Gripla - 2020, Page 152

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48. He fully and completely found out about and got knowledge
of the people who had arrived, and that it seemed that the evil lord
would not get to choose any good outcome.
49. He then raced quickly back to camp with the already-mentioned
news, made known to that dark king truly and clearly the avenging
judgement which awaited them.]
The corresponding passage in AM 521 b 4to’s text of Ambáles saga reads
thus:
Liet kongur giora so sende hann xxx manna þa sem best treistu sier
Sa hiet Taulirus sem firer þeim var, hann sat a Gódumm reidhiortt
og sem hann sa herbuder kongs Tamerlaus reid hann sem adrer
sende menn ad hertiolldumm og villd[e] vita huor þiod þetta være
og sem hann fieck þad ad uita og so lijka huor huor [sic] sa være
sem hernum stijrde og þad Tamerlaus kongur være kominn hefnda
ad vitia bastinus konge firi Jll verk sijn reid Taulirus heim aptur og
kunngiórdi altt þetta.66
[The king thus did the following: he sent 30 of the men who trusted
him most. Talirus was the name of the one who was their leader. He
sat upon a fine steed, and when he saw King Tamerláus’ war-tents,
he and the other men rode up to those tents and wanted to know
who those people were, and when he found that out, as well as who
it was that was in charge of the army, and that King Tamerláus had
come there to take revenge upon King Bastíanus for his evil deeds,
Talirus rode back again and made this all known.]
The rímur thus mention that Tólýrus/Talirus was sent out to do recon-
naissance and succeeded in his mission, acquiring the relevant information
and returning, although without any dialogue mentioned. The text of the
saga in AM 521 b 4to tells pretty much the same story, and while it is pos-
sible that Taulirus/Talirus got his information through actually conversing
with members of the camp (it is said, after all, that he rides up to the tents),
it is by no means certain and he might have simply gotten close enough
66 Uecker, ed., Der nordische Hamlet, 156–57. I have slightly adapted Uecker’s text, removing
the repetitions which occur there due to inclusion of catchwords.
TIMUR, ‘THE WRATH OF GODʼ