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sition of metrical versions of the romantic sagas, both translated and
indigenous. Of the Arthurian riddarasogur only Mottuls saga and Tris-
trams saga inspired the composition of narrative poems, to judge by
extant manuscripts.
The Icelandic Tristrams kvædi is just as remarkable a case of re-
creation of the Tristan legend as is the Saga af Tristram ok lsodd.23
Whereas the latter distorts and parodies the Tristan legend, Tristrams
kvædi distills the essence of the tragic love story and concentrates on the
final separation and, paradoxically, union of the lovers in death. Tris-
trams kvædi, which was composed around 1400, relates the events com-
mencing with the wounding of Tristram, his longing for Isodd’s arrival,
and his final disappointment and death. Tristram’s fate hangs in the
balance and is determined by the actions of the contrasting female prota-
gonists, lsodd bjarta (lsodd the fair) and lsodd svarta (lsodd the dark).
Incidentally, the Icelandic saga also sets the two women in opposition by
the choice of similar antithetic epithets, fagra (fair) and svarta (dark).
The ballad conveys an aura of hopelessness and doom, for the poem is
punctuated by the relentlessly recurring prophetic refrain: Jjeim var ekki
skapad nema ad skilja (‘for them it was fated only to part’). Nonethe-
less, as in both the Norwegian and Icelandic sagas, the ballad also cele-
brates the lovers’ metaphysical union - despite the separation of their
physical remains - in the symbol of the entwining branches of trees that
spring up from their graves. The ballad exists in several redactions, one
of which (in the manuscript AM 153 8vo) substitutes the refrain og er så
sæll, sem sofna nåir hjå henni (‘he is blissful who is lucky enough to fall
asleep beside her’). The change of refrain mitigates somewhat the tragic
tone of the ballad, and at the same time makes the final image of the
embracing branches a stronger statement of hope.
The matiére de Bretagne is also represented in rimur, a popular genre
23 For the various versions of Tristrams kvædi, see Svend Grundtvig and Jon Sigurdsson,
eds. lslenzk fornkvædi, Nordiske Oldskrifter udgivne af det nordiske Literatur-Samfund,
XIX (Copenhagen, 1854), pp. 186-207. Also Jon Helgason, ed., lslenzk fornkvædi. Is-
landske folkeviser, III, Ed. Arnam. B, 12 (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1962), pp. 198-201.
For a discussion of the ballad, see Paul Schach, “Tristan and Isolde in Scandinavian Ballad
and Folktale,” SS, 36 (1964), p. 286; the same, “Some Observations on the Influence of
Tristrams saga ok Isdndar on Old Icelandic Literature,” Old Norse Literature and Mythol-
ogy. A Symposium, ed. Edgar C. Polomé (Austin and London: University of Texas Press,
1969), pp. 105-106.
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