Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Page 227

when Kalegras dies is in stark contrast to the Norwegian Blensinbil’s
loquacity; not a word is uttered:
Blenzibly fékk svå mikils låt Kalegras, at hon lifåi får nætr
å5r hon sprakk af harmi; slåan var hon log5 I stein^ro hjå
Kalegras. (ch. 5, p. 24)
(Blenzibly took the death of Kalegras so badly that she lived only a
few nights before she died of grief. She was then laid in a stone
coffin beside Kalegras.)
And the author concludes the Blenzibly-Kalegras section of the Saga af
Tristram ok Isodd with a cryptic understatement: Toksk petta med und-
arligum hætti, enda lyktisk med pvi (ch. 5, p. 24 ‘The affair both began
and ended in a strange fashion’). Not much different is Tristram’s demean-
or, at the end of the saga, upon learning that the sails are black, that is,
when he assumes that Isodd has not come to heal him. A terse statement
is his only utterance:
“Pat mundi mik,” sagdi hann, “ekki vara, at Morodd komjngr
léti hana ekki fara, ef lif mitt lægi vid, ok ekki veit ek,” sagdi
hann, “hverju |3etta sætir.” (ch. 14, p. 76)
(“That I would not have expected,” he said, “that King Morodd
would not let her go if my life depended on it. And I do not know,”
he said, “what is the reason for it.”)
And Tristram dies. A laconic remark in the Icelandic Saga af Tristram
replaces the pathetic effusiveness of Tristram’s dying words in the Nor-
wegian saga (see p. 171).
The stylistic individuality of Erex saga and the Icelandic Saga af Tris-
tram ok Isodd on one hånd - when compared with the other Arthurian
sagas - and the stylistic similarity between Erex saga and the Icelandic
Tristrams saga on the other hånd is also apparent in dramatic scenes.
Like Erex, Tristram kills a dragon, but the account of the slaying differs
stylistically in the Norwegian and Icelandic versions (see Appendix IV).
The major difference obtaining between the two is not one of length but
rather of style and of narrative perspective. Brother Robert’s account is
expansive, with an eye to detail. The fearsome dragon receives its due in
the Norwegian version with a proper description of appearance and behav-
15 King Arthur
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