Gripla - 2020, Page 148

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of extreme cruelty to innocents, links Tamerláus’ enemies in Ambáles saga
to the description of Timur himself as presented in Oddverjaannáll, where
he is called tartara kongur ‘king of the Tartarsʼ.60
The similarity between the description of Bastíanus and earlier descrip-
tions of Timur, which might lead us to see the latter as a possible source
for Ambáles saga and Ambáles rímur, is brought into focus by two more
passages which follow and also resonate strongly with earlier accounts of
Timur, such as that in Oddverjaannáll. These passages, moreover, continue
to use material from the earlier descriptions of Timur while apparently
consciously distancing Tamerláus from the barbaric image of his literary
predecessor. A more positive Timur than the ethically dubious one of cer-
tain historiographical texts thus emerges.
The first of these passages is when Ambáles responds to Tamerláus’
account of the horrors perpetrated by Bastíanus upon his sister. Ambáles
suggests a plan which involves Tosti, a dwarf friend whom he has enlisted
to provide support to Tamerláus’ army. Ambáles explains to Tamerláus:
þennan kong muntu sigra, med ollum hanz monnum, þvi reidi þess
mikla guds mun yfir hann falla, og alla þä sem med honum eru, eg
mun lata tosta felaga minn skielfa þä med ludri sinum […] Spyr
kongur menn syna, huada hliöd þeir hugdu þetta vera, enn þeir sögdu
þad er róddz [sic] gudz cristinna manna sem i lopti heirist, og bodar
þier og ozz hans stränga reidi og hefnd, þui þitt vont athæfi hefur vpp
vakid hanz grimdar reidi yfir ozz61
[‘You will defeat this king and all his men because the wrath of the
great God will come down upon him and all of those who are with
him. I will have Tosti, my companion, make them quake with his
trumpetʼ […] The king [i.e. Bastíanus] asks his men what sound they
thought it was, and they said ‘that is the voice of the Christian men’s
God which can be heard in the air and announces to you and us his
60 Interestingly enough, a later text from the same group as AM 521 c 4to calls the Saracens
tíran(n)ar ‘tyrants’, which may remind us of the description of Timur as a tyranne from
Oddverjaannáll. See Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland, 148. This may, however, be a mere
coincidence.
61 AM 521 c 4to, f. 6v.
TIMUR, ‘THE WRATH OF GODʼ