Truth and lies in the Fornaldarsögur: the prologue to Göngu-Hrólfs saga

Ralph James O'Connor

Truth and lies in the Fornaldarsögur: the prologue to Göngu-Hrólfs saga

Ralph James O'Connor

History

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

The old dichotomy between 'history' and 'fiction is not as popular as it used to be in saga scholarship generally. However, as we move towards the more fantastic end of the saga spectrum, towards the fornaldarsögur and riddarasögur, phrases like 'prose fiction', 'legendary fiction' and 'pure fiction are routinely handed around, usually without question. The idea that such sagas could have been intended as true stories about the past - historia, in Isidore's terms - is rarely entertained.¹ ln this paper I should like to address the question of whether or not the term 'fiction' is appropriate to the legendary sagas.²

Original language	Multiple languages
Title of host publication	Fornaldarsagaerne
Subtitle of host publication	myter og virkelighed
Editors	Ármann Jakobsson, Annette Lassen, Agneta Ney
Place of Publication	Copenhagen, Denmark
Publisher	Museum Tusculanums Forlag
Pages	361-378
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Print)	978-87-635-2579-4
Publication status	Published - 2009

Bibliographical note

Some parts of this paper abridge or duplicate material published in a much longer article in Mediaeval Scandinavia 15 (O'Connor 2005), to which the reader is referred for a fuller exploration of many of the issues discussed here. I am grateful to the editor of Mediaeval Scandinavia and the editors of the present volume for allowing me to duplicate the material in question. I should like to thank Patricia Pires Boulhosa, Matthew Driscoll, Máire Ni Mhaonaigh, Clemence O'Connor, Judy Quinn, three anonymous referees and (above all) Paul Bibire for their helpful comments on previous versions of this paper; any remaining errors are my own. Many thanks also to Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir at the Arnamagnæn Institute, Copenhagen, for providing photocopies of manuscripts, and to the participants at the 2005 Legendary Sagas conference (in particular my respondent Torfi Tulinius) for their comments and suggestions of further lines of inquiry Quotations from Icelandic texts are reproduced as far as possible according to the original editors' orthography but with some punctuation altered. All translations are my own.

Keywords

mythology
sagas
old Norse poetry

Cite this

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title = "Truth and lies in the Fornaldars{\"o}gur: the prologue to G{\"o}ngu-Hr{\'o}lfs saga",

abstract = "The old dichotomy between 'history' and 'fiction is not as popular as it used to be in saga scholarship generally. However, as we move towards the more fantastic end of the saga spectrum, towards the fornaldars{\"o}gur and riddaras{\"o}gur, phrases like 'prose fiction', 'legendary fiction' and 'pure fiction are routinely handed around, usually without question. The idea that such sagas could have been intended as true stories about the past - historia, in Isidore's terms - is rarely entertained.1 ln this paper I should like to address the question of whether or not the term 'fiction' is appropriate to the legendary sagas.2 ",

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note = "Some parts of this paper abridge or duplicate material published in a much longer article in Mediaeval Scandinavia 15 (O'Connor 2005), to which the reader is referred for a fuller exploration of many of the issues discussed here. I am grateful to the editor of Mediaeval Scandinavia and the editors of the present volume for allowing me to duplicate the material in question. I should like to thank Patricia Pires Boulhosa, Matthew Driscoll, M{\'a}ire Ni Mhaonaigh, Clemence O'Connor, Judy Quinn, three anonymous referees and (above all) Paul Bibire for their helpful comments on previous versions of this paper; any remaining errors are my own. Many thanks also to Ragnhei{\dh}ur M{\'o}sesd{\'o}ttir at the Arnamagn{\ae}n Institute, Copenhagen, for providing photocopies of manuscripts, and to the participants at the 2005 Legendary Sagas conference (in particular my respondent Torfi Tulinius) for their comments and suggestions of further lines of inquiry Quotations from Icelandic texts are reproduced as far as possible according to the original editors' orthography but with some punctuation altered. All translations are my own. ",

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Truth and lies in the Fornaldarsögur: the prologue to Göngu-Hrólfs saga

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Cite this