Gripla - 20.12.2014, Page 108

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the king’s chief supporter, in which their crafty, magic-wielding brother-
in-law Mágus plays an important role. the narrator comments that the
cunning ubbi uses his wisdom to do evil, which garners him no popularity
among the people, and he proves an indefatigable adversary in his dogged
mission to destroy Rögnvaldr and his brothers.75 they must stick together
and persevere through perilous battles and obstacles, but in the end, owing
to Mágus’s disguises and magic, and rögnvaldr’s excellence, they finally
manage to conquer Ubbi.
Göngu-Hrólfs saga presents Hrólfr and his erstwhile companion, Vil-
hjálmr, a man who boasts at length about his skills and accomplishments,
as yet another pair of polar opposites. Hrólfr is super-humanly strong but
although he notes that vilhjálmr has deceitful eyes, Hrólfr is too trust-
ing, a quality that vilhjálmr manipulates to his advantage, forcing Hrólfr
into a contract that involves vilhjálmr’s taking credit for all of the latter’s
feats.76 After adventures in Garðaríki, vilhjálmr puts a sleeping-thorn into
Hrólfr’s ear and then cuts off his legs, and the legless Hrólfr must get back
to Denmark and expose his adversary, a task he completes against all odds,
thanks to his perseverance, his horse Dúlcifal and the healing magic of
Möndull, a dwarf. Vilhjálmr, who turns out to be a lowly goat-farmer’s son
with high ambitions, eventually gets his comeuppance, and the narrator
condemns him several times, commenting on his execution by hanging that
‘var þess ván, at illa mundi illum lúka, þar sem þvílíkr svikari ok morðingi
var’ [it was to be expected that a bad man would come to a bad end, such a
traitor and murderer that he was].77 Göngu-Hrólfs saga thus warns against
trusting ruthless, scheming men who stop at nothing to advance their
position and sets them up in direct opposition to the heroes. vilhjálmr’s
origins, contrary to the aristocratic image he tries to inhabit, suggest a fur-
ther warning to the lower classes to keep to their place.78
75 Mágus saga, 37.
76 Hrólfr declares to Vilhjálmr that ‘eigi hefir þú tryggilig augu’ [you do not have trustworthy
eyes], Göngu-Hrólfs saga, ch. 13.
77 Göngu-Hrólfs saga, in Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda, vol. 2, ed. Guðni jónsson and Bjarni
Vilhjálmsson (reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan forni, 1944), 422.
78 In addition to strength, vilhjálmr claims to lack neither ‘skotfimi ok vápnfimi, sund eða
tafl ok burtreiðir, vizku ok málsnilld, ok enga missi ek þá, er karlmann má prýða’ [skill in
archery and dexterity in arms, swimming or chess and jousting, wisdom, and oratory, and
I lack none of the qualities which a man should have]; Göngu-Hrólfs saga, 387.