Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1978, Page 34

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Sniolvs kvæði
from Sniolvs kvaði, but the other two really concern the
Ásmund of Torbjørn Bekil — one is the fight with the troll
Torbjørn Bekil to win the hand of Halga, and the other is
the healing of his wounds by his mother after that same fight.
The tendency to incorporate parts of Torbjørn Bekil into
the Sniolv cycle on Sandoy may well be a reflex of the same
interest in the backgrounds of main characters that led to the
expansion of the cycle through the composition of new tættir
sketching the youthful exploits of Sniolv and Hildibrand (Rana
táttur), Grím (Hildardalsstríð and Risin á Blálandi), and even
Ásmund the villain (Hildibrands táttur and Virgars táttur).
For those who had confused the two Ásmunds, the ballad
Torbjørn Bekil would tell the story of the coming of age of the
villain of the Sniolv cycle. However, this confusion of the two
Ásmunds overlooks the fact that they are of vastly different
character. Ásmund »kellingarson« of Torbjørn Bekil, who lies
around in the kitchen during the day and practices the martial
arts at night, saves the maid Halga from the brutish threats
of a giant and his thugs. But Ásmund »ungi« of Sniolvs kvæði
is himself a thug who roams around raping women and
winning duels by the wicked use of magic. Certainly, Ásmund
»kellingarson« and Ásmund »ungi« could not originally have
been conceptualized as one and the same character! The con-
fusion of these two figures evident in the Sandoy texts of
Sniolvs kvxði must have arisen well after the establishment
in tradition of the two separate and very different Ásmunds.
We can sometimes distinguish between older and younger
tættir of the Sniolv cycle by looking at the way the ballad
man has sought to place his particular story in the context
of the rest of the cycle. In older ballads future episodes were
foreshadowed by means of an extended dramatic scene con-
taining some element of the supernatural — a prophecy, dream,
or curse. However, in the younger tættir the ballad man tends
either to make a simple aside to the audience or else to endow
a character with foreknowledge of the future without the ele-
ment of the supernatural. Compare, for example, the foresha-