Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1978, Page 35

Sniolvs kvæði
43
dowing of the death Sniolv in the oldest layer of the ballad
with the technique used to refer to future episodes in the
younger tættir. In Sniolvs táttur the foreshadowing is con-
tained in a scene composed in six stanzas in which Sniolv’s
wife awakens in the middle of the night and tells her husband
that she has dreamt about a knight who will cut off his head
in a fight. But in Hildardalsstríð the narrator foreshadows the
chief tragedy of the cycle by simply announcing at the end
of the táttur that this was the last battle that Hildibrand fought
before he killed his son:
108 Hetta var tað síðsta stríð,
satt at siga frá,
uttan har á grønum vølli,
hann sín sonin vá.
109 Uttan hann á grønum vølli,
hann sín sonin vá,
eg svørji tann eið við mína trúgv,
tá lá hann sjálvur hjá.6
At the close of the young táttur Risin á Blálandi Grím,
looking ahead to the tragedy of Gríms táttur, tells Sjúrð Sig-
mundarson that he does not want to fight with so great a
champion and that he has to hurry home because he expects
Ásmund to arrive soon:
39 »Ert tú Sjúrður Sigmundarson,
eg vil ikki við teg stríða,
hann er eingin so reystur á fold,
ið torir tínum brandi bíða.
40 Plaga so allir høviskir sveinar
at fremja dyst og stríða,
tær gevi eg nú sigur í hond,
meg lystir nú heim at ríða.