> I wonder, though, is just leaving the incident out, as in R,
> wouldn't be wise? Still undecided here...

There's also the question of parallels. If the Arngrímr stays with
the king and becomes his trusted second-in-command, that parallels the
development of Heiðrekr. That fits in with the very typical pattern
in these legends of showing both outcomes from a situation: what
happens when a hero serves under a king but doesn't betray him, and
what happens when the hero does betray the king and take over. Some
good stuff on this in Aguirre, Manuel (2002), "Narrative composition
in The Saga of the Volsungs" (Saga Book XXVI). And it shows a
progression in Arngrímr's descendents of increasing ambition, cunning
and power. In that respect, the R version seems neater or more subtle
than U-H, although they have some interesting ideas of their own
elsewhere.

> Yes, but many of the courtly refernces, for example the 23 chapt.
> description of Sigurðr, are later interpolations. One only needs to
> claim so many times in a story about a man that he was the greatest
> and most famous, etc..;)

I was thinking as well of the way the characters behave after that
turning point. Take Sigurðr's ancestors: Sigi who kills the thrall in
a fit of jealously, just because the thrall had a better day's hunting
than him, Völsungr with his recklessness and lack of concern for his
daughter's wishes, Signý and Sinfjötli who slaughter their own
relatives for vengeance and to restore the family to greatness... But
then Sigurðr, even after he discovers that he was tricked with the
potion of forgetfulness (end of ch. 29, right after the wedding
celebrations), is prepared to let things go on as they are for the
sake of appearnces or because the situation has become too
complicated, instead of just asserting his will.

Of course, part of this strangeness might come from the fact that
different versions of the story have been combined and the joins not
entirely plastered over; or maybe sometimes characters make peculiar
choices in order to try to fit the different versions together better.
But still it can make for some interesting effects. It's a while
since I read this article: Ney, Agneta (2002), "Genus och rumslighet i
Völsunga saga" [
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/ ], but I seem
to remember it covered some of these themes and makes a lot of the
contrast between the courtly elements in the later part of the saga,
as against its wild and mythical beginnings.