Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Page 82

90
The Case of >Hernilds kvæði
blood relative is the taking of vengeance for the slaying of
a still closer relation, as in »Guttormur í Hattarmóti« (CCF
58). Thus, it would appear that the treatment of kin slaying
in »Hermundur illi« is somewhat unusual: Hermundur kills
his uncle and takes ostensibly as reward the hand of the
princess. This ballad is unsettling, for it deals in an ambiguous
manner with the most serious of crimes. Perhaps for precisely
this reason it has proved popular, fascinating audiences
throughout the Faroe Islands: the moral of the story is unclear,
prompting each listener to make his or her own judgment of
the actions of the characters.19
Several variants of »Hermundur illi« reflect the interest of
singers of these texts in resolving the ballad’s moral ambiguity
by either apologising for or indicting characters involved with
the kin slaying. On one hand, the texts from Skúvoy and
Sandoy (CCF 66 Ca and b, Ea and b) vindicate Hermundur:
in them he slays only his father’s foster brother. The texts
from Sandoy also exculpate the two women, Halga and Beyða,
who by their marriage have seemed to approve of the killings
of their father and brother. First, the E-texts justify somewhat
Halga’s marriage to Hermundur, the slayer of her father, by
stressing from the very outset that they love each other:
10 Kongurin eigur eina dóttur,
runnin er upp í ský,
hagar leggur Hermundur
allar ástir í.
11 Kongurin eigur eina dóttur,
runnin er upp sum lilja,
hagar leggur Hermundur
ástir og allan vilja.
12 Tá leið ikki longur um
enn eina so lítla stund,
nú leggur hann ást við Halgu
í teirri grønu lund.