Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 131

“Gaurr,” kvad hann, “mikla svivirbing hefir |)u mér gert ok
skomm. bu skyldir hafa stefnt mér til einvfgis ef J)u hefbir
sakir at gefa mér, ella bibja mik bæta, ef ek hefba vib })ik
misgert, en f)u gerdir mér ofrib. Vit fyrir vist, gaurr, ef ek må,
at Jtu skalt hijota håbuligan hlut Jtungra vandræba. bu mått sjå
hvern skaba Jju hefir gert å minum skogi. Fyrir Jm skalt Jju
hvårtki eiga van hjå mér fribar né tryggba.” (ch. 2, 18:3-11)
(“Ruffian,” he said, “you have done me great disgrace and shame.
If you had a charge to bring against me, you should have challenged
me to a duel or asked me to make compensation in some other way
- if I have indeed done you some wrong. But you have proceeded
hostilely against me. You can be sure, now, ruffian, that if I am
able, you shall receive a most disgraceful share of great difficulties.
Just see what damage you have done to my forest. Rest assured,
therefore, that you may expect neither peace nor truce from me.”)
This episode is repeated with Iven in the role of aggressor. No words are
exchanged this time between challenger and challenged before they en-
gage in combat. Iven deals the lord of the spring a mortal wound and
subsequently marries the widow; he thus takes over the function of pro-
tector of the spring. Now King Arthur and his entourage arrive at the
spring, in keeping with the monarch’s great oath upon hearing about
Kalebrant’s misadventure, at innan hålfsmånadar skyldi hann heiman
fara med allri sinni hird ok koma at keldunni hitt seinasta at Jonsmessu
(ch. 3, 23:3-5 ‘that he would leave with all his court and go to the spring
by Saint John’s Eve at the latest’). The manuscripts do not agree, how-
ever, in recounting Arthur’s adventure at the spring. Only one of the
older vellums, Stockholm 6, agrees with Chrétien’s Yvain and informs us
that the king himself poured water onto the stone. A storm breaks loose
and Iven arrives unrecognized - at a gallop. Kay requests of King Arthur
that he be allowed to ride against the approaching horseman, and the
boon is granted to him. The faet that Arthur himself does not challenge
the lord of the spring to combat is in keeping with his customary role,
Tristrams saga excepted (see pp. 41-43): the king does not engage in
combat.
In the version of Ivens saga represented by Stockholm 46, not Arthur
but Kay pours the water and calls forth the storm. Oddly enough, the
AM 489 redaction of Ivens saga - which only deviates now and then, and
then only slightly, from the text of the Stockholm 6 redaction - agrees on
9 King Arthur
117