Telling the speaker apart from the person being spoken about

Question

A recent question about the usage of quoted speech contained this interesting sample sentence:

ハイリアの民は、ふしぎな力を あやつることが、できたと言います。

Often when I read this kind of sentence, I wonder if ハイリアの民 is part of the quoted sentence, or the actor doing the quoting.

That is, can this sentence only be read as "They say that the people of Hylia were able to harness a mysterious power" (which seems to be the only reading considered in the aforementioned discussion), or is "The people of Hylia say that they (not necessarily the Hylians) were able to harness a mysterious power" also a valid reading?

If only the first reading is valid, is this possibly due to the usage of the particle は versus が, which would mark the speaker?

Answer 1

I would interpret it this way:

『ハイリアの[民]{たみ}は、ふしぎな力をあやつることができた』と言います。
(They say that the people of Hylia were able to harness a mysterious power.)*

with or without the commas.

And I would write it this way:

ハイリアの民は、不思議な力を操ることができたと言います。
ハイリアの民は不思議な力を操ることができたと言います。
or
ハイリアの民は、不思議な力を操ることができた、と言います。

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If ハイリアの民 was the subject of 言います, then I would expect something like this:

ハイリアの民は、XXが、ふしぎな力をあやつることができたと言います。
or
XXはふしぎな力をあやつることができた、とハイリアの民は言います。

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*I interpreted your sentence this way maybe because of the words that are being used. If I read, for example:

山田さんは、幼いころ[竹馬]{たけうま}に[乗]{の}れた、と言います。

I would read it as "Mr Yamada claims that he was able to walk on stilts as a child," with or without the commas.