Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 221

he has exerted tremendous effort to bend the bars of the grating far
enough apart for him to squeeze through (vv. 4651 ff.). In the effort
Lancelot’s hånd is wounded and, like Tristram in the Icelandic saga,
biood from the injured hånd is later found in the queen’s bed. In the
Icelandic Saga af Tristram occur both the motif of entry through a win-
dow and of injury to the hånd, which we know from Lancelot, but the
injury is not the result of a feat of strength. The jump from the window
into Isodd’s bed presumably is a remnant from the Norwegian Tristrams
saga, but it is entirely unmotivated. Thus, Tristram’s behavior appears to
be an expression of youthful exuberance. Moreover, the episode is ludi-
crous: the lover who was foolish enough to step into the flour during
another assignation, now misjudges the distance and lands on the edge of
the bed, instead of in it. His clumsiness - rather than a previous wound or
one incurred in gaining entry - is alone responsible for the biood that
betrays his visit to Isodd’s bed.
For her part Isodd needs to provide an explanation for the presence of
biood. Since biood from re-opened veins has been supplanted by biood
from a wound occasioned by a clumsy jump, the somewhat homely motif
of a self-inflicted wound - by means of a domestic utensil - is introduced.
Not unexpectedly, the author who depicts a queen with a pair of scissors
by her bedside - for manicuring or sewing - also introduces a novel twist
into one of the lovers’ trysts: Tristram accompanies Isodd to a well where
she goes to wash her linen. Over this well falis the shadow of Morodd
who is sitting in the overhanging branches of a tree (ch. 11). The melan-
choly Norwegian queen who was accustomed to sitting by a brook in the
evenings i skemmtan sinni ok kæra atburdi æsku sinnar (p. 120, ‘for her
amusement and to lament the events of her youth’) has been transformed
into a domestic woman concerned about the practical details of everyday
life.
Just as prosaic as the daughter is Isodd’s mother, Queen Flurent. Like
King Arthur, the queen has a penchant for news, and the official bearer
of tidings to her court merits a proper introduction. Nonetheless, his
identity is strikingly incongruous and therefore amusing:
Så madr var med drottningu, er Kolir hét; hann idnadi Jjat, at
hann var ættborinn til, ok ekki vissi hann l^ann sinn frænda,
er adra idn hefdi haft: hann gætti svina ok var f>ræll fastr å
fotum; en svinahusinu var svå komit, at J)at stod vid sæ.
Flurent drottning hafdi svå fyrir mælt, at Kollr skyldi fyrst til
segja, hvat sem hann sæi i tidindum. (ch. 9, p. 46).
207