Performance and Constructions of Authority in the Sjúrðar kvæði

This paper analyses how performance markers in narrative intersect with the construction of authority in the medieval Faroese ballads the Sjúrðar kvæði (three ballads about Sigurðr fáfnisbani). These ballads tell the Völsung legend in a group performance setting, since the ballads are danced and chanted at the same time. The chanting is led by a performer known as the skipari. By analysing performance markers such as self-reference by the narrator that relate him to the skipari, references to groups in the story that might mirror the dancers, and the identification of the performance space with the spaces in the narrative, I analyse how the telling of the ballad narrative connects to the experience of the dancers. This would be an extension of the double scene (Lönnroth) into performance archaeology (see the work of Simon Nygaard). Building on this, the paper will then consider the ways in which these self-referential aspects of the ballad performance intersects with the establishment of narrative authority by the narrator: performance markers such as the use of first person pronouns and possible acknowledgment of the performance space work together with other authenticating techniques such as references to sources and common knowledge by the narrator to establish the credibility and trustworthiness of the story-telling voice. In this way, the performance of the ballad and the mode of story-telling in the ballad become intimately connected in the Faroese tradition. This creates an immersion in the story world for the dancers of the ballad.