Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 63

MANIFESTATIONS OF RAGNARS SAGA LOÐBRÓKAR 59
tion as to how Áslaug got to SpangarheiSr in the first place is left
unanswered. On the other hand, if these latter considerations, and
Chapter I, are disregarded, a greater effect of suspense is achieved
from the point in the saga at which Kráka’s beauty is contrasted with
the ugliness of her supposed mother, Gríma, up to the point at which
she reveals her true identity to Ragnarr. Two interesting facts, one of
which was briefly mentioned earlier, may be noted at this stage. One
is that, as far as can be gathered from the poor state of the 147 text
of Ragnars saga, this text began with what corresponds to Chapter II
in the 1824 b text;00 and the other is that, in the Faroese Ragnars tátt-
ur, which de Vries regards as derived from a version of Ragnars saga
older than either of the versions reflected in 1824 b and 147,01 we
find a version of the Kráka-story in which Kráka, who is supposedly
the daughter of an old man called Haki, reveals herself to Ragnarr as
the daughter of Sigurðr and Brynhildr, without any explanation being
given, at any stage of the ballad, of how she came to be living with
Haki.02 The Faroese Ragnars táttur, it may also be noted, begins with
the story of Ragnarr’s serpent-fight—with events, in fact, which cor-
respond to those of Chapters 2-4 in the 1824 b text of Ragnars saga.
I am not concerned here to examine de Vries’s view that the Faroese
Ragnars táttur goes back to an older Ragnars saga, but simply to
point out that, provided the Ragnars táttur has been reasonably ac-
curately preserved, we may assume that its singer and its hearers were
not disturbed by the absence of an explanation of how Áslaug came
00 See the reference given in note 19 above.
61 See de Vries (1915), 148 and 179. de Vries (1928), 296, regards the version
of Ragnars saga reflected in 147 as a combination of the one reflected in 1824 b
and of Ragnarssona þáttr.
62 See the variant texts of Ragnars táttur printed in N. Djurhuus and Chr.
Matras. eds., Fþroya kvœði. . . (1951-63), 215-43. It must not be thought that the
early history of Áslaug was unknown to Faroese tradition. On the contrary, it is
told briefly in the Faroese ballad of Brynhild (Djurhuus/Matras, 201-203) how
she was set afloat on the sea shortly after her birth, and there is evidence for the
former existence of a lengthier account of her life-story in a Faroese song now
lost, see de Vries (1928) 287-88, for documentation. Furthermore, the Faroese
Gests ríma or Asla ríma, which in content closely resembles chapter I of the 1824
b text of the saga, probably derives ultimately from the version of the saga re-
flected in that text. See de Vries (1915), 182-88, and Djurhuus/Matras, 244-47.