On the Role of the Grotesque in the Rise of Fiction (with Special Emphasis on Old Icelandic “Gautreks Saga”)

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Absract: The paper re-examines some controversial issues in saga scholarship. It provides a comparative analysis of the older (shorter) and the younger redactions of the “Valley-fools” section (“Dalafífla þáttr”) of “Gautreks saga”, composed in Iceland presumably in the 14 th century. “Gautreks saga” belongs to the genre of fornaldarsögur or “sagas of ancient times” and its two redactions (versions) are often (and rightly) regarded as reflecting different stages of the development of the genre. However, in contrast to the frequently expressed opinion that the younger compiler has greatly elaborated the plot in an effort to rationalize the bizarre behaviour of the Dalafífl, it is argued in the present article that the saga was reworked with the aim of making it more grotesque and amusing.

Keywords: saga scholarship, comparative analysis, “Gautreks saga”, “Dalafífla þáttr”, Iceland, fornaldarsögur, genre, the grotesque, fiction.

: Category: Vol 76, NO 4 (2017)

Pages: 34–43

Author: Elena A. Gurevich

Information about the author: Doctor of Philological Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Department of Western European Literatures and Comparative Studies at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, 25a Povarskaya Str., Moscow 121069, Russia alpgurev@gmail.com

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