Wisdom of The North: Proverbial Allusion and Patterning in The Icelandic Saga

The monograph aims to elucidate how proverbs and proverbial material in Old Icelandic can enhance our understanding of these narratives. Rather than providing, as the author puts it, “a technical study of saga proverbs in their contexts” (p. x), he offers literary-critical examinations of several Sagas of Icelanders. These examinations illuminate the various ways in which proverbs were used by the saga writers, whom Harris terms the “composers” of the sagas, reflecting his interest in the Icelandic communal memory that preserved a vast repository of social wisdom through oral tradition. It should also be noted that what Harris refers to as “the Icelandic Saga” in the book's title does not pertain to sagas of ancient times (fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda), kings’ sagas (konungasögur), or knights’ sagas (riddarasögur), but to the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur).The book contains nine chapters, along with a preface, acknowledgments, a list of abbreviations, and a bibliography. Chapter 1, “Introductory: Reading the Saga Against a Paroemial Background,” provides a foundation for studying proverbs and their uses. In the first part of the chapter, which covers ancient paroemial traditions, the author briefly discusses the Eddic poem Hávamál, claiming that its first ninety-five strophes “are regarded as having originated in pre-Christian Norway, expressing the communal views of that culture” (p. 4). Harris does not address what may have happened to the poems during the more than 300 years that passed after the colonization of Iceland, nor does he consider the studies by Hermann Pálsson, published in Heimur Hávamála (1990), in which Hermann Pálsson argues that much of the gnomic wisdom in Hávamál has its roots in the journeys undertaken by Icelandic pilgrims in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, suggesting that the ethics of the poem must have been influenced by foreign learning. This is perhaps not surprising since elsewhere Harris remarks on Hermann Pálsson's work, noting that “his work may appear to suffer from an enthusiasm for exclusively continental and Christian influences on the saga, which is difficult to maintain through a careful, balanced reading” (p. 27). The chapter also covers early paroemial terms and definitions; theories by Ferdinand de Saussure, Archer Taylor, and Noam Chomsky; and transitions into structurally based paroemiological theory. The latter part of the chapter delves into Icelandic material, focusing on the study of syntactic patterns and the lexical core of the Icelandic sagas. Here, Harris offers an insightful discussion on the significance of studying proverbs, using an example from Örvar-Odds saga to demonstrate how a small change to a proverb can activate the reader's or listener's preconceptions. He argues that proverbial statements express the accepted communal wisdom of a culture, noting that saga writers—when using them without irony—generally place these statements in the mouths of characters whom the audience is inclined to trust, individuals who are established and substantial. Conversely, when paroemial expressions are used ironically, they are spoken by antagonistic figures who seek to subvert the status quo. The final part of the chapter provides a thorough and very useful overview of sources on “Icelandic Paroemiography.”Chapter 2, “Paroemial Patterns of the Mythic and the Legendary Backgrounds,” discusses how Icelandic literature echoes the gnomic wisdom preserved in the Eddic poems. Nonetheless, the Roman historian Tacitus (ca. 56–120 AD) is invoked to explain women's support of their family's honor in medieval Icelandic texts—a timespan of more than 1000 years. Harris notes that the wisdom preserved in the poems and sagas has been transmitted orally, and that the Eddic poems themselves are written manifestations of oral poetry. The chapter includes readings of passages in Grettis saga and Hreiðars þáttr heimska in light of Hávamál, as well as an analysis of the Völsungar matter.Chapter 3, “Paroemial Strategies, Apophthegmatic Scenes, and the Heroic Ideal in Gísla saga,” offers a study of Gísla saga, focusing on its use of proverbial expressions “at the closures of dramatic scenes as a technique for signaling the point of such episodes” (p. 85). In the early chapters of the saga, Harris notes that Gísli frequently utters paroemial phrases that attribute his misadventures to fate.Chapter 4, “Paroemial Thematic Signaling in Njáls saga,” focuses on the “highly skilled use of proverbs to illuminate the narrative” of Brennu-Njáls saga, a saga that, according to the author's count, contains more than fifty proverbs and proverbial phrases. While Harris is generally an astute reader, his interpretation of Hallgerðr as a character in the narrative seems biased. For instance, when she is told to move away from the seat of honor at Bergþórshvoll, Harris notes that she reacts “to this perceived insult to her dignity” (p. 111). However, the scene as Harris describes it is not quite accurate. Initially Hallgerðr is given the seat of honor, but she is later asked to move to make room for Bergþóra's and Njáll's daughter-in-law when she arrives. The male heroes in the sagas typically have an incredibly sensitive sense of honor—it doesn't take much to offend them. The fact that different rules seem to apply to Hallgerðr can partly be explained by the male perspective from which the saga is written—a perspective that Harris, as a reader, seems to adopt. Elsewhere, Harris describes Hallgerðr as “insecure” and having “a rather easily hurt pride, perhaps meant by the author to be derived from her uncertain sense of her own value” (p. 118). He also notes her destructive tendencies. Harris acknowledges that a few critics from Hans E. Kinck to “some nineteenth-century Icelandic poets and recent feminist interpreters of the saga” (p. 119) have argued for a more sympathetic reading of Hallgerðr. However, he neither names these feminist interpreters nor references their publications. Regarding the killing of Hallgerðr's first husband, which Hallgerðr arranged, Harris writes: “Having goaded her unwanted husband to commit an injury to her in the form of a slap on the face that drew blood, she then arranged for his assassination” (p. 119). The implication seems to be that she is somehow to blame for Þorvaldr “slapping” her, which is problematic. It should be noted that this scene depicts domestic violence. Þorvaldr, who is described in the saga as hot-tempered, strikes Hallgerðr, who was married off to him without her consent, after she criticizes him for being stingy and asks him to fetch more food for the household. Harris seems to be reluctant to consider critically the saga writer's ideological standpoint.Chapter 4, “Grettis saga and the Paroemial Delineation of Character,” focuses on Grettis saga, which, according to Harris, contains the highest frequency of proverbs among the sagas in the Old Icelandic corpus (p. 163). He argues that the saga uses proverbs to “delineate the character of the hero, as well as to clarify the composer's purposes in telling his story” (p. 195).Chapter 6, “Various Uses and Variant Forms of Proverbs in the Sagas: The Proverbial Foolishness of Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða,” argues that a phrase uttered by one character alludes to a proverb about the disadvantages of dealing with foolish people, which influences the narrative despite never being explicitly stated in the saga. Harris contends that much of the misfortune in the saga results from foolishness, which is, of course, true, but I am not convinced that this is the primary lesson of the saga. It would have also been interesting to discuss this underlying, unformulated proverb in relation to the proverbs that are explicitly expressed in the saga.Chapter 7, “Proverbial Echoes and the Point of Hœnsa-Þóris saga: ‘Ek ætla þar vándum manni at duga sem þú ert’,” focuses on one of the most disillusioned Sagas of Icelanders, which centers on the loan-shark Hœnsa-Þórir. Chapter 9, “Fóstbrœðra saga, Sverris saga, and Narratives of the Will: ‘Jafnan segir inn ríkri ráð’,” provides an enlightening reading, particularly of Fóstbrœðra saga.The aim of the book is to explore the “paroemial patterns” and the “paroemial cognitive background” of the sagas, rather than the specific use of proverbs. Unfortunately, the book does not include an index, which would have made it easier to use and helped reduce repetition. Harris convincingly demonstrates the extent to which Icelanders relied on allusions and shared memories when writing the sagas. While the analysis of underlying patterns is thorough, some readers, including this reviewer, would have appreciated a list of the proverbs in the sagas which he discusses, perhaps in an appendix. Instead, readers are referred to an online database which, according to the preface, the author completed prior to the publication of the monograph. The database is titled “Concordance to Proverbs and Proverbial Materials in the Old Icelandic Sagas,” which, according to the bibliography, should be available at https://research-groups.usask.ca/icelanders/concordance.php. However, when I attempted to access the database, it was unavailable. Instead, I was greeted with links to courses at the University of Saskatchewan—without any sign of the database—and a notice indicating that the domain name “usask.ca” might be for sale. While this is in all probablility not the author's fault, it highlights the volatility of online resources and underscores the enduring value of books for disseminating and preserving research results and information.

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