Two Tales of Icelanders: Ögmundar þáttr Dytts og Gunnars Helmings; Ölkofra þáttr (review)

Reviews 257 theoretical work. The study leaves this reader feeling that a thoroughly formulated theoretical framework would enable deeper and more far-reaching explorations of the thematic concerns which are marked out as significant in thetitleand the contents page. The work is clearly sympathetic to feminist concerns, and yet the feminist thrust of the main argument is undermined by the lack of theoretical focus. For example, discursive slippages occur regarding the issue of agency. The work revolves around explicating the point that Chaucer as author has no agency in breaking through the constraints and restrictions of the genre: 'Chaucer reveals romance's coercions, even as he is unable to escape them' (p. 94). However, at times the discussion imputes agency, and thus fault and failure, or correctness and success, to characters (particularly female) and narrators (in the Canterbury Tales): 'Canacee does what Emelye of the Knight's Tale wants to do: she does not engage at all in a dangerous and ultimately male game' (p. 68), and "The Loathly Lady, as the dangerous feminine, challenges this [narrative] structure at every turn' (p. 93). H o w can Chaucer's creations have agency while he has none? Nonetheless, this is an accessible work for scholars at all levels, particularly students. It must be stated, however, that the theoretical gestures the work does make, particularly towards feminist theory, suggest an interest which may be expanded by the author in future works. Jan Shaw Department of English University of Sydney Wyatt, Ian and Jessie Cook, eds., Two Tales of Icelanders: Ogmundar pdttr Dytts og Gunnars Helmings; Olkofra pdttr (Durham Medieval Texts 10), Durham, Durham Medieval Texts, 1993; paper; pp. xliv, 86; 1 illustration; R.R.P. £4.00. All too frequently a thesis student's carefully prepared edition of a medieval text never reaches a wider audience. This publication from Durham Medieval Texts therefore comes as a welcome initiative. The accurately presented texts offer the reader experience in two different kinds of normalisation, one as in Islenzk Fomrit and the other based on Flateyjarbok. Also provided are a map, introduction, endnotes, glossary, bibliography, and index of names. The map is helpful, aside from its variant spelling of the name Gasar. The full glossary shows painstaking preparation. 258 Reviews The bibliography provides some interesting leads, though it requires supplementation with information on publisher and city of publication. A n entry like 'Gering, Hugo (ed.). 1880. Olkofra pattr' requires that one refer to the Fiske Catalogue or other source beforefillingout an inter-library loan form—as many students will have to do if they want to consult Gering's edition. I note that some other volumes in this handy Durham series have already (deservedly) sold out and are undergoing revision. In any revision of this book the introduction, which currently constitutes its weakest component, should be completely reorganised. The discussion is prolix, repetitious, and even self-contradictory, leaving the impression that the editors are not systematically pursuing an argument but merely registering the views of assorted scholars. To take Wyatt's contributionfirst,this edition is not an appropriate place for a comprehensive study of Freyr's cult and the material is oddly placed, too, before the contents of Ogmundar pdttr as a whole have been systematically described. Other weak points are the references to Frazer's Golden Bough (surely an antiquated source?), the aprioristic assumptions about Ibn Fadlan's reportage, and the fine-spun arguments about datings. This said, the introduction also contains some good thinking, for example on the perceived problem of unity and on the shifting constructions of Ogmundr as hero. The editor justifiably presents the story material as existing in a 'state of flux', with 'a main narrative thread that is malleable rather thanrigid,which is shaped and polished according to the tastes of each successive reciter/scribe'. (A pity about the state of flux in the metaphors.) But concomitantly Wyatt persists with enquiries as to possible authorship, relying on such invalid criteria as specialist vocabulary. The nautical vocabulary in his translations might itself invite speculation, pointing as it does to the steam era with its mention of 'pilots' and 'full speed ahead'. Aren't the supposed pilots just Norwegian sailors who...