A Chronicle), Snorri's Prose Edda

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WORKS Like Landnámabók (A Chronicle), Snorri's Prose Edda INTERTEXTUALITY IN BJARNAR SAGA HÍTDŒLAKAPPA BY FREDRIK J. HEINEMANN ORKS like Landnámabók (a chronicle), Snorri’s prose Edda (a W treatise on religion and poetics), or Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa (a family saga) differ from each other in so many ways that we normally do not think of them at the same time. Yet aside from their common language, their narrative passages resemble each other in one respect: the narrative voice is one and the same, the reticent, so-called objective narrator who poses as the sole authority for the information imparted. If we restrict our attention merely to this one aspect of narrative rhetoric, we must admit that the authors of these works apparently knew only one way to tell a story. Wherever it came from— oral tradition?—Icelandic writers stuck to it through thick and thin. In contrast to the variety of narrative modes developed hundreds of years later in novels, the narrative voice so often praised by Icelandic schol- ars does at times seem decidedly monotonous. Such thoughts merely acknowledge that all narrative styles have their limitations. Now it is clear that sagas are more than their narrators profess them to be, namely naturalistic records of the settlement of Iceland, the history of kings and bishops, contemporary accounts of feuds, fantastic stories of mythical heroes, and so on. Equally clearly, the meanings we draw from sagas are not restricted to those transmitted by the literal sense of the narrative, for sagas as works of fiction additionally communicate a coded (and a perhaps more important) message the unscrambling of which requires the reader’s willingness to hold in suspension a number of elements that achieve significance only in relation to each other. The saga code, like all literary codes, derives its meaning from a narrative tradition. Because sagas can be read in relation to their tradition, each saga has a dimension extending beyond itself. As many readers have remarked, sagas consist of stereotyped characters, a limited stock of actions, and a fixed repertoire of conduct (Allen 1971, 95–127; Andersson 1967, 31– 64; Clover 1974, 57–83; Heinemann 1974, 102–119; Lönnroth 1976, 42–103). The reading process consists of déja lu experiences in which characters and events— many of which cannot properly be understood apart from the tradi- tion—are weighed against the composites drawn from the corpus at 420 Saga-Book large. We may call the interrelations among sagas implicit intertextuality, a saga’s mostly unconscious relations to other sagas.1 In what follows I will analyse how implicit intertextuality informs Chapter XI of Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa. Specifically, I will argue that the narrative code in the chapter (here quoted in full from Nordal’s edition, Borgfir›inga so≈gur 1938, 136–38) communicates a message that contradicts the literal sense of the text: Nú er flat sagt, at fiór›r spur›i Oddn‡ju, hvé rá›ligt henni flœtti at bjó›a Birni til vistar, (1) ok kvazk eigi vilja, at menn gengi milli fleira ok rœg›i flá saman, — (2) ‘ok vil ek svá reyna skap Bjarnar ok trúlyndi vi› mik.’ Hon latti, kva› flat órá› at flví or›i, sem á›r lék á. fiór›r lét eigi letjask ok (I) fór í Hólm í Hítardal; (II) hann rei› einn saman í blári kápu. En fjall stendr at húsbaki í Hólmi, ok gengr hryggr sá ni›r af fjallinu at húsunum heim. fiat ho≈f›u flau at s‡slu flann dag, Bjo≈rn ok mó›ir hans, at flau breiddu ni›r lérept ok flurrku›u, er vát ho≈f›u or›it. (III) Hon tók til or›a: ‘Ma›r rí›r flar,’ segir hon, ‘í blári kápu ok er alllíkr fiór›i Kolbeinssyni, ok hann er ok, (IV) ok mun hans ørendi óflarft.’ (V) ‘Eigi mun flat,’ segir Bjo≈≈rn.≈ (I) fiór›r kom flar. fieir kve›jask ok spyrjask almæltra tí›enda. Sí›an mælti fiór›r: ‘fiat er ørendi mitt hingat, at vita, hvárt flú vill halda sættir vi› mik, flær er konungr ger›i milli okkar, ok skuli nú hvárrgi eiga o≈›rum sakar at bœta, ok er flat merkiligt, er skilríkr ma›r hefir samit milli okkar; en var mér flat í hug um hrí›, at vit myndim ekki sættask.’ Bjo≈rn kva› flat einsætt, at halda sættir, flat sem fleir ho≈f›u um mælt. fiór›r mælti: (3) ‘Ek hefi flann hluta haft mála, er vegligri flótti, ok mun ek nú flat s‡na, at ek vil, at vit sættimsk heilum sáttum; ek vil bjó›a flér flangat til vetrvistar til mín, ok skal ek vel veita flér; vænti ek ok, at flú munt svá fliggja.’ fiór›r fór flar um fo≈grum or›um. (VI) fiórdís mælti: ‘fiat mun s‡na, at ek mun ekki mjo≈≈k≈ talhl‡›in. Hug›u svá at, Bjo≈≈rn,’≈ segir hon, ‘at flví flára mun fiór›r hyggja, sem hann talar sléttara, ok trú flú honum eigi.’ fiá kemr Arngeirr at ok spyrr, hvat fleir rœ›i. fiór›r segir honum. ‘Svá s‡nisk mér,’ segir Arngeirr, ‘sem sá sé fleim meiri vinr, er flessa f‡sir, ef fleir væri flá sáttari en á›r, ok f‡sa vil ek Bjorn≈ at fara, ok mun fiór›r flat efna, sem hann mælir’; ok stenzk heldr í móti me› fleim hjónum. Bjo≈rn mælti: ‘fiat hefi ek ætlat, at vera me› fo≈›ur mínum, ok mo≈rgum mun kynligt flykkja heimbo› fletta sakar or›róms manna.’ fiór›r mælti ok kva›, at Bjo≈rn væri honum eigi trúr, ef hann flægi eigi bo›it. Ok nú hét Bjo≈rn at vera flar no≈kkura stund ok kvazk fló mundu dveljask fyrst me› fo›ur≈ sínum. fiór›r rei› heim ok segir Oddn‡ju, hvert hann haf›i farit um daginn, ok kvazk nú hafa flat ørendi fengit, er hann vildi. ‘Hvert er flat?’ segir hon. (4) Hann segir, at flangat hafi hann bo›it Birni, ok kvazk flat hafa go≈rt til yfirbóta vi› hana. ‘fiat hygg ek,’ segir hon, ‘at nú ljúgir flú, ef flú kannt fla›.’ fiór›r segir: ‘Eigi ver›r einn ei›r alla.’ Skilja flau nú hjalit. Now it is said that fiór›r asked Oddn‡ how advisable she thought it to invite Bjo≈rn for a visit, and said he did not want people spreading slander- Intertextuality in Bjarnar saga 421 ous stories back and forth between them. ‘In that way I want to test Bjo≈rn’s mettle and his loyalty to me.’ She tried to dissuade him, said it was unwise in view of all that had been said before. fiór›r did not let that deter him, and he set out for Hólmr in Hítardalr. He rode alone in a blue coat. Now a mountain stands behind the house at Hólmr, and a ridge leads down from the mountain to the farm. Bjo≈rn and his mother were busy that day spread- ing out linen to dry that had become wet. She spoke: ‘A man is riding there,’ she says, ‘in a blue coat and is very like fiór›r Kolbeinsson, and that’s who it is, and his purpose will prove harmful.’ ‘No, it will not,’ says Bjo≈rn. fiór›r arrived there. He and Bjo≈rn exchange greetings and ask each other about the commonly known bits of news. Then fiór›r said: ‘It is my purpose here to learn whether you wish to keep the settlement with me that the king made between us. Now neither of us has to compensate the other, and the settlement that a judicious man has made between us is a significant one, for I thought for a time that we would never reach a settlement.’ Bjo≈rn said the only course was to keep the settlement that they had agreed on. fiór›r spoke: ‘I got what seemed the more honourable terms in the case, and I will now show that I desire that we settle our differences once and for all. I wish to invite you to be my guest over the winter, and I will entertain you well. I expect also that you will accept in like spirit.’ fiór›r presented his proposal in glowing terms. fiórdís spoke: ‘It will be seen that I am not easily persuaded. Think, Bjo≈rn,’ she says, ‘the smoother fiór›r speaks, the more deceitfully he is thinking, so do not believe him.’ Then Arngeirr arrives and asks what the two men are talking about. fiór›r tells him. ‘It seems like this to me,’ says Arngeirr, ‘that he who urges this is their better friend, if they become more reconciled than before, and I wish to urge Bjo≈rn to go, and fiór›r will honour what he says,’ and man and wife were rather at odds. Bjo≈rn spoke: ‘I was intending to stay at my father’s, and many would think this invitation strange because of the rumour going round.’ fiór›r spoke and said that Bjo≈rn would not be acting in good faith towards him if he did not accept the offer. And now Bjo≈rn promised to be there for a time and said though he would stay first with his father. fiór›r rode home and tells Oddn‡ where he had been that day, and said that he had achieved his aim. ‘What is that?’ she says. He says that he has invited Bjo≈rn to visit them and said that he had done that to make amends to her. ‘I think,’ she says, ‘that you are now lying if ever you knew how.’ fiór›r says: ‘One broken oath does not invalidate all others.’ They now end the conversa- tion.2 The chapter’s literal sense, despite the linguistic difficulty of much of this passage, is sufficiently plain.
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