--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:

> I am amazed at the lack of tact shown by Hrut - it has been said

that a thief is born with very bright and "narrowing" eyes - no
doubt they believed in that in those times, unless of course her
eyes held a bold direct stare - and were not downcast
and "maidenly" but what a stupid thing to say.
To touch the child under her chin may have just been to get a look
at her eyes which in itself seems a suspicious thing to want to do
This has been a good thing to start, I found myself reading through
and just checking in the Dictionary, this is enough anyway to gain
confidence in this - I may do better in the future


Ah, so that's what thief's eyes are. I always wondered. A
favourite trick of saga writers is prefiguring things. On one
level, Hrútr is making a doom-laden prophecy for our benefit. But
what you said has set me thinking maybe this little scene also
prefigures other moments of supreme tactlessness in the saga. Have
you read Manuel Aguirre's article "Narrative Composition in the Saga
of the Volsungs" in Saga-Book Vol. XXVI, 2002? He talks about the
way sagas often do that folktale thing of repeating an event and
showing both possible outcomes. For example, if someone dives into
the sea to search for a ring twice and fails, you know that the
third time the hero will succeed. Or if there are two brothers and
one is rubbish and cowardly, you know the other will thrive. A lot
of sagas, including this one, have a pattern of minor quarrels which
are soon apparently resolved, contrasted with more serious feuding
later on. Of all the things that are said and done in this saga
that have terrible repercussions, maybe this first chapter is the
opposite of that: a small falling out between brothers, that lasts
just a little while and doesn't result in violence or legal
wranglings. Then again, maybe it does have hidden repercussions.
Imagine the effect on a youngster of being told that she
has "thief's eyes". How many people heard this? Of course it's
probably made up, but if we pretend it isn't for a moment, since the
incident appears in a saga it must have been common knowledge.
Imagine hearing from a few people that you have "theif's eyes".
Could it be a self-fulfilling prophesy? Or is that imposing too
much modern psychology.