Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1979, Page 84

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The Case of »Hernilds kvæði
changes in his source: (1) his Hernild is not related to the
count, and (2) he based his portrayal of Elin only on the Halga
that we find early in the source ballad — loyal to her father
and hostile to Hermundur. Therefore he deleted in his re-
working of the source ballad all of the sections bracketed in
the analysis above — namely, the king’s warning to his brother,
who is the father of the obstreperous hero, and the entire story
about the love between Halga and Hermundur (Section A);
the help that Halga gives Hermundur while he is in prison
(Section B); Halga’s heartless words at her father’s death (Sec-
tion C); and Heiðrikur’s marriage to Beyða (Section D). Like-
wise, the ballad man’s reinterpretation of his source led him
to insert into his new ballad several scenes to make his point
all the more clear: to emphasize family solidarity he added
one scene in which the hero and his brother seek the advice
of their father (Section b) and another in which the king’s
daughter, rather than submit to the hero, resists and has to be
overcome by force (Section c). The ballad man chose to end
his new ballad just like the old, by mentioning the fates of
both brothers; but owing to the omission of the story about
Halga and Hermundur’s love and loyalty, in which a second
woman plays a role, he had no one to pair Aksal with and had
to content himself with mentioning that Aksal, now in the role
of counselor, continues to help his brother (Section d). Section
a was added to the new ballad simply as gratuitous embellish-
ment of the capture scene.
If »Hernilds kvæði« is in fact a deliberate recasting of
»Hermundur illi,« then it is interesting to note how few
stanzas these two ballads have in common: of the total
seventy-six stanzas in »Hernilds kvæði« only fifteen have close
counterparts in the source ballad. The particularly close rela-
tionship already posited for thematic reasons between »Hern-
ilds kvæði« and the D-text of »Hermundur illi« is further
evidenced by the fact that six of these fifteen stanzas are only
to be found in the D-text and the rest also have without ex-
ception their closest parallels there.21 The composer of »Hern-