Sæll Alan,

> Throughout this story ‘konungr’ appears countless times

without a definite article where, in English, one would normally be
used; then out of the blue, the article is used in: ‘Ok nú er
hann sá konunginn.’ Can anyone give a reason why it would be used
on this particular occasion?

I don't know. Álvarez: "Antiguo Islandés" says that most of the
time there are no hard and fast rules governing the use of the
suffixed article, but presumably there must have been some feeling
about when it was right to use it. I'll look out for more
examples. The one thing I noticed here was that the king has been
mentioned a few times over the preceding few sentences, but this is
the point at which he actually appears in person. Could that have
something to do with it? Does it add to the drama of the moment?

Llama Nom