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Review of Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade, Trans. and Eds 120 Rezensionen known world served a common mythical heodore M. Andersson and function in both cultures. In the illuminat- Kari Ellen Gade, translators ing “Über die Vergangenheitsbilder einiger and editors. Morkin skinna: ‘Problemsagas’ und die Stellung dieser Sagas The Earliest Ice landic Chron i- in der Literatur Altislands” (215–33), Alois T cle of the Norwegian Kings (1030–1157). Wolf proposes that some Íslendingasögur consciously depict the settlement period as Islandica 51. Ithaca: Cornell University the heroic age of Icelandic history, whereas Press, 2000. 572 pages. other sagas view the settlement period typo- logically (i.e., as being the pagan forerunner When thinking of medieval historiography, of the Christian period). After commenting it is Snorri’s Heimskringla that leaps to the on the tendency towards heroicization in mind of a readership versed in medieval Egils saga, Gísla saga, and Grettis saga, he history and literature, for the clarity and examines the nature and operation of ill vivid ness of its narrative crowds out aware- fortune in Njáls saga, which he argues shows ness of, and interest in, earlier epitomes the interaction between the fi rst, heroiciz- or near-contemporaneous chronicles, rel- ing view of the settlement period and the e gat ing their study to scholars. We owe, later, typological view of it. In “Parodistische there fore, considerable debt and gratitude Transgression in der Hœnsa-Þóris saga” to Andersson and Gade for their expert, (235–62), Stefanie Würth offers a closely absorbing translation of Morkinskinna argued reading of Hœnsa-Þóris saga as a (Gks 1009 fol., ca. 1275, archetype composed parody of the Íslendinga sögur; that is, she ca. 1220), the earliest vernacular chronicle of asserts that the saga uses literary tradi- Norwegian kings reigning from 1030 to 1157. tions and conventions as a source of humor, To date, it represents the sole translation of rather than aspects of real life, as a satire a manuscript that has long provided much would. In the process, several issues arise pleasure, although its inherent unreliability that are important for the current debate as a historical source has elicited a measure regarding the fi ctionality of the sagas, such of disparagement. Nevertheless, Morkin- as the audience’s historical knowledge and skinna has served as an exemplar. It invited the author’s use of historical fi gures rather the study of transmission, the incorporation than invented ones. Acknowledging that a and adaptation of historiographical matter literary response to literature is ultimately a and phrasing in later compendia, including literary response to social realities, she con- Heimskringla and Fagrskinna. cludes that as Icelandic society changed, the Still, Morkinskinna was considered genre of the Íslendinga sögur became out-of- of such little merit to the general reader- date and that alternative kinds of narrative ship of medieval sources, even to students therefore became of interest. of Old Norse, that it has never been edited As can be seen from the brief summa- as a normalized text. The translation of ries here, this volume provides a number of this monumental work in the prestigious interesting and solidly researched essays. Islandica series should revise this erro- The eminent contributors have done a neous notion. Despite the history of its more-than-respectable job of honoring neglect, Morkinskinna mirrors the culture their colleague. Although the question of of a sophisticated, literate society with an the contemporaneity of the sagas is far from abiding love for history and the dynamics exhausted, Die Aktualität der Saga advances of power. our understanding of the issues, sometimes An ambitious and magisterial under- in unexpected ways. taking as well as a labor of love—it surely is this also—the volume addresses a wide Elizabeth Ashman Rowe public: scholars, students, and an educated readership. All are served by the careful examination of questions relating to the Morkin skinna manuscript. In accordance with common practice, the translators fi ll Alvíssmál 11 (2004): 120–24 Rezensionen 121 the manuscript’s lacunae with phrasing Norse prose paraphrase for complex stan- from other compendia. Some are known zas. For those unskilled in the reading or to have incorporated quires from Morkin- appreciation of skaldic verse, the Old Norse skinna manuscripts at a date later than their paraphrases serve a useful purpose. They composition, others, sections or passages of disentangle the often tortuous syntax of various length. In pursuing their objective of the stanzaic text and allow insight into the completeness and usefulness, the transla- formal, intellectualized diction of skalds. tors have devoted much thought and toil to The lengthy introduction—it occupies textual notes, which present in lucid detail more than one-sixth of the total pages textual variants in related manuscripts and allotted to the translation and its criti- in the standard editions (Morkinskinna: Per- cal apparatus — is an erudite exposition gamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende of standard, if complex, questions in saga aarhundrede, indeholdende en af de ældste scholarship. The detail provided in argumen- optegnelser af norske kongesagaer, ed. C. R. tation thus constitutes a reliable repository Unger [Oslo: Bentzen, 1867]; Morkinskinna, of facts on the contents of this manuscript ed. Finnur Jónsson, Samfund til udgivelse and on historiographic epitomes and com- af gammel nordisk litteratur, Skrifter 53 pendia in Latin or Old Norse. [København: J. Jørgensen & Co., 1932]). As a historical work, Morkinskinna is Felicitously, the notes on both the narrative situated among, and distinguished from, and the poetry are appended rather than the historiographies that preceded and affi xed as lengthy footnotes to the translated succeeded it. While it also proceeds chrono- text. This allows linguists, textual critics, logically, the imbalance in the space allotted and historians an easy overview of all or any to two of the monarchs, King Magnús Óláfs- textual diffi culties in individual chapters son and King Haraldr Sigurðarson, reveals while sparing the general readership from the author’s idiosyncratic character. Fasci- perusing matter essential only to scholarly nated by the perils of a reign shared for some debate. The notes to the stanzas, fuller than years by men of dissimilar, if strong, person- those to the prose text, record not only all alities, he allocated about sixty percent the manuscripts in which the verses appear of his text to a narrative that intertwined but also their standard editions. The com- their lives. The structure favored was epi- ments contain general information as well sodic. This lent itself to re creating the many as specifi cs on attribution, context, textual encounters of Icelanders with kings, to por- cruxes, and emendations. traying sharply delineated characters, and Other than the knotty matter of manu- to neglecting the activities of peaceful kings. script tradition, the translators faced a The disinterest in peaceful reigns or kings second problem: skaldic poetry inter spersed disinclined to war is, however, also typical of in the text. Writers of Old Norse chronicles saga narrative: “this . says much about the and of other sagas have traditionally treated action-dependence of saga narrative and the skaldic poetry as a source for the historical limitations of that literary form” (3). In this accuracy and authority of their accounts. respect, Morkinskinna’s style is generic. Thus, Morkinskinna cites copious stanzas The discussion of the manuscript is as as evidence of, or elaboration on, what the complete as one would fi nd in an authorita- writer assumed to be the historical truth tive edition, including a physical description of his accounts. One editorial diffi culty of the manuscript, its date and number of Gade, the translator of verse, confronted scribes, orthography, scribal corrections ( Andersson is responsible for the narrative) and marginal notes, descriptive matter on was the lack of a critical edition by which to related historiographic works and their check the accuracy of the translated stan- manuscripts, argumentation for the con- zas. She therefore included the verses in Old jectured existence of earlier versions of Norse, while the notes to the stanzas include Morkinskinna, their exemplars and de riv- references to readings in other manuscripts. atives. From the study of the verses within While the collaborators provide translations the context of the narrative, Gade and of all the verses, they also provide an Old Andersson suggest that the manuscript’s Alvíssmál 11 (2004): 120–24 122 Rezensionen skaldic poetry and many þættir “refl ect the diffi culties Magnús was to face in his deal- interests and knowledge of the same author, ings with his intelligent, if devious, and wise namely the author of ÆMsk,” the present but venturesome coregent-to-be. manuscript’s archetype (57). The discussion of the number and type In saga studies, the question of inter- of verses original to Morkinskinna is exem- polation looms large, for the practice of plary in its methodology and in the caution borrowing and adapting prose and verse, with which the editors sift the evidence for indulged in by writers and scribes, illumi- interpolations. The procedure consists of nates the interrelationship of cognate works. several steps. The basic units investigated In this part of the introduction, discussion are the individual kings’ sagas, so that the of the postulated
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