--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "akoddsson" <konrad_oddsson@...>
wrote:

> [...]
>
> Arild's pages are a net-treasure ;-) One of the problems with the so-
> called Fornaldarsögur in general, in my opinion, is that they were
> nearly all written too late to accurately reproduce the heroic
> spirit of the time they seek to describe. The heros were originally
> not Christian knights, crusaders, men of the mideaval court, etc..
> One wishes that they had been written earlier, even earliest. I do
> like the oral-tradition wording of the R-redaction Heiðreks,

which I

> think is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, FA Saga extant in
> some form, but comparing it to the U- and H-redactions really shows
> not just a huge shift in style, but a whole new paradigm of thought.
> This new paradigm, unfortunately in my opinion, reigns widely in the
> other extant FA sagas.

Yes, the H redaction is attested earlier, but shares a lot of changes
in style and story with the U version. R is usually considered
closest to the original and more reminiscent of oral tales. Have you
read Alaric Hall's paper "Changing style and changing meaning:
Icelandic historiography and the medieval redactions of Heiðreks saga"
[ http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/2889/ ]?

In spite of the courtly elements in places (particularly in the second
half), I think Völsunga saga still tells a powerful story much in the
spirit of the Eddic poems it was based on. Hrólfs saga kraka is only
preserved in post-medieval manuscripts, but it's lively and simply
told, and shifts deftly between humour and heroic tragedy. It deals
with characters and stories that were known to Snorri and Saxo and in
some form probably to the maker of Beowulf, although no doubt changed
in lots of ways to suit later ideas. For all that, the strength of
the old legends is still there and stands out against the more trivial
subject matter of many fornaldarsögur that owe more to later invention.

Another fornaldarsögur of interest for potentially ancient material is
Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka which contains a lot of fornyrðislag strophes
and probably existed in some shape, or parts of it at least, as early
as the 13th century. The story of Hámundr and Geirmundr heljarskinn
is told in Landnámabók and at the beginning of Sturlunga (along with
two strophes attributed to Bragi (Boddason)) where there's reference
to a Hróks saga svarta. The idea that King Half's death was caused by
fire (even though he doesn't actually die by burning in the surviving
version from the 15th century) is reflected in the kenning 'Hálfs
bani' for "fire".

> > I wonder if there's a clearer photograph of this anywhere online.
>
> It is hard to read, and given the lack of consensus of the reading,
> some better pictures would be nice.

It would be nice too to see some of the reasoning behind these
interpretations...

[...]

LN