Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1994, Page 129

Víglundar saga
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the implicit realization — even in the realm of fiction — that abduction ordinarily
does not lead to marriage.18 In Sigurðar saga fóts occurs an abduction closely
resembling that in Víglundar saga, in the sense that the abductor is the rival suitor
whom the bride loves, but who has been given by her father against her will to
another suitor. Just as in Víglundar saga, the lights are suddenly extinguished at
the wedding feast, and when they are lit again the bride has disappeared (LMIR,
111:238—39). Rather unexpectedly, however, the abductor does not marry the
bride in Sigurðar saga fóts, even though she loves him, and instead eventually
returns her, inviolate, to the lawful husband (LMIR, 111:243-44).19
The prefatory account of Víglundar saga is characterized by a structural
economy reminiscent of the drama.20 The portrayal of King Haraldur inn hárfagri
in the first chapter concludes rather ominously and, in reference to the following
events, anticipatorily: “Um hans daga byggðist mjög Island því að þangað leituðu
margir þeir sem eigi þoldu ríki Haralds konungs” (p. 1957). One expects a typical
tale of estrangement between the king and one of his courtiers. To be sure this
happens, but only to a point: the cause of the estrangement turns out to be
Þorgrímur’s insistence on his right to the bride — a right established by Þorgrímur
and Ólöf’s mutual pledges of love — and implicitly his belief in the illegality of
the kings support of the rival suitor. Given the position of Ólöf’s father in the
matter, which has the support of King Haraldur, Þorgrímur’s abduction of the
bride is the only viable means, short of murdering the rival, to obtain the woman
he loves, but it also necessitates flight.21 Abduction as a means of getting the bride
thus also provides the motivation for translating the plot from Norway to Iceland.
The last act of the forestory is the king’s pronouncing the suitor/abductor an
18 The grandmother of the eponymous hero of Þorsteinssaga Víkingarsomr, Eimyrja, was abducted
by Vífill, and this resulted in his being outlawed by the abducted woman’s father. See Þorsteins
saga Víkingarsonar in Formldar sögur NorÍurlanda, ed. Guðni Jónsson (Reykjavík: íslendinga-
sagnaútgáfan, 1950), 111:2. The bride is also abducted during the wedding festivities in Jarlmanns
saga ok Hermanns, but the agents of abduction are antagonists. See Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns
in Late Medieval Icelandic Romances, III, ed. Agnete Loth, Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, B, 22
(Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1963), pp. 38-39. Hereafter, LMIR.
19 For a discussion of the bridal quest in SigurSarsaga fóts, see Kalinke, Bridal-Quest Romance, pp.
192-99.
20 Chapter 1 is devoted to King Haraldur hinn hárfagri and thus provides the setting; ch. 2 presents
Earl Þórir and the female protagonist, his daughter Ólöf geisli; ch. 3 introduces the antagonist
Ketill of Raumaríki and his sons; in ch. 4 we meet Earl Eiríkur and his three sons, one of them
the male protagonist Þorgrímur, whom the king accepts as a courtier; in ch. 5 Ólöf and
Þorgrímur meet at a feast, fall in love, and Þorgrímur asks for her hand in marriage; matters
come to a head in ch. 6, when Þorgrímur repeats his proposal, is rejected by the father, while
Ketill is accepted; during the wedding festivities the rejected suitor abducts the bride.
21 In Orkneyinga saga Erlendr ungi abducts Margarét, the mother of Earl Haraldr Maddaðarson,
from the Orkneys and flees with her to Shetland, because Haraldr has refúsed to give her to him
in marriage. At a subsequent encounter, however, political considerations cause Haraldr to
become reconciled to the erstwhile enemy and Erlendr marries Margarét (ch. 93). See Orkney-
ingasaga, ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson, íslenzk fornrit, 34 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag,
1965), 249-50. In Víglundar saga there eventually also occurs a reconciliation but only after
the wronged bridegroom Ketill has attempted on two occasions to have Þorgrímur murdered.