Read online "The History of World Literature Vol. 2" by the author Berdnikov Georgy Petrovich RuLit Page 261
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In contrast to the inflexible Gunnar of the "Song of Atli", we see in the" Short Song of Sigurd " Gunnar, capable of reflection and hesitation: Gunnar sadly hung his head.
The whole day he sat in a sad confusion; he did not know at all how to act properly, he did not see at all how to act in this matter...
The tendencies towards "psychologization" contribute to the strengthening of the lyrical element.
This is especially evident in a group of songs that can be called heroic elegies ("Brunhild's Trip to Hel", "The First Song about Gudrun"," The Second Song about Gudrun"," The Song about Oddrun","The Incitement of Gudrun").
This genre variety is specific to Icelandic poetry.
Some similarities can be found in Danish ballads; there are elegies in Anglo Saxon (but not on traditional epic subjects) and in Welsh poetry.
In heroic elegies, the same situation persists throughout the entire length: the lyrical outpourings of the heroine are in the center of attention, and epic "events" pass before the reader only in the order of retrospection, the heroine's memories of the past.
Elegiac retrospection, in principle the opposite of the story of events in the form of predictions, is also characteristic of eddic poetry.
Heroic elegies, which are a treatment of a traditional heroic epic theme, revealing the experiences of the heroine, are based on the folklore genre of crying, using its poetic means.
A classic example is "The First Song of Gudrun", which depicts Gudrun crying over Sigurd's body.
So it was — Gudrun wished for death, sitting sorrowfully over Sigurd the dead; she did not cry, wringing her hands, did not wail like other wives.
Here, the" impossibility " of crying with great emotional force expresses the extreme degree of grief.
The relatives try to comfort Gudrun by listing their own misfortunes, until one of them tears the covers off Sigurd's body so that at the sight of his bloody wounds, Gudrun would cry and thereby ease her suffering.
Then follows the lament of Gudrun, containing the "greatness" of the deceased: Sigurd next to the sons of Gyuki, like an onion stalk rising from the herbs...- and curses at his murderers, grief for his widowhood.
Gudrun's lament over Sigurd's body (reminiscent of the famous lament of Yaroslavna in "The Word about Igor's Regiment") is the pinnacle of lyricism within the framework of heroic epics.
In other heroic elegies, perhaps, the folklore tradition of not funeral, but "everyday" lamentations is used, representing complaints about one's life, an unhappy fate.
This is the character of the "Second Song of Gudrun".
Gudrun's elegiac memories of her youth are given in the form of references to her marriage with Sigurd, his murder, etc., up to a new marriage with Atli.
The song ends with the ominous prophetic dreams of Gudrun in the mansions of Atli.
"The Incitement of Gudrun" begins with the incitement of the sons to avenge Svanhild, and then goes into the list of misfortunes in the form of episodes of the Nibelungenlied legend known to us.
In "Brunhild's Trip to Hel", a mournful story about a failed life is put into the mouth of the deceased Brunhild, whom a certain giantess does not want to let into the realm of the dead.
In" The Song of Oddrun "and in" The Third Song of Gudrun", the heroic elegy is already beginning to depart from the traditional epic plot, introducing new ballad — romantic motifs (the love of Oddrun — Atli's sister for Gunnar and the persecution of their Atli; Atli's jealousy of Tjedrek and the test of Gudrun's loyalty with the help of "God's judgment").
In all these songs, the striking expressiveness of Eddic poetry is clearly manifested.
This expressiveness is based on the traditional folk poetic arsenal of visual means, used, however, with a fine selection and a great sense of proportion.
It is largely determined by a peculiar, deeply organic combination of epic and lyrical beginnings.
ICELANDIC SAGAS
Along with eddic poetry, the folk epic literature of ancient Scandinavia is also represented by Icelandic prose sagas, which in principle mark a later phenomenon in the history of the epic, and the phenomenon is unique in its own way, since other Germanic peoples do not know the epic in prose.
Icelandic sagas go back to both oral and literary sources.
The XIII century is the century of the recording of sagas, but there is evidence that they previously existed in oral form.
There is evidence that during the wedding feast in 1119, the guests were told sagas.
However, the question of the nature of the correlation of folklore and literary principles in the sagas has not yet been completely resolved.
Prose sagas are divided into three groups: "Sagas of ancient times", "Royal sagas" and "Generic sagas" (the last group is the main one).
Echoes of Eddic poetry occupy a significant place in the" Sagas of Ancient Times".
Such, for example, is the "Saga of the Velsungs" (the middle of the XIII century), which is largely a retelling of the "Elder Edda", and not in the sequence of songs, as they are given in the "Royal Code", but in the form of a coherent biography of Sigurd and his ancestors (genealogical cyclization).
Only the legends about Velsung and Sigmund (Sigurd's uncle and father), which are mentioned in prose inserts to the songs of the "Royal Code", containing very archaic motifs, are thoroughly transmitted.
These are a totem of "before it" in the wolf's skin, the birth of a hero Sinfjotli from the incestuous relationship of Siegmund and his sister — stories, typical of the stories of the ancestors (cf., for example, the Irish Saga, the Nart epos Ossetia etc.).
These stories retold in Norwegian "the Saga of Tedrake" (also the mid thirteenth century), whose main theme is the legend of Dietrich of Berne passed, as recognized by the author, based on "stories and songs of German men".
The retelling of the tales of the Nibelungs is embedded in the "Saga of Alaf Tryggvason" in the mouth of a certain Nornagest, who allegedly personally knew its heroes.
Another fragment of the same saga tells in detail the story of the friendship, and then the endless enmity of Hedin and Hegni (also known from the "Younger Edda", Saxo Grammaticus, references to the Skalds, as well as from the German epic about Kudrun).
Odin forces Freya to ignite the enmity of the two kings.
At her suggestion, Hedin kills Hegni's wife and kidnaps his daughter Hild, and then both kings fight day and night, for many years in a row, with Hild watching the battle all the time (in Snorri's Edda, Hild revived the murdered father and husband, so that they continued the fight — the mythological motif of the "battle of the dead").
The echoes of the songs of the Edda (notably on Helga) are available in the "Saga of Hromund Greipsson" (one of the sagas, which was told at the wedding in 1119).
Very rich variety of epic and lyrical allusions to "the Saga of Herver", which included two poems: one about getting Heller, daughter Angantyr, on the grave of the father of the "miraculous sword Tyrfing", and the other is about the battle of the Goths and Huns (the latter, as mentioned, close to the oldest layer Edda poetry).
Sagas of this type have many common motifs with folklore and literature of other peoples, in particular with Russian.
In the "Saga of Orvar Odd", the hero dies in the same way as the Prophetic Oleg; there are parallels between the "Saga of Ragnar Lodbrokka" and the "Tale of Peter and Fevronia", between the "Saga of Bosi" and the epic of Vaska Buslaev, etc." Royal sagas " are, in fact, the vaults of Norwegian history in the form of a biography of Norwegian kings.
The peak in this genre variety is "Heimskringla" ("Circle of the earth") Snorri Sturluson, author of the prose (junior) "Edda".
Back in the XII century.
Ari Thorgilsson has written A Book about Icelanders — a short history of Iceland in Icelandic.
At the beginning of the XIII century, a "Book on the occupation of the land" appeared, containing genealogical information about the first settlers and their descendants.
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