[7] hvalr kyrði sjá ‘a whale calmed the sea’: Chapter 3 of the saga relates that the whale which protects Ketill’s boat against the fury of the storm appears to him to have the eyes of a human being. The implication is that the benevolent whale is in fact a shape-shifting magician. The motif of a benevolent whale is the reversal of a motif found in other fornaldarsögur, where a shape-shifter assumes the form of a whale to attack the ship of the hero; cf. GHr chs 2, 16 (FSGJ 3, 167, 238-9); Korm ch. 18 (ÍF 8, 265-6). In Frið ch. 3 a whale ridden by giantesses attacks the ships of the hero (FSGJ 3, 87-8).
References
- Bibliography
- FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
- ÍF 8 = Vatnsdœla saga. Ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 1939.
- Internal references
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 190. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=8> (accessed 28 March 2024)
- 2022, ‘ Anonymous, Kormáks saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 1031-1181. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=83> (accessed 28 March 2024)
- 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Gǫngu-Hrólfs saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 298. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=89> (accessed 28 March 2024)