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Saga-Book of the Viking Society
The circumstances in which the ruse is here employed
differ so markedly however from those of the Turgesius
story (an occasion of feigned friendship made possible by
the amorous aspirations of the intended victim) that the
classical account can hardly be said to provide a satisfactory
parallel or a likely source.P''
To date, therefore, no satisfactory parallel to Gerald's
account of how Turgesius died has been found in classical
Latin literature.
If we put Prymskvioa aside as being of indeterminate
relevance, there remain the "Saxon" (or Vortigern)
parallels and the Greek. As regards geographical and
chronological proximity, the former group has the
advantage as a prospective source. On formal grounds,
however, it is rather deficient. For, though there is the
concealment of weapons with treacherous intent on an
occasion of feigned friendship, 24 the idea of disguising men
as women is lacking. 25 Some of the Greek accounts, by
contrast, present a virtually perfect parallel to the
Turgesius tale, with men being disguised as women to
slay would-be lovers with weapons which they have
concealed on their persons. 26
Two considerations make it difficult however to derive
23 In III, ii, 8 Frontinus tells how Epaminondas got troops into an enemy
town by disguising them as women. Cf. Polyaenus, II, iii, 1. With these
classical instances of motif K,2357.8 compare those alluded to in note 19
above.
.. Neither, of course, is an uncommon idea. Cf. for instance Thompson's
motifs K,818 ff, For feigned friendship with treacherous intent, ct.
Thompson, Cross and Boberg, K,8II ff. Also motifs K,2357 fl.
26 Another difference is that in the "Saxon" story the enemy is spared, while
in Gerald's he is not. Moreover if Gerald was using the Vortigern tradition it
might be thought unlikely that he would draw attention to the fact by
alluding to that tradition as he does in the self-same Topographia Hiberniae
(see note 5 above). While it might be thought a simple matter for Gerald to
alter or conflate such sources, the balance of probability is against his having
done so, as will be indicated below.
36 Herodian of Antioch, History of the Roman Empire IV, x-xi, has an
account of marriage promised with treacherous intent. In as much as it
culminates in an actual wedding ceremony and feast, it resembles Prymskvi"a,
but there is no use of disguise. In Caithreim Ceallachdin Caisil (ed. A. Bugge,
1905), par. 27-9, the Vikings plan to capture Cellachan by promising to give him
one of their women to marry. They are foiled however by the woman who,
disguised as a bondmaid, informs Cellachan of the plan. G. F. Dalton, Folklore
81 (1970), 15, regards the death of Turgesius as a ritual killing.