Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 126

hånd of Isodd in marriage. The queen mother is so angry at his preposter-
ous claim that she orders him seized and hanged from the highest tree.
Only through Tristram’s intercession is the verdict mitigated to exile from
Ireland for the duration of her reign. In Angevin Britain and Scandinavia
Henry Goddard Leach expressed the opinion that the Icelandic saga was
based on an “imperfect memory of Robert’s Tristram”;4 he thought that
the author had bungled in the selection of names: “The unfortunate
Irishman who falsely boasted of having slain the fire-breathing dragon is
quite naturally confused with Kay, the vainglorious seneschal of Arthuri-
an romance” (p. 185). Paul Schach suggested, to the contrary, that the
writer of the Icelandic Tristram had deliberately combined “a name
which uniquely fits the character with a contradictory epithet for ironic
effect.”5 Indeed, the deportment of the disreputable counsellor in the
Icelandic Tristram and of the steward in the Norwegian Tristram is anal-
ogous to the deportment ascribed to Kay, King Arthur’s steward, in the
other romances.
In the Norwegian Tristrams saga, the steward, who remains nameless,
is described from the outset as an arrogant and malicious man - hinn
mesti metnadarmadr (ch. 37, p. 75) - as a malicious and fraudulent and
crafty person, a liar and a deceiver - illgjarn ok undirhyggjusamr,
prettviss ok lygimadr ok falsari (ch. 37, p. 75). When Tristram publicly
exposes his underhandedness, the steward is subject to a ridicule similar
to that usually meted out to King Arthur’s steward Kay:
Sidan hæddi ok hatabi hann hverr madr; ok var hann jafnan
sI5an rekinn, hrjåår ok svivirår, at hann |)ordi at bera svå
mikla lygi fram fyrir hofdingja ok vitra menn i landinu. (ch.
45, p. 95)
(Then everyone scoffed at him and hated him, and he was ever
after buffeted, harassed, and disgraced, because he had dared to
bring such a great lie before the leaders and sages of the country.)
The author of the Icelandic Tristram hit upon the ingenious idea of giving
this unpleasant and treacherous individual the ironically fitting name
‘Kæi hinn kurteisi.’ It is not surprising that the character of the steward in
the Tristan legend should have reminded him of Arthur’s steward Kay.
4 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921), p. 184.
5 “The Saga af Tristram ok Isodd. Summary or Satire?” MLQ, XXI (1960), p. 343.
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