Metafiction, Myth and Language: A World in Words (and Pictures)

 In a work that is devoted to deconstruction , it seems ironic to be writing of a structuralist underpinning to one significant part of the Saga , but it is a framework so obscure that it needs some elucidation, and was written into the narrative as a direct reference to Old Norse and Old English scholarship itself. I came across the theory of the “Valkyrie-diptych narrative structure” in the 2013 paper on the alleged presence of Valkyrie-figures in Old English literature , by Philip A. Purser, which I studied at length last summer and which influenced greatly the writing of the early form of the Saga at that time. Whilst I later took much issue with Purser's interpretations , I was intrigued enough by this narrative framework that it's worth quoting Purser's paper in full:           "In 1984, Helen Damico forwards the notion that a type of narrative structure, which gained great currency in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Icelandic and Scandinavian literature, was re

 A few thoughts (and collected fragments of research) regarding oral, written, and recorded texts and stories… Whilst the printed text of the Gyldlandsaga can best be described as an ‘epic saga’, I decided to deconstruct the meanings of both those descriptive terms (both of which can also be used as nouns). Namely: epic ( derived from) Epos < L. < Gk. epos = “word, song”; stem of eipein = “say” → early unwritten narrative poetry celebrating incidents of heroic tradition. saga < O. Norse (Icelandic) 2. Partly after G. “sage” – mythical story, handed down by oral tradition; historical or heroic legend. (Source: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3 rd . ed., BCA, 1988). The interesting connection here is the oral nature, or unwritten aspect of [what has become] the text. The origins of the epic are in song – that which is spoken or sung – and numerous references to songcraft are made throughout the text. Several times, Sigfri recites (or sings) to an audience; a