[In the following excerpt, Kalinke examines the influence of the Volsunga Saga on the “May-December” marriage trope as it appears in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.]

The Tristan tale may justifiably be considered the medieval European bridal-quest romance par excellence. Neither Brother Robert's Tristrams saga ok Ísondar, however, nor the anonymous Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar is exemplary for bridal-quest narrative in Iceland. The acme of Icelandic bridal-quest romance is Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, which was presumably composed toward the end of the thirteenth century.¹ The bridal quest is the saga's raison d'être, and in the quadripartite structure, each section dominated by a bridal quest, the author realized the narrative potential of the bridal quest as the generating force of the plot. The saga evinces a skillful blending of foreign and indigenous motifs and strikingly modifies certain topoi associated with romance on the continent. The author was well acquainted with native as well as foreign traditions, which he combined to fashion a tale characterized by a remarkable lucidity of structure.²

The plot of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is based on four wooing expeditions;³ the first—that of Hrólf's father Gautrekr—has an anticipatory function: as prelude to the major portion of the narrative, it foreshadows subsequent bridal quests that in turn reflect and vary matter introduced in old King Gautrek's journey for wooing. The object of the second, third, and fourth quests is to seek brides for Hrólfr, for his brother Ketill, and for his blood-brother Ásmundr. Although the plot is repetitive in the sense that the object of each of the four expeditions is the same, the obstacles encountered by the respective wooers as well as the character of the prospective brides are quite different, so that the diversity and suspense of the narrative are assured.

Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar may be said to be paradigmatic for Icelandic bridal-quest romance inasmuch as it embraces in its four major sections the basic types of conflict exploited by the authors of Icelandic bridal-quest narrative: in old King Gautrek's quest, the confrontation with a rival suitor; in Hrólf's at first unsuccessful mission, the refractory maiden ruler who rejects all suitors; in Ketil's bridal quest, an inimical father and his equally inimical daughter; in Ásmund's journey for wooing, a ruthless and disapproving father, but a favorably inclined daughter. At the same time that the four bridal quests reflect similar situations in other Icelandic narratives, not all of them romances, they diverge, often ingeniously, from standard motifs and situations in continental romance. Moreover, they provide a striking counterpoint to the manner in which other medieval authors, continental as well as Icelandic, known as well as anonymous, solved similar literary problems.

Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar opens with the depiction of a country in decline because of neglect by its aging king. The death of his wife has affected King Gautrekr so deeply that he fails to attend to the business of ruling his realm. The king's apathy is reminiscent of a similar episode depicting a ruler who ignored his obligations, that is, the recreantise episode in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide (vv. 2434-69). Whereas King Gautrekr fails in his royal obligations because of the loss of his wife, Erec's similar failure results from the opposite, an excessive indulgence in connubial pleasure. As happens in Chrétien's romance, the courtiers' negative comments rouse the delinquent king out of his lethargy in Hrólfs saga, and the plot unfolds with Gautrekr's decision to seek a bride.

As a rule, bridal-quest narratives have as their protagonist an eligible young bachelor. In the first section of Hrólfs saga, however, the wooer, King Gautrekr, is described as a man getting on in years but still vigorous. The woman on whom he has set his heart is Ingibjorg, the young daughter of a Norwegian nobleman from Sogn. Because she is considered a most excellent match, many suitors have already sought her hand, but with negative result. The image of Ingibjorg as projected by the author is that of the haughty princess who rejects all wooers because she does not think any of them good enough for her (FSN, iv, 54).

To the reader's—and presumably also old King Gautrek's—amazement, the obstacle to the successful conclusion of his wooing mission is not the young woman's arrogance, but rather the precedence of a rival suitor, a man of good prospects to whom, unexpectedly, Ingibjorg has already given a favorable answer. The situation depicted in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar—rival suitors, one old, the other young, for the hand of the same young woman—is not original; it is presumably based on the bridal quest of old King Sigmundr, the father of Sigurðr the Dragon Slayer, for Hjordís, daughter of a famous king named Eylimi. Although no Eddic poem depicting the courtship and wedding of Sigurð's parents is extant, chapter 11 of Volsunga saga, the mid-thirteenth-century prose version of Eddic poems, is devoted to Sigmund's successful bridal quest and wedding with Hjordís.⁴ Despite minor discrepancies between Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar and Volsunga saga, the accounts of the wooing have the same essential elements of plot:

• (1) The elderly king is a widower;
• (2) he sets out to seek the hand of an outstanding young woman;
• (3) a young rival appears on the scene;
• (4) the father of the prospective bride allows the daughter to make her own choice;
• (5) the daughter chooses the man whom she considers the more famous, despite his advanced age;
• (6) the rejected suitor gathers an army to attack the successful rival.

The only difference between the two accounts—discounting style and the manner in which the material is presented—is the outcome of the battle. In Hrólfs saga Gautrekr slays his young challenger and his entire army, whereas in Volsunga saga the elder man, Sigmundr, is killed, not for want of bravery, but rather because of intervention from the supernatural: one-eyed Óðinn appears in his broad-brimmed hat and blue cloak before Sigmundr and, when the latter strikes his supernatural opponent's spear, Sigmund's weapon shatters and the tide of battle turns against him. In Volsunga saga we are in the world of mythicalheroic legend; in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar the spirit of romance prevails. In each saga the bride goes on to give birth to an illustrious hero, but in Hrólfs saga, unlike Volsunga saga, the author allows Ingibjorg's instinct for the better man—who presumably would also be the better warrior—to be vindicated, in that King Gautrekr overcomes his younger rival. Gautrekr and his wife Ingibjorg are given the role of exemplary persons who in their reasonable and prudent conduct prefigure and anticipate, as it were, the qualities that are to mark the career of their illustrious son Hrólfr.

The opening section of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar undoubtedly owes its inception to the motifs and narrative structure of chapter 11 of Volsunga saga: the bridal quest; rival suitors, the one old, the other young; choice of the older man by the prospective bride; the attack on the successful wooer by the rejected suitor. Although the essential elements are the same, the spirit that pervades the two accounts differs considerably, since the author of Hrólfs saga—but not of Volsunga saga—permits a glimpse into the psyche of the individuals involved. The qualities that distinguish Gautrekr and Ingibjorg are to be inherited by their younger son, the eponymous protagonist. Although Hrólf's own bridal quest as well as his bridal missions on behalf first of his brother Ketill and then of his sworn brother Ásmundr differ considerably from that of his father, the author consistently shapes behavioral patterns and events as reflexes of the introductory section of the saga that is devoted to Hrólf's parents. The author's intrinsic belief in reason, which is first enunciated by Ingibjorg, when she is asked to choose between the older and the younger suitor, is to be reflected time and again as the plot unfolds.

The Old Norse-Icelandic translations of continental romance have been repeatedly faulted for their apparent lack of interest in one of the distinctive traits of courtly romance, the tendency to express and analyze the emotions, especially love. Given the fact that our manuscripts of most of the translated riddarasogur are at best about a century's remove from the time of translation and at worst about four centuries,⁵ the reason for the abbreviated state of some of the most lyrical portions of courtly romance in the Old Norse-Icelandic versions may be not so much the translator's distaste for emotional expression as that of a later redactor or copyist. However that may be, a saga such as Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar shows that Icelandic authors were not averse to having characters express their innermost thoughts. To the contrary, the persons depicted in Hrólfs saga have a tendency to think out loud and to carry on reasoned discourses with each other, to weigh the pros and cons of a situation. They are not timid in expressing their opinions and tend to choose a course of action that is based on meticulous reasoning. The reactions of Hjordís in Volsunga saga and of Ingibjorg in Hrólfs saga, upon being asked to choose between the younger and the older suitor, are revealing. The decision is difficult, Hjordís replies, yet she chooses the more famous king, Sigmundr, despite his advanced years (FSN, i, 135).

Ingibjorg's response is as verbose as Hjordís's is laconic. Moreover, she begins with an ironic disclaimer, ironic if one considers the wisdom of her words and the role she is to play later as counseling and moderating influence on her husband. She points out that for a woman with as little experience as she has, it is not easy to act sensibly; both kings are great men and more than good enough for her. Nonetheless, she launches into a lucid justification for her choice of the older man over the younger. She compares the two kings to apple trees, the younger with the promise, but the older with the certainty of a fine crop. She points to Gautrek's generosity, illustriousness, bravery, munificence, and the fact that an old man can nonetheless beget sturdy sons. She concludes her long apologia for choosing age over youth by remarking that she suspects that Óláfr will never become as great a king as Gautrekr (FSN, iv, 55-56). Gautrek's unabashed pleasure at hearing her words is unmistakable, for “he jumped to his feet like a young man.” The wisdom of King Gautrekr in wooing Ingibjorg and of Ingibjorg in choosing him over the younger Óláfr becomes clear when the author remarks that King Gautrekr and his wife came to love one another dearly (FSN, iv, 58).

As we have shown, Ingibjorg's choice of old King Gautrekr over young King Óláfr has a precedent in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, in Volsunga saga. From the broader perspective of other medieval literatures, however, the situation depicted by the author of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar is unusual. May-December marriages tend to be unhappy for the wife, who frequently ends up taking a young lover. The conflict generated by the discrepancy in age between wife and husband that leads to a wife's infidelity is the basis for many a medieval narrative, such as Chaucer's “Miller's Tale,” in which the carpenter's stance vis-à-vis his eighteen-year-old wife, “which that he lovede moore than his lyf” (v. 3222), provides the topos for the narrative type:

Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage,
For she was wylde and yong, and he was old,
And demed hymself been lik a cokewold.

(vv. 3224-26)

Notes

1. Hermann Pálsson, “Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar,” DMA, vi, 310.

2. In his edition of the saga, Ferdinand Detter, to the contrary, remarked disparagingly: “Ästhetischen Werth hat natürlich diese Compilation, welche unter dem Titel Hrólfssaga Gautrekssonar überliefert ist, nicht” (Zwei Fornaldarsögur [Halle: Niemeyer, 1891], p. xli).

3. Hans-Peter Naumann underestimates, in fact ignores, the narrative function of the first bridal quest when he observes: “Drei Brautfahrten bestimmen die Komposition der Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, deren erste der in Västergötland beheimatete König Hrólfr für sich selbst, die zweite für seinen Bruder Ketill, die dritte und gefährlichste für den Waffengefährten Ásmundr unternimmt” (“Das Polyphem-Abenteuer in der altnordischen Sagaliteratur,” Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, 75 [1979], 183-84).

4. On dating, see E. F. Halvorsen, “Volsunga saga,” KLNM, xx: 348.

5. See Marianne E. Kalinke, “Norse Romance (Riddarasögur)” in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, ed. Carol J. Clover and John Lindow, Islandica, 45 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1985), pp. 332-34.