Some Forms and Functions of Contrast in the Islendingasogur
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures, Department Modern Languages and Literatures of 5-1973 Some Forms and Functions of Contrast in the Islendingasogur Duane Victor Keilstrup University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangdiss Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the German Language and Literature Commons Keilstrup, Duane Victor, "Some Forms and Functions of Contrast in the Islendingasogur" (1973). Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures. 42. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangdiss/42 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, Student Research: Modern Languages and Literatures by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SOME FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF CONTRAST IN THE ISLENDINGASOGUR by Duane Victor Keilstrup A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College in the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Modern Languages and Literatures Under the Supervision of Professor Paul Schach Lincoln, Nebraska May, 1973 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TITLE SOME FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF CONTRAST IN THE _________ ISLENDINGASOGUR____________ BY Duane Victor Keilstrup APPROVED DATE Paul Schach 9 April 1973 D. E. Allison 9 April 1973 Mark E. Cory 9 April 1973 Richard H. Allen 9 April 1973 SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE GRADUATE COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA w ia d noea too » wen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS Introduction Chapter I Sane Contrasts Between Kinsmen Fathers and sons. 1. — Brothers. 24. — Husbands and wives. 40. Chapter II Sane Contrasts Between Heroes and Villains Temperate heroes and intemperate villains. 48. — Temperate heroes with luck and intemperate villains without luck. 53. — Temperate heroes without luck and intemperate villains with luck. 64. — Contrasts involving luck, two heroes, and a villain. 73. — Major heroes and minor villains. 85. — The technique of hero and villain characterization by use of contrast. 8 8 . Chapter III Appearance and Reality: Sane Stylistic Contrasts Saga objectivity: Heusler’s view. 95. — Earmarks. 95. — Recent findings which refute Heusler’s view. 97. — Complexity of charac terization. 99. — Saga subjec tivity: Partiality toward characters. 101. — Use of character narrative to convince the reader of actuality concerning supernatural and dream events. 114. — Rhetorical devices. 122. — Antithesis, the most strik ing form of stylistic contrast. 123. — Summarizing statement. 179. Chapter IV Summary and Conclusions Appendix A Appendix B Bibliography Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION "Contrast is an essential condition of human experience. It is only in comparison with heat that we recognize cold, only by bitter the sweet. Recognition of this simple fact is the key to both modem linguistics and to modem criticism. In linguistics it makes use of such concepts as 'distinctive contrast * and ’complementary distribution,’ in criticism of ’tension,’ ’paradox,’ and ’ircny. ’ But the principle is the same.’’ We are constantly aware of the attention given to opposites in the forms of paradox, irony, and conflicts of all sorts in literature. Particularly, we encounter the tension of opposing forces. With respect to older Germanic literature, in the heroic lay the very essence of conflict is vividly revealed through terse dialogue. For example, in the Hildebrands lied the warrior Hildebrand, returning hone after an absence of thirty years, faces the reality that he must fight a duel with his own sen, whan he cannot convince of his identity. Centuries later the Middle High German epic Nibelungenlied retained a great deal of the spirit of the heroic lay in confrontations, for example, between Kriemhild and Hagen. Conflict is equally essential in the prose and verse literature of Iceland in the thirteenth century, where it is most obvious perhaps in the discourse and intercourse between strong-willed characters. In fact, concerning the Xslendingasogur, the sagas which relate tales of aristocratic farmers in Iceland, John Fisher in his preface to W. G- Moulton’s A Linguistic Guide to Language Learning (New York, 1966). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Andersson tells us that ”it is a very nearly universal rule . that a saga is built around a conflict. This principle has not been sufficiently grasped. It is the conflict that gives the saga its special character, its narrative unity, and its dramatic tension. It is the conflict that polarizes whatever else is in the saga, it is the sense of the saga and the organizing concept. This is an instance where a reduction to a single principle is not a case of overs impli- 2 ficatLon.” While the role of conflict is recognized as fundamental in older Germanic literature, especially in the Islendingasogur, the role of contrast, as revealed, for example, in the diverse personal ities and behavior which often bring tension and conflict, is not so canmonly acknowledged. Therefore, it should prove interesting to investigate the Islendingasogur for the role played by contrast, as a reflection of the confrontation or "harmonization of opposites,” as Sveinsscn characterizes the art of Njals saga, the greatest saga among the Is lendingasogur. In view of the uniqueness of the sources for our study, the islendingasogur, we should define and discuss briefly the nature of these sagas. The islendingasogur, or Sagas of Icelanders, are collectively "the sole original contribution of Scandinavia to world literature. In choice of subject matter, in character portrayal, and in style -these sagas are entirely and uniquely an Icelandic ^Theodore M. Andersson, The Icelandic Family Saga. An Analytic Reading (Cambridge, 1967), p. 11. %inar (5l. Sveinsscn, Njals saga. A Literary Masterpiece, ed. and tr. Paul Schach (Lincoln, 1971), pp. 49-50. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iii if. creation. ” The tern saga, which nay be defined as a short or long prose narrative, is often used in a broad sense to include, besides individual Islendingasogur, biographies of native bishops, transla tions of saints’ lives, accounts of mythical or ancient heroic figures, histories of Norwegian kings, translations of French and Anglo-Norman romances, and native stories of chivalry which reveal romantic influences. However, our use of the term saga will be limited to the tslendingasogur. In contrast, for example, to the scholastic and allegorical writings popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, the Sagas of Icelanders portray mostly pagan characters and present human behavior rather than behavioral analyses. The native heroes in these sagas relive events centering around the immigration to Iceland, the settlement of this new land, viking expeditions, feuds between families, and hotly con tested legal battles which often involve personal and family prestige. The action occurs in the Saga Age, that is approximately from the period following the settlement of Iceland, about 870, and after the establishment of the general assembly in 930, to around 1030, although most of the sagas were not written until the thirteenth century. The style of the I s lendingasogur has long been characterized by its objectivity and realism. Heusler, for example, went so far as to refer to the sagas as "absolute Prosa.”^ Only recently have scholars begun to discover and to demonstrate that the Sagas of Icelanders Veter Hallberg, The Icelandic Saga, tr. with introduction and notes by Paul Schach (Lincoln, 1962), p. 1. ^Andreas Heusler, Die AnfSnge der islandischen Saga (Berlin, 1914), p. 44. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "conceal far more subtleties and paradoxes, more wit and irony, more 0 'morals’ and subjectivity than their traditional reading reveals." Artistic deceptions in the sagas, such as their credible facade of objectivity, indicate that these works are the creations of individual writers or scribes, although they remain anonymous, and are not, as some scholars still believe, actual histories or chronicles which were transmitted orally from generation to generation until finally recorded in the thirteenth century. A cursory survey of the relatively scattered research which has been done in the Xslendingasogur concerning the topic of contrast will indicate that there is justification and much premise for further investigation. Margaret Arent-Madelung, for example, in the intro duction to her translation of Laxdaala saga, presents a discussion of the compositional unity of this saga brought about by the meticulous balancing of elements, such as prophecy and fulfillment; the natural and the supernatural; historical reality and the illusion of reality; ■the comic and the tragic; restraint of form and the violence