Gripla - 2020, Qupperneq 145

GRIPLA144
will discuss here. Tamerláus first appears in chapter 4 as the son of King
Soldán and the brother of Málprýant and Fástínus.55 With the support
of the latter brother, Tamerláus leads an attack on Venice and abducts a
Christian princess, allowing her to continue practicing her faith after he
marries her.56 Thus, although the brothers are presented as the antagonists
of the saga, Tamerláus seems to have some redeeming features.
From this point on the story leaves Tamerláus behind in order to fol-
low Ambáles, whose father, Salman, has been killed by Fástínus. Fástínus
allows Ambáles to live because he thinks he is a fool, but, eventually sus-
pecting Ambáles of acting and being a potential threat, he sends him away.
Fengi and Claudius, Fástínus’s counterparts in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta
Danorum and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, send the Prince of Denmark to the
British Isles to die. Fástínus, however, sends Ambáles to Tamerláus in
Scythia. At this point there are a number of differences between the saga
and its forerunner in Saxo’s Gesta Danorum (and Shakespeare’s Hamlet).
They share the fact that the protagonist swaps the letter which his travel-
ling companions were supposed to give to the king at the destination and
thus avoids the ensuing trouble. In Ambáles saga and Ambáles rímur, how-
ever, Ambáles develops a close relationship with Tamerláus after revealing
that Tamerláus is not actually Soldán’s son. Tamerláus’ mother had an affair
with Duke Artax of Indíaland and Tamerláus is the result. When Tamerláus’
mother’s infidelity is revealed, she writes, enraged, to her legitimate sons
and encourages them to take back the kingdom from their bastard brother.
They happily consent (although this conflict does not materialise, since their
delayed response is preempted by other events), and thus Tamerláus is no
longer on the side of Málprýant and Fástínus. In league with Ambáles he
has now switched from being a villain to a good guy.
Tamerláus’ rehabilitation becomes even more patent when he sets
out, along with Ambáles, to fight the heathens who are besieging Christ-
ian Constantinople (which, of course, forms no part of either Saxo
Grammaticus’ or Shakespeare’s versions). We are told that:
55 I refer to the chapter numbers from Uecker, ed, Der nordische Hamlet, 63–64, which
provides an edition of AM 521 b 4to. This corresponds to chapter 3 in Gollancz, Hamlet in
Iceland, 13–14, and fitt 2 in Ambáles rímur, 18–19.
56 The rímur tell us that the ‘drottning [...] þess heiðna manns [...] helgri trú fékk [...] að halda
inn til dauðaʼ [queen of this heathen man was allowed to keep her pious faith until she
died]. See Ambáles rímur, 18–19.