Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 243

sode in Ivens saga and in the romances that borrowed the grateful-lion
motif is the nature of the lion’s assailant. In Ivens saga the hero comes
upon a scene in which a lion struggles against a serpent (ormr) that is
holding the king of beasts by its tail, while singeing the animal with the
fire and venom it spews forth. In the analogues to this episode from Ivens
saga the serpent is transformed into a flying dragon. The nature of the
reptile’s attack on the lion may have occasioned the change, since fire
and venom are traditionally associated with dragons as, for example, in
Tristrams saga. The modification of the serpent from Ivens saga into a
flying dragon in the romances that adapted the dragon-lion episode must
have been inspired by acquaintance with Pidriks saga. It contains an
episode that relates how Fidrikr attempts to rescue a lion engaged in a
struggle with a flying dragon. Some of the topoi from the episode were
used by the authors of the later romances to augment the material bor-
rowed from Ivens saga, in order to relate more dramatically how the lion was
delivered from the flying dragon.
The change from a creeping serpent to a flying dragon in the later
romances necessitated some modification of the episode as we know it
from Ivens saga and enabled the authors to introduce new elements and
expand the narrative. For example, the dragon is pictured in mid-air,
carrying the lion with its claws dug into the lion’s side. In Konråds saga
keisarasonar the dragon is not depicted in flight; nonetheless, when the
hero comes to the dragon’s lair, he concludes that the beast must have
flown to the site with its victim, since the dragon’s claws are dug into the
lion’s flanks, while its tail is wrapped around the lion - presumably for a
securer grip in flight. In both Ectors saga and Sigurdar saga pogla the
dragon is depicted in flight in that very manner. The topos is also found in
Vilhjdlms saga sjods, but the author separates the component parts: he
depicts the dragon as it flies with its claws gripping the loins of the lion;
not until the hero kills the grounded monster, do we learn that its tail had
also been wrapped around the lion. By depicting the dragon in flight, the
author(s) could also relate dramatically how the lion resisted its abduc-
(Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1962); Grega saga, ed. Agnete Loth, “Fragment af en ellers
ukendt ‘Grega saga’,” Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, XX, Opuscula, I, pp. 202-05; Sagan af
Kåra Kårasyni, ed. Einar Pordarson (Reykjavi'k, 1886); Kqnråds saga keisarasonar, ed.
Gustaf Cederschiold, in Fornsogur Sudrlanda, Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, XIX (Lund,
1884); Vilhjålms saga sjods, ed. Agnete Loth, LMIR, IV (Copenhagen, 1964); Sigurdar
saga f)dgla, ed. Agnete Loth, LMIR, II (1963).
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