The long arm of coincidence
Subtitle: the frustrated connection between Beowulf and Grettis saga
By: Magnús Magnús.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Toronto
Language: eng
Number of pages: 176
Subjects: Grettir Ásmundarson, 996-1031 -- Romances -- History and criticism; Beowulf; Grettis saga; Mythology, Norse, in literature; Literature, Comparative -- English (Old) and Old Norse; Literature, Comparative -- Old Norse and English (Old); Epic poetry, English (Old) -- History and criticism
Description: Scholars in Old Norse and Old English studies have for years sought to find connections between Beowulf and Grettis saga, despite great differences in the composition, time period, and country of origin of the two works. Based on some striking surface similarities, the assumption of kinship, or genetically related analogues, has inspired scholars to make more and more daring conjectures regarding the actual relationship between the two works.

Magnus Fjalldal has written a lively challenge to those notions, carefully demonstrating how even tangential resemblances that at one point would have been considered questionable, have become progressively assimilated into mainstream Old English and Old Norse scholarship. The author's refutations are closely tied to the primary texts, and he makes constructive and plausible suggestions as to how the apparent parallels could have arisen in two texts so separated by time, culture, and geography.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-170) and index.