Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Page 83

The Case of »Hernilds kvæði'
91
13 Tá leiS ikki longur um
enn eina so lítla tíð,
nú leggur hann ást viS Halgu
í teirri grønu líS.20
Thus, Halga in the E-texts is a woman whose choices are
made difficult because her loyalties are divided between her
father and her childhood sweetheart. This is a very different
figure from the Halga of the D-text from Fugloyarbók dis-
cussed above, who has capriciously shifted her loyalty during
the course of the ballad story from her father to a new boy-
friend. Second, BeySa, who in all other texts is Hergeiri’s
sister, is presented in the E-texts as merely Halga’s hand-
maiden, so that her marriage to HeiSrikur has nothing to do
with the issue of kin slaying. Furthermore, she is described
in the E-texts as much less hostile to Hermundur, her future
brother-in-law, than in any of the other texts — she is not
suspicious of his disguise; she repents of having given the alarm
about the killing of Hergeiri; and later she is sent by Halga
to the earl to get help for his imprisoned son, and aids the
rescuer in finding his way.
The composer of »Hernilds kvæði« went much further than
the traditors of the D and E-texts of »Hermundur illi« in
attempting to resolve the moral crux. Whereas they sought to
understand the crimes of the hero and heroine in terms of their
characters and motives, the composer of »Hernilds kvæði«
considered these crimes incomprehensible from any viewpoint
and chose rather to reconstruct the ballad story so that it might
be more edifying, telling about families that were loyal to each
other rather than those that were not.
In working out his new ballad the composer of »Hernilds
kvæði« used as his point of departure a variant of »Hermundur
illi« very similar to the D-text in which the hero kills his
father’s brother for the sake of a woman of less than admirable
character. His moralizing reinterpretation of the characters’
interrelationships led the composer to make two important