Kjartan, for example, in _Laxdæla_ is represented in a way that sometimes brings him dangerously near the ideal hero. The story (like many of the other Sagas) plays about between the two extremes, of strong imagination applied dramatically to the subject-matter, on the one hand, and abstract ethical reflexion on the other. In the scene of Kjartan's encounter with Olaf Tryggvason in Norway[52] there is a typical example of the two kinds of operation. The scene and the dialogue are fully adequate to the author's intention, about which there can be no mistake. What he wishes to express is there expressed, in the most lively way, with the least possible encumbrance of explanation or chorus: the pride of Kjartan, his respect for his unknown antagonist in the swimming-match, his anxiety to keep clear of any submission to the king, with the king's reciprocal sense of the Icelander's magnanimity; no stroke in all this is other than right. While also it may be perceived that the author has brought into his story an ingredient of rhetoric. In this place it has its use and its effect; and, nevertheless, it is recognisable as the dangerous essence of all that is most different from sound narrative or drama. [Footnote 52: Translated in Appendix, Note B.] Then said the king, "It is well seen that Kjartan is used to put more trust in his own might than in the help of Thor and Odin." This rings as true as the noble echo of it in the modern version of the _Lovers of Gudrun_:-- If neither Christ nor Odin help, why then Still at the worst we are the sons of men. No amount of hacking work can take away the eloquence of this phrasing. Yet it is beyond question, that these phrases, like that speech of Sarpedon which has been borrowed by many a hero since, are of a different stuff from pure drama, or any pure imaginative work. By taking thought, they may be more nearly imitated than is possible in the case of any strong dramatic scene. The words of the king about Kjartan are like the words that are used to Earl Hakon, by Sigmund of the Faroes;[53] they are on their way to become, or they have already become, an ethical commonplace. In the place where they are used, in the debate between Kjartan and King Olaf, they have received the strong life of the individual persons between whom they pass, just as an actor may give life and character to any words that are put in his mouth. Yet elsewhere the phrase may occur as a commonplace formula--_hann trúði á mátt sinn ok megin_ (he trusted in his own might and main)--applied generally to those Northern pagans who were known to be _securi adversus Deos_ at the time of the first preaching of Christendom in the North. [Footnote 53: "Tell me what faith you are of," said the earl. "I believe in my own strength," said Sigmund (_Færeyinga Saga_).]