Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 203

17. Yvain denies the charge and explains that he must first set out on
another mission, but promises to return for the daughter after his task has
been accomplished (vv. 5745-55).
18. The host now backs down, declaring that he does not want to force
his daughter on Yvain (vv. 5756-5770).
19. Yvain departs (vv. 5771 ff.).
The narrative details are found in reduced but also modified form in
the Stockholm 6 version of Ivens saga. As in the romance, Iven comes
upon a meadow where 300 maidens are engaged in weaving and similar
pursuits. The Stockholm vellum omits narrative units 2 and 3 so that Iven
appears to be entirely unconcerned by the sight confronting him. He
rides on and meets the lord of the castle, and the saga relates in condensed
form the sequence of events as we know it from the romance. The first
major change in the vellum occurs when Iven refuses the offer of the
host’s daughter (no. 8 above). His sanctimonious reply has been cited
before (see p. 166): “God forbid that I should bargain like that for your
daughter, but rather, as far as I am concerned, she shall always be free.”
In the saga the host then accuses Iven of cowardice, tells him that he will
have to fight nonetheless, but does not declare that Iven will receive the
reward if he wins, whether he likes it or not (see no. 9 above). The saga
deletes Yvain’s response (no. 10) and immediately depicts the combat
(no. 11). At the end of the episode the host again asks Iven to accept the
daughter (as in no. 12) and, as in the romance, Iven asks that the maidens
be freed (no. 13). The host agrees, but in the saga he now offers Iven as
much gold as he wishes; this too the hero refuses and departs. In effect,
the Stockholm 6 version changes the offer of the daughter (no. 14) into
an offer of wealth, and omits the ensuing argument (nos. 15-18).
Primarily as a result of the major deletion at the beginning of the
episode, Iven appears to be a selfish, disinterested fellow. He sees the
plight of the maidens, but does not act, and does not even ask a question.
Since he has not heard their story, his request for leave the next morning
is more understandable, however, than in the romance, where Yvain
appears heartless too, but for a different reason: he knows that a knight
who challenges the evildoers to combat, and is successful, can liberate the
maidens; yet he seems to be unwilling to engage them at arms. The lord
of the castle is a more sympathetic individual in the Stockholm 6 version
than in the romance, since he is not as obstinate and overbearing regard-
ing the offer of his daughter to the knight.
In the other version of Ivens saga, in the paper manuscript Stockholm
46, we find proof on one hånd that the Norwegian translation originally
told how the maidens came to be enslaved (see pp. 66-68), and on the
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