Scandinavian-Canadian Studies Études scandinaves au Canada Volume 26 2019 Guest Editor/Rédacteur invité DUSTIN GEERAERT Journal Editor/Rédactrice du journal HELGA THORSON AASSC-AAESC Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada L’Association pour l’avancement des études scandinaves au Canada GUEST EDITOR/RÉDACTEUR INVITÉ Dustin Geeraert, University of Manitoba. JOURNAL EDITOR/RÉDACTRICE DU JOURNAL Helga Thorson, University of Victoria. EDITORIAL BOARD/COMITÉ DE RÉDACTION Errol Durbach, University of British Columbia. Daisy Neijmann, University of Iceland. Russell Poole, University of Western Ontario. Peter Stenberg, University of British Columbia. John Tucker, University of Victoria. Börje Vähämäki, University of Toronto. Gurli Woods, Carleton University. Henning Wærp, University of Tromsø. FRENCH TRANSLATION Valérie Duro. TECHNICAL EDITOR Martin Holmes, University of Victoria. Scandinavian-Canadian Studies is the official publication of the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada; membership in the Association entitles members to a printed version of the journal. Members wishing to be sent a printed version should write to Helga Thorson, the Editor of the journal, at [email protected] or by conventional mail at the Editor's university address given below. To find the online version of the journal go to http://scancan. net/. For Association membership information visit the Association's website: http://aassc. com/. Those wishing to purchase individual printed issues of volumes 1-19 of Scandinavian-Canadian Studies should write to the Editor at [email protected] or by conventional mail at the Editor's university address given below. For printed copies of volumes 20 and higher go to https://www. uvicbookstore.ca/general/search?q=scandinavian%20canadian%20studies. We invite submission of scholarly editions and translations as well as articles. These submissions should be sent to the Editor: Dr. Helga Thorson at [email protected] or Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 2Y2, fax 250-721-7319. Articles may be written in English or French and should include endnotes and a bibliography. Their length should normally not exceed 25 double-spaced pages; their format should conform to that used in this issue. For details see the “Notes for Contributors” on the journal’s website http://scancan.net. Translations, into English or French, should conform to the “Translation Guidelines” to be found on the journal’s website. Books for review should be sent to the Book Review Editor: Dr. Natalie Van Deusen, Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E6. Scandinavian-Canadian Studies wishes to thank the Humanities Computing and Media Centre of the University of Victoria for technical assistance. Études scandinaves au Canada est l’organe officiel de l’Association pour l’avancement des études scandinaves au Canada; l’adhésion à l’Association donne droit à une version imprimée de la revue. Les membres souhaitant recevoir une version imprimée de la revue devraient écrire à Helga Thorson, la rédactrice en chef de la revue, à [email protected] ou par courrier postal à l’adresse universitaire de la rédactrice en chef indiquée ci-dessous. Pour trouver la version en ligne de la revue rendez-vous sur http://scancan.net. Pour toute information concernant l’adhésion à l’Association, veuillez visiter le site internet de l’Association : http://aassc.com/.) Ceux et celles qui désirent acheter des numéros imprimés individuels des volumes 1 à 19 d’Études scandinaves au Canada devraient écrire à la rédactrice en chef, à [email protected] ou par courrier postal à l’adresse universitaire de rédactrice en chef indiquée ci-dessous. Pour obtenir des copies imprimées des volumes 20 et plus haut, rendez-vous sur http://www.uvicbookstore.ca/general/ journals.php. Nous invitons la soumission d'éditions et de traductions professionnelles ainsi que d’articles. Ces soumissions devraient être adressées à la rédactrice en chef : Dr Helga Thorson à [email protected] ou au Département d’Études germaniques et slaves, Université de Victoria, PO Box 1700, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 2Y2, télécopie 250-721-7319. Les articles peuvent être rédigés en français ou en anglais et devraient inclure des notes de fin et une bibliographie. Leur longueur ne devrait normalement pas dépasser 25 pages à double interligne; leur format devrait se conformer à celui utilisé dans ce numéro. Pour plus de détails voir les « Notes aux auteurs » sur le site internet de la revue http://scancan.net. Les traductions, en anglais ou en français, devraient se conformer aux « Lignes directrices concernant la traduction » se trouvant sur le site de la revue. Les livres pour comptes rendus devraient être adressés à la rédactrice des compte-rendus de livres : Dr Natalie Van Deusen, Département des Langues modernes et des Études culturelles de l’Université d’Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E6. Études scandinaves au Canada tient à remercier le Humanities Computing and Media Centre de l’université de Victoria pour son soutien technique. Printed in Canada/Publié au Canada. ISSN 0823-1796. ©Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada/L’Association pour l’avancement des études scandinaves au Canada Scandinavian-Canadian Studies Études scandinaves au Canada Volume 26: 2019 Contributors 7 Dedication 13 Acknowledgements and Permissions 15 VISION Foreword: Companions on the Edge of Iceland Andrew McGillivray 18 Avant-propos: Compagnons à la lisière de l’Islande Andrew McGillivray 22 Introduction : Dialogues with a “Head of Destiny” Dustin Geeraert 26 CREATION From Manuscript(s) to Print: Editorial Practices Susanne M. Arthur 44 through the Ages and the Case of Konráð Gíslason’s (Incomplete) Edition of Fóstbræðra saga The Culture of the Grotesque in Old Icelandic Helga Kress 70 Literature: The Saga of the Sworn Brothers Old Norse in Italy: From Francesco Saverio Quadrio Fulvio Ferrari 88 to Fóstbræðra saga PRESERVATION Guardian of Memory: Halldór Laxness, Saga Editor Christopher Crocker 110 Is Halldór Laxness the Author of Fóstbræðra saga? Ástráður Eysteinsson 132 On the Author Function, Intertextuality, Translation, and a Modern Writer’s Relationship with the Icelandic Sagas Of Heroes and Cods’ Heads: Saga Meets Film in Bergljót Soffía 156 Gerpla Kristjánsdóttir A Modern-Day Saga in Fancy Dress: Contemporary Kristinn E. Andrésson 182 Social Critique in Halldór Laxnessʼs Gerpla DESTRUCTION Cold-War Confrontations: Gerpla and its Early Shaun F. D. Hughes 208 Reviewers “In the Shadow of Greater Events in the World”: Dustin Geeraert 240 The Northern Epic in the Wake of World War II Wayward Heroes: Vagabonds in World Literature Birna Bjarnadóttir 276 REBIRTH Afterword: Whatever Happened to the Sagas? Ármann Jakobsson 304 From the Westfjords to World Literature: A Ryan E. Johnson 312 Bibliography on Fostbræðra saga “The lore of skalds, warrior ideals, and tales of Alec Shaw 320 ancient kings”: A Bibliography on Gerpla Index of Keywords 326 Contributors Andrésson, Kristinn E. Kristinn E. Andrésson (1901-1973) was an Icelandic literary scholar, publisher, and socialist parliamentarian. While co-editor of Tímarit Máls og menningu (with Jakob Benediktsson) in 1952 he wrote a review of Gerpla which was published in 1972, and which Larissa Kyzer has translated for this volume (see also Section III of Shaun Hughes’ article “Gerpla: Laudations from the Left”, p. 215). Arthur, Susanne M. Susanne M. Arthur received her PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2015. The native German worked on a postdoctoral project on the so-called *Gullskinna branch of Njáls saga at the University of Iceland from 2016–2018. Her main interests include Old Norse-Icelandic literature and medieval and post-medieval manuscript studies (codicology and paleography). She currently works as an editor for Healthline Media, Inc. Bjarnadóttir, Birna Birna Bjarnadóttir is a researcher and project manager at the University of Iceland’s Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute, and Former Chair of Icelandic at the University of Manitoba (2003-2015). Among other projects, she is the editor of the forthcoming Heiman og heim [Home and Exile], a collection of essays on Guðbergur Bergsson’s work, which will be published by the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institue and The Icelandic Literature Society. She is also leading The Expedition to the Magic Mountain (2013-2020), a project which can be found online at: http://www.nylo.is/en/events/expedition-to- the-magic-mountain/. Crocker, Christopher Christopher Crocker (PhD University of Iceland 2016) is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Iceland in the multidisciplinary research project “Disability before disability.” He is preparing Paranormal Dreams in the Medieval Icelandic Sagas for publication with Medieval Institute Publications, and is also co-translator of Guttormur J. Guttormsson’s Tíu Leikrit – Ten Plays (2015). He has extensive experience contributing to projects such as The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (2017) and publishing in academic journals such as Viator (2015) and Journal of English and Germanic Philology (2015). Eysteinsson, Ástráður Ástráður Eysteinsson was born in Akranes, Iceland, in 1957. He studied at the universities of Iceland, Warwick, and Cologne, before completing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa. He is Professor of Comparative Literature and former