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years - and because of the explicitness of the passage. To depict further
how overwhelming the love of Kalegras and Blenzibly is, the author of
the Icelandic Tristram borrows another motif - from the drops-of-blood
episode in Parcevals saga. After having been separated from his wife for
a long time, Parceval finds himself one day on a snow-covered meadow
on which some drops of biood from a wounded duck have fallen. The
sight of red biood on white snow transports Parceval into a State of
ecstasy; he is so engrossed in thought of his beloved, that he becomes
oblivious of the world about him (see pp. 173-74). Two of Arthur’s
knights, Sigimor and Kay, attempt, one after the other, to conduct Parce-
val to Arthur’s camp, but with no success. When Sigimor approaches
Parceval, the latter pretends that he has not heard him - Parceval lét sem
hann heyrdi ekki hvat hann sagdi (ch. 14, 38:31); only when Sigimor
rides at the knight, in order to take him by force, does Parceval react by
knocking the intruder off his horse. A similar fate awaits Kay, who
returns to Arthur’s camp with a broken arm. Finally, Gawain succeeds
through kindness in bringing the absent-minded Parceval to his senses,
and escorts him to King Arthur. Parceval tells Gawain that the two
previous knights had tried to take his “thought” away from him - that is,
they had disturbed his contemplation.
Like Parceval, Kalegras finds himself in a State of languor from which
he cannot be roused. In Parcevals saga the hero fails into a trance as the
result of a symbolic representation of his wife; in the Saga af Tristram ok
Isodd the trance is induced by the physical presence and en joy ment of the
beloved. Moreover, the motif of not hearing - or at least pretending not
to hear - what others have said, becomes an effective pattern in the
Icelandic saga. Three times we are reminded by the author that Kalegras
refuses a reply to those who approach him during his State of infatuation.
Although men come to visit the couple, they cannot get a word out of
them - på fékksk ekki ord af peim. When Kalegras’ father sends for him,
so as to be able to start on the return journey, the messengers receive no
response from Kalegras - peir fengu engi svor af honum. And to Patroc-
Ies, the father, they report that Kalegras is so consumed with passion for
Blenzibly that he will not give an answer - hann var svd fanginn fyrir
Blenzibly, at hann vildi ekki svara oss. Finally, Patrocles sends Biring, the
foster-father of Kalegras, but unlike Gawain in Parcevals saga, Biring has
no more success than his predecessors, except that Kalegras does deign to
give him a glance. On returning to Patrocles, Biring reports that he too
had not got one word out of Kalegras - at hann fær ekki ord af Kalegras.
A faint echo of the hypnotic trance of Kalegras and Blenzibly is the
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