Arrangement characteristics of Faroese literature:: Categoric- and media change, written and oral transmission taking the example of 'Seyoa Rima'-variants

The Faroese ballads (kvaedi) were gathered and their variants written down in the Corpus Carminum Faeroensium (CCF) in the 19th century. The contents of some of these oral tradition kvaedi are based on plots of Old Norse saga literature. In a case study, the structure and composition of a written saga-episode with a transmission extending over several centuries, was compared with a kvaedi that has come down by oral transmission: the Solrun-episode of the Icelandic Bardar saga Snaefellsass (= Bs, IF XIII, p. 146-158) and the oral Faroese Seyda rima-variants (= Sr-variants, CCF 87, A-F). The differences that came to light in the investigation are summarised with examples in this contribution: On the one hand, the plot in the Bs-episode is linked with the rest of the content of the saga that surrounds it, whereas the Sr-variants include no information extending beyond the events reported in them. Some events are not to be found in the Sr-variants; and occasionally their logical sequence is anachronistically transposed. The portrayal of single characters in the Sr-variants is less personal than in the Bs. When compared with the epic-literary arrangement of Bs, the Sr-variants are characterised, as a consequence of their oral transmission by a strong fixed formality and by frequent repetition.