Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Blaðsíða 46
44
There is no direct evidence that the author of Rauðúlfs
þáttr knew any other French romance, or that he knew
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, although it is possible that he knew
both, and King Óláfr’s question about the movement of his
bed (ÓH 672/4), which, it may be noted, Rauðúlfr does not
answer directly, suggests that the author was acquainted
with the “perilous bed” tradition found in Arthurian litera-
ture,1 although it seems fairly clear that he intends the
reader to understand that it is the whole building that re-
volves. But the influence of the style of southern romance
is evident in other things in the þáttr besides the description
of the sleeping chamber. Not only this building, but all the
buildings in Rauðúlfr’s homestead are described in some
detail, and so is even the surrounding palisade and gate-
way. This love of physical description, and the fantasy of
the rich omamentations in these passages is somewhat
foreign to the style of most of the older Icelandic writings,
but is typical of southern romances and the sagas based on
them. Indeed the whole landscape of the þáttr is more sug-
gestive of the traditional world of romance than of the
bleaker northern scenery of the sagas. The account of the
feast and the service at it with its elaborate courtoisie, and
the detailed description of the seating arrangements, which
is purely decorative and serves no dramatic purpose, may
have been suggested by such descriptions in the romances.2
The similarly detailed account of the arrangement of the
beds in the sleeping chamber is evidence of the same taste, and
here the þáttr is even more detailed than the Charlemagne
1 On this motive see R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Ro-
mance (New York 1927), pp. 159—176; idem, “The visit to the Perilous
Castle,” PMLA XLYIII (1933), pp. 1000—1035.
2 In the Charlemagne story, the Welsh and Old Norse versions are
more detailed in this respect than the Anglo-Norman text, see Sechs
Bearbeitungen, p. 28; Karlamagnus saga, p. 472; Le Voyage de Charle-
magne, lines 400—401. A detailed account of the positions of those pre-
sent at a feast where vows were indulged in is also found in Hœnsa-
Þóris saga (IF III 33—34).