Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1994, Page 125

Víglundar saga
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Þorleifur Steinólfsson seeks Ketilríðurs hand in marriage; she objects
Sigurður and Gunnlaugur grant Víglundur and Trausti passage to Norway
Þorgrímur’s marriage to Ólöf is recognized by Ketill of Raumaríki
Ketill’s daughter Ingibjörg is to marry Trausti Þorgrímsson
Ketill’s son Sigurður is to marry Helga Þorgrímsdóttir
Þórður seeks Ketilríður’s hand in marriage; her father agrees; she objects
On their return, Víglundur and Trausti make land near Þórður’s farm
They spend the winter under assumed names with Þórður and Ketilríður
Þórður is revealed to be Helgi, Víglundur’s father’s brother
Hólmkell gives Ketilríður to Víglundur in marriage; Þorgrímur gives Helga to
Sigurður Ketilsson; Helgi gives Ragnhildur to Gunnlaugur
In the above outline only those scenes and episodes are included that move the
plot toward an intermediate or final resolution. Unaccounted remain the many
scenes and incidents that infuse the events with an unmistakably Icelandic flavor.
The animosity of Ketilríður’s brothers and mother toward her lover and his family
are expressed in acts of aggression at ball games and horse fights; in the theft of
livestock; and in the witchcraft of a hired sorceress.11 If the local color is removed
from the narrative, however, the saga turns out to be a bridal-quest romance
exhibiting the familiar two-tiered structure: the forestory focuses on the bridal
quest of the hero’s father, while the main narrative recounts that of the eponymous
protagonist.
The author of Víglundar saga chose to compose a romance featuring the
double-generational bridal-quest plot that was favored by the most famous of
imported romances, Tristrams saga ok Isöndar, and which was adopted and
adapted in such indigenous romances as Hrólfi saga Gautrekssonar}1 The author
broke with the conventions of this genre, however, by introducing occasional
verse, a common feature of the íslendinga sögur, and by setting the plot in Norway
and Iceland during the reign of King Harald Fairhair (c. 870-945) rather than in
some distant exotic realm. The choice of setting, both temporal and geographic,
determined in turn both the personnel and the expression of the conflict — but
not the governing element of plot, that is, the protagonist’s quest for a bride.
In the series of aggressive episodes, which are meant to impede Víglundur’s
bridal quest and to destroy him and his family, those involving Hákon are
11 In the foreword to his edition of Víglundar saga Jóhannes Halldórsson remarks: “Alykta má,
þótt ekki verði bent á náin tengsl við efni einstakra íslendingasagna, að höfundi Víglundar sögu
hafi verið ýmsar þeirra kunnar. Frásagnir um hestavíg, knattleika, gerningaveður og fleira þess
háttar eru þar algengar, og má fmna líkingu í ýmsum greinum, þótt undirrótin sé sums staðar
erlend. Að hætti góðra íslendingasagna er hafið máls á því að segja ffá Haraldi hárfagra og ofríki
hans” {Víglundarsaga, in Kjalnesingasaga. JökulsþáttrBúasonar. Víglundarsaga. Króka-Refisaga.
ÞórÖar saga hreðu. Finnboga saga. Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfifls, íslenzk fornrit, XIV [Reykjavík:
Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1959], p. XXX).
12 See Theodore M. Andersson, “’Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar’ and European Bridal-Quest Nar-
rative,” JEGP, 84 (1985), 72-74. On Hrólfi saga Gautrekssonar, see also Kalinke, Bridal-Quest
Romance, pp. 25-65.