Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Qupperneq 199

strategy to be followed; in scene 2 the lady informs I ven that she is
following her retainers’ advice (although she does not seek their advice
until scene 3); finally, in the third scene, the lady allows herself to be
cajoled into agreeing to marriage with Iven.
The corresponding four scenes in the Stockholm 46 redaction lack the
elements of collusion and dissimulation. The lady is little concerned
about the reaction that marriage to her husband’s slayer might elicit.
Luneta advises her mistress (in scene 1) to inform her men that Iven
seeks to marry her. No mention is made that the lady should defer, or
pretend to defer to the wishes of her retainers. Luneta prophesies that
they will readily approve the decision. As mentioned above, the lady
announces to the court (in scene 2) her plan to re-marry. When Iven
appears before the mistress of the spring (in scene 3), he agrees - as in the
vellums - henceforth to become protector of the spring. In response, the
lady places her arms around Iven’s neck and says: ‘Gefr ek pér sjålfa mik i
vald ok allt mitt riki’ (ch. 4, 61: 26-27 ‘I give myself into your power, and
all my realm’). Thereupon she kisses Iven more than a hundred times and
they embrace each other. The erotic interlude does not exist in the vel-
lums, nor is it found in Yvain. When the lady appears before her courtiers
in scene 4 - this time accompanied by fven - there is no question of
seeking advice or permission. She announces that Iven is the one who is
to marry her, and that he will thereby become her knight, that is, the
protector of the spring - ok segir nu sinum monnum at par var nu så
kominn sem hana skyldi pusa, ok par med vera hennar riddari (ch. 4,
64:21-66:18).
The major difference in the two versions of this sequence of events is
that Stockholm 46 depicts the mistress of the spring as a decisive and
aggressive individual. She does not play a game with her retainers as she
does in the French romance and in the vellums, where she pretends that
she is in doubt and lets herself be cajoled into agreeing to the marriage.
In Stockholm 46 the lady does not ask her retainers for permission to
marry, nor does she ask the steward to present the case for her. As lady
of the land, a widow to boot, she reserves the right to make an independ-
ent decision, and she informs her men that a decision has in faet been
made. Moreover, she does not hesitate to express her feelings for Iven.
The Stockholm 46 version of Ivens saga expresses an attitude toward
women consonant with that expressed in the two episodes from Erex saga
discussed earlier.
If the above changes were the only ones in the Stockholm 46 redaction
of Ivens saga, then one would have to ascribe at least some - for example,
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