The article analyses the reception of the Norse sagas in Karen Blixen’s short story
“The Bear and the Kiss” written in 1958 with the main focus on the “saga of Olaf Tryggvason”. Drawing on Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory, the article explores the hierarchy of
the pre-texts that are traceable in the text of the considered story and suggests a system
of markers that are meant to include interaction with the precedent texts. The typology
of markers includes the characters’ names, metaphorical use of mythological or historical
personas, the identified cited texts or stories, identical attributes (in this particular text —
a glove thrown into a person’s face), the characters’ appearance, and similarity or contrast
with the storyline of the other unidentified text. The analysis shows that there are two
possible effects of the use of references: semantic compression and, conversely, symbolist
and Neoplatonic circling around the event, which creates a semantic gap. The reader can
either find himself aware of a riddle yet being unable to understand how the events or
reactions fit into the plot or assume the role of an investigator creating his own interpretation of the storyline. The examined strategy of circling around the truth in order to
indicate an idea or a fact by using metaphors, comparisons, and allusions in combination
with Walter Benjamin’s and Edward Forster’s philosophy of oral storytelling allows Blixen’s short stories to fit neatly into the context of European modernism.