Subversive Inscriptions. The Narrative Power of the Paratext in Saga Ólafs Þór- hallasonar

Abstract

Eiríkur Laxdal’s Ólafs saga Þórhallasonar has repeatedly been addressed as an early proto-novel or novel in the Icelandic tradition. The argumentation in previous re- search has mainly been based on elements of the histoire. This article takes a differ- ent approach and focusses on the material textuality of Laxdal’s saga. It argues that the saga inscribes itself not only thematically, but also in terms of its material and narrative features into both saga and contemporaneous literary traditions, while at the same time subverting these traditions. With a departure point in Gérard Genette’s approach to different types of transtextuality, the article discusses the central role of paratexts, namely headings of different kind, in this inscription into and subversion of genre traditions. By designating individual chapters as þáttur and the four main parts of the saga as (kvöld-)vökulestur, the saga evokes medieval and premodern narrative traditions, but at the same time, these traditions are subverted by advanced narrative techniques that lead to narrative uncertainty and unreliability, such as multiple focalizations, embedded narratives with changing (female) narrators, several diegetic levels, and blurred lines between text and para- text. These techniques are used to deconstruct false perceptions of readers as well as characters in the narrative. This deconstructive effort is at the heart of Ólafs saga Þórhallasonar. It can be read as a literary take in line with contemporary requests of main agents of the Enlightenment, and the article argues that it might even be understood as a direct, literary response to bishop Hannes Finnsson’s reading book Qvøld-vøkurnar that were printed in 1796/97.