Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Side 251

claims the possessions - horses and armor - of those he defeats. There
are several parallels between the careers of Parceval and Vigkænn. Both
arrive at a king’s court totally ignorant of the ways of knighthood; the
mothers of both young men think ill of their plans to enter the service of
the king. Nonetheless, Vigkænn is sent off with his mother’s blessing as it
were: he receives a magic needle that metamorphoses into a spear upon
contact with an enemy; he receives appropriate garments, and his mother
foretells that he will not be wanting in speech - hann muni ekki mælsku
skorta (p. 5). Unlike Parcevals saga, mother and son in Vigkæns saga part
most amicably: skiljast frau nu med kærleikum (p. 5). Like Parceval,
Vigkænn must also acquire skili at arms. Whereas Parceval learns the art
of chivalric combat from Gormanz, Vigkænn is a self-taught man, who
must practice tilting on the meadow where only his cows can appreciate
his efforts.
The realms of romance and folk tale share some stereotypes. Giants
play the role of villain in both riddarasaga and folk tale. Thus, it comes as
no surprise that Vigkæns saga contains an analogue to another episode in
Ivens saga. Like I ven, whose prowess in battie prevents two sons of a
giant from abducting a noble maiden, Vigkænn fights in the course of
three days - each time on a different horse and in a different suit of armor
- to prevent three giants from carrying off the king’s daughter. In both
Ivens saga and Vigkæns saga the antagonists intend to marry the maiden
in question. Throughout, Vigkænn remains unrecognized by the king’s
men. The cowherd fights uncommonly well, albeit not in an entirely
chivalrous manner. When his sword proves ineffective at one point, he
unhesitatingly picks up a stone to cast at the antagonist’s head. The
method of combat is unorthodox; still, one ought to remember that Par-
ceval slays the Red Knight in as unchivalric a manner as Vigkænn. Like
Parceval, Vigkænn also fights in armor he has expropriated from slain
opponents, and in his final effort to save the princess he appears as Red
Knight - å raudum hesti, og var hann i raudum herklædum (p. 16 ‘on a
red horse, and dressed in a red suit of armor’).
Arthur’s knights are wont to fight anonymously. Iven is known to
many only as the Knight of the Lion, unrecognized even by his own wife.
Vigkænn receives the epithet så mikli madr (‘the large man’) during his
three-fold appearance to aid the king’s men against the forces of the
giants. The appellative thenceforth recurs regularly. After the enemy has
finally been defeated, the king promises the hånd of his daughter and half
his kingdom to så mikli madr (pp. 17; 19) - if he can be located. Still,
when Vigkænn is identified by one of the king’s retainers, the monarch
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