Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Qupperneq 121

young boys and indulging in it - pér hugnar betr at eiga vid unga sveina
oc gera syndgan vilia pinn a peim (p. 70) - Janual imprudently biurts out
the truth: he loves another, more beautiful woman. In faet, he boasts that
the meanest maid-in-waiting of his beloved exceeds the queen in beauty -
Vittu oc fru kvad hann. f)ér berlega at segia at hin fatækazta i hennar
pio nas to er fridare en pér fru drotning (p. 70). To spurn Guinevere is
tantamount to engaging in an adulterous affair with her if one considers
the consequences for the knight; they are the same as if he had acqui-
esced to her desires and been found out. The queen accuses Janual
before King Arthur of attempted seduction, and legal proceedings against
the hapless knight are initiated (see pp. 81-83).
An analogy to Janual’s vaunting the beauty of his beloved occurs in the
Norwegian Tristrams saga. To explain to Kardfn, the brother of his wife
Isodd, why he has not consummated the marriage, Tristram tells him
about Isond. He chooses a technique similar to the one selected by Janual
- but with dire effeet - to impress Kardfn with the unrivalled excellence
of his beloved; he compares one of Queen Isond’s maids-in-waiting with
Isodd, his wife:
Ek å svå frida unnostu, ok svå tignarliga ok hæverska, rika ok
lofsæla, at hon hefir f sinni tøonostu eina mey svå frfba ok
kurteisa, ættgoda ok rika ok svå vel ordna allskonar atgerda,
at henni somir betr at vera drottning hins ågætasta konungs,
en Isodd systur |hnni fru eins kastala. (ch. 84, p. 17JJ
(I have such a beautiful beloved, and one so noble and genteel,
wealthy and praiseworthy that she has in her service a maiden so
beautiful and courtly, so highborn and wealthy and so skilied in
every kind of accomplishment, that it would be more fitting for her
to be the queen of the most splendid king than for your sister Isodd
to be the lady of a castle.)
Tristram’s boasting is not taken amiss, as is Janual’s, presumably because
woman’s vanity is not direetly affeeted here. A man is boasting of his
beloved to another man, who is impressed enough to desire acquaintance
with Isond’s maid-in-waiting, Bringvet.
A queen rejected by a knight can resort to drastic measures if she seeks
vengeance, as we learn in Januals Ijod. A different but related case of
spurned love occurs in Ivens saga. The Earl Alies episode, discussed
previously in relation to manuscript variants (see pp. 88-92), presents
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