From: Medium Aevum | Date: March 22, 2000| Author: | COPYRIGHT 2000 Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Magnus Fjalldal, The Long Arm of Coincidence: The Frustrated Connection between `Beowulf' and `Grettis saga' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). vii + 176 pp. ISBN 0-8020-4301-1. 32.50 [pounds sterling].

Magnus Fjalldal reassesses with fierce scepticism the case for a relationship between Beowulf and Grettis saga -- texts which Fjalldal describes as `separated by several centuries in time and composed in different countries in different languages' -- in spite of the generally recognized parallels -- `so many, so obvious, and so detailed', according to one critic -- ...