O Rei Burislaf: ligeira concessão ao cientificismo e considerações acerca do cômico, do factual e do fictício

In this article we analyze Scandinavian medieval documents, the Yngvar Saga víðförla (Saga of Yngvar, the far travelled) and the Eymundar þáttr Hringssonar (The tale of Eymundr Hringr). Both sources report events supposedly occurred in Kievian Russia. In the first one the main focus is the expedition that was made by the title’s hero, while in the second one the story is quite different, focused on the characters of Eymund and on the kings Burislaf, Jarisleif and Vartilaf. With the help of Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas we propose the hypothesis that there is in Eymundar þáttr Hringssonar the possibility of critical and social reactions against ideological and even christian elaborations of Yngvar Saga víðförla. This criticism was made with use of comical and humoristic aspects, the same kind of “laughter” studied by Bakhtin in his work about cultural history in Middle Ages.