Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 143
mesti atgervismadr fyrir allra hluta sakir; hann var orr ok
storgjofull, alla goda menn gerdi hann sér holla i rikinu, en
refsadi rån ok illgerdir sem konungi somir. (ch. 16, p. 78)
(Kalegras Tristramsson became the best knight and the most ac-
complished man in all things. He was generous and munificent, he
made all good men in the kingdom loyal to him and punished
robbery and wicked deeds, as is fitting for a king.)
After a time Kalegras marries Lilja, the daughter of the emperor of
Saxland, and the most beautiful of women after Isodd the Fair - kvenna
fridust, pegar Isodd fagra leid. They, in turn, have three children, two
sons and a daughter. The sons of Kalegras achieved renown and, the
author informs us, there exists a saga about them - ok er mikil saga frå
peim. A nineteenth-century scribe must have deemed the latter informa-
tion spurious, for he flatly contradicts the statement found in the fif-
teenth-century vellum by interpolating the negative particle: en ei er saga
frå peim.14 As a matter of faet, no saga about Patrocles and Morodd
Kalegrassynir has been found to date.
The Arthurian riddarasogur are replete with thematic and structural
commonplaces. Since the sagas are translations, most of their motival
and structural characteristics derive from their French sources. The lin-
guistic and stylistic transformation from roman courtois to riddarasaga
did not affeet the occurrence of such motifs as abduction, love at first
sight, or the offer of self and service in gratitude. Nonetheless, those
works that demonstrate a relatively independent approach to their sour-
ces, such as Erex saga or the Icelandic Saga af Tristram ok Isodd, multi-
plied the occurrence of certain motifs vis-å-vis their sources. The sagas
bear witness to the popularity of some clichés and their suitability in a
variety of different contexts. In Erex saga, for example, abduction as an
expression of aggressive behavior becomes a cliché. By adopting the
motif from existing episodes in Erec et Enide and multiplying its occur-
rence where appropriate, the author of Erex saga made abduction a
striking motif in the saga. As regards structure, the authors of the ridd-
arasogur impressed their peculiar perspective on the translated romances
and realized their structural principles primarily through additions and
interpolations. Structural changes are widespread throughout the ridd-
arasogur, but not all equally significant or extensive, sometimes limited
14 Lbs. 2316 4to, leaf 55.
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