Feel free to come up with a title
In Creative Writing class today we were asked to practice a bit by writing a piece in a point of view that we'd never used before. The thing is that I've been writing since I was a child, so I've used pretty much every possible point of view. 1st person, 3rd person following one character, omniscient 3rd person, switching between different characters using 1st person, even 2nd person!
Looking through the handouts from the class, I realised that there is after all a point of view that I haven't used yet, and that is the objective narrator. At first that didn't have much interest for me, because you don't get to look into any character's head. The Icelandic sagas were written in such a way, and that's what inspired me to write this masterpiece. Add to it as much as you want; the only rules are that it has to be an objective narrative, like in the sagas (i.e. instead of saying "he was angry", say "he frowned and his face turned red" or something like that) and the style should generally be rather saga-like. Righto?
Ef ykkur finnst þægilegra að skrifa þetta á íslensku, megið þið það alveg. :3
One day Bergþóra from Bergþórshvol walked in on her husband packing food into a small pack. "Are you going somewhere?" Bergþóra asked, her eyebrows tightening in the middle.
Njáll looked up at his wife. His beardless face turned redder than the sky at the end of day. "I, uh, no," he exclaimed. The pack quickly disappeared behind his back.
Bergþóra put her hands on her hips and gnashed her teeth. This made Njáll stare at the floor and admit: "I must go to Hlíðarendi. Gunnar has requested my help."
After a few more deadly looks, Bergþóra finally got the reason for this request out of her husband. Apparently Gunnar had got his foot stuck in a floorboard and so had been unable to leave the house for many a moon. Bergþóra gaped at this and asked: "Why can Hallgerður not help him?" She spit a little at the mention of Hallgerður's name; it was well known all about that Bergþóra was not a good friend of Gunnar's wife's.
"You are well acquainted with Hallgerður's temper," Njáll explained. His wife nodded, but he added nevertheless: "Gunnar failed to remember her birthday last winter."
"I am shocked," said Bergþóra.
"I know you are. Why do you tell me that?" asked Njáll.
"How can you know for certain if I do not tell you?" Bergþóra retorted.
Njáll went back to packing his lunch and before long he mounted his horse, which he called Fáki. He then rode off toward the valley of Hlíðarendi, leaving Bergþóra behind to keep their eldest son Skarphéðinn from starting a revolution.
Njáll had not yet travelled for a day when a mountain troll blocked his way. "I am a mountain troll! I am angry! Grrr!" growled the troll.
"You certainly look angry," Njáll acknowledged.
"I eat people! Grrr!" the troll added.
"Do you?" asked Njáll, "I suppose it is a good thing, then, that I am not a people."
Looking through the handouts from the class, I realised that there is after all a point of view that I haven't used yet, and that is the objective narrator. At first that didn't have much interest for me, because you don't get to look into any character's head. The Icelandic sagas were written in such a way, and that's what inspired me to write this masterpiece. Add to it as much as you want; the only rules are that it has to be an objective narrative, like in the sagas (i.e. instead of saying "he was angry", say "he frowned and his face turned red" or something like that) and the style should generally be rather saga-like. Righto?
Ef ykkur finnst þægilegra að skrifa þetta á íslensku, megið þið það alveg. :3
One day Bergþóra from Bergþórshvol walked in on her husband packing food into a small pack. "Are you going somewhere?" Bergþóra asked, her eyebrows tightening in the middle.
Njáll looked up at his wife. His beardless face turned redder than the sky at the end of day. "I, uh, no," he exclaimed. The pack quickly disappeared behind his back.
Bergþóra put her hands on her hips and gnashed her teeth. This made Njáll stare at the floor and admit: "I must go to Hlíðarendi. Gunnar has requested my help."
After a few more deadly looks, Bergþóra finally got the reason for this request out of her husband. Apparently Gunnar had got his foot stuck in a floorboard and so had been unable to leave the house for many a moon. Bergþóra gaped at this and asked: "Why can Hallgerður not help him?" She spit a little at the mention of Hallgerður's name; it was well known all about that Bergþóra was not a good friend of Gunnar's wife's.
"You are well acquainted with Hallgerður's temper," Njáll explained. His wife nodded, but he added nevertheless: "Gunnar failed to remember her birthday last winter."
"I am shocked," said Bergþóra.
"I know you are. Why do you tell me that?" asked Njáll.
"How can you know for certain if I do not tell you?" Bergþóra retorted.
Njáll went back to packing his lunch and before long he mounted his horse, which he called Fáki. He then rode off toward the valley of Hlíðarendi, leaving Bergþóra behind to keep their eldest son Skarphéðinn from starting a revolution.
Njáll had not yet travelled for a day when a mountain troll blocked his way. "I am a mountain troll! I am angry! Grrr!" growled the troll.
"You certainly look angry," Njáll acknowledged.
"I eat people! Grrr!" the troll added.
"Do you?" asked Njáll, "I suppose it is a good thing, then, that I am not a people."