Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 213

and yon.”14 After a detailed investigation of the Icelandic saga and a
comparison with the Norwegian translation, Paul Schach offered a new
and titillating interpretation of the Icelandic saga: far from being a
clumsy reconstruction of the Norwegian Tristrams saga, the Icelandic
Tristram is ‘“a deliberate reply’ to the Norwegian version of the French
romance.” The most cogent evidence for his assertion is the faet that “the
deviations of the Icelandic saga from the Norwegian source follow a
consistent pattern: they represent a complete reversal of the situation.”15
The following observations concerning the Icelandic Tristram should re-
enforce Schach’s argument that the saga was intended as parody, and at
the same time amplify his thesis. The Icelandic saga is more than a reply
to the Norwegian translation. It is, in faet, a humorous commentary on
Arthurian romance, a parody of the genre, and a result of drawing the
ultimate and often ludicrous consequences of the behavioral tenets pro-
pounded in Arthurian romance. To parody the riddarasogur the author
of the Icelandic Tristram exaggerates some motifs, distorts others, and in
general confounds our expectations of the character of romance.
Through the exaggeration of several Arthurian motifs, love is depicted
in the Icelandic Tristram as sudden, overwhelming, and exelusive. To
portray the love of Tristram’s parents, the author blends and exagger-
ates, and thereby renders preposterous three motifs: the motif of the
“leicht getrostete Witwe” from Ivens saga, the recreantise or sich verligen
motif from Erex saga, and the trance motif from the drops-of-blood
episode from Parcevals saga. The opening chapters of the Icelandic Tris-
tram are a marked departure from the corresponding sections of the
Norwegian Tristrams saga. Fqeus in the first chapter of the Icelandic saga
is not on Kanelangres, of whom Brother Robert’s translation offers a
detailed portrait, but rather on the family of Tristram’s mother, Blenzi-
bly. The chapter offers the kind of genealogical information typical of
native Icelandic sagas. The very shift of focus, from Tristram’s father in
the Norwegian translation to Tristram’s mother in the Icelandic saga,
signifies concomitantly a shift of interest in the narrative, and thus pre-
pares the reader for the aggressive role - unusual in the realm of courtly
romance - Blenzibly is to take in fostering and carrying out the affair with
Kalegras, as Tristram’s father is called in the Icelandic saga. As was
pointed out in the discussion of motifs in chapter IV, Blenzibly fails in
love with the man whom she observes during combat with her lover (see
14 Viktors saga ok Blåvus, p. CCVII.
15 "The Saga af Tristram ok Isodd. Summary or Satire?” MLQ, XXI (1960), p. 352.
14*
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