Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1994, Page 123

Víglundar saga
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the corpus of medieval Icelandic romance, especially Friðpjófi saga, the author’s
creation is far from a pastiche. To be sure, the chief conflict of Friðpjófi saga, that
of a young man loving the wife of an older man, doubtlessly inspired the author
of Víglundar saga to recreate a similar situation in the love of Víglundur for
Ketilríður. Like the male and female protagonists of Friðpjófi saga, Víglundur and
Ketilríður have pledged each other their love, and like their models in Friðpjófi
saga, their love is opposed by the family of the bride.8 What prevents the narrative
proper of Víglundar saga from becoming a mere retelling of Friðpjófi saga, albeit
set on Icelandic soil, is an ingenious shift of focus in the conflict section to the
relationship between children and their parents and that of parents to each other.
Víglundarsagais unique among Icelandic bridal-quest narratives — and to my
knowledge in the realm of bridal-quest romance in general — by virtue of a
triangle, not the familiar love triangle, but rather one established by the opposing
positions of the parents in relation to their daughter. The main narrative of
Víglundar saga may be characterized as a “family drama.”9 While the author has
created for the father the role, albeit initially only implicit, of wooer’s helper, he
has cast the mother in the opposing and quite explicit role of antagonist, in fact,
that of rival suitors’ helper. Vis-á-vis her daughter, the role of the mother in
Víglundar saga may be likened to that of the evil stepmother so often encountered
in fairy tales.
On the basis of his acquaintance with indigenous and foreign narratives, the
author of Víglundar saga was inspired to write a bridal-quest romance set on
indigenous soil, in which the various types of conflict are generated and deter-
mined by Icelandic conditions, however, and the characters confront and solve
problems in a manner consistent with the model provided by the Islendinga sögur.
A primarily foreign genre and narrative structure are adopted,10 but instead of
following the usual conventions of that genre, namely romance, in resolving
conflict, the author of Víglundar saga experimented. In the forestory, despite the
to a thesis written by Guðrún S. Magnúsdóttir. He writes: “Um tengsl Víglundar sögu við aðrar
heimildir — og raunar fleira — er hér stuðzt við ritgerð, sem Guðrún S. Magnúsdóttir hefur
skrifáð um söguna við fyrri hluta prófs í íslenzkum fræðum við Háskóla íslands” (p. XXV). The
note is misleading in the sense that the thesis is inaccessible: it is not found among the holdings
of the library of the University of Iceland.
8 Cf. Gustav Wenz, ed., Die Fridþjófisaga (Halle: Niemeyer, 1914); Ludvig Larsson, ed., Friðþjófi
saga ins frakna, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, 9 (Halle: Niemeyer, 1901). See also Kalinke,
Bridal-Quest Romance, pp. 109-23.
9 The term “family drama” is borrowed from (and some subsequent observations are indebted
to) Derek Brewer, Symbolic Stories: Traditional Narratives ofi the Family Drama in English
Literature (London and New York: Longman, 1988), pp. ix, 11. “Family drama” denotes the
pattern of romance in which a hero or heroine escapes from the authority of parents, is tested,
and forms a stable relationship with a member of the opposite sex and of the same age as the
protagonist. Cf. also Brewer, “Introduction: Escape from the Mimetic Fallacy,” in Studies in
Medieval English Romances: Some New Approaches, ed. by Derek Brewer ([Cambridge]: D. S.
Brewer, 1991), p. 8.
10 This is not to say that there are no indigenous forms of bridal-quest narrative, the most striking
example of which is Skírnismál. Bridal-quest romance, however, is an imported genre.