Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Medieval Iceland
*
saga,
,g8g
Stanford University
Contents
Press
Stanford, California
Preface
vll
Maps
xv
PART I INTRODUCTION
The Social Historical Setting
()
Appendix: A Text
Valla-Ljdts saga
63
II THE
SAGAS
r21
245
256
Appendixes
a: List of Characters
z89
s: Genealogies
296
Select Bibliography
303
Index
3r1)
Preface
*
viii
Pref ace
North America since r 96o is largely attributable to the ready access provided by islenzk Fornrit.
The work of Icelandic scholars in the production of the series
was guided by a particular point of view. These scholars are thus
f..qii.,',tly ref'eried to as the "Icelandic school," and this term is
appropriate in a double sense; the work was carried out by Icelari.l.rls, and it focused with great clarity the lcelandicness of the
sagas. 'fhe latter readjustment was in reaction to an earlier domi,rrii,rn of lcelandic siudies by Icelanders working abroad, such
as Gudbrandur Vigftisson in England and Finnur J6nsson in
Denmark, and particularly two generations of prolific Germanspeaking scholirs on the Continent, most notably the German
Konrad Maurer (r823-rgoz) and the Swiss Andreas Heusler
(1865-rg4o). Although Maurer forged the tools of modern
ruguitrdy, which needed only to be sharpened by his succe:t9..t,
thE astonishing popularity of the sagas in Germany inevitably
led to an emphasis on their pan-Germanic significance.
This t...rd was not a little abetted by the growth of German
nationalism in the first half of this century. Scholars were apt to
see the Sagas as a Germanic alternative to southern, classical, or
Christian iultural values, an alternative in which all the Germanic
nations were to some extent implicated. Such a view amounted
not only to an appropriation of Icelandic literature but also to a
Germanicization ut d hittoricization of it. It was held, for example, that the Sagas were accurate reproductions of oral tales
..rthing back intolhe Saga Age (93o- ro3o), that is, to a period
prior tJ the full emergence of the Icelandic commonwealth'
if tf," sagas were histoiically faithful to the traditions of this
early period, they could be viewed as, in some sense, Germanic.
They were consequently studied with an eye to Germanic law,
Germanic religion, Germanic literature, and Germanic value
systems.
this traditi,on. They were intent on separating the sagas f rom the
Germanic context and establishing them as a creation of imagi-
native Icelandic authors in the thirteenth century. These authors were heirs not of a Germanic cultural unity but of three
centuries of specifically Icelandic development. The inclusion
Preface
ix
in the Fornrit editions is the visible sign of the sagas' repatriation. The point is affirmed in the introductions, which provide
not only the basic infbrmation on chronology, dating, location,
authorship, and cast of characters but also devote some space to
the less traditional matter of literary appraisal. As a result, the
sagas, though anonymous, emerge as individually crafted artistic
works rather than as symptomatic documents. The emphasis in
this new approach was on literary relationships and source studies. Oral sources were programmatically deemphasized and written sources, real or hypothetical, were invoked to explain the process of composition. The saga author was promoted from a teller
of tales to a historical novelist with a library at his disposal.
There is no doubt whatever that this shift of focus was correct
and salutary. The Icelandic scholars formulated the problems
more precisely than their Continental colleagues and added impressively to our information. It is not likely that anyone will reiurn to the crude distinctions between Northern atld Southern
culture that characterized the period between the World Wars.
But reactions tend to overshoot the mark, and this is no less true
of the lcelandic correction than of others.
It is not so much a question of details, which will always be in
dispute. The reader will see that we disagree with the Islenzk
Foinrit editor of Ljdsaetninga saga (Bjorn Sigfiisson) on such
matters as the preferable redaction and the date of composition,
but the important disagreement has to do with the type of questions posed.
Although serious study of the sagas in North America was
made poriibl. only by the publicarion of islenzk Fornrit, American scholars were quick to take issue with the viewpoint underlying these volumes. This was in part because American scholars
were closely allied with larger European critical traditions: German philology, English practical criticism, Russian formalism,
the neotraditionalism of the Spaniard Ram6n Men6ndez Pidal,
and the largely homegrown theory of oral formulism in Homer.
What these trends had in common was that they were gi:ner:rl
theories of literature that attempted to convert specifics irrtrr
broad traditions, Structures, and rules. American schol:rrs w('l'('
not content to view the sagas as individual novels but trit'<l t':tlltct
Preface
writer.
Preface
xl
tural anthropologist Kirsten Hastrup in her ry7g Oxford dissertation (Hastrup rgBS). Their work was not a throwback to
the Germanic ethnography of the early twentieth century but
an attempt, in Meulengracht S6rensen's case, to read lcelandic
literature in terms of Icelandic social and cultural structures
and, in Hastrup's, to apply methods of analysis used in studies of
other premodern societies. This approach was another effort to
remove saga literature from Icelandic isolation and place it in a
larger crosscultural context. The proponents, like their literary
colleagues, were not satisfied that the idea of imaginative fiction
exhausted the significance of the sagas and tried to read them as
an expression of and a reflection on social and cultural norms.
The fact that dialogue, and even plot, might be an authorial
invention does not mean that the social and cultural processes
and values represented in the sagas are also fiction.'I'he world of
the sagas has been demonstrated to reveal a remarkable fit with
the range of social possibility that anthropologists have identified in other stateless societies. The saga writers did not invent
the culture and society in which they placed their stories; they
did not invent the norms of gift exchange and the feuding process. These were for the most part given to them ready-made by
the reality of an experience shared with their audience. Part of
this shared experience came from growing up and working in
the same land, part of it came from hearing the stories and
about the characters who made uP the world of the sagas. Life
and art influenced each other. The sagas were born of the experience of living in Iceland and in turn did much to create a consciousness of that experience. But orthodox literary-historical
study of the sagas has been willing to admit only the influence of
art in the sagas. The repetition of similar incidents in two different sagas is thus taken solely as an indication of literary relation
rather than as an indication that such incidents might acttrally
have occurred in the contexts described.
The case can be plausibly made that the sagas at times strl'l)lrss
xii
Preface
Preface
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iii
xlv
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Hals (in Fnjoskadale) (31)
Hals (in Svarfadardale) (3)
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Gnupar (45)
Hella (4)
Hlid (28)
Hofdi (38)
Hofsa (8)
Hrafnagil (24)
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Laugaland (10)
Ljosavatn (50)
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Lundarbrekka (52)
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Modrufell (22)
Modruvellir (20)
Myr (43)
lugnupspass
Naust (27)
Nes (32)
Oxara (51)
Reykir (46)
Reykjahlid (53)
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Silfrastead (15)
Skord (44)
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Svalbard (29)
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Tjorn (5)
Torfufell
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Upsir (2)
Vaglir (30)
Veisa (34)
Vellir (6)
(17)
Part I
*
I NTR ODIJCTION
Lj6suetninga saga and Valla-Ljdx su,ga belong ro a class of medieval Icelandic texts commonly called family sagas or, using a
(1s-
lendinga sggur). There are some three dozen of these sagas, composed for the most part in the thirteenth century (see Clover
rg8z, rg84; Schach rg8+).They tell stories about leading lcelandic figures and families from the time of the island'.s colonization
around goo to the middle of the eleventh century, or, in terms of
English chronology, from the time of King Alf red ro a few years
before the Norman Conquest.
One of the fortunate side benefits of the sagas, both family
and contemporary' sagas, is the abundance of social and cultural
information preserved in them. Some of this information may
be central to the narrative. This is often the case, for instance,
with the structures of feud and the disputing process, with the
ways of achieving and maintaining reputation, and with the depiction of the types of wrongs thar give rise to hostile action.
Some information, on the other hand, may be only incidental.
Introduction
naming patterns and kinship structures. A description of a paternity case gives invaluable information about ordeals. A death
scene provides the occasion to mentiotr that liquids were heated
by putting heated stones in them. From casual description as
well as artful dialogue, we learn the expectations surrounding
marriage and gift exchange, and so on.
The inestimable value the sagas have for the social and cultural historian is somewhat compromised by one nearly intractable problem. It is still very hard to get a sense of change through
time. Most of the sagas date from the thirteenth century, but it
has proven difficult to be very precise about their dates, either in
absolute terms or relative to each other. There is also the problem of knowing how to identify anachronism. Usual practice has
been to take the saga writer at his word when he shows a selfconscious antiquarian interest, although this is not without its
dangers. The author of Eyrbyggja saga, for instance, is frequently
cited as a source for Saga Age legal practice (ggo- ro3o), but it
could just as easily be that his antiquarianism is a pose to give
authority to his imagination. For the time being it is safest to assume that the society of the sagas rePresents the society the author was familiar with, that is, his own, adjusted to account for
the stories and memories of his parents and grandparents, to
which there might also be added genuine bits of preserved tradition from the time in which the narrative is set. The problem is
recognizing the latter when we see it. The law texts are of some
assistance in helping with the dating problem, but they are not
without similar difficulties. First written down in the early twelfth
century, the earliest surviving manuscripts contain late material
and some provisions that must have been relics even in the original text in the first half of the eleventh century. Most provisions
cannot be pinned down to a date any more exact than to Some
time in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
G,iven Iceland's geographical isolation and the slow rate of
t.echn<llogical change during the relevant centuries, it would be
tenrpting to solve the chronology problem by assuming that
things could not have changed much from the Saga Age (93o,o3o; through the beginning of the thirteenth century. There is
evidence that the dislocations of colonization were stabilized
relatively quickly. According to Ari Thorgilsson (d. r r48), the
Setting
Ir
of Norse colonization (ca. 87o). Recent bioarchaeological findings basically confirm this, although they push the dare forward
a little. They suggest that the maximum levels of exploitarion
of the environment had already been reached sometime early in
the eleventh century (McGovern er al. rg88) and began to shrink
thereafter because of poor conservation techniques and deteriorating climate. Archaeologists also believe the evidence shows
that Icelanders were very unresponsive to varying environmental constraints. They simply went on farming, herding, and constructing their houses the way they always had.
But we cannot be so sure that the social arrangements for exploiting the environment. were as slow to change as the technology of exploitation, even on an island as isolated from the European continent as Iceland was. The conversion of the Icelanders
to Christianity in the year rooo (as a result of an arbitration proceeding at the Allthing) eventually had some effect on the social
structure, although mostly unquanrifiable. Compulsory rirhes
were instituted in ro96, and in the long run their effect was to
increase wealth differentials within the free farmer class, reducing some to tenant or servant status and elevating others-those
farmers who owned churches-to landlords. And although the
natives never had to endure the degree of depredation on their
material resources by the church that was usual on the Continent, it would be ill advised ro conclude that the church had only
negligible social consequences. Valla-Lj6ts saga (ch. 3), in fact,
shows how the mere presence of christianity increased the density of rules in the culture, giving rise to more claims people
could make against others, even though the dispute also shows
how easily things like Sabbath rules could be assimilated into the
native way of disputing. The church hierarchy also provided an
apparatus for Norwegian kings to intervene in Icelandic affairs,
and this too must have had differing social effects over time.
Our sources, however, do not give us the means for determining the social effects of these changing political arrangemenrs in
any satisfactory way. The difficulty of assigning the sources arrrl
their contents to reliable chronologies means that our social lristory is by default relegated to a kind of ethnographic presenr. Ily
Introduction
judicious use of the sagas and laws, we can get a good static picture that fairly represents many of the norms and social institutions that characterized Icelandic society from about the first
third of the twelfth century to the last third of the thirteenth.
A moving picture would be much better, but at present we lack
the technology to create one.
'I'hen there is the problem of the composition and focus of
the picture we are able to reconstruct. The sagas are tales of the
well-heeled segments of the society. The lot of the lowly cotters,
the poor and even middling farmers, are seldom worth the sagawriters' attention unless it immediately impinges on the problems of the wealthier people. The lives and struggles of the poor
are for the most part lost to us. We are relegated to the law codes
regulating poor relief, Iabor contracts, debt-slavery, tenancies,
or treatment of beggars to try to get some sense of their condition. But these codes only tell us how the enfranchised thought
about treating the disenfranchised, not about how they actually
treated them. Some compensation is to be had from the fact that
we are able to capture significant glimpses of the life of servants
who populate the households of the better off, but it is still important to note that the picture of dispute processing and of political and social maneuvering that is the core of saga narrative is
a partial picture.
Judicial Institutions
The lceland of what is usually called the Commonwealth
period-from settlement ca. 87o to Norwegian hegemony in
rz6z-was a stateless society. However, incipient statelike institutions and offrces did exist: there were the "things," district
things meeting in the spring and fall, and one for all of Iceland
rneeting at Thingvellir annually for two weeks at midsummer;
arrd there were the "chieftains" (godi, pl. godar), whose formal
duty it was to inaugurate the things (Ljds. ch. zo) and select the
thirty-six judges who sat on the courts that met there (Ljbs.
.h. +). 'I-he things neither required nor possessed any bureaucratic structures. Institutional continuity was achieved by holding them at fixed locations during fixed times each year. They
were really nothing more than meetings of free f armers at which
Setting
Introduction
thit peofle had to protect themselves, and that they bore the
The early Icelandic l2ys5-sellectively known as Grd,gdsrecognized two .lass.J' free and slave. Saga evidence ,r,g[.rtr,
however, that slavery disappeared before the twelfth century
(Foote Lg77b).In fact, one of the last sfaves menrioned according to saga chronology is Thorstein the debt-slave in Ljfisuetninga
saga around ro65. Yet the rather insistent provisiorn in Grd,gd,s,
even discounting for the possibility that they are anachronisms,
suggest that enslavement for debt might have been very much a
reality well into the twelfth century. In contrast to the early
Anglo-saxon laws, Icelandic law made no distinction in wergeld'',
values among the ranks of freemen. In theory the corpses of the
poorest farmer and the wealthiest chieftain had the same price.
The practice was otherwise. A cursory consideration of the arbitrated settlements in the sagas shows much variation in compensation awards, with such factors as the status and popularity of
the victim playing a significant role in the determination. The
law, however, did admit some distinctions among free farmers.
Householders (b6ndi, pl. bandr) who mer a cerrain properry
requirement had greater rights and duties rhan those who did
not meet it. A qualifying householder, among other things, was
obliged to attend the thing or send a substiture on his behalf or
2"Wergeld" is the name applied to the
payment that the killer an<l lris
kin are supposed to pay the victim's kin. In theory, if not always irr pr':u tice, payment of wergeld bought off the avenger's ax.
to
Introduction
else pay a thing attendance tax (Grd,gd,s,lu 44, l5g); they were
also eligible to serve as jurors. Other provisions made various
matters hinge on whether one had servants or not, and whether
lt
times prestige.
Introduction
rectangle. Excavations of the farm at Stong, destroyed by volcanic eruption in r ro4, reveal a hall about fifteen yards long, as
well as a smaller living area about half that (Foote and Wilson
bers, who slept on turf benches running along the walls of the
hall. Clearly the layout did not offer much privacy, although the
head of household might gain some by sleeping in a locked bed
closet (Ljds. ch. r8).
Setting
r.4
tlrcir simplicity. Not att ctiildren left the home upon marriage.
l',xurnples from other sagas show that a bride might move in with
lrcr- husband's parents, or a husband with his bride's parents,
thus establishing joint households (Miller rg88b). Brothers
olien moved in with their married sisters, as they waited for a
krng-lived father to die so that the family farm might become
:rvailable. The death of parents also meant a transformation of
household structure. Surviving sons might divide the properr/,
r:hoosing to set up independent, but neighboring, establishrnents at their father's death (VL ch.3). Or, as with Gudmund's
sons, they might end up householding together despite Eyjolf's
irritial attempt to deny his brother his inheritance (Ljds. ch. zz).
Saga evidence shows that even impoverished simple households had some servants, usually women (see VL ch. 1, I,ids.
ch. r8), while the wealthiest, as noted above, could have a large
number. The laws provided that everyone not him- or herself a
householder had to be attached formally ro a household. Men
over sixteen and single women over twenty were allowed to
make their own lodging arrangements; others had it made by
the person responsible for them. The arrangement was a matter
of contract, with uniform, year-long terms negotiated annually
in the spring. This is the legal bond rhat connected Thorkel
Geitisson and Vodu-Brand (Ljds. .h. g) and the arrangement
Isolf made with Eyjolf on behalf of Fridgerd, his daughter (Lj6s.
chs.
r-r1).
The ranks of servants were made up of people of greatly differing expectations. Some servants were what historical demographers call lif'e-cycle servants. These were the sons and daughters of independent farmers who, if boys, had to bide their time
until the family farm became available, or if girls, until a suitable
marriage could be arranged. Such were both Vodu-Brand and
Fridgerd. But the lot of many servants must have been permanent household service. These are the farmhands and women to
whom the sagas usually give no name; they do the work, accompany the heroes on doomed journeys, and are the purveyors
of much of the gossip and informarion which is crucial ro rhe
maintenance of social control in the community (for example,
VL ch. 3\.
We see only two chiidren in Valla-Ljdts saga and Lj6sttt,tnilt!:.tt
t4
saga.
Introduction
Gudrun, each providing body heat to warm the other; the second is trundled out to provoke laughter by farting (Ljbs. chs. r8,
r7). Other sagas show that the young sons of householders were
frequently t"t t ort for fostering. Hoskuld Thorvardsson is
raised by Thorkel Hallgilsson, who also happens to be his kinsman (second cousin once removed); Thorkel also fosters his first
cousin Brand (Ljds. ch. zz). From another saga we learn that
Gudmund's foster brother and first cousin Einar Konalsson
was raised at Modruvellir by Gudmund's father (Reykdula saga
r6: zoz). Fostering was a widespread practice, and the reasons
prompting any particular fostering could be varied and multipt.*. Foste.ing forged links between households and especially
it.o.tg ones between the fosterer and fosteree, as the relations
between Thorkel and Hoskuld and Brand indicate. Fosterage
also had the function of equalizing the distribution of children
among households, sending them to where food and care would
be available. Considerations of food supply and support systems
were supplemented by concerns for education and training or
simply by desires to preserve peace within the household, as in
thoie cases where fathers sent away unruly sons (L7tis. ch. zz).
The evidence regarding young girls is sparer, but they too appear to have been fostered away from home (Miller r988b: $2).
iutu.ry of those not given out to fosterage nevertheless entered
service in their teenage years, as the situations of Fridgerd and
Gudrun seem to suggest (Lj6s. chs. 22, r3). The movement
among households or voar-Brand and Fridgerd_, Hoskuld,
Brand-, Rindil, and others, via fosterage and service, gives a
glimpse of the fluidity of residence that was characteristic of meIi.rit lceland. This mobility gave people contacts with and allegiances to more than one household and greatly complicated
loyalties.
people's
^
t; addition to the bonds of co-residence and those of chieftain
the-iargon 9f a1and thingman, there were those of kinship. In*bilateral,"
that is,
was
system
kinship
lcelandic
the
thropolo"gy,
male
b"r_!
through
other
each
to
connections
their
tiaced
p.,r[I"
grandfather
maternal
his
to
goes
Halli
Thus
links.
female
ind^
(identified explicitly as his "kinsman") for aid after he has killed
15
A cursory look at the genealogies in Appendix B will reveal that all the factions in Lj1suetninga saga are descendants of
Helgi the Lean. Both Thorir Helgason and Thorkel Hake are
Gudmund the Powerful's third cousins. But neither the characters nor the saga make anything of this relationship; they are not
referred to as kin. Third cousins do grant each other aid, yet it is
clear that shared political goals rather than shared blood pro-
rO
Introduction
and how well they had kept up their relations before, as well as
the grievousness of the wrong being avenged and the identity of
the opponent.
The fact that kin are known to quarrel does not mean that
kinship counted for little in the culture. People were constantly
jockeying for position within the social groupings they considered themselves a part of. Ljdsuetninga saga offers several examples of tensions between fathers and sons (chs. z-4, zo, zz\.
To these we might add the quarrel between the brothers, Eyjolf
and Kodran, which is similar in structure (Ljds. ch. zz). Eyjolf
has been in loco parentis to his minor brother and is the legal
guardian of his property. As is often the wont of guardians, he
begins to think of his ward's property as his own. Competition
over familial resources took on an added urgency in a culture
where the opportunities to create new wealth were so limited.
The father-son bond might have borne an even greater burden
in Iceland than on the Continent because the new church was
still too young and too poorly funded to offer an opportunity for
impatient youth. Although the ages of characters are very hard
to determine in the sagas, fathers in Lj1saetninga saga, with the
exception of Thorkel Hake, seem to live fairly long lives. Mortality rates were usually more obliging to the generation of sons
than this, but when mortality was tardy, sons could grow restless.
Nevertheless, we rarely see a son oppose his father in any way
that will endanger the other's life. In fact there is no example of
patricide in the entire corpus of saga literature; there are, however, some near misses (Miller rg88b: Zb4 n. r r6).
Keeping good kinship did not come naturally. People had to
work at keeping the bonds in good order. They were assisted in
this endeavor by strongly held social norms that kin, at least
t7
lose kin, should not oppose each other publicly. In the qtrarrcl
lrt'tween'I'horgeir and his sons (tjds. chs. z-4), kinsmen, f rienrls,
t lringmen, and unnamed people repeatedly invoke the norms of'
kt'eping good kinship: "people urged [Thorgeir] to withdraw
Ir'om this case and not oppose his sons"; "[Ofeig] restrained the
lrothers and said it was unfitting that rhey should quarrel with
their father" (ch. g). The forceful goading of Thorvard's wife
lrelps unite father and son against external threat in words that
rrrake explicit reference to the next of kin's legal duty to prose<.ute the killing case for his dead kinsman: "You won't be much
good at prosecuting for his death if you won't help him when
he's alive. I won't bear and raise another son if you give this one
up to the sword" (ch. z4).
Not all intragroup hostility meanr a denial of the exisrence of
the group. Tensions within the group tended to be put on hold
in the face of hostility directed against rhe eroup. Needless ro
say, groups that could not manage to do this ceased to function
as groups, and new groupings would form from the fission. The
Other was the impetus for most active group formation, whether
the group assembled was linked by kinship, f riendship, neighborhood, or the bonds of chieftain/thingman. Withour rhe Other,
the grouping remained a potentiality only, awaiting rhe necessary opposition that brought it into being. The exception was rhe
household, whose co-residence and economic functions made it
an actively functioning group on a daily basis. But interhousehold groupings needed external stimuli ro form. In this regard
consider the descriptions of the recruitment of support by both
sides following Fridgerd's dispqted ordeal (Lj6s. chs. z3 -24).
Kin were also under strong normative pressure to take counsel with each other. uncounseled deeds were reckless deeds,
often more dangerous to one's own than to the Other. Since the
target of a vengeance killing need not be the wrongdoer himself,
but one of his kin, there was every reason why such kin would
want to have some say in actions fbr which others might hold
them to account. Taking counsel gave the person interested in
taking action the chance to get broad-based support among his
kinsmen for his proposed course, thereby increasing its chances
of success with the Other; it also gave his kinsmen rhe opportunity to dissuade, modify, or ratify his proposal. Even Einar,
r
Introduction
who does not get along with his brother Gudmund, feels obliged
to consult with him before agreeing to accept a marriage offer
for his daughter (Ljbs. ch. r r). And those who act repeatedly without taking counsel, either with kin or chieftain, receive a rather
harsh estimation from the sagas. Such are the cases of HrolfJaw
and of Gudmund when he summons Thorir Akraskegg without
informing his brother Einar (VL chs. b, g; Lj6s. ch. r4).
Kin were not recruited only by blood, nor was a small family
necessarily condemned to being bullied by more powerful neighbors. Much of what we would call political activity was occupied
with ways of extending the claims one could make on others.
Fostering arrangements were one of these ways, but the key way
was marriage. Affines-that is, in-laws or kin by marriage-fig-
ure prominently in support groups, frequently as blood avengers. The obligation of a daughter's husband to avenge his fatherin-law is the accepted norm underlying Gudrun's goading of her
husband Otrygg to avenge her father Thorkel: "'It's true enough
that Thorkel Hake was related to me, not to you,' Gudrun said,
'so I will go.' Otrygg answered, 'It's up to me to go and I will."'
(Lj6s. ch. z4). The obligation to supporf one's affines receives
confirmation by the concern Skegg-Broddi evinces when he
wants to deny it. When Eyjolf requests his aid he refuses, claiming his wife's kin have never accorded her much honor (Lj6s.
ch. z5); and then when he wishes to aid the other side he, in a
touching scene, obtains his wife's consenf to his desired course of
action by offering her the ring that was sent to him to buy his
support (ch. z6). [n any event, Eyjolf was able to recruit Gellir
Thorkelsson, another powerful affine, to his cause.
All marriages of the householder and chieftain classes were to
some extent political. Some were overtly so, as in the wheeling
and dealing that leads to the betrothal of Jorun Einarsdottir to
Thorkel Geitisson (Ljds. chs. r r - r z). Even the few affairs of the
heart, like Sorli's wooing of Thordis Gudmundardottir, made
complete sense from a political standpoint. It is this fact that
nrakes Gudmund's reluctance to agree to the marriage somewhat surprising and excessive (Lj6s. chs. 5). Both these instances,
alons with numerous others, show that support was mustered
fbr marriage proposals in a way almost identical to the way it was
gathered fbr lawsuits. One of a prospective spouse's chief virtues
w:rs his
r
r{)
zo
Introduction
not a very reliable indicator of women's real condition in the society, since they might be little more than mere title holders, the
managem..rt po*..s firmly lodged with men. The sagas, however, irgg.rt ihat the law's intimations were more than Paper
rights. Wo-.t of the householder class managed farms in their
hr]sbands'absence, and by interspousal agreement could be accorded powers to hire servants and make management decisions
in their husbands' presence (see, for example, Njdk saga 36: _96.).
Women figure as the guardians of family and household
honor, not aS a direct .o.ri.q.l"nce of their sexual virtue as in
Mediterranean cultures, but ai a consequence of their active role
Setting
"l
nol itll
,,,,,r, .,lnseled violence in situatiins where violence was
adthe
gained
,rlrgrr'<tpriate or even a smart strategy' The men
female
of
ui,,,r,,g. of being able to confirm sexual stereotypes
u..,,g.i.,1n.r, urri irrationality, while at the same time getting-the
of'their counsel and having someone to blame other than
lrt.rrcfit
tlrt'tnselves
ch. 6).
aind'tta'
Friendship too was often a formal aflair. Old lcelandic
a
describe
to
used
were
(friend)
uinfengi (friendship) and uinr
patrona
or
equals,
staie ,rf for*ul aliiance between relative
addition
client relationship between people of different rank, in
When
friendship'
affective
ro whar we are ,rs.d to thi;k of ut
when
or
friendship,"
"to
earn [his]
Eyjolf gives Thorvard a horse
talking
not
is
he
Hrafn,
to
he makes "overtures of friendship"
is, an
about fellow fieling, but about illiance and truce, that
inconact
to
not
or
amicably
agreement to settlelnutual affairs
The
siltently with the interests of the other (Ljbs. chs. zz, z5)'
Einar
brother
his
draw
to
wishes
same is true when Gudmund
into a formal friendshiP (ch' r4)' Knowledge of f9 f9r1at
Isolf's
friendship between ryjolf and Thorvard helps explain
his
up
take
to
out
him
seeks
he
opening iemark t" Eyjltf when
ento
calculated
is.not
"My
business
darghtEr's paternity .Lirrr,
hunf. yo.ri honor, but still we thingmen l-ook to yo9 f9r 1y-5rin diffiporr,, 1cn. zz). Isolf knows that the iase will put Eyjolf
kin an<l
"friend"
Thorvard's
his
iult straits, pitting him against
be rrrr
will
There
himself.
Thorvard
eventually, p.rhu[s, agaiist
trr
havt'
to
Eyjolf
force
to
likely
is
it
honor i., ifre business b..urr.
c
exislt'ttt
The
agreement'
friendship
the
act inconsistently with
22
Introduction
Setting
23
lrlood revenge, which is the layman's view of feud; formal lawsrrits; and less formal arbitration. The feud could wend its way
li'om blood revenge to law to arbitration to peaceful coexistence,
lxrck to blood or law without being any less a feud for happening
to be in a less violent phase. Feud was something more than active violence; it was the whole process by which people in hostile
r ompetition regulated their affairs. In order to make the following discussion clear and to save the reader hunting it down in
other sources, we present here and define briefly the types of
procedures cultures have arrived at in settling trouble. They are
irdjudication, arbitration, mediation, negotiation, violence or cocrcion, avoidance, and "lumping rL," a colloquialism that ac<luired its scholarly credentials in the mid-1g7os (Nader and
'It appears that the tribesmen of present-day South Yemen also lt:tvt'
dyadic arbitration. See Dresch (tg8g).
24
Introduction
2r,
lr. (i).
All these modes of dispute resolution were theoretically avail:rlrte to the medieval Icelandic disputant, but the likelihood of one
lrt.ing selected as opposed to others was a direct function of the
l)()wer differences between the principal disputants and the absolute status of the claimant. The weak lumped it more than
tlre powerful; the powerful sued and took revenge more than the
weak. Feud was not really an option for servants or the poor and
rrriddling farmers, even in their disputes with each other. Feud
required an ability to sustain hostility, to pay compensation, and
lo muster support that was often beyond the means and abilities
of lower-status people. The disputes of small fblk among themselves became the business of their superiors, who could either
Irrrange for an expeditious resolution at law or arbitration, or assimilate the dispute into their own feuds. The case of Fridgerd is
irn example. Isolf does not pursue a f'eud with his daughter's
lovers (Lj6s. chs. zr-n). The fornication case is subsumed into
the bigger political maneuverings of' the patrons of both the
original parties to the dispute. Feud was the disputing style of
those who could afford it. The rest found their grievances occa-
zO
tr4
Introduction
and forgotten? Or did the case change stripes and become a killing case over Kodran? Still, the numbers are instructive. Even
discounting for bias in a source that favors tales of violence, they
show that violence was much the preferred mode of resolution
among the upper strata of the society who feuded. But the sagas
also show that resolutions by arbitration were some three times
more numerous than by adjudication. On this matter there is no
reason to distrust the sources. They would appear to reflect
fairly accurately a preference in the culture. ln LjLsuetninga saga
and Valla-Ljdts saga the proportion is even more slanted. Only
one case goes to judgment (Thorir Akraskegg's in Lj6s. ch. r4),
while there are as many as nine arbitrated settlements and two
negotiated ones (Ljds. ch. r g; VL.h. g). Still, both adjudication
and arbitration were suffrciently common outcomes that no feud
could avoid going through some legal and arbitrational phases.
There are reasons for the preference of arbitration to the formal judgment of the courts. One of the most important is the
grimness ofjust what it meant to go to law and get a judgment.
Lawsuits in Iceland were dangerous business, as our texts make
brutally clear. Some lawsuits had to be commenced by a summons issued at the defendant's legal domicile. Some summonees
evidently could not abide being summoned and killed the complainant for his trouble (Lj6s. ch. r). Court proceedings were also
fraught with danger. One case is actually violently disrupted
(Lj6s. ch. r r), violence between large forces is narrowly averted
in another (Lj6s. ch. z7), and still others threaten to dissolve into
individual combat between the principals when a challenge is
offered to fight it out by hacking and bashing each other on a
small islet amidst the stream at the Allthing (Ljds. chs. rr, 16,
3o). There was also substantial risk to both parties if the plaintiff
got his judgment. A successful suit led to the outlawry of the defendant, obliging the plaintiff to kill the defendant and giving
him the right to claim half the latter's unencumbered properry
at a court of confiscation (Ljds. ch. r4). Executing the judgment
was of ten no easy task, especially if the defendant was of roughly
equal strength with the piaintiff. "There are men involved . . . in
the case who would only make things worse if they were outlawed, and then the trouble would be greater than before" (Ljds.
ch. z7). FIad killing the defendant been a simple matrer, the
28
Introduction
Sating
zll
to Hrolf's obligation to adhere to a settlement pul'lrorting to bind him but at which he was not present. It seenls
lairly clear that Gudmund utters the applicable norm, whatever
the precise legal nicety might have been: that "Hrolf had done
wrong to break the settlement." There were strong norms against
lrreaching settlements, but as is the case with most norms they
t:ould be violated (see also VL .h. g). Their power wasjust strong
enough to give Bjorn a few qualms about violating them before
lre set out to attack Bodvar (VL ch.6), although their force did
succeed in preventing Ljot from joining the expedition. Arbitrated settlements seldom bought permanent peace; they bought
time and often precious little of that. Yet if they could manage to
delay crisis or cause some people, if not all, to withdraw from
active hostility, that was a goal most felt was well worth pursuing.
Despite their shortcomings they were perceived by a substantial
segment of the community to be more likely than either selfhelp or legal judgments to lead to peace, even if that peace were
only temporary.
The process by which disputes were moved from the legal to
the arbitrational domain is one of'the nrain concerns of lj6suetninga saga, so much so in fact that it, al<>ng with the consistently
unflattering portrait of Gudmund the Powerful, provides a thernatic unity to the disparate episodes that make up the saga. On
occasion a case would go to arbitration because the principals
chose to put it there without formally initiating a lawsuit. This is
a rather frequent occurrence in the sagas (see, for example,
Njdk saga 36-40, g4-ro5), even though neither Lj6suetninga
saga nor Valla-Ljdts saga shows any especially attractive examples.
The dictated settlement following the death of Thorkel Hake is
a rather unpleasant case in point. Otherwise Gudmund spurns
several offers to settle befbre going to law: in Thorir Akraskegg's
case and in the initial phase of Vodu-Brand's case. Eyjolf, his son,
continues the tradition of truculence when he rejects Thorvard's
offer of compensation after the death of Kodran. In our two
sources, arbitrated settlement occurs only after the initiation of a
formal lawsuit. The process tends to follow rather predictable
lines. After both sides muster forces and arrive at the thing, men
intervene and mediate between the parties. Frequently, and this
is important, the intervenors emerge from among the lreoplt'
issue as
30
Introduction
'fhe Social
HistoricalSetting
:t
'I-he Social
Introduction
32
llistoricalfietting
:t:t
case
instance of the evolution and expansion of a dispute in the context of the blood feud. When Fridgerd becomes aware of her
condition, she raises the matter with Thorkel, the head of the
.rasa suggests
The contest is not between rival lovers but between the person who has
the jural right to bestow access to the woman, such as her father or'
brothers, and the man who gained access without their permission.
Z4
up the case
might be reluctant to take
tion. Isolf susPects E'yjolf
and so he
frien-dship,
orriir.L-rri""
;;;j.,i"
we
"r
reasons
for
obligatiott to aid his
d;;;i;iln's
i.g
f"r"t
Uy
requeri
his
begins
thingmen;healsoattributesenormousfaulttotheotherslde'
*"r" ilk;-;; abduction and a personal
intenmaking the mat'Je-r io"r.
t'tf,:r,
Settut',$
lllr
hu'" to defena'
tiott, wtrich 'fnotkel wJutd then
and six m-ar'ks for Fridgerd's
lrrwsuit would yi"iJ n'und's outlawry
for rearin g
u.rd *oL,ld i.t..-ine liability
rt. r.sonal .o*p.rrration
Fridgerd'
involve
:1.1:::
tlrc child 1r.. p' ,oS "' 'a71; it might
lu*t ptovided that paternrty
goinu the orde"l, ;tth"Jdn ft
the neighbors' Eyjolf's offer
.rrld also be proven by a verdici of teg11
claim' and the message
ttt*"t"' of the
I r':rcks many of
.ihorkel,
'f't
who gets leg"alistic himself, mumbling
is not lost on
oi n" .ar. u.td the statute of limita1
ti-i.rg
of their leader
of'the Ljosvetnings does not.apfrove
in the f riendship
formalized
r.approch"*."i'r,"-iikr Eyjotf tnui'*ur
time before'
short
a
concluded
:rsreemenr h.';;; ayjirr had
for
competition
*itl:ut
'I-he saga shows that thorvard is "?1
along
The Ljosvetnings are split
preeminence in his own group'
collateral lines
(1{ost<itd ui. rho*urd), alorlq
generationat tirres
(Hrafnvs.Thorvard)'eventosomeextentulottghousehold
a not altoFridgerd's case.provides
lines (veisa
gerher
"ri;;#ead).
the dissident factions to test
unwelcome oppofiunity f6r
if things do not
independent oi'rhorvard, or,
their strengrh
workoutwellinthat,.,pe.t,toPressurehisactionsalongthe
Uyit't people'at Veisa' Thorkel'
more aggressive lines fu'o"d
and Hoskuld. This is why
""
;;"
violencehasalreadybroke"ot"'apointThorvardrecognizes
;ii. b..r, let in o., ih"r" events late in the day'
and remarf.,
"",
Itwouldn,,.u..nhandledmoremoderatelyifithad-beenup
the^course of Icelandic
to me" t.f,. ,+l'"*"r.1;a"t'tu"aing of internal group poli.ffE.t,
demands a recognluor,
feud
tics on intergrouP Politics'
"irfr.
Theordealitselfprovidestheoccasionforsubmergedhostility
pro-
ally nine
pu;
36
threedayslater.Ifthehandwashealingcleanly'Goddeclared
the hani was infected or badly
the truth of the u.ur.r', case; if
other way' Some scholars have
blistered, God had decided the
the ordeal's result, its inherent
argued tnut tn.lu.k of clariry in
of normal healing ot 'h-t -:.:.
ambiguity (were these the blisters
for forging_ communlty
vehicle
a
of inf-ection?), -uJ. the ordeal
rp7!t r8g-go)'J"t:
Colma1
consensus (Brown rg75i r37-39;
had to be bargained
rhat
whar the ordeal indiciied was soriething
overandagreedto.Andpresumablyinth3.Processofinterpret-
ingtheresult,allkindsof.,'o,...rational,,criteria,suchasthe
generalr.p,r,rtio"oftf'tproband'struthfulness'hisorherkin
tt'"o*ttJgt ulq gossip' and a sense of
connections, community
in-to the decisionmaking
equity, among orher things, wouldineak
not central to the Icewas
noted'
be.
process. Oraeal, it 'ho'id
landicSystemofproof.Verdictsoftho,.neighborsnearestthe
fi74: r.+r).,.s,i11, the laws re-
prlr.rr.a (Maurer
of puttrnity, although
served a place io, o.d.ul in matte*
(Grd'gd's lI
incident were
even
9z)'
alierna t'e
here ajury,s finding was an u...piuule
agreed to by the
be
could
frdeals
that
This case shows, however,
r
partiesoutsidett,..o,,,.xtofaformallawsuit.Evidencefrom
private agreement also used orother sagas ,nt*' itt"t people by
tthe. ciriumstances where the
deals in theft cases o, ir, ,"r..ul
,iilin.u"t
Fridgerd,sordealconfirmstheambig.,o,'natureoftheCere-
approaching consensus'
mony, but it h;;Jit generated anything
a^highly charged ritual
On the .o.,rru'ry, tn". ordeal frJuia.i
the opposing sides from each
that only ,..r.a'io further alienate
the opposi-
orher. Even
the
Seltirt'g
"\7
of the Modrvellings"-sugl4csts :r
,r.icst's nickname-"priest- Both sides harden their p.siti.,s'
r...ection to E;j;lf's'people.
l',yfolfwillmake"nofurth""o"tt'sionsandannouncesthathc
Fridgtltl
in this dispute, not as a representative of
will continue
tlristime,butinhisownright:..Iwillpulsuetheclaimasifit
brings the
explicitly
were my own inheritance."- And Thorkel
feud between
.lispute within 1fr" f'u-e of the long-standing
theLjosvetningsandtheModrvellings'aconsequencethat'unstudiously trying to
ril the failure oi,n. ordeal, Eyjolf had been
.,we Ljosr.,"i"gt have"known for a long time that your
rrvoid:
hostility to*uid us is unsparing'"
its third and most significant
'fhe dispute now
"d"'goes
and.attempts to settle
negotiations
transformation. one-on-one
forces who will attempt to
,r.r.rnt" by talk give way to mobilized
last we hear of Fridgerd's case
<leal with tro.rbf,- uy .o*uut. The
to claim her personal comis when Eyjolf ,.r, t"'for the north
'fhe mobin"a pledged ro rhe priesr.
pensarion, *h;"d;;r..i
witt
we
althou_gh
_q1;s
lization of forces merits some to--.r-,t,
F-yjolf.orrr.."r-u-t"tit'gofhisthingmenandrehearsesthe
assent t, the general
norms of ,rrrrt.rui"'ppo"I'fhe thingmen
on them at that
,nJiintyL"ir makes
principler,
"Jdt*und
time.Whenitcomestimetorrdenorth,heconsultswithfriends
andthingmenwhocounselrestraint,advisinghimtoletitout
thus articulates his
that he is going north for provisions. Eyjolf
morilly-each directed to a
move in two *&;f;ategically and
differentgroup:tohisoPqgt-ettsthetripisforprovisions'while
the e-1ry,9tto
the.o*..r,rIirfft"t" *nitn
tionistoassertaspecificlegitimate.claim,theCompensatlon
has its own aspects of
owed to Fridgerd. The latter'articulation
that Eyjolf's purpose is
dissimulatior,]1o, it is clear by this ,1T.
compensation' but
more g"rr..ul it,u" 1t"' obtaining Fridgerd's
helegitimizes them, making
by defining his u.tior* in such r.i-r
uggr.r.ion"took like a justified reaction'
ontheothersidethingsProceeddifferently.Kinshipbonds,
based.suPof blood u.rd uffir,ity, raihei than rhe contractually
portofchieftain/thingman,arereliedon.onereasonforthisis
38
Introduction
Eetting
:t,1)
lr
40
articulatedreasons:becausetheywereobligatedtotheperson
they !ou1d the request a
who summoned them, o' betat'se objectives
of their own'
convenient opPortunity to accomplish
whetheritbetogainareputatlonforvalor,orshrewdcounsel,
opponent'
.t-ti-pfy the chJnce to humiliate a common
and legitimizaideology
of
stuff
Revenge, in tf i'1"'tance' is the
tion.Itwasintermsofvengeanceandfeudthatthesepeople
pJlitics was not an autonomous and
understooa tn# f"fiii.t'
it was embedded in every day-todemarcated spher! of action;
had, but especiatly in their disputes'
day
interacrion;;;;";ple
That,however,didnotmeanthatthe'ideologyofrevengedid
nothaveforcesufficienttomotivateaction.Quitethecontrary.
reinfoicement from the
I$ norms and .,r'i. received po*.,f,l
*no had honor and who did
careful account everyone kept Lf
did nor matter at all. Thorvard
not. [t is nor trrrifnlrket Hake
deeplybelievesthutgutl,skillingofKodranhad..purgedshame
is still a world of difference
on our accounr,, (ch. z5). Brrt tfre.e
of [o1:u" had for Hall' his
between tt. ,igtti;;'"Jt tnt kiUing
significance the kilting of
father lying dJad ar his f..t, u.,J?he
lain dead for a third
nua f- ihorvard, f,ir,r*t" huii"g
Kodran
betweetihot blood and lukeof a cenr,r.y. tt is the difference
warm bordering on chilled'
rbalanced
.^,ith *
the i^e-,^-^^r with
:9:
The ideotogy of revenge was uneasily now the other' providthe one'
ology of p.u.J'und concoid' t'o'"
of one's behavior' depending on
the .*pfu,tu*'y
ing
-odtl
issuesofdisputecontainmentdealtwithintheprecedingsec.
on inconclusively for some
tion. After ,nt igh'i;g had golt
tn" combatants, which the saga
time, Kodran triel to J.pu.utE
shnding
hard ," a" r-ce most of them were
says was nor
",
"riit
aroundu.'y,uy,onlythose.whofelttheyhadrealgrievances
was struck a fatal otll t"
were .t,r nghii;g:'ii;i; however,
his men on but received
the proce,,' i" '?'Potrse-'-tyJ"tiLSStl
,.You u." ..?ring to what has been done'
this reply from Hjalm:
brother.,s c<ltlllilt.t.
mitted
to SeParate the fighters,
lrcth men and women, racing-to the scene
t?g? r8: 6r)'
throwing ctothing over theii Ytapgls Ua!r1'!rA?go
the forces
and
Bur here tr,e *nBtL neighborho,rd is mobilized,
For
contingents.
for peace musr come 116- within the battling being invoked
this purpose even the death of a farmhand -ttitt
of constraint and regulation
as a reason to halt. The mechanisms
involved small numbers on
were most .n..iir" when the battles
that people had crossboth sides urrd *".. sufficiently localized
(see' for ex;;;;i"g ties with members in the oppoling force
cnut lLi6s'
and
ample, the colloqul be^t1een oddi'Grimsson
kinsmen in
his
against
who fought
ch. 3rl: "'Are il;h;oaai
Iceland?"Thereweremenpresent*nt'*ettrelatedtome"
When lirrces of more
Oddi u.rr*.r.i, 'U"t I spared them'"')
thanahundredweremusteredfromwideareas,thesemechatask'
nisms were often inadequate for their
Liketheordeal,thebattlesettlednothing'u"qnoww'ith
rook on a level of passion
Eyjolfs urotrr", Jead, his involvement
thatitlackedu.ro...Thedisputeisthustransformedagajn'
utterly.Fridgerdisfbrgottt";'thtdisputeisnowdefinedby
beyond his kin
Kodran,s corpse. Thorvard at last
..uih.t out
andsummonshisthingmen.Hetakescounselwiththem,and
of wergeld-and the permanent
some of them bear ryjoif an offer
"
toallthechieftainsandanouncetoanyonewhoaccompanied
district to recruit support
them. Thorvard too goes outside the
ExEast
an
Qu.arter chieftain'
for his defense, ,t"dil'g a ring to
of
debts
old
in
ialling
than
pansion, at th;,tu*t., iil'ol"E more
buying support from
obligation to kin uid ,hi.,gmen; ir meanr
to the principal' It
obligated
people in no way or only tinuously
inio-me ways a nationalizawas, in short, a big step, representing
it
g',r, u, discussJ in the previous section,
tion of tn" airf"?..
rhar finally makes de-escalation possiblt'.
was this
".ry;i;;.rrio.
'l'lut
42
Introduction
away
revenge'
.L^+ i- ,L,o torisinn
ro move
decision to
oT th. dispute-that is, the
legalizati,on
The
to the courts at the thingthe arena from ,t . air,rict baitlefields
last' the
providtg'.u:
transforms the Jitp"" again' It
ltt'i1i9
for third-party intervertron
Sttt:ial
llisktriutl
Scttirtg
'l:l
irr tlrt'
rlrt.irrtistic tension in the saga depends on exPectatiorts
pittirrg
feud
the
of
rrrrrlience that an escalating iransformation
a distinct possibility-'.1"
t hicfiain against chieftain was more than
of events rn valla-Lj(tts
course
the
lrrr:t., what is saga-worthy about
fot some reason
propitiout]1,
so
.saga is that things turned out
(ch' z) and
svarfadardale
to
extend
( ludmund's interests did not
of that
because
A:9
Eyjafiotd.'
l.iot's did not extend to southern
other
had
Neither
i,'ti*its.
*itt
feud
tii.y *ere able to keep the
have
might
feud
the
which
for
other
,,r.,.trt.d goals uguinri each
provided a convenient vehicle'
VengeanceandExpiation:ChoosingtheVictim
by killing
The laws gave a person the right to a-ven.g: himself
restrictions
with
right
the wrongdJe, but'purported to-limit the
had
,n time, place, u.ra'p..ron. Thus blows that left no bruisesbut a
only'
occurred
to be avenged at th; time and plact llty
be avenged up
blow that left a bruise o. .r,rr.d bleeding could
the inbelonged.to
until rhe nexr Altthing. The right to avenge
also
was
it
him;
jured party as well u, ro those who accompanied
the
on
legitimately
lawful fbr anyone else to take vengeanc
should
t47).
la
(Grd,gd,s
*.o.gdoe, *iihi., a day of the incident
the.right
vengeance not have been taken before the Allthing,
An
lawsuit'
a
to
relegated
,.rriirru,"d; after that the claimant was
man's
a
on
assault
sexual
for
explicit right to kill was also given
mother'
*ii., daug:hter, mother, sisterl foster daughter-' or foster
assault'
the
of
plu."
utrd
time
but it had to be carried out at the
place
and
time
the
at
avenged
Likewise a slave's death could be
permitted
law
t'64,19;)'.P-"t-"o
the killing occurre d (Grd'gd's la
the injury'
the killin[ of person, .,oidirectly responsible for
respects,
several
in
picture
The sagas paint a very different
comwishful
the
not
ih.y,
that
and the unavoidable sense is
only
revenge'
of
limits
real
the
mands of the lawbooks, describe
the
confirms
even
literature
saga
one case in the entire corpus of
rgrr:
(Heusler
54).
to-revenge
Grd,gd,s strictures on the right
people,s sense of the legitimate extended well beyond the range
the laws'
of procedures and behivior required or.forbidden by
uninv.lvt'<l'
the
of
opinion
ihe
by
Vengeance, when validated
to claim a motto,oly
was justice itself. The state did not yei exist
Introduction
'llt
itr his lrorrsr'
onviolence,andthelaw,sclaimtolimititinaccordwithits
wishesandcountertotheprevailingnorms'was,withoutaState,
was Pershow that blood vengeance
a cry in the autft' ft't 'ug"
and
injury
of
range
response to a wide
ceived to be a legitimate
anynearly
but
injurytn. place-urrJ time of
insuh, nor jusr it-It'
revenge was
fuct' immediate hot-blooded
where, unyti-t'
g rc Grettis saga: "only
unartful.'i.."rai"
,;;
down
looked
never
";
ir"-.aiutely,- 6ut the coward
to
the slave ur..f""r'tr*,;tf
thought
same
the
(o,,ul'so"
does"; Einar
more
"*p"""' """ttis drawn out' the
Gudmund: "The longer tf't ""gtl":t' reYelge wasted one of
tn' t3f Quick
satisfying i, *iiilt; 1L1d'
Jr,r.,,r.ul sitiation conferred
ur"rrg"-r;,
the
the sweetesr powers
to constrain the
on him-the power to terroti';';h;power ''lyt
tuigti'tn"trtel Hake' for example'
movements of'the expetttd
because
urr-d i, fearful of strangers
too
sleeps in a locked bed closet
wait
could
lqris' ch' .t.8)' 9"t
of having it,i;;"G"J*""a
cowardil;;t waiting looked like side'
long, however' At some point
irrr.riorlty to rhe other
for
ice or an admission of p..*urr.rri
;;;;;tt"g to wiren vengeance
This is what Thot'u'd was
farm
my
"[ wish to i"nrite everyone to
Thorkel Hake finally came:
Hall Otryggsson' who has ' ' '
this evening, first and foremost(Li6s' ch' z5)'
purged shame on our account"
Therewasaroughu.,d..ujy.,".,,.aStowhatconstituted
iniuries' slights'
a mlre',list of tyPes of
avengeable offenser. Brrt
would
*o.,ia not be beyond the pale such
and insults that would o,
c;il;;tions of circumstance social
nor reveal what they wer".
;;;ff.nded, their relative
as rhe id.r,titv of offend",
relations
tht *to"g' the state of prior been a
status, tt. g,il';;td;f
th"" had already
between ,ht ;;;"t'-*r'tttttt
"t "o't
settlement,howthevengeu.'..*u,carriedout-allthesehadto
or close
Le hght banter among kin
be factored in. what mighl
friendscouldbemurderousinsu"ltbetweenpeoplewhoserelakin of
."*j",i,iu.. o. hostile. or thegain
no
tions were already openly
what he got might
an unpoP'r" 'itti* *t'o atttl"ta
t
;to " " " i,h.' ro r r e ven g e
T:l I ll ".'"::
H:',11
l
comPensatlon
a
t.iti. fbr
..And because Harek was unH'"',.r.
was
when V"d,-B.;;J kitled
tg-p"t1ation" !1i,s' ch' 8)' There
popular, hi' ki;;tcepted
::if ;f
'
il
alsoaSenseoflimitionthemethodsofrevenge.Wedonot,
Burning someone
lor itrstance, hear of poisoning
to which torture ittt<l
The
wtrs almost never justifiable.
"*,"rr",
t'o*"."'' i' hu'd to'determine"l'he
rrritiming were expected,
r2o;
torture (cf' Hrafnkels saga 5:
l:rrrrily sagas 'u1ti1 .depict
graced
sr"'/y,?f'togi i'
llitturdar saga Isfirdings z" 35.;'L"t of "hind-hewing" and
l..o""ts
wirh numerous ,,orrj.rdgm.r,,ur
of descriptions of torture
distribution
"lcg-hewir,g'" Th;;"t;n
mutilamight indicate a norm against
irr rhe rwo rypes';f ;;.rr.e
frequent
to Prevent its
simply was not strong enough
rion that
to get
the moving party could expect
a
tbrhissuit.Thecapacityot3ustcasesttlgetsupportandunjust
,,rr" thing, was nevertheless
()nes to lose it, although hardly-u
numbe.r.of
.".t oi.i *i,n- A significant posrtrve
tendency ,t ut nrJ-* fi"
thinq to enforct llltttnce to
people felt it ;;;";d
some people found it convenorms. And ai;;;r" selfish-ievel
nienttocite.n"r".r.ofjusticeinacauseaSaconvenientexcuse
unjust
their aid was sought by the
the
for not g.r,ir,[lrrrotr"d*hen
support
to
oth"t*ise obliged
party, even *il;;;;;i-t*t
reterexplicit
el"d.di makes
party *uki,,g'i;t tA;;t"t 1ktss
U1^!rolf who' in a just
ence to this tendency when.^pp?*fted
^suppolt
to prosecute
the
cause, does not yet1'rhav9.
l-:::,ttary
suPport'
your
to
will,not commit myself
Eyjolf ,.r..t"r1'ili"
relied
be
can
pttttpilott lf '1"ttice
though r Utr*" Jr'at people't
on in"this matter" (Lj6s' th' ao)'
Vengean..""""a,,otut*up,taketheformofkilling.Manya
an
rrrffi.i"ntly avenged if he won
disputan, .o.rril-".J hi-r.ii
might
t;;; arbitratio" u[ttt-ents
outlawry judgment' Even
exprowronged partv was able to
for
do, espect"u;ttil;il -rtrtlthe
sufficient
was
aitf"t"' such
priate ,n" pJ*"t i" "ri-:'dg;;l;
Helgas<>tt
Thorir
avenged on
Gudmund ;; .or,ria.i ffi;;ii
(Lj6s.ch.r7).Buttherewasadistincti"...thattakingPaymellt
'l'he S ocial
It
istoricrtl
ettinig
t7
Introduction
46
'istt'''
..TwohundredounceswereawardedforThorvard.Hrolfwas
ch' 5)' As the Norse metanow than he was before" (Vt
f,"ffi.,
phor would
h";;;;"opr.
bilitygaveupo*ttf"lincentiveforthegrouptopoliceitsown
the fear of
Group tiability gave feud u"J t'ptciatly
members.
passingi,t..es"tinhisSenseofhumor.Theincentivetomonltor
one,sownkinwouldnotbe"'g'gu,ifonlythewrongdoerhad
some support for this view
to fear reprisal' The saga' p'oiidt
others whose acpeople aia inrotue theriselves in the affairs of
tionstheymighthavetoanswerfor.Butthereareseveralassumpview that need to be examined'
tions underlylng this functionalist
in the next seneration, there
when u"rrg"urre fell on someone
that it constitu"ted a more effeccould be no cultural justificati-on
wrongdoer were the target'
tive deter..;;;;; it would if the
()rres.Consider,inthisregard,Gudmund'sapparentrelief,trr
fall on one of his
<lisc.ver that venfeance fof 1-ho.kel Hake will
There also had to be
sorrs rather rhanln himself (Lj6s. ch. zr).
and the community
s()me agreement among avengers' targets'
just go out and kill
not
to"ld
person
A
rus to group boundariesl
.f.dom person and cliim himself ave.ged. His opponents
,,rry
and a sane man should hardly be satbe no effective inistied. Under ,.r.h ii..r..rrrtances there could
one might be held to
<lucemen, to poii.e the people for whom
as to who
On certain br8ad issues there was agreement
recorded infew
legitimate vengeance target, and there are
were never acceptable
stances of breih of the .ro.-r. Women
boy- of twelve
victims; neither were little children, although a
-igt,.alreadyhavetostartworrying.withmenofmajority,
little disagreement. The wrongdoerhim-
on his expedition,
abefted him. A..ompunying tf,e wrongdoer
counsel:
lodging him on the way or ol the wayLack' providing
ax' This
avenger's
the
all these U.o.rghi"rr" *itt itt the shadow of
which
liabitity,
does nor difl'er from our notions of criminal
48
Introduction
were sufficiently imprecise so that in practice there was considerable leeway for considerations of politics and expedience.
The politics of vengeance demanded acting in such a way that
the avenging group acquired honor in addition to erasing the
shame of having an unavenged kinsman on their hands. This
often meant getting one of the opposition's better men whether
he had been involved or not, even whether he had been in the
revenge,
Setting
49
tion of a settlement, not that killing him violated a norm of permissible vengeance targets.
Countervailing considerations, however, helped divert vengeance from falling on popular men of substance for the misdeeds of their kin. When revenge was more than a matter of immediate hot-headed response, there was time for reflection. One
of the things avengers worried about was whether they or their
enemies would win the sympathies of the uninvolved. Avengers
knew they were likely to be sued after a successful vengeance
killing, and the astute avenger would take this into consideration
in his choice of vengeance target. The more unpopular the target, the less likelihood there would be an aggressive response.
And practically, it was harder to get at the other side's big man.
He was often a great warrior himself, and if not, he was seldom
alone, either accompanied by a retinue when traveling or surrounded by members of a populous household when at home.
Notice how rarely saga characters of any rank travel alone; when
they do, it is commented on (Lj6.s. ch. r4).
We should not be surprised, then, that the sagas show that
could get, and anyone was often better than no one at all. Thus a
servant, like Rindil, although complicit to some extent, would
have to do since his master Gudmund was virtually invulnerable.
But killing Rindil was a paltry vengeance for a man of Thorkel
Hake's status, and none of his kin considered him avenged.
A rough rule of balance defined most revenge: the target should
be of the same status and quality as the original victim. If such a
target could not be found, more people of lower status had to
die to make up for one of higher status. Gudmund's willingness
50
Introduction
to burn everyone in the house with Rindil's killer, his own wife
included, to avenge Rindil, threatened to breach this norm, as
the reaction of people present makes vividly clear (Ljbs. ch. zo).
Avengers did not look at the members of the Other as an
undifferentiated Them. We have already seen that they distinguished individuals on the other side by rank, reputation,
prowess, or by whether they were in or out of the country. They
also made distinctions on the basis of individual culpability. But
just having this knowledge did not always mean they acted on it
in ways that would accord with our moral sensibilities. In VallaLj6ts saga we find opponents frequently making reference to the
degree and type of involvement of various members of the opposition. Bjorn says Bodvar is innocent, and on the other side
Gudmund recognizes that the hospitable Thorgrim "has acted
well in this affair" (ch. 8). In only the latter instance did such
knowledge deflect the choice of target to others. In spite of the
ability of one's opponents to distinguish degrees of culpability
among the membership of the opposing group, it would be very
imprudent for any one member of that group to suPpose, in the
absence of an unambiguous public repudiation of the conduct in
question, that his lack of involvement made him inviolable.
As discussed in the previous section, it was in terms of vengeance and feud that lcelandic politics was conceived. Consider
again Kodran's death. He died in a general affray, a pitched
battle between two groups who had been competing for preeminence in the district for some time. The situation has some of the
aspects of small territorial war. Does it really make much sense
in this context to think of Kodran's death as revenge for Thorkel
Hake in the same way as, say, Harek dies for having spilled beer
on Vodu-Brand, or even in the same way Hall Otryggsson might
understand Kodran's death as vengeance for Otrygg, his father?
The amount of time that passes between the wrong to be avenged
and the act of venseance has a major effect on the motive of the
revenge. There is virtually no political component in VoduBrand's vengeance and not much more in the way Hall would
understand Kodran's death; both killings were in hot blood. But
to us, and I suspect even at some level to them, Kodran is a casualty in a war whose object is political ascendancy. The participants, however, do not choose to articulate it in that way, and
Seitlng
r,I
52
Introduction
Norwegian. But once a merchant of some rank was lodged in another's household, payment for the lodging was often euphemized as a gift (Ljds. ch. r3).
Gift-exchange was a marvelously complex thing, so much so
that only a cursory view of its role in the sagas can be presented
Srit;rg
5:t
Gudmund answered, "'It was sent to you in such a way, Ljot, that I did
not intend it to enhance your honor."
"As things have turned out," sai<l [-iot, "l have no wish to consider the
spear my property."
Gudmund said that was fine with him "but you shall have this sword."
(It was a great treasure.)
Then Ljot said to Gudmund: "Take this sword from me, but don't
send me another spear like this. Lett end our dispute so that you will
think your honor to have been maintained and so conclude our feud."
"So it shall be," said Gudmund.
b4
Introduction
3r6, rg86a: z8-zg). An injury was a gift that demanded repayment no less than a real gift. And this is explicitly recognized in
both Gudmund's and Ljot's jokes about how Gudmund gave Ijot
his spear: "Ljot wants you to have this spear, which he says you
have sent him"; "It was sent to you in such away, Ljot, that I did
not intend it to enhance your honor."
The gift was a sign of the obligation it created. Thus, when
Einar wished to signal his refusal to feel himself obliged to aid
Gudmund in his lawsuits against Thorir Helgason's thingmen,
he attempted to return the cloak which Gudmund had given him
to secure his support. The cloak, in Einar's hands, was more than
Setting
I',1-,
Introduction
56
other significant interaction: "People thought that Ofeig's reputation haJgrown grearly because ofihese dealings with Gudmund"
(ch. 7); .,thorke"l caprured all the honor" (ch. tz); "The consenof honor
sus was that Gudmund had gotten the greatest portion
constitutpeople
the
in this case,,(ch. r7). In the second capacitY,
ing the communiiy *ere themselves involved in the readjust-
of the
ments of honor. A.y encounter that altered the rank
rank
their
adjusted
principals vis-)r-vis each other also necessarily
against
worse
off
came
,ir-a-ui, third parties. The uninvolved
the winner and better against the loser'
-l'he competition for honor depended on at least potential
equality u*brrg the participants. Chieftains tended to compete
free iarmeis with each other, servants with servants, and women with women. This did not mean, however,
outthat a person could not lose or gain honor in an interaction
playthe
that
meant
it
usually
side his or her relevant group. But
need not be
ers would be judgea uy"airrerent standards. A slave
*ith .hi.ftains,
too
a free
Setting
57
58
etvthathefledfromtheunfavorableoddsGudmundoffered
skapti do
notr*?i^t'T]til;ii'
*n".po*.,r"iJfu
t'^:li,:'*t#;*:iff ff ,,tJ:I;:i
!.verrth,r.rghatthetimeitmightfavebeen-clearthatnonactlon
s u sce ptible
;;;; gthl forbe arance w as more
w a s it .'.,,',.,.u t'?"'"ti"j
more ambiguto sullse<1uent reinterpretation
t..u,rr" inherently
oustlrittrirll2lggressiveresponsewouldhavebeen.Ifl.iotcan
managet-oigtrot'eHalli's.firstchallengeovertheviolationofthe
#,,g:::e Halli's interpretabe
holiday, therle is nO way he will
tionoftheevent,whenthatinterpretationprovidessubstanceof
mirthful tales told at Ljot's exPense'
Settirt{
51)
isusuallylessverbala,,dmoreviolent.ThorirHelgasonarr<l
ThorkelHake.tutftttgtGudmundbycalli"qhtlaneffeminate
lawsuit' o'lt' feud' But in this
pervert, not by i,fi"S hfm on in
as sticks and stones in
culture names *.r.Lften as effective
breakingbones.Forhonorwasnotanabstraction'amatterof
other with powdered gloves' rt
otiose arisrocrair-riuppi"g each
self-wor*tlprovided worth'
provided more thanjust a sense of
Honorwaswhatledtopropltlousmarriagesandfosterings;tt
It bouni one to others and
attracted followers and support'
madeoneakeylinkinthenetworksofpower.Guardingone,s
ftua to resPond"'1''1'
honor was not a trivial matter' Gudmund
sooner or,later"
?l:.
insult: "V..rg.u"ce there will be' whether
ch.r3).Herr....atindisgracingThorirHelgasonbyexposlng
ut'd then makes' t" i ll:'
his inability to fto'"tt his-thingit"
pragmatlc'
as it was
ironic rouch as f,umiliating to his opponents
irir thi"gr)en finzrnce the killthe confiscations from Th;rir and
rxre f'riend abuse the
ing of Thorkei Hake, in eflect having
.lake the
other.
s<tcial i.teracti..s.
PeoPle saw challenges ln murst
matterofseatingarrangements.Inamealgivenbyathirrqlnan
was appointed the seat .f'
of Gudmund's iri the ttoith' Gudmund
nexr to him (Lj6s. ch. z r):
honor a.rd ofeii ;;*-gir." the seat
put his
Lt:""
And when the tables were set' Ofeig
"How big does that fist seem to you' Gudmunor
"Big e-nough," he said'
it?" asked Ofeig'
"Do vou ,urpo" th"t" is any strength in
"i i.'ttri.,tY' do," said cudmund'
of a blow?" asked Ofeig'
"Do you tfri,'i it *"1'fa Jtliver much
"q"i,. a blow," Gudmund rePlied'
continued Ofeig'
"Do you think it *igt't d.o.1"i damage?"
answered'
nd
u
Gudlm
" Broke n b";;' ;; ;"d"athblow"'
Ofeig'
asked
to
vou?"
app.eal
end
an
"How would such
Gudmund'
said
it"'
thoot"
;";lh"i
"Not much ;;ll,';;l
plu::'
my
in
sit
don't
"Then
Ofeig said,
sat to.'one side' People had
"As you *irt,;^'uiJ GudmunJ-I"a he
portion of honor, since he
.
the greater
the imprerrio.rihrf ofeig wanteJ
;;;;;'."pied the high sJat uP to that time'
Whyshouldthisbeamatterofsuchimportancetoofeig?Itis
"*g'tr,ut
h. is the Power in the nort,hern part of
The
Social Historical
Settirtg
(i
Introduction
6o
formally
Gudmund's district, almost a kind of chieftain although
important
just
how
Gudmund,s thingman. The scene shows
so little formal
was
there
when
were
station
ind
rank
of
markers
o..ir.iaical ranking of merr. People had to negotiate their relative status at every Inshnt becausi status was such an ambiguous
that
construct. 'Ihere were no titles, no statements of net worth,
were
clarified the ambiguities. The reason seating arrangements
hours at
so important was that they rePresented, for several
men
among
least, u ,".y clear picture of the relative rankings
secure
the
Person
and women. of course, as in other contexts,
misconanyone
without
worthy
less
the
to
seat
his
up
give
could
ceivinf the significance of the gesture. There was then an irony
possibie in slating arrangements. But this only und_erscores
the importance oi the information they conveyed. Consider
cowThorvard's cutting wit directed at the double-dealing and
and
spirits
good
in
ardly Hrafn: "Ho"skuld Thorvardsson was
acseating
the
'shall
I arrange
did the honors. 'Father,' he said,
me,'
to
next
seated
be
cording to status or prowess?''Hrafn shall
he answered" (Lj6.s. ch. z5)'
the risk
Feasts could U" au.rg."ious business. The host ran
or
other
each
offend
of offending guestr, ur,t the guests could
giftand
feud
like
the host. F-easts and convivial conversation,
nature of
exchange, put honor on the line. The competitive
wants
Thorstein
foreman
these .,u..rti is the reason Gudmund's
my
for
out
set
to
"I'm
ready
Gudmund to attend his wedding:
me
do
would
that
for
me,
wedding. I want to ask you to go with
than
alone
in
you
honor
There is more
the greitest honor
i., m"urry others, and I will be taken tightly if you are not there"
(Ljds..h. ,3). This same feast giv-es ui a view of other kinds of
pioto.ol uid .o*petition u.d the jockeying for position .invglved in such things as the significance of priority in being
sct'ved (ibid.):
over her
A wotrt:rtt ltrought water to the end bench and had a towel her the
with
stayed
had
she
because
Ceirlaug
sltottltlet';
';rr..rtt".";li;
previotts wittter.
..yog t1e:t. well," said Geirlaug, "but you are, not acting thoughtfully
it should be'"
enough. ()ller. the water to Thdrlaug hrst-that's how
She did as she was tolcl.
hand:
Thorlaus ,rruJ. a <lismissive gesture with the back of her
right
the
is
doing
woman
()eirlaug,"because
this
pr, y.rrrr.lt ..rt,
,,Don't
that tlrt't'r' is :r
thins. lt didn't occur to me to resent this. Can it be said
in the district than You?"
fineiwoman
'^^
tt is appr-opll1:l:"1'l:::;
tf,. n"spitality is your due, Thorlaug'
except lll llly
standing to L" most honored. I am in no way your equal
marriage."
of sincerity
The coldness of the conversation, the pro forma lack
to each
give
they
in the concessions, and the hollow compliments
use of
excessive
the
other are made clear by, among other tirings,
Geirlaug
toward
each other's name. The servan* good intentions
*.r. grounds for offense, which-in fact is exactly *13, Geirlaug
the servant hadn't offended her,
-"u.rf to give Thorlaug in case
Thorlau*, on
Uy r.-ird"irrg her she siould have been offended.
that it
her side, reveals her awareness of the slight by denying
with
servant
the
justify
martered to her and by her attempt to
status'
mistress's
an unfelt assessment of the servant's former
groundwork
Geirlaug then escalates the hostilities by laying the
motion.
in
feud
for the insult of Gudmund that sets ttre
within broad classifications of people-househt>lder, chief11ne f r6m
tain, servant-there was not much 1[a1 dill'ereptiated
'['here
ac:tivities'
another. All were involvecl in sirrrilar-e(:olt()Illic.
were
was little specialization tl['latlor. As it cotlsequeltce People
()Ile
alltlve
notch
thern
raised
u".y j"ulorm of those markels th:rt
s. that the
their'peers. They guardecl them with care, so much
than
to
freezing
risk
mild-mannered noaru, would rather
{e^ath
the
from
of
instead
servant
a
accept an offer of hospitality from
headofhousehold(VLch.,o).o"theotherhand,people*:'.
too far
envious of those who threatened to raise themselves
which
control great
ments and modes of [roduction made it difficult to
work'
usually
would
mechanism
quanriries of wealth, this leveling
-ih.
and
well within them. Honor resides i' thingmen, like ofeig
a
makes
It
chieftain'
their
of
Einar Arnorsson, at the expense
dewho
overreach,
not
does
who
hero of Thorv ard, achieftain
6z
Introduction
fends his honor, but does not use honor as an excuse for acquiring more power than is fitting. He, unlike Gudmund, does not
ride roughshod over people's rights. Even a debt-slave looks
good in the saga. But the saga is also honest about the failings of
the leveling mechanisms. Gudmund is able to survive the insult
and is even able to use it as an excuse for eliminating the few
countervailing loci of power still opposed to him in the district.
As we have noted earlier, exchanges of honor depended on the
potential equality of the players in the game; without a basic
egalitarianism within the group competing for honor, there was
no chance to play the game. Gudmund was almost in a different
league. The saga, admittedly quite hostile to him, suggesrs thar
his power was unnatural, because divorced from honor. But
Ljdsuetninga saga tells the story from the losers' perspective and
we need to take its view of Gudmund with a grain of salt. And
whether its picture of him or the more favorable one of VallaLjdts saga is the true one will be forever lost to us. What we have,
however, are two sagas with distinctly different views about the
relation of chieftainly power to honor. Ljdsuetninga saga quite astutely recognizes that at some point great differences in power
change the rules of the honor game, who is eligible to play in it,
even the content of honor itself. Valla-Ljbts saga avords the issue
by keeping Gudmund's power well within the egalitarian assumptions of the game: egalitarian, that is, as among the members of the chieftain class so favored by the saga. To get a sense
of how differently the two sagas treat honor among nonchieftains, we have only to consider the contrasting characterizations
of Halli and Ofeig, two farmers who try to carve out a niche for
themselves independent of the chieftains around them. Does
Halli do anything more grievous to Ljot than Ofeig does to
Gudmund when he visits him with thirty men or when he backs
him out of the high seat by forcing Gudmund to contemplate
ttre force of his fist?
in a manageable compass.
One area is not touched on, that of manuscript study. We have
simply used the texts as they are presented in islenzk Firrnrit,
although there are particularly complex problems in the transmission of Ljdsuetninga saga. These are under study by Professor
issues
I'atricia Conroy of the University of Washington, who is preparing a new edition of the C text. There remain the traditional
philological problems having to do with the choice of redaction,
rlating and location of original texts, sources, literary influences,
rnode of composition, and interpretation of meaning. We will
work through the problems in more or less that order. The extent to which we differ from our predecessors will showjust how
rrncertain our solutions are and how much remains to be done
cven in the most fundamental matters.
64
Introduction
The Texts
The transmission of Valla-Lj1ts saga is unsatisfactory but uncomplicated. It is found only in paper manuscripts from the seventeenth century or later. According to the most recent editor,
J6nas Kristj6nsson (r956: cvii), all the extant copies can be traced
The Literary
Setting
(il-,
66
Introduction
longer redaction, traditionally designated C (on these designations see Gudmundur Dorldksson r88o: xxiv-xxv, and B. M.
6lse, rSBo-8 r: 267). Whereas Bjorn Sigfrisson printed the A
fragments at the top of the page, with the corrsponding C text
below and the three pattir (episodic stories), preserved only in
the C branch, as an appendix, we have presented C, including
the pattir (chs. b- r2), as the main text and have relegated the A
fragment to an appendix.
A detailed analysis would require too much space (Mager@y's
runs to ninety-nine pages), but the alternatives may be outlined
briefly. Adolfine Erichsen was the first to explore the problem
carefully in her Berlin dissertation in rgrg. She argued that the
C text was superior to A and suggested either that the A scribe
had a defective copy of the text and filled it in from oral tradition, or that he was dissatisfied with the version before him
and altered it accordingly. Her view prevailed until tgy7, when
Bjorn Sigfrisson published a monograph arguing that C was a
deliberate but clumsy recasting of A intended to rectify somewhat the negative image of the chieftain Gudmund in A. This
thesis underlies his choice of A as the primary version in his
edition of rg4o. It was further strengthened by Magerfiy's thorough comparison of rgb6. Mager@y also concluded that A was
the superior text, but he disagreed with Bjorn Sigfiisson's explanation that C is an attempt to vindicate Gudmund. He argued
instead that the revision in C is simply inspired by a wish ro expand the dimensions of the story.
A few years later I reversed this idea and maintained that A
was a clumsy abridgment of C (Andersson 1964: 15o-65). Finally, Cecilia Borggreve (rg7o: 48-46) accepted my principle
of abridgment but argued for a more positive view of the work
done by the A redactor. This seesaw debate scarcely allows us to
speak of a consensus, but it may be pointed out that abridgment
is a well-documented tendency in medieval saga editing. It has
beerr rlemonstrated for Oldfs saga helga and Egils sagaby Sigurdur
N<rrdal (rgr4, and Egik saga lxxxii-lxxxvii), fbr Eirtks sagarauda
by Sven B. F. Jansson (ry44), for Bandam,anna saga by Hallvard
Mager/y (rgb7), and for Gtsla saga by Gudni Kolbeinsson and
J6nas Kristjdnsson (rgZg) and by Alfred Jakobsen (rg8za,
r98zb).
The Literary
Setting '
,r,
But whereas the abbreviation in these sagas is generally stylistic in nature and does not affect the content of the story, there
are real factual discrepancies between the A and C versions of'
Lj6saetninga saga. There is unfortunately relatively little of the A
redaction available for comparison, only two fragments with a
gap in the middle. The surviving text covers Gudmund the
Powerful's outlawing of Thorir Akraskegg, his exiling of Thorir
Helgason (with the conclusion missing in the gap), and most of
his plot against Thorkel Hake (roughly chapters r4 through r8
in our translation of C). But even in this limited text the differences are extensive. A sample follows.
r. A specifies that the money collected by Gudmund in his
petty cases against Thorir Helgason's thingmen is to be used
eventually to defray compensation for Thorkel Hake. It appears
either that C has omitted a detail from the original or that A has
made explicit what was only implicit in the original.
z. Only in A does Einar Konalsson urse (ltrdmund to keep
the plan for collecting petty fines to hinrself'.
3. A specifies that the petty cases involve<l h:rve lo rkr with 1laternity suits, the unsanctioned riding ol'other nlen's horses, lrn<l
similar matters.
4. A states explicitly that "it now became apparent to every()ne
how much Thorir [Helgason] was losing face because he couldn't
protect his thingmen. His failure to protect them earned him
great dishonor." C has nothing equivalent. here, although Thorir
Akraskegg later chides Thorir Helgason because (ch. r4) "There
isn't much help to be expected from you; it always turns out that
you knuckle under to Gudmund."
g. Aintroduces first the Norwegian merchant Ingjald and then
the swindler Thorgils Akrakarl. C introduces first the swindler
Thorir Akraskegg and then the Norwegian merchant Helgi
Arnsteinsson (Mager@y r956: 3o).
6. In C Gudmund has a long-standing acquaintanceship with
the merchant. In A they appear to have no prior acquaintanceship.
7. A states: "It was Gudmund's wont to be the first to visit
newly arrived ships. He was a wealthy man and accustomed to
setting the price of merchandise and inviting merchants to his
house." The passage is so reminiscent of Hansa-bdris saga z: t)
that it may even be inspired by Tungu-Odd's role in that sag:r:
The Literary
Introduction
68
Setting
(itl
son rg4o:
at
zo. A recounts how Gudmund hired an outlaw named Thorstein Rindil before the conclusion of the thing meeting, then accounts for Thorir Helgason's three years of exile. C reverses the
order and provides a much more elaborate version of Rindil's
hiring; Rindil (here named Thorbjorn rather than Thorstein) is
instructed to travel north and pretend to look for work, but not
to accept any offers until he meets with Gudmund. In C he is not
described as an outlaw.
r. Gudmund
The Literary
Introduction
7o
same way in
fully.
Bjorn Sigfiisson's arguments for the primacy of A (tgZZ) were
coniested by Andersson (r964), who argued that A is an abridgment. The abridgment thesis was accepted by Borggreve (r97o)
and need not be repeated here. Knut Liest/l (r93o: +8-f g) once
the<lrized that A and C are recordings of two independent oral
traditions, but all later scholars (Bjorn Sigfrisson, Mager/Y, Andersson, Borggreve) agree that the verbal correspondences are
so extensive that they must derive from a common written version. If C is primary and A a literary abridgment, the deviations
require some explanation.
i'n. a redactor seems not to have been interested in the
elaborate account of Thorir Akraskegg's outlawry. He therefore
skipped over this episode quickly so as to get on to Gudmund's
more momentous dealings with Thorir Helgason, an ally of the
Ljosvetnings, and the Ljosvetning Thorkel Hake. The saga is
u[t.. all primarily about the Ljosvetnings, and the ne'er-do-well
Thorir Akraskegg has little importance in this context other
than as a catalyst. The reduction of his role leads redactor A to
omit the episode in which Gudmund woos his brother Einar
with a cloak, but because of the importance of the fraternal relationship it became necessary to retrieve this incident later on.
Abridgment is not, however, a totally adequate explanation of
the diffeiences between A and C. The most persistent obstacle to
this simple solution has been the discrepancy in proper names:
AC
Akrakarl
Ingfald
Thorstein Rindil
Thorgils
Thorir Akraskegg
Helgi Arnsteinsson
Thorbjorn Rindil
changes, not random misreadings. I['redactor A changed the names, he did so because he
had different information; he believed that the swindler's name
was Thorgils, not Thorir, and that the merchant's name was Ing-
Setting
It
4<)
Introduction
7:t
apart by an emphasis on Gudmund's wealth, a lyrical illrrrrrirr:rtion of the lovers, and a distinctly hypotacric style (r9rg: tlz). Slrt'
also tried to show that the second and third pattir have speci:rl
stylistic, lexical, and narrative features in common. These observations lead to the surmise that all three pettir were perhaps inserted to provide a fuller biography of Gudmund or to account
for the time lapse between the first chapters and Gudmund's
later dealings.
It is by no means clear that the pattir are an interpolation, especially if, as we believe, C is the original redaction. The argument that they are not essential to the plot takes a narrow view of
narrative pertinence. It stipulates that they should flow causally
from Gudmund's dealings with Thorgeir's sons and into his
firr the pattir, which must therefore have been missing in A. Because the pottir do not seem altogether relevant and because redaction A has more often than not been considered primary, the
_1
Introduction
74
.)
saga,
dred cows.)
7lt
of
Vatta-Ljfits
tobo- ro66.
Readers not familiar with the sagas may wonder how we are
able to ascertain any absolute dates at all from the Saga Age since
the family sagas do not register absolure dates. rnelrrrJnology
hinges on a few events dated by Icelandic or non-Icelandic historical documents. The following are a sample:
events from as late as
76
Introduction
sults in approximate corroboration but can also produce important discrepancies. The saga authors clearly knew something
The Literary
Setting
77
looo. There is, however, no way of arguing that they are t<ll<l irr
the right chronological order, although the author may have lrt:lieved they were. on the other hand, his main consideration nray
have been that all four opening episodes are paradigmatic. They
all illustrate defects in Gudmund's personality: acquisitiveness,
vanity, arrogance, and personal cowardice.
Whatever the exact dates of these events, Gudbrandur Vigfrisson was satisfied that they preceded Gudmund's actions
against Thorir Helgason and Thorkel Hake. He deduced from
the chronology of I''ljdk saga that Thorir and Thorkel had circulated their charge of homosexuality against Gudmund before
ror r and that Gudmund had taken no vengeance by that date.
Here a major difficulty arises. Accordin g to Ljbsuetninga saga,
Gudmund effected the first stage of his revenge by prosecuring
Thorir Helgason at the Allthing, presumably after lol l. Part of
Thorir's defense was a plan to challenee Gudmund to a duel at
the Allthing, but the chronology of Gunnl,oug.\ su,go, ( r r: q5) indicates that such duels were banned in r oo6 (or perhilps r o<17).
Gudbrandur Vigfiisson was incline<l to <listnrst Ourntkrug.\ .\uga
and prefer the account in Ljdsuetrilngu,.\ot!o, lltrt there :rre several
possibilities.
Thorir's plan to challenge Gudmund, and Vigfus VigaGlumsson's counterchallenge, neither of which comes to fruition,
could easily be fictional embellishments of the tradition and have
78
The Literary
Introduction
rhor. Thiy fall after the death of Gudmund in ro25, but not
soon a{ter. The Battle of Kakalahill (ch. z4) is located in the episcopate of Isleif Gizurarson after ro56, that is, more than thirty
y.i.r after Gudmund's death. But Hall Otryggsson -is said -to
iruu. gone into outlawry at the court of Harald Sigurdarson the
year before he fell in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in ro66
(ch. 3o). In that case the Battle of Kakalahill could have been as
late is ro63, thirty-eight years after Gudmund's death. Gudbrandur Vigfii*ot q.-,.ttioned whether Kodran's foster father Hlenni
would huu. survived that long, but at the time of Gudmund's
death Kodran is pictured as a youth under his older brother's
thumb and may have been only about fifteen, suggesting a birth
date of ca. toro. If his foster father was twenty-five years older,
he would have been seventy-eight in ro63, and that does not
seem impossible. On the other hand, there is an irreconcilable
Iapse when Oddi Grimsson goes to the court of King Cnul 9f
Denmark after the Battle of Kakalahill (.h.gr). Cnut died in
1035. If any such incident occurred, it would have been during
thJieign of firrg Svend Estridsen (Sveinn Ulfsson) of Denmark
(to47
'
ro7 4).
7tt
no difficulty in dating Sgrla pd,ttr to around rz5o (ibid.). Vpi'lttaround r3oo (rgg7-gg: 382).
B. M. Olsen's hypothesis of accretion and compilation was
clearly influenced by Binth's pdur theory (discussed in the fbllowing section). It was abandoned when the pd,ttr theory fell out
of favor. Accordingly Bjorn Sigfiisson (rg4o: xlvii-l) thought in
terms of a date only for the.unified composition of the saga. He
was not swayed by B.M. Olsen's evidence of legal misunderstanding and was quite confident in a dating around r 25o or a
bit later (rg4o: I). He attached particular importance to a passage in chapter rg, in which King Harald Sigurdarson refers to
the Icelanders as mlnir pegnar ("my men" or "people").
Bjorn Sigfiisson found such a locution impossible before the
period during which the Norwegian king Hakon the Old (d.
r 263) had begun in earnest to impose his claim on Iceland. He
mentions in particular (rg4o: xlviii) the year 1266, in which
many northerners submitted to Kins Hakr>n (.frin.f(rhunnesson
rg74: 27o). On the other hand, he provides ;t notc trt tttt: I)ilssilgo
in question (g7 n. +) pointinu out that lltt: s;ttttt: pltt':tst: ()(:(:ltl's
in Gtsk pd,ttr lllugasonar (4: 367). Flere .fon ()gtttttrt<lrtt'sott rt<ldresses King Magnus Olafsson (d. r ro'4) with tlte wttt'<ls: "Sit't',
we are just as much your menlpinir pegriarl as those wlro livt: irr
this country." Such a sentiment was apparently I'elt to be qtritt:
appropriate in the commonwealth period, presumably because
Icelandic service at the Norwegian court was a long-standing
tradition. There was nothing new about a special relationship
between the Icelanders and the Norwegian court. Gtsk pd,ttr
Illugasonar was written early in the thirteenth century (LouisJensen ry77: r I r - zz), and the designation of the lcelanders as
the "thanes" of the Norwegian king implies nothing about the
later potential subjection of Iceland.
Jonna Louis-Jensen ( ry77: r l r -zz) traced the extant versions
of Gtsk pdttr to a lost *Gtsls saga. Since one of the extant texts is
attributed to Gunnlaugr Leifsson (d. r z r8), the lost original cannot be dated much later than around l2oo. We will see that in
fact the few hints of literary culture in Lj6suetninga saga tend to
associate it with early tqxts.
One of the two most palpable literary loans in Lj1suetninga saga
is from the kings' sagas. It occurs at the end of chapter 3o when
Brands pdttr is again dated
Setting
.i
8o
Introduction
only
as a disconnected
.but
avoidid the blow and got the upper hand. Then he drew a knife and
thrust it in rny eye, and I lost the sight of the eye. After that he let me
up-it was (iudrnund Grimsson.
The Literary
Setting
l'l
And this was an unlikely outcome in my view because I ha<l twit:t' lris
strength, and I thought that I would have the same advantage in otlrt'r'
respects as well. I wanted to get clear-cut revenge with the help ol'rrry
kinsmen and outlaw him. We prepared the case accordingly, but thert:
were some powerful men on his side to help him, and my prosecutiott
came to naught.
This time it may turn out that there are men to help Thorgils even
though your cause is juster. At that point they offered money to settle
the case. But I considered what had happened to me and what a bad
turn everything had taken, and I declined compensation. I saw then
that the only recourse was to entrust the case to God's mercy, because
up until then my honor had gone from bad to worse. And I said that it
was the contentiousness and arrogance of the Modrvellings that was responsible for the bitter hostility against me.
It was my feeling when I thought about my honor that the compensation would not suffice to match my reputation. I therefore relinquished
the case against him for the sake of God. I knew that my reward would
be what was best for me. Then I invited him to stay with me, and he did
so for a long time thereafter. The gossip took a turl) Ior the better and
likewise the estimation of those involved. From then otr rny goo<l firrtune and hon6r were better than be[<rre. Att<l trow ltet:<l wlutlevel' y()r.r
think useful in my words.
Several sentences in the short acc()un[ at the etrcl
saga echo this exemplum:
<lf' l,j6.wcl'ruirt,ut,
8z
Tie Literary
Introduction
saga.
l't:t
Aside from literary echoes, the best key to the dating of'rrrt:<lieval texts is usually found in references to contemporary evettls
or figures. Such references are extremely rare in the sagas because of the practice of authorial self-effacement. There is only
one allusion to a contemporary in Lj6saetninga saga. At the end
of chapter 23 the author caps his account of how Atli's farmhand
was manhandled at Veisa with a reference to a local saying:
"Thorvard Thorgeirsson was subsequently in the habit of saying, whenever there was a ruckus, 'Let's try the Veisa grip."'This'
Setting
'i'il'
A reference to what Thorvard Thorgeirsson "was subsequently in the habit of saying" is of course quite vague. His
words could have been quoted at any time during or after his
lifetime, but they scarcely seem witty enough to have survived
him by fifty or sixty years. It is easier to imagine that they were
repeated in the decade after his death while his memory was still
fresh in the region. That Thorvard was indeed alluded to in this
84
Introduction
llr,
Ljdsuetninga saga.
86
Introduction
1
88
Introduction
Thorgeirsson. Gudmund guarantees to pay the indemnities for those who have fallen in the battle so that business can
proceed. By way of acknowledgment he is invited to a feast by
birrrr, Hjalti, and Asgrim, each of whom presents him with a gold
ring. Afier receiving further gifts he rides home and out of the
rugi, although there is a subsequent report that Kari Solmundarson rode north to stay with him (r48: 425, r4g:. 428).
Although most of the narrative elsewhere in the sagas seems
to be indipendent of Lj1suetninga saga, the portraits of Gudmuncl are ionsistent. He is chiefly conspicuous in political and
legal dealings, often hostile but sometimes also mediatory. Men
in need of iupport have recourse to him or his participation
is deemed crucial in Heidarltga saga, Eyrbyggla saga, Vatnsdula
saga, Vfga-Glums saga, Valta-Lj6* saga, Vd,pnfi,rdinga saga, Qlkofra
panr, and I'{jd,k saga. He exercises similar Power and influence
in Ljdsuetninga saga. Special note of his hospitality is made in
Heidanttga saga, Laxdula saga, and l,{jd,k saga, and this characteristic matihes his custom of entertaining the sons of distinguished
men for long periods of time in Ljbsaetninga saga (ch. 5).
We find thus a thematic uniformity illustrated by differing examples. The episodes cannot be derived one from the other.
Thit is to say, no saga seems to report information obtained
from other sagas. Rather, it appears that a good deal of anec-
ljorvi
The Literary
Setting
in
81l
Introduction
Fljfi*dala saga the same events are referred to more briclly rrrrtl
in somewhat different form. Thorkel also appears in Njd,ls sogt,.
In most of his roles Thorkel is a conspicuously important nt:rtt
with something less than an average success rate in his feud
dealings. In no case does he exhibit the patience and mastery
attributed to him in Ljbsuetninga saga. The reader may once
again suspect that a traditional figure has been promoted somewhat above his reputation for the purpose of overshadowing
Gudmund. Whether this development should be ascribed to
local bias in the tradition or to authorial intervention is not clear,
but Thorkel, like Ofeig Jarngerdarson, may owe much of his
stature to the downgrading of Gudmund.
Thorkel's chief consultant in his contest with Gudmund is
Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson, a quite peripheral figure in Lj6suetninga saga but a man of sufficient import.ance to have earned his
own saga. What remains of'the saga tells <lf'his yotlthf ul adventures abroad and his pnrlonged fL'utl with a t:ct'tititt 'l'lror-hacld
(Porsteins saga Sidu-Hallssonar: zgg-'.tzo). IIc :tlsrt :tppc;tr-s itr
9o
A cotrnterexample suggesting how a Proper leader should condtrtt lrirnself is oflered by OfeigJarngerdarson. Almost nothing
is knowtt :rbout. him from other sources, only that he killed a certain 'l'lrorstein kvigr in single combat at the age of eighteen
(lleyhrkela saga rg: zrr-r3). Yet the information on him in
Lj(t.suetninga saga is so full that he can hardly have been created
fi<lm nothing. Perhaps there was only a district tradition about
him, cultivated by the Ljosvetnings chiefly at Gudmund's expense. Chapter 6 records his genealogy, although it is not to be
found in Landnd,mab6h.
Of the remaining leading characters, Thorgeir the Chieftain
is mentioned in Reyhdela saga (z: t56-57, r8-zz: 2og-2o,
zg: zg8-4o) and Njdk saga (ro5: 270-7r,119: 3o2), Thorkel
Hake in the same sagas (z-3: r56-58, 1r9- 20: 3c2-6), Einar
Konalssonin Vtga-Glilms saga (r4: 46), Reykdala saga (r: r5z, r6:
2o2, 2Z'. zz1, 24: zz6-27,29: 24o), and Njd,ls saga (r4o: 373),
and Eyjolf Gudmundarson in Heidaruiga saga (36-39: 318zg), Laxdala saga (4o: r r3), Grettis saga (34: tr6), Pdrarins pd'ttr
(t++-+6), and Dorsteins saga Sidu-Hallssonar (7: 3ry).
A few of the characters who have only a secondary role in
Ljlsuetningasaga figure more prominently in other sagas. Amonq
these are Thorkel Geitisson, Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson, and Bjarni
llrodd-Helgason. Thorkel appears in chapters 9- r z in the lim-
1) I
sQ'{!o.
Thorkel's kinsman Bjarni Brodd-Helsasott is cvctl rll()l'(' l)('ripheral and takes no active part in the intricate negotiirtiotrs ttl'
Ljisuetninga saga. He seems to be Present for the sole purposc ol'
delivering a stinging rebuke to Gudmund (ch. rz). He is, however, well known from his feud with Thorkel in Vd,pnfirdinga saga
and is additionally mentioned in Bandantanna saga, Gunnars pd,ttr
bidrandabana, Flihtsdala saga, and Njdk saga- Again, none of the
narrative matter in these sources overlaps with Ljdsuetninga saga.
Four other characters with minor roles in Ljfsaetninga saga
are Vigfus Viga-Glumsson, Gellir Thorkelsson, Skegg-Broddi
Bjarnason, and Grettir Asmundarson. Vigfus plays a considerable role in the saga named for his father but is not portrayed in
an altogether favorable light. He is a more powerful presence in
Lj|suetninga saga, where he props up Gudmund's sagging spirits
and offers to do single combat in order to save him from the
alarming prospect of a duel against Thorir Helgason. As in the
case of Thorkel Hake and Thorkel Geitisson, a figure with mixed
1
The Literary
Introduction
92
Royalty
Major characters in Lj1suetninga saga
corroborated in other sagas
Secondary characters in Ljdsuetninga saga
or bishops'
sagas
b
7
7
lg
14
ncorroborated
in other sources (marked in the index with an
asterisk)
Total
73
125
Setting
1):|
sagas.
"rh;
those names
I
Introduction
Recently, however, the idea has been resurrected. Lars Lonnsaga (1976), and more recently still Carol Clover (rg86a) has placed the theory in a much
broader context. By studying prose transmissions in a variety of
cultures (for example, African, Indian, Japanese, and Turkic
tradition), she is able to show that prose performances are' ap-
uncompromising self-assertiveness.
By contrast the Ljosvetnings demonstrate an impressive soli-
94
dieval epic.
1)5
Introduction
tyrant, while the Ljosvetnings were cast as the stout-heurtcrl rt'sistance defending their independence and exemplifying rrt:w
standards of leadership and political cooperation. We cannot
know to what extent the author's outlook was anticipated by the
local traditions about. feuding farmers in the Saga Ag.,but the
ideological shape of his saga is clear. He promoted ideals of personal and political conduct against the raw exercise of power.
Valla-Lj6ts saga is among the shortest of the family sagas but
still has a cast of thirty named characters, twelve of them known
from other sources and eighteen otherwise unknown. The editor of the text in Islenzk Fornrit, J6nas Kristj6nsson, has made
the necessary points about these characters and it is sufficient to
quote him (r956: civ):
96
group of early sagas that lie somewhere between the kings' sagas
and the famiiy rugffi' Orkneyinga so,ga, Fareyinga saga, and Jbmsutkinga saga.They-were all written, it would appear' before r22o'
They all Jeal with particular regions and the variable dealings of
those regions wittr- the Norwegian crown. They are chapters of
diplomatic history. Berman calls them political sagas because, as
shl says (rg8S: r r3), "they are dominated by issues of independence and itruggl. fot leadership-in other words, issues of political power." All tugut are of course political in some sense, but
"struggle for leadership" is a more restricted theme'
ff LlAsuetninga saga was written in the same period, it could not
have b..., model.d on family sagas: in the first place because it
shows no sign of referring to them, and in the second place
because theie may have bien none available to imitate at this
early period. Instead, the author may have been inspired by the
\t7
saga,
\
Introduction
98
judge.
,1)1)
their wishes. They were quite famous, though not for good
deeds." The contrast in this juxtaposition of good and evil is surprisingly stark.
The reader might suppose that this moral statement is unimportant for the saga as a whole because the characters in ques-
tion are minor and for the most part disappear rather quickly
from the action. But they are not to be dismissed lightly. The
characters with positive attributes have in common that they are
destined to oppose Gudmund, whereas the ne6;at.ive qualities of'
the three troublemakers are significant n()t s() tttttt.h itt ittt<l
of themselves as for the light they shed on their evctttuul ptrrlet.tor. The question soon put to the reader is why :r chiel'tuin ol'
Gudmund's standing would take the part of' srtt:h egrcgiotts
villains.
Once this question is posed, we are prepared to observe in detail how the two groups differ. We may begin by exploring two
oppositions, the contrast between strong and weak conduct and
roo
The Literary
Introduction
ofeig
in
stand up
rween rigkri and wrong is obvious, and Ofeig's ability to
our
to
elicit
calculated
is
to the ntost powerful irutt in the district
concluthe
at
moral
this
a<lmiration. The saga author confirms
had
sion of the episod.,""P.ople thought that Ofer_gs reputation
Gudmund'"
with
srown greatiy because of these dealings
also operates at
when a
Gudmund's expense, is the riiourse to single combat
influence
and
power
in
r.s"l impasse derelops. The imbalance
Thorir is
between Gudmund and Thorir Helgason is such that
b.Y
procedures
legal
the
left with no choice but to circumvent
communiHe
(ch.
r6).
duel
a
challenging Gudmund directly to
Einar,
cates thls dlcision to his friend (and Gudmund's brother)
news,
good
"That's
not
who responds with cautious admiration:
but it is not a cowardly resolution'"
Thorir then denounces Gudmund in scathing terms for-all
to hear, and the subsequent action is designed to show that
Gudmund is anything but eager to back up his overwhelming
power with force of aims. His own friend Vigfus Viga-Glumsson
must
iells him to his face that he is "worse than spineless" and
rescuehimfromhisowncowardicebyproposingaCounterdY:l
by this
Irs:rinst Thorir's ally Einar. Gudmund is pitiably relieved
h3
wh-o
Vigfus,
of
praising
point
the
,,,l.,*p".,ed reprier., ,o
chuckby
plan
t..t.t
th.bltraying
and later
.ir,sr
'ii,,g irrst,lted hirn,
i,, public and thereby revealing ihat he is no Ionger fearful
ot'a <lrrel (ch. t7).
'l'hc rltrel as last resort recurs at the end of the saga when
settlement
Gudmtrn<l,s son Eyjolf breaks the terms of a legal
legal
Again
'['h,rvarJ's
Thorarin.
brother
innocent
by killi.g
the
power'-As
political
of
imbalance
of
an
remedies fail because
says
Hrolf,
Ljosvetning
ofthe
Prosecution,
petitioning leader
Setting
r()r
(ch. 3o): "My message is familiar to most people by now, lrtrt tlrt'y
attach greater importance to Eyjolf's power than to justice." ltt
desperation, Hrolf is resolved to challenge Eyjolf to a duel, antl
his interlocutor Skegg-Broddi responds with praise and an offer'
Introduction
102
Ofeigs
I ( )'l
demonstration in order to persuade Gudmund to curb his irnpositions on his thingmen; the reader may feel that Gudmund
of
ro4
Introduction
I(
)r,
when the opposing factions confront one anothcr irt tlrt. :rss(.1r
bly and mediators discuss a solution. Gellir Thorkelssorr st:rlr.s
(ch. z7): "I am well enough acquainred with Eyjolf to know rlr:rr
he will want to set the terms himself and assess the amounrs ol
the compensation awards." The same thing is said of his opp()nent Thorvard, but when the final outbreak of violence is imminent, it is Eyjolf who remains unyielding and Thorvard who
shows the flexibility necessary for an arbitrated settlement. When
the arbitration is finally nor ro Eyjolf's liking, he breaks rhe
agreement and kills Thorvard's brother.
on his return from this bloody mission he falls from his horse
and injures his leg, an injury that is interpreted not as an accident but as a reprisal. In the legal acrion that follows Eyjolf is as
uncompromising as ever and, like Gudmund before him, finally
yields only to the threat of single combat. Thorvard, by r;,rnrr:rsr,
chooses Christian restraint and opts not to return to lr:t:larr<l in
quest of vengeance (ch. 3o): "It's a long way tretwcen ()ur. :rx(.s
and the Modrvellings. And they will still wanr thenr wieldc<l il I
go to lceland. But ler it be as St. Peter wishes. I think it woul<l lrt.
better if I did not return there." This is one of'the clearest examples in the sagas of the view that at some point it is better to
concede a feud than to pursue the bloody consequences.
For the most part, the contrast between Ljosvetning moderation and Modrvelling highhandedness must be read from between the lines. Indeed, it is not always clear where justice lies.
In Part I (chs. r - 2 r ) we never learn whether Gudmund is in fact
homosexual or whether the rumors circulated by the Ljosvetnings are prompted by malice. In Part II (chs. 22-zr) we never
learn whether the paternity case against Brand Gunnsteinsson is
justified or nor. In both quarrels it may very well be that the
Modrvellings have the better cause. It is unlikely that Gudmund
was in reality homosexual, and Fridgerd displays such a sterling
character that she is unlikely to have lied abour rhe father of hei
child.
It seems more probable that the author's Ljosvetning bias is
responsible for clouding these issues. But whatever the merits of
the legal cases may be, it is clear that the Ljosvetnings and their
allies negotiate reasonably while the Modrvellings avail themselves of'their powerful advantages to promote their own in-
Gudmund does actually succeed in killing his second antagonist, Thorkel Hake, but only through the services of the unsavory
Thorbjorn Rindil and only after suffering the most humiliating
verbal abuse recorded anywhere in saga literature. In the final
confrontation Thorkel makes a valiant stand against twenty-one
attackers, whereas Gudmund shrinks back and is clearly convicted of cowardice. He is therefore guilty at least of the metaphorical aspect of the accusation against him. Thorir Helgason
was justified in questioning whether he was snjallr (courageous,
manly). Thorkel establishes that he is not. Gudmund is thus characterized by extreme inflexibility but also by an incapacity to back
up his will with a full measure of personal resoluteness. When it
comes to the sticking point, he falls short or is discountenanced.
Excessive pride and the inevitable fall are not reserved for
Gudmund alone. Immoderation appears to run in the family: it
is also characteristic of his son Eyjolf. This continuity makes the
problem more than an individual quirk and raises it to the status
bf u., endemic peril in the history of the region. Inflexibility is
not so immediately obvious in Eyjolf as in his father, but it resurfaces quickly enough. When, acceding too easily to the argument
that his status is at stake, he becomes involved in the paternity
case against Brand Gunnsteinsson, he broaches the matter cautiously. He approaches Thorkel Hallgilsson for compensation
with the words (ch. z3): "I shall not be very demanding of compensation if there is a reasonable response." Even in the face of a
iomewhat abrupt rejection he proceeds quietly: "You are less obliging than we would wish, but I will proceed with moderation."
-This
level tone soon gives way to ancestral obstinacy. When
Fridgerd's ordeal is not immediately judged in his favor, Eyjolf
reacts even more vehemently than his Ljosvetning opponent in
upbraiding the officiating priest for his failure to decide the test
1t:h. z'+). "it couldn't be clearer," he says, "but for your enmity
anrl bi'ibetaking, and because of that I will pursue the claim as if
it wt:r'r: tny own inheritance." That Eyjolf should press so doubtf'ul a (.:tsc :ts if it were a matter of his own inheritance is a great
exaggeratiort, hut he remains unyielding.
After the pitched battle at Kakalahill Thorvard makes a conciliatory oft'ei-, lrut F.yjotf rejects the notion that terms might be
arranged by anyone but himself. His intransigence is confirmed
I
I
I
I
II
'I
I
The Literary Setting
ro6
Introduction
r()7
,l
Thorir
;;g;rr", fo, this ;haracteristii it 'F'(arrogance)' When
counter
ro
uEiguron frnally resorrs to- a duel in his artemprs
it may t1n1e his
Gudmund, he io., so in the expecration that
rival,sofsi(ch.'o).wt,"nEyjolf."f.,,.,tomakeafairdivisionof
that he
Hlenni remarks
his inheritance with his broiher Kodran,
surprised Uy f,it o/si (ch' zz)' Finally.' when
i,
tn:-t'Tt-lr:
H'u.to
""t
;il; il;etninss has been e.nsased'.
,-;";;T;;";#
r ^-^,.^l^
+^
}.a
to-.b:
enough
well
o/si
ff;;i"iJ# f.or.rr., to know E"fiolf's ii the word-t o/si
^.c^: applied
^ - ^l: ^l
to the Ljosvetnings.
Ai""d with the- urrogurr.e characreristic of the Modrvellings
them in the
g.,..ri;i. urro.iut.a qriurities that work to discredit
preoccupied
^with
reader,s mind. in"y Lr. ul*osr obsessivety
attempts to reform
personal honor. When Ofeig JarngerduT"l
concedes the
Gudmund's treatment of f iJtni"g;'en' Gudm-und
(ch' 7):
threatened
is
honor
issue but immeaiut.ty feels that h-is
,,It is indeed true thai I have done as you say. But it is worth conhongr is. at
,id..i.,g *hethe, you will be againti -" whel myidea that his
the
to
reverts
stake; it ...tuirriy'rfptut' so'" He
him with
honor has sufI.e,.a *r,." ofeig works to reconcile
a
partisanof
much
very
is
Thorkel Geitisso., (ch' rz)' Gudrirund
for him must be
the idea thut urrfone who is not exclusively
"g"i"',him.Theevenhandednessforwhichofeigstandsisnot
a value that he grasPs. :- :
the central
UnderthecircumstancesitisnotSurprlslng that
relahuman
or
wealth
oi
issue in Gudmund's life is not succett
this
when
honor'
personal
his
a narrow concern with
tions but
issue,forgoodorill,isfinallyresolvedandGudmundquestions
the future, she knows what words
the sorceress Tho.nna aborri
..I don,t think there will be men to take
ht: w:tnts to hear (ch. z r):
maintain your
ul) vcnseance ugui.rrt you. You will be able to
example
egregious
most
the
5.tt,*t51. p.rrii-i}rr." B't perhaps
projects
he
where
zo,
ch.
in
o..rrrc
Of'(irr<lrtrtrnrl's tunnel vision
she.,is
that
Discovering
wife.
his
his t-ont:t:rn with honor onto
unwillis
and
down
burn
to
is
about
present irr the lrouse that he
the honor
he .lrserves that if she is so insensitive to
habit is mentioned a final time in ch. zo: "Gudmund was accustomed to ride with a large following." The trappings of distinction are not so conspicrious in Gudmund's son Eyjolf, but the
first thing we learn of is his insistence on having his father's entire fortune to the exclusion of his younger brother' As a con-
in
the
irrg ,o leave,
conferreclbyhermarriage,shemaydieif.shelikes:..Ifyou
in honor and
north."
Nor do the Modrvellings hesitate to take advantage of tht:ir
me
would rarher die in shamJ here than live with
way"'
in
your
stand
gooa standing, we will not
108
The Literary
Introduction
Setting
r()()
numerous retinue. ln Vgdu-Brands pdttr, Thorkel ()eitissorr t.xploits Gudmund's confidence in his superior power to trick hirrr
at the assembly and precipitate a deadlock that opens the wuy
for compromise.
Although Gudmund's power is never questioned or breached
in the saga, his vanity makes him vulnerable to cleverly conceived countermoves by much-inferior opponents. Even when
he is dealt a winning hand by Vigfus Viga-Glumsson in his case
against Thorir Helgason, he is unable to keep a straight face and
plays away his advantage. That his son Eyjolf can be similarly
fooled is illustrated when he fails to interpret deliberately misleading information and loses his last chance for blood revenge
against Thorvard (ch. z8).
The discrepancy between the overpowering status of the
Modrvellings and the personal failings of their chieftains is a
constant. Individually Gudmund does not nrcasrrre llp to'['horir
Helgason or Thorkel Hake, nor rkres l..yjoll rno:rrir.rr'(: ul) t()
Thorvard. One moral of'the sagu itl)l)t:trrs lo llt: tlr:rt politir':rl
power and personal worth are two <ltrite rlill'crt:nt tlrirrgs. llrrt irrevitably the two spheres cannot always lle rlisr:r'irrrirr:rtt.<1. Wlrt.tr
Hall Otryggsson kills Eyjolf''s brother Kodrarr, s()rr)c()rrt't:lrlls orrt
(ch. z4): "There went the best man from Eyjafjor<l." [I:rll'.s irnmediate rejoinder is: "Good or not, he was Gudmund's son." In
other words, an otherwise worthy individual can be compromised by his clan. Gudmund's personal deficiencies have politi-
substitutes for personal stature. Thus Gudmund initiates his action against Thorir Helgason and Thorkel Hake with a series of
cal consequences.
tlo
T-he
Introduction
ltt
i
the dispute are urged by their friends to desist f rottt sttt:lt :t (ltt:tt
rel. When Thorgeir proposes to throw in his lot with ()tt<ltrtttrtrl,
Arnor states outright (ch. z): "That's a strange alliance. No goorl
will come of it." The message is reinforced in chapter 8 wltt:tr
we learn
social units.
It is
Most in evidence is a PreoccuPation with family tensions'
subsection of the saga is.prefsurely nor coincidental ihut
"u.i, that is, a threat to family inseduction,
a
of
story
aced with the
The initial conflict between Thorgeir and his sons is pre
tegrity.
Litera,ry Setting
.ifritrl"a by Solmund's
What
even when it occurs in a fimily of peripheral importance.
unit'
family
is at stake in all these episodes is the integrity of the
the prtlblenratic t'clittionship tletween Gudmund and his bnrther Flinrrr-. 'l'hcir lttttltgottisttt is
grounded in a childhoorl inr:i<lerrt rt'lrrtr'<l irr <'lt:r1rlt'r' l(i. It tt'lls
how Einar once abused (lurlrrrurrrl's r t't'<lttlity lrrrrl t't't':tlt'<l 1rt'r'manent suspicions. 'I'he tensiorr t't:sttt'l;tt't:s itt llrt'il' l:rtt'l' <lt':rl'l'lrolkt'l (it'itissorr
ings. Thus litigation between ()urlrttun<l :ut<l
lirr<ls l',irrlrr'
Hclg:rsorr
and'l'hor-irand again between Gudmund
'l'he
tr()l
re<loutt<ls
disc<lrtl
opponents.
aligned with Gudmund's
in
the
especially
Gudmund's,
to
so much to Einar's discredit as
pracGudmund
sequence
latter
In
this
case of Thorir Helgason.
tices an elaborate deception on his brother in the name of family
unity, a hypocrisy thatjustly fails.
Gudmund's most flamboyant demonstration of family insensitivity occurs in the aftermath of Thorkel Hake's death. He is so
enamored of his henchman Thorbjorn Rindil, who facilitated
Thorkel's killing, that when Rindil falls victim to reprisal, Gudmund places vengeance for him ahead of his concern for his
closest family. He is quite prepared to burn down the house in
which the killer has taken refuge even though it also shelters his
wife and son, and he can be persuaded to refrain from this design only with difficulty. The episode carries a good deal of
shock value; it exemplifies not only Gudmund's penchant for extreme behavior but a real lack of feeling. That he should consider even momentarily that Rindil is more important than his
rr2
Introduction
'fhorvard reinforces the message when his son Hoskuld tukt's lur
obvious slap at Hrafn Thorkelsson, who has not distingtrislrcrl
himself in the fighting: "'Father,'he said,'shall I arrange tht:
seating according to status or prowess?"' Thorvard reprimands
him tersely: "Hrafn shall be seated next to me." As a result the
Ljosvetnings are able to hold together and minimize their disadvantage in dealing with their more powerful Modrvelling
I t :l
antagonists.
By comparison to the heavy emphasis on individual and family virtues, indications on societal values are scattered and slight.
'fhe public abuse, though it may also be considered a private
one, that seems to incur the author's disapprobation most frequently is mercantile deception. The story is set in motion by
Solmund's cheating of a Norwegian merchant. When 'fhorgeir's
sons subsequently assert (ch. S) "that they hacl right on their side
in declaring that the killing of'a rniur wirs jrrstilit:rl whcn he had
first engaged in fraud an<l tlren rctrrrrrc<l li'orrr t'xilt' lx'lirlt: tlrr:
stipulated time expired," thcy clcurly t:xprt:ss :l (:()ns(:nsus vit'w.
When Vodu-Brand undertakes an arl'rulgt:tttt:rtl witlr two Not'-
It is tlrt'r't'lirrt'
in his favor when he keeps his part ol'tlrr: lxu'grrin
punctiliously. Finally, the signal that Thorir Akrask"gg is a tlror'-
ethics seem firm, but the law is built on shifting ground' In some
cases we have
-When
hand.
The L,iterary
Introduction
L14
Setting
115
16
Introduction
.t7
Thorir. His good will is more than equal to the test. In liglrt ol
the new faith he also exhibits a somewhat premature piety itrrrl is
willing to pay over the fine so as not to "anger the angel [St.
The picture of Gudmun d in Valla-Ljbts saga ts naturally of' particular interest to the reader of Lj|suetninga saga. He is much
more sympathetically drawn, but there are haunting reminiscences of his other self. Though a powerful chieftain, he is dependent on his followers who, like Halli, do not necessarily win
popularity in his service. Halli's designation as "enforcer" and
his nickname Roughneck suggest that he was an instrument in
less than scrupulous dealings. But Gudmund is oddly loyal to
such henchmen and feels that he must avenge Halli just as he
felt obliged to avenge his spy Thorbjorn Rindil in Lj1saetninga
saga. He cannot, however, carry out the vengeance alone but
marches with a troop of unspecified size against Ljot, as he did
against Thorkel Hake. He is not prepared to meet Ljot in single
combat, as Ljot unhesitatingly meets Halli. For all that, his hunger for honor remains undiminished, and this hunger must be
satisfied before a settlement can be reached. Ljot realizes as
much and strives to satisfy his opponent (ch. g): "Ljot was cotlcerned that everyone be reconciled and that Gudmund shoul<l
Introduction
r18
gainhonorfromit."ThereaPPearstobeatacitconspiracyto
plu.ut. Gudmund'
in the minor characThe morut ,ui.rr.es are equally explicit
as "well-liked"
introduced
is
Bodvar, *t "
ters. Halli,, Uroihe,
des-c1l:9:t
,.;';;;J
islater
who
and
disposition,"
and as havins
vlctlm'
innocent
proto'Ipt-g
"moderate and .B-po"d," i' the
of Ljot's
n.,rtr,.r Hrolf is his a,tith.sit. Hit killing
The thira
.r.n.rrrurJ
"treacherous deed," and
nephew
is characterized as a
hisext<lrtio.,f.omrSo.,,attheendofthesagaiscanceledinthe
extension of hospiensuing settlement. hhorgrim Ljotolfsson's bad weather and
of
tality to godra., ior..a b-"y .ir.rl-srances
Kuggason at
Thorstein
o.f
gl"."t
lodging
forced
rerniniscenr of
is acknowledged both by
the end of Bjariar saga Httd'ahhZppZ'
Ljot reproaches Bjorn for'his
Bodvar and by Ljot' In contrast'
(.n. 6): "is that your plan, kinsconremplated attick on Bodvar
b'"uk the settlement?"
man, to kill an innocent man ut'i
with considerable venom
is-written
Whereas Lj6;;;;;;"g' saga
derogation of the Modrvellings'
and concentrates abor'e ult"on the
,iurrr. It is not so much depositive
vatta_Ljitssaga has a more
signed to
impenetrably objecdve,
The saga, *... orr." held to be almosl
saga have in common is
but what Li6r;;;;"g. '"[o u"a-Valta-Lj6x
plcture ,rf lhe to.iul truth as their aua remarkably transparent
Part
II
THE, SAGAS
'Lj6svetninga saga'
*
Chapter
Solmund tries to abduct Oluir's daughter bu,t is preuented lry Ofeig. IIe
then chea,ts a Norwegian merchant of his sales. Whcvt, Sol,rnu,rul i.s serued
with a legal summons, his brother Soxolf hills the Nuruttp;iltn. Soxolf is
outlawed and Solmund is exiled for three year.s.
'Many sagas begin with genealogical prefaces dipping back into the
period of Icelandic settlement (Hume lg73). Ljdsuetninga saga is unusually abrupt and fails to explain who Thorgeir was. He was prominent as the lawspeaker (g85- roor) and was presumably too well known
to require introduction.
2
(Grettis saga 8o:254). Bjorn Sigftisson thought the stanza derived from
the allusion (rg4o: gn. 4; cf . Grettis saga xl), but the stanza could equally
well have been traditional and known to the author of Ljbsuetninga sagt.
tlt is clear from elsewhere in the saga that Ofeig is a thingman ol
Gudmund the Powerful; see, e.g., chs. 6-7. Icelandic hgfdirzgp is lrt'tr'
r2z
it
Ljdsaetninga
The Sagas
saga
123
It can be told that Vidar\ ,orn left home to go to Olvir's. Solmund said, "Brothers, you two should stand in the door and
keep a lookout. It's my guess that this breed of slaves will make
itself scarce when they see us." Solmund went in after the woman
124
home and told Forni that he had sold his wares to Solmund. But
Forni was disapproving and said that Solmund would pay a poor
return for them.
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
,uAiiorcliirl; t., tire laws, the rightful prosecutor of the case on behalf
of Sigurd was.Forni, the head of household where Sigurd was lodged;
Grd,gris Ia 17g,II ggg.
saga
?5
frlr three years. After they went abroad, Solmund took to lt:rrrying together with his brothers and proved to be a very bold nurn.
Chapter
Jarl Hahon receiues Solmund in Norway and, after two years, sends
gifts to Gudmund the Powerful and Thorgeir the Chieftain to facilitate
Solrnund's return to lceland. Gudmund and Thorgeir acquiesce but are
opposed by the slain Norwegian's host Arnor and Thorgeir's four sons.
These latter learn of a plan to secure immunity for Solrnund and succeed
in killing
him
At that time Jarl Hakon ruled over Norway." Solmund uppeared before him when he grew tired of raiding, and the jarl
treated him with great distinction. Solmund was eager to return
to Iceland in the summer, but the.jarl sai<l il was not aclvisable
considering the trouble he was involverl irr thcre. Ily tlurt tirrre he
had been in Norway for two years.'l'hc.jall sairl lrc woul<l rirtherr'
send out a ship and valuables to srnooth thc w:ry lirl hirrr. ll Ic
sent a Russian hat and a battle-ax to ()trdrrrtrnrl antl'l'lrolgt:ir tlrt:
Chieftain for their support.l ''
After that Solmund sailed out and met with G'udnrund anrl
Thorgeir and delivered the jarl's message and declaration of'
friendship together with the valuable gifts he had sent them.
They received him and provided four men to accompany him.
He brought Thorgeir the valuable gifts that thejarl had sent him.
"You were sent to Gudmund because he is the jarl's retainer," ''
said Thorgeir to Solmund.
"Jarl Hakon Sigurdarson was the effective ruler of Norway from
ca.97b until 995, when Olaf Tryggvason established his power.
'2This sentence is found only in the A redaction. Gudmund is
mentioned without having been introduced, as critics have frequently
pointed out (Erichsen rgrg: 67-68; Bjorn Sigfiisson ryZ7i 8; Mager@y
1956: rg). One possible explanation is that Gudmund's name figured in
the title, as in one of the paper manuscripts (Bjorn Sigfiisson lg37: 5;
see also Vigfiisson and Powell rgo5: 35o).
'uThe sagas suggest that it was common for prominent Icelanders to
become retainers of Norwegian kings and earls if and when they tr':rveled abroad.
126
The Sagas
know that he was the only other person to know it." The power of a
monopoly or a near monopoly on knowledge is power indeed. At the
local thing it might have been that no one would have commanded
sufficient legal expertise to challenge Thorgeir. But the inference of the
following interesiing Grdgd"s text suggests a land filled with legal exw[o not only were learned in law but seemed to create it as well:
perts,
' "What
is found in books is to be law. And if books differ, then what is
lirund in the books which the bishops own is to be accepted. If their
lxxrks also differ [there were two bishoprics in Iceland after r ro6], then
t h:rt one is to prevail which says it at greater length in words that aflfect
tlrt.t::rse at issue. But if they say it at the same length but each in its own
vt'r'sion, then the one which is in Sk6laholt is to prevail. Everything in
rlrt.lr<xrk that Haflidi had made is to be accepted unless it has since been
rrrrxlilir.rl, btrt <>nly those things in the accounts given by other legal ex1x:r'ts wlrit lr rlo not contradict it, though anything in them which sup-
l>lit:s wh:rt is lcli. out there or is clearer is to be accepted. If there is argunrenl ()n an at'ticle of law and the books do not decide it, the llggr4fial
[see lntro<ltr<:lion, p. Z] must be cleared for a meeting on it. . . . But if
the nren ol' thc lggritkt, are in equal numbers with each group calling
their version l:rw, then those with the lawspeaker among them are to
prevail" (Grd,gras Ia z r'1- r4).
Ljdsuetninga
saga
27
Thorgeir had four sons, Tjorvi, Hoskuld, Finni, and -I'hor-kel." At that time Thorfinn from Reykjahlid was abroad, but his
father Arnor came and urged Thorgeir to support his sons.
Thorgeir said, "I will not oppose Gudmund."
"I don't know what's at the bottom of this," said Arnor,
"but don't oppose your sons when they want to support the
prosecution."
vate settlement. See N7Zls saga66: 165 and von See 1964: 16o-6r.
'TAccording to Landnd,mabdh (z7b), Thorgeir had nine sons and a
128
The Sagas
Chapter
3
'l.fun'geir begins to utanter, but Gudmund and Thorgeir's sons press the
'l'\rc latter seeh Ofeig's help. Both parties muster
i,.s.srt,r'.
for the thing.
'l'lrt'y partecl for the time being. Thorgeir was told that his son
Hoskrrkl wirs severely wounded,'* and people urged him to withdraw li'orrr this case and not oppose his sons.
"The pretext or exaggeration of a wound for the purpose of forez4.It is a motif
Lj6suetninga
saga
tr,l)
Ljdsaetninga
The Sagas
r30
these dealings. He restrained the brothers and said it was unfitting that the! should quarrel with their father. "I don't think it at
all iertain that he will withdraw from the case, and I would like
you to reach a just settlement. That being the best course, I will
make the trip there with You."
Hoskuld said that his meeting with Ofeig had been to little
purpose-"and you are reputed to be a worthy and forceful
man, but I have found no reason to think so"'
"V)u are making much of this," said Ofeig. "Nevertheless, I
will lrcgin by seeking a reconciliation between you and your father. tl-ut I will noi abandon you if it comes to a showdown'
I aclvise you to conduct the case with forbearance, but don't
agree to a settlement before I arrive."
Half a month before the thing Tjorvi rode to Goddales be-
saga
r:l
with a hundred. They had been at the thing for one night.
"*Yes,"
Chapter 4
The Thorgeirssons force a certain Arnstein to cede his share of the
ltrnttril
tt,'txl, tt,
hu'&t payment
for Arnor.
In
lliiiln Sigfiisson surmises tha[ "h" stands for the name Haf
"Neighbors were incorrectly callc<l t() s(:r'v(: orr tlrr: lniulu,ii\r ("iu.y
panel") if there were other neighlxrrs tlost'r'to llrt's(('rr('ol';rr:liorr, i['
they were second cousins ()r nearer lo tltc prinr ipirls, or il'tlrt'y rlirl rrot
have sufficient property to pay the thing utlen<l:rtrr;c l:rx (st'r' lttlt'o<lrt<:tion, pp. g-lo).Yet even if a majority of a patrel calle<l lor:ully w:ts sttlr.iect to disqualification, the plaintiff's case was not spoile<l il'ltt: swot't:
that he thought they were qualified when he called them. 'l'he plaintill',
however, was subject to a three-mark fine for the error. See Grd,gd,s lzt
6r-62 and Njd,ls saga r4z: g8g. Still, some errors could be fatal. Thus
Grdgds Ia 5z regarding calling a panel of neighbors at the Allthing
rather than locally: "If a man calls a servant to join a panel of neighbors
or calls a man who is not a thing participant on behalf of someone else's
household and calls them so that they themselves-hear his calling and he
has the opportunity of asking for legal information if he wants to, then
he makes his own case void."
t'It was not unusual for a chieftaincy to be owned by more than one
person. But there is little support for the view suggested in this chapter
that the co-owners shared in the duties of the office at the same time, or
that the shareholders exercised their authority by polling a majority of
the shares. The laws indicate that the duties were to be performed by
only one man. The relevant provision in Grd,gd,s reads as follows: "If two
men own a chieftaincy jointly, the same one of them is to act in it for
three things, the spring thing, the Allthing, and the autumn assembly.
They are then to change over after the autumn assembly. . . .It is also
lawful if men transfer a chieftaincy from one to another at a thing after
the courts have been held. If the man who is acting in a chieftaincy will
r1z
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga
saga
r:t:t
replie<I. "'l'lrt.
will be won by recourse to the law."
Gudmund said, "It all depends on whom we have to deal with
when they come to the Allthing. There they will make headway
though they do not have the necessary numbers to do so here."
Then Hoskuld said, "Why don't you convene the court?"
"It may be," said Tjorvi, "that they are"weaker than they
thought."
"It's a shame if my father's courage is giving out," said Hoskuld.
"Let's attack Gudmund and his men."
"That's not right," replied Ofeig. "Let's seek a settlement instead. If this matter comes to the Allthing, your resources will
already be drained. You'll then have no choice but to settle-you
should let Thorgeir arbitrate the case."
"That won't happen if there is any nltcr.rrutivc," s;ti{l Hosktrld.
"We'll settle with Thorgeir even if'()rrclrrrrrrrrl <l<lt'sn'l w:lnt t()
case
Ljdsaetninga
The Sagas
134
saicl H<>skuld.
firr it."
t,loskuld said,
"I don't
see the
right man
judge refused to
srun ltl):r case; or when litigants used excessive delay in presenting their
t.o :r
lltwstrit.
.lrgwe,ver,
of the court.
saga
r:i5
.ni.f,ui" of
the men from Hlid, approached with a largt: nunrber of men and said, "This is not a promising turn of events. Wt.
now have two choices, to let Hoskuld and his followers bring rlrt:
case to judgment-and, given their numbers, it may be that ttrey
will succeed in depriving Thorgeir of his chieftairicy-or ro
reach a settlement. We are keener on the latter course because
the litigation was initiated aggressively and it may be that ir will
only lead to increased difficulties. The obvious thing is ro semle."
This course was chosen, and they all agreed to it chiefly because
turned over to arbitration and men were named to arbitrate. Hoskuld and his followers enhanced their reputation as
a result of these dealings. Solmund was judged to have been
killed withjustification. A large payment was awarded for Arnor,
though the amount is not specified, and Arnstein rli<l n<>t get his
chieftaincy back.
was now
:lH""T::'*::l:?T.i:[,1Ti;"111;3#3T3fi
o::"i:il]'*xl
meant to convey. Hundrad, here, simply means "a lot," and probably
quite a bit less than r zo. On household size see Introduction, pp. 10, r 2.
The sentence itself is echoed in Njd,k saga I rq: 285. On this echo and
Gudmund's reputation for hospitality see Introduction, pp.74,84.
r36
The Sagas
shining and there were southerly breezes and fine weather. She
saw then that a tall man was riding into the yard. When she recognized the man, she said, "Now the air is full of sunshine and
southerly breezes, and Sorli is riding into the yard." The season
conspired with his arrival."'
Time passed now and the moment for the summer thing approached. Sorli intended to return east to his kinsmen. One day
it the thing he went to Einar of Thvera and asked to speak with
him and said, "I would like to have your support in asking your
brother Gudmund for the hand of his daughter Thordis."
"I will give it," said Einar. "But Gudmund often honors the
words of other men more than mine."
He went to Gudmund's booth. The brothers met and sat down
to talk. "What is your opinion of Sorli?" asked Einar.
..li:rvorable," he said, "for such men are accomplished in evt'r'y wlty."
'r:^"::::,harsed
,,r *inlonvey
,n. -"t]0,
me wirrr,,, .,:,':l
llinar. "He requests the hand of your daughier Thordis."
"I believe that is a suitable arrangement for many reas{)ns,,,
said Gudmund, "but because of the gossip surrounding the
matter it's not going to happen."
Later Einar met with sorli and told him that there was no
yielding, and also what the reason was and what had happened.
He responded, "It seems to me that the situation is not promising as things stand."
"Now I will devise a plan for you," said Einar to sorli. "There
is a rnan named Thorarin Toki, the son of Ne{olf and a wise
man.'u He is a great friend of Gudmund's. Go to him and ask
him to counsel you."
Sorli did as he was advised. He went north l() rn()ct with 'I'horarin, requested a talk with hirn, arr<l srri<1, "A rn:rllt:r. lr;rs (]ome
up that I consider very iml)ortant lir yorr to t:rkt. 1xrr.l irr; you
important to you."
He said that he was well pleased with this, and they parred.
o''I'lre text rc:r<ls simply petta bar saman ("these things coincided" or
"these ttrings h:tpllened'ai the same time"). Gudbrandur Vigfiisson
(rgo5: 366i'thou14ht that something was missing .W: have overtransiut.irtigtrtly in an attempt to catch something of the lyrical flavor.
but Thorarin takes the bet and then shows off the"other foot with a
missing big toe. It is also Thorarin who is enrrusred with King olaf,s
request that he be granted Grim's Isle off the northern coast of iceland.
Gudmund's brother Einar dissuades his countrymen from acceding to
the request.
38
Lj6saetninga saga
The Sagas
:t,1 )
VII.
r40
36This is a meeting
of
iig.r-"t t
The Sagas
th"eir tenants, and masters for their servants. There was no obligation to
support beggars from outside the hreppr.In fact, any acts of charity to
tfrem *".."fr.rishable by a fine of three marks, although the ho.useholder had i valid defense if he could show that he only took them in to
flog them. The hreppr acquired som of its funding from a. 9o11iq1 of
r.he" tithes due from' the district and from mandatory food "gifts" asst:ssecl in such a way as to capture the food saved by I enten fasting.
'l'ithes were not established until ro96. Funding methods before then
:rrc rrnknown. The hreppr was administered by !h-. landowners in it and
it irlr;>e;rrs to have funitioned independently of _the chieftain-thingman
strur:ttrres. See Grd,gas Ib r7r-8o, II 249-6r, J6n J6hannesson rg74:
.\
Ljdsaetninga
saga
t,l
is going to like it," said ofeig. "You should stable your. Iror-st:s,
one short of thirty and all of them sleek. They should all bc sr:rllions, and you can fetch hay from me if you need it." T'hey sairl
that this was to their liking, and then they parted.
Time passed now unril the last week of Lent. Then ofeig sent
for those men who had the horses. They came to Skord with
their horses and ofeig gave rhem a good reception. on the fifth
da1 ofeig told rhem to saddle their horses, and this they did.
when they were ready, ofeig's horse was led out and saddled; it
was a large sleek horse, a stallion. ofeig mounted and cut an imposing figure.
when they rode out of the yard ofeig said, "you will feel that
you're being led off into the dark, bur I will take charge of
matters for us." They all agreed to this.
They rode up through the distrir:t of'Rcykj:r<lule rrrrrl rhen on [o
Ljosavatn and thus to Fnj<lskatl:rle :rn<l Vr<lllrlrcirtlr; tlrcy :rrrivcd
at Einar's farm at'I-hvera in the evr:ning. IIt.girvt: tlrt.rrr:r goo<l
reception and invited thern to stay ovcl' l,lrstt.r'. t)lt.i14 tlrlrrrkt.rl
him for the invitation but said he would rirlc lo Morlnrvt.llir orr
Saturday.
"I wish," said Einar, "that you would come herc ,rr y()lr.
way back and tell me of your conversation with my brot.hcr
Gudmund." Ofeig said he would do so.
They rode up to Modruvellir on saturday. As they approachecl
the farm, a farmhand went out, and then back in, and said to
Gudmund that there were men riding toward the farm, and not
an insignificant number ar thar. Gudmund said it was nothing
special in Eyjafiord if rhere were men riding about the district.
"Now there is one way to tell whether they are from the district-they will take the first gate they come to. But if they come
from further away, they will take main gate, provided there are
men of some distinction in the company."
The farmhand came in a second time and said, "There is no
doubt that these men are riding to the main gate; the leader is a
man in a blue hooded cloak."'*
'8Note the social information derived from what we assume are insignificant details. Color of clothing, direction of travel, the fact of
travel itself, type of mount, size of accompaniment, who is in the group,
142
The Sagas
And when they went out, Gudmund said, "It may be that the
Reykdalers have some business with me, or there is some news
from the north, since their champion Ofeig has come."
Chapter
Lj1Tuetninga saga
r.l:t
amount of anxiety.
r44
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
in the evening. Einar received them very well, and Ofeig told
him all about his conversation with Gudmund. Einar said, "You
have ma<le a valiant trip, Ofeig. I don't know what your experience is in Reykjadale, but in Eyjafiord we find that my brother's
prophecies are borne out." The next morning Ofeig rode back
home to the north.
In the spring Gudmund set out from home for the north with
a company of ten men. This time he stayed for two nights where
he had previously spent a week. He visited with Ofeig at Skord
and was received there exceptionally well. He stayed a week and
when they parted, Ofeig gave him two red oxen, seven years old;
they were precious possessions.
"This is a good gift," said Gudmund. "[ have two other oxen,
all black, in no way inferior to these, and I would like to give you
both to assure that you will not be against me when my honor is
at stake."'"
"You may safely accept the gift because there is nothing underhanded in it," said Ofeig.
Gudmund said he didn't know how it would improve things
even if he didn't accept. Then he departed. People thought that
Ofeig's reputation had grown greatly because of these dealings
with Gudmund.
llnutd,
saga
embroiled with a certain Harek and finally kills him. His friends
and return him safely to lceland.
'45
(lirt,
.settlement
of his father. The motif recurs in ch. r3, where the wording of version
A (see Appendix , p. 246) seems to echo Hunsa-D1ris saga. See Introduclion, pp.67-68.
r46
The Sagas
Ljdwetninga
said the lodging was available to them. They said that they would
accept and accompanied him on the trip home. Many people
viewed this as a strange misjudgment on their part.
The captains'cargo was brought to Myr, and Brand accompanied the transport from the north to Fnjoskadale and sold it
there. Many people said that Brand would stick to his usual habit
of concluding his business badly with these men as with all others.
But the skippers gave no heed to such talk no matter what people
said. Brand traveled as far as Eyjafiord with the cargo before he
got it all sold. But he didn't mention to the captains where he
had sold their goods when he got home.
In the spring he went to collect the money owing the Norwegians, and nobody ventured to withhold the proper amount
from him. He collected every ell that was his to collect. When he
came home, he showed the skippers what he had, and they were
well pleased. They asked him to choose his own reward, and he
said that he wished to travel abroad with them. They said that
this option was available, but they asked him to keep himself
under control. "What is your stake for the voyage?" they asked.n'
He said that was up to his father.
They spoke then with Thorkel and told him this. He said he
thought they were worthy men: "I will turn over fifteen hun'3"What is your stake for the voyage?" People taking passage generally did more than just pay their way. They also brought with them
wares, usually aadmd,l, to trade once they got to Norway. Each passenger
in effect was something of a merchant. He was also expected to do his
share as a crew member; see, e.g., Grettis saga 17: bo: "Grettir would not
budge, neither to bail, or tend to the sail, nor any other work that he
was supposed to split evenly with the other men. Nor was he willing to
buy himself out of the work." The laws purported to regulate some
rnatters of transport, such as overbooking:
"If a man
on his ship that it cannot carry their wares, those who were the last to
('()rne to the ship and those who have contributed the least to its preparatiorr h:rve to disembark with their parcels. The captain is liable for a
three-rn:rrk fine for each of those who have taken passage and must
n()w l{ct oll'. People have to get off until the ship is seaworthy. But those
people :rre t() have the fares that they were to pay and also what they
already have paid for shelter (on the beach) and while lying at anchor"
(Grdtg(t-s Ib 6q).
saga
t,l7
see also
r48
The Sagas
and asked him to drink with him. But Brand said he wouldn't
drink: "I don't have such an excess of wits that I can afford to
drink away what I have. You're likely to need all you have too,
judging from what I can see."
Harek now drank half the horn and asked Brand to drink the
half that remained. But Brand didn't want to take the horn.
Harek said Brand would have to accommodate him and struck
him on the head with the horn so that the drink sloshed down
over him. Then Harek went to his seat and began to ridicule
Brand. But Brand kept his temper and turned it into a joke.
Harek said he reacted to this as if he was quite accustomed to
being thrashed." In the morning when the men had taken their
seats, Brand went up to Harek, plunged his ax into his head, and
killed him. The men on both sides jumped up right away and
there was a great tumult.
The brothers were able to get Brand away and they offered
compensation on his behalf to Harek's kin. And because Harek
was unpopular, his kin accepted compensation. That exhausted
all the money that Brand had taken with him from Iceland, and
more besides.
'l'he brothers then escorted him to the ship and did not take
It'irvt: rrrrtil it set sail. llrartd ttranked them for all their aid and
tlrt:y lrirrtt:<l ott fi-ien<lly terms. T'he ship had a slow passage and
tlrt:y rrur<lc land at Reydarfj<lrd toward the end of summer. Fall
(:iunc clrrly atrd travel was made difficult by snow.
'* I lirrck'.s needling is reminiscent of a passage in Porsteins pdur (7o)
in whit.h 'l'lrorstein's father reminds him of a blow received during a
horsefight: "What can you tell me about that horse match last summer,
son? Weren't you knocked unconscious like a dog?" Here too the result
of the needling is revenge.
Ljdsuetninga saga
Chapter
r,l1r
On his return Brand stays with Thorkel Geitisson, but he soort, gullu,r.s
a.follouting of boisterous nxerrymakers. When Thorkel reprimands lint,
lrc goes home to his father's farm. Here he creates more dfficulties lry
wounding an opponent in an athletic contest. His father aduises him to
return to Thorhel Geitisson.
portant in matters of jurisdiction and venue in legal cases, as demonstrated in Vodu-Brand's case in ch. ro. According to law Brand had to
make arrangements to enter a household within two weeks of leaving
the ship (Grdgd.s Ia r 3 r ). Contracts for legal residence were made on an
annual basis, with the lodging arrangements expiring during Moving
150
Lj6saetninga saga
The Sagas
your goods in my
"I'll accept this offer," said Brand, "because I'm tired of chasing
about in the bad weather. Besides, hay is hard to come by now."
The first firrtnight Brand was at Krossavik he was so amenable
that he fbllowed Thorkel in and out of the house wherever he
went. []ut in the second fortnight his manner changed a bit. He
stayed lrchind in the sitting room in the evening after Thorkel
harl gone to bed and devised all sorts of gibes. People say that he
was tlre first to invent the rules of the mock court.u' People came
Inrnr f ar and wide from other farms, making for a lot of noise.
'l'horkel sat at drink with only one other man. Eventually, it was
reported to Thorkel that the women found the verdicts of the
mock court rather strong. They couldn't defend themselves and
were not at liberty to come and go as they pleased.
Thorkel took Brand aside and said, "Until now I haven't interfered with your habits or ways, but I am told that the women are
hardly at liberty to come and go as they please because of you
and your companions, and that is scarcely fitting. It's as if a new
chieftain had appeared in the region and men were flocking to
him from their former chieftain. I keep company with one man,
Days (fardagar) which fell during the last week in May. This was the
time special[y mandated for people to relocate to their new households
if they had not renewed at the place they had been in service the ygar
before. See Grdgd,s Ia rz8-39. This passage shows that in a chieftain's
household, at least, servants were recruited from a geographical area
wider than the immediate area and even from outside the quarter. Both
Brand and Einar in the chapter's first paragraph come from the eastern
I):rrt of the North Quarter, while Thorkel Geitisson lives in the north(':rslern part of the East Quarter.
""'M<rck court" translates Syrpupingslgg (the laws of the syrpa meetilrg). .\1rpa means "dirty woman" or "a volume of miscellaneous things"
(( llt'rrslry:rn<l Vigfusson lgbT). B6sa saga (ch.5) refers to verses "that are
<';rlk'rl Syr'lruveri and contain the most virulent magic and may not be
rt:r:itt'<l irl'tt'r'sunset." One stanza is quoted with a runic inscription folkrwirrg (st't' 'l'hompson rg78). The travesty in the present passage is
leqal :rnrl slrows the key role the law played in everyone's life. Such a
ganre woul<l hlrve served the social function of teaching people about
legal procerlut'e :tttcl how to negotiate its mazes. The passage shows that
the servanl- t;l:rsses rnet with their counterparts at other farms.
r5r
but you sit up with a whole retinue. Now I woulrl likt: to ltltvt'
something done about it."
Brand said he would mend his ways.
In the evening Brand went to bed. His thingmen canle :ls
usual and couldn't Convene their Court since there was no leader.
They sent for him, but he didn't come any more readily for that.
The same thing happened the next evening when the thingmen
came. The coming and going decreased, and Brand didn't utter
a word for a fortnight.
Then Thorkel said to Brand, "You are a very erratic fellow.
Now return to your sociable ways in moderation."
He said he had no idea how to conduct himself since nothing
he did was pleasing: "No one could find it eitsy to live with you.
I'm leaving."
willingly observed.
uuBiand's father hopes to avoid having to answer for Brand's action.
lbz
Ljdsuetninga
The Sagas
Brand said that he was not eager to do this. Still, he went east
and told the news to Thorkel, who said it would have been better
had he stayed put: "But I will receive you because I can't remember leaving anyone in my household in the lurch-"
Chapter r o
'fhorhel attempts a reconciliation with Gudmund the Powerful but is
rejected. IIe enlists hetp from Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson and plans a dearriaes at the
fensc ba,sed on a f,aw in Gudmund's prosecution. He then
thing with a deceptiuely small force, while concealing a larger force
nearby.
of
the wrorigdoer, it was difficult, if not impossible, for the head of the
household to avoid getting involved in the disputes of his lodgers.
Thorkel Geitisson, as a chieftain of considerable power, is in every way
l)et.ter equipped to handle Brand's case. On householder liability,for the
rlelrts
hand in titc l)l'cset)ce of two witnesses (see ch. r3). The process was^less
an assignrr,.i,l ,,t we would understand it than the engagement of ?1
attorney or tltc hirinq of an agent. The transferee, for exa-mple, could
not himself'transl'er [he action except back to the original transferor,
unless he fell ill or was wounded while on the way to the Allthing. An
saga
tfrll
was often different. Take, for example, the right to sue the undiligent transferee. Transferees were al..roit ul*uyr Ihi"ftuins or other big men. Their power and also their
pleading si<ills made it unlikely that an average-householder would ever
be able Io muster the support to sue his agent. If he had such resources,
presumably he would not have transferred the case in the firstllace.
And not ail benefits and liabilities accrued to the transferor. Transferees were often reluctant to take up cases-lawsuits, after all, involved
considerable risk-and they frequently exacted a healthy consideration
from the transferor either by way of gifts up front (note how Thorir
Akraskegg musr recruit Thorir Helgason, ch. r 4), ol py a cut of th9 t1ke.
On the .r"tli". hand, suits could be valuable commodities. Thus it is that
Gudmund cannor think of a better gift than the lawsuit against Thorir
Akraskegg rhar Helgi rransfers to him (ch. r3; especially A text.h.f).
rb1
Ljdsaetninga
The Sagas
to stay there.
Someone entered the booth of Gudmund the Powerful:
"Thorkel Geitisson has come to the thing with a remarkably
small following," he said.
"How so?" said Gudmund.
"There were five of them," he said.
Gudmund said that they would have ridden onto the thing
grorrn<ls with a larser firrce if'they hacl intended to quash his
c:rsc. "llrrl ttow it (xr(:ul's l() nlc that we've overlooked something
in orrr' (:;ls('. 'l'ltot'kt:l's sitlt: will cl:rirn Brand as a member of his
Irorrst.lrokl, tlrorrtr3lr il's not likely that Thorkel will nullify our
t'ast'witlr livt'nr(:n. Still, it nray be that he has some trick up his
slt't'vc rrr<l llrrrt tlrt:y ltitve a larger company."
I tt' irrrtrrt'rli:rtcly ser)t men to inquire about their lodgings on
the rotrtt'. No ortc along the way could say anything but that they
nunrbcrt'rl rro nlore than five. Then Gudmund said, "[t may be
that we hltvc :ttt itclequate number if no more of them have ridden front tht: eust. We will not send for reinforcements at this
time. This case will so as it is destined to."
saga,
r55
Chapter r r
When the legal sparring produces no result, Thorkel sltmnlons his rtand scatters the court. The matter is then deferred to the Allthing.
Here a stalemate deuelops, and Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson undertakes with
Ofeig Jarngerdarson to detach Einar from his brother Gudmund\ cau,se
by proposing a marriage between Thorkel Geitisson and Einar's daughserL)es
ter
Jorun.
Gudmund the Powerful prosecuted the case there at the district thingiuu he seated the judges and invited the defense to
present their case.
Then Thorkel Geitisson said, "I would like you, Gudmund, to
accept a settlement and self-judgment with the condition that
there be no provisions for exile."
"I would accept that if you were offering it on behalf of a decent man," said Gudmund, "but I cannot bring myself to accept
it for such a wretch, now that I have gone to such trouble."
Thorkel named witnesses and issued an interdiction forbidding the judges to render a judgment.u6 Gudmund claimed that
uu"District thing": the text reads t Nordlendingad1m. The "North
Quarter court" did not meet locally in the district but was held at the
Allthing. The narrative, however, makes it clear that the case is being
brought at the local thing at Vodlar. See n. r76 below.
uuGrd,gd,s
Ia roz reads as follows: "If a man from a different thing is
summoned to a district thing, the judges have to give judgment in that
case unless the case is forbidden by an interdiction (liritr)." Further at
Ia ro5: "All cases forbidden by interdiction at a district thing are to go
to the Allthing and before the quarter court for the quarter the thing is
in, and all the men to provide formal means of proof in the original suit
who have not done so at the district thing are automatically called to the
Allthing."
Grd,gd,s devotes a considerable amount of space to the problem of ascertaining a person's legal residence for the purposes of summoning
and calling neighbors, not all of it completely consistent. One relevant
passage, although not quite on point in every respect, provides_that a
iervant who is dismissed for actionable offenses against other household members is to find a legal residence for himself within two weeks
and it becomes lawful to summon him at this new residence for wrongs
r56
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
b7
Lr-
greater numbers. Thorkel had his booth up by F'angari<lgt'. l,.lforts were made to reconcile them, but there was solid resistiurt:t'.
Early one morning Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson went to Olcig
Jarngerdarson's booth and spoke with him. Thorstein askerl,
"What is your guess about the chances of reconciliation?"
Ofeig said that he suspected things would turn bad and that
they already looked very much that way.
"I want to let you know," Thorstein said, "since you are friendly
with both parties,un that there will be trouble if the case is not
settled. They intend to challenge Gudmund to single combat; he
would rather die than suffer disgrace. We should take a
Brand left Thorkel's. The laws, fiowever, make some attempt to handle
this problem. Thus "whenever a man does not know a man'S legal home
a.rdte has no opportunity to ask him with a formal.legal asking,.itis
lawful to summon'frim at the place he last knew was his legal hom9" (Ia
r33; see also Ia 4c.-4il.Theri are also other pro-visions o.f arguable appiilability. For i -ri recently returned to lceland, it is in some in,tu,r,,., lawful "to summon hinr at the place he last knew was his legal
horrre" (la rqr). 'fhere is tto way o['kntlwing which of these provisions
g,rr..,'rr.r.l the case at ltatr<I. Sitt<:e even (iudmund seems to think he was
i,,.',.,..,,-, it is likely th:rr llrand's ofEcial legal residence at Thorkel
( )r'it issorr's <lt'lt:t'tttittes tlre allpropriate forum.
"'(lrrtllttutr<l wottl<l not hlve had to prosecute the case in Thorkel's
<listl'ict ttttlcss ltc so tltose and the principals agreed on the venue' The
casc worrl<l lr;rvt. lrt:t:tt llroperly brought to the Allthing.at the East
g;iagis la 4o-4r; II 356). But now that the case
Quar.rer. (:()ru't rhcrc
the Atttfring by-interdiction, the proper court beto
l'crrrove<l
his been
comes the Norf lt Quarter court; iee Grdgd,s Ia ro5, the relevant part of
which is quotetl in n. 66 above.
u',,Contempt of'court": translating pingsafglgpun; see n. z8 above.
saga
They sought out Einar and sat down to talk. Of'eig s:rirl, "As
you are well aware, Einar, things have come to a very diflit.rrlt
pass. The men involved are not only smart but contentious t.(x).
We are friendly with both parties and have an obligation to work
for reconciliation. To this end Thorstein wishes to raise the
matter of asking for your daughterJorun for Thorkel Geitisson."
,1
r!1
,ff
rlt
,..1
u'Peacemakers often emerge from among those people who are connected to both sides and who seek to resolve their own conflict of duty
by resolving the conflict. See also the role of Thord (ch. z).
6oThe manuscript is defective here. It appears that a line dropped
r58
Lj1suetninga saga
The Sagas
Einar said that this was a good proposal: "But Gudmund will
have the greatest say about it when we meet with him."
They
Chapter
r 51)
rz
legal guardian fbr his own daughter even though Gudmund was
.,ot uithe meetirg.u"'You'll want to consider that. Gudmund has
not had your honor and standing uppermost in his mind for
some time."
"Isn't it true that Thorkel is short of money, while my daughter is very wealthy?" said Einar.
"Who is of nobler spirit than Thorkel," replied Ofeig, "paying,
as he does, compensation on behalf of others at the thing?
Whose farm is more prosperous than his? What is the point of
money if it never serves him or others? He commands the greatest respect in all the East Fjords."
"The proposal has been very well presented, Ofeig. In addition Gudmund has prophesied auspiciously about my daughter
Jorun, and his prophesies are always fulfilled.u'We may certainly
discuss this matter if you wish, provided Thorkel will join us."
Thorstein said that he would not fail to do so.
Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson went to Thorkel's booth immediately. He greeted him cordially and asked how he had fared.
Thorstein answered, "I don't know how it will turn out, but I
have begun negotiating a wife for you this morni.g."
"You certainly go to great lengths to help me," said Thorkel,
"considering you do what I don't ask no less ttritn what I do ask.
Who is the woman?"
"The girl is named -|orun att<l slrt' is tlrt'<l:rrrglrtt'r'of'F.inar
6'Both the betrothal and the wedding were necessary if the marriage
to produce hereditable issue (Grd,gd,s II 66): "A person is not entitled to inherit when his mother was not paid for with a mund of a mark
or more, or who was not wedded, or not betrothed. . . . A wedding is
done in accordance with the law if the lggrd,dandi [see n. 6z above] betroth the woman and at least six men are at the wedding and the groom
goes with lights [i.e., openly] into the same bed with the woman." The
mund is a payment from the groom, or his kin, to the bride. As the law
says, it was essential to the validity of the marriage. The bride was also
often provided with a dowry by her parents or other kin, but this was
not mandatory. Both the mund and the dowry remained the property of
the woman in marriage, although the husband usually managed the
property. The wife's right to the dowry was not affected by divorce,
death, or outlawry of the husband, although in some circumstances her
rights to the mund would give way to claims of creditors (Grd,gd.s Ia r r4).
It was the negotiations leading to the betrothal that settled the crucial
was
Miller rg86b.
,^t-t
Ljdsuetninga
The Sagas
r6o
it a
closer contact with Gudmund the Powerful and thought
good idea that they consult; this was arranged'
- ,,yo, are doing a lot of circulating around-the thing, Thorstein," said Gudriund, "yo, must be getting a lot done'"
,,[t won,t seem less important to you when you know the details," Thorstein answered.
"What's the most recent news, Thorstein?"
..I don,t have much of significance to report," he rePlied, "but
the most important item is that Thorkel Geitisson has betrothed
himself."
Gudmund.
"where
have just Come from the betrothal," Thorstein said,
was a wiiness along with Ofeig Jarngerdarson'"
"I
"I
had a pre-
was otherl'f ht: ltrttrre htrsbancl changed his mind he lost tlne mund but
mind
wist: rror liable. On the oth?r hand, if the fastnandi changed -his
was
husband
would-be
the
ward),
his
(16tir:t: it is assumed he controls
and
arrangement'
the
of
portions
financial
the
I'ulfillm."t
ro
t.rrtirlc<l
"f
her was
anyonc who kept the woman inside when he came to request
sufrjert ro lessef outlawry (II r59-6o)'
,',,Ein:rr's active
urra
iit.ig
Thorkel. llinar ir
sides, and
The
"L*
hence has a. irrt"."rt in rEconciling the parties; see.n. 59 above.
awksomewhat
his".ne*y,.making,it
to
;;;;id; also ties Gudmund
ward for him to continue to posture aggressively in the dispute.
uuSee
ch. 7.
saga
(i
assess
wound and I assess the amount for the wrongful procedure with
which I charged you.""'
Gudmund saw now that nothing else could be done. He accepted the offer and determined an amount that was agreeable
to both. There was ill feeling berween the brothers foi a long
time because of this. Thorkel captured all the honor.
Gudmund. Gudmund thus has a very stionglnducement not to overreach in Brand's case. In fact, his reasonable judgment in that case
prom.pts_ Thorkel to waive the claim he retained against Gudmuncl
shortly thereafter.
162
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
ings are reported of him. Vodu-Brand left the east and lived on
his patrimony. He later became much more amenable and was
judged to be a good farmer.u' He thought he could never repay
the support and good will of Thorkel Geitisson. And here ends
with each other because Gudmund lorded it over men ther-e irr
the north.To
Thorkel Hake, the son of Thorgeir the Lawspeaker, was then
living at oxara in Ljosavarnspass. He was self-willed and a great
warrior. He did not have a large household but was much .*broiled in litigation nonerheless.
A man named Bruni lived ar Gnupufell. His brother was
named Eilif, nicknamed Marksman, a big, valianr man. They had
a joint chieftainship and were descended from Helgi rhe Lean.7,
It is told that Thorsrein initiated a discussion with Gudmund
and said, "As things stand, I have settled in with you and prospered. I would now like to take a wife and have your support in
this matter."
"You probably have had some thoughts ab.,t what your
choice will be," said Gudmund. "You cAn counr ()n rr goorl worul
from me."
"You're right," he answered, "l lurvt: r'onsirlt.r't.<l tlrt. 1r:r1(.r-.
There is a woman nametl ()trtlrrrrr, rr kirrsw()nr;ur ol't.ht: lrorrst.holder at Baegisa and his lrorrsckt:cpcr'. I worrkl like you to st't.k
her hand in marriage for rne. A f'ew words from you will lurvt.
more weight than many words from me."
"I think that is an even match and well considered," Gu<lmund replied. "But I'm not very happy about riding into Thorir
Helgason's territor/, where he has more manpower than I do.r,
Chapter
r3
Gudmund a,ttends the wedding of one of his dependents, where his wife
lea,rns lhat T'horir Helgason and Thorkel Hake haue circulated the
rutnor tlmt Gudmund is homosexual. She frignt illness and persuades
Gudmund to leaue the feast, then reueals the charge. Gudmund plots reuenge with his foster brother Einar Konakson. The f,rst phase is to build
up a war chest by pursuing eaer) opportunity for litigation and collecting
f,nes, notably by taking oaer a case against Thorir Akrashegg.
Gudmund the Powerful was married to Thorlaug, the daughter of Atli the Strong. Thorlaug's mother was named Herdis
and was the daughter of Thord from Hofdi. A man named
Thorstein grew up in Gudmund's household and became a foreman. He did not come from an important family, but he was a
capable man.
(ir1
'2Although, theoretically, chieftaincies were not territoriar, householders who lived close to a chieftain tended to choose to be "in thing"
with him. For an example of what might befall a householder who
"*.".cised his rights in this regard, see stuilu saga zz:96. Gudmund does
not
a-ppear to have a strong presence on the west side of Eyja$ord, although.in lhg l:It generarion his son Eyjolf appears to ha"ve"a rhingman, Thorkel, living at Hlid. See also Narfi in- Valla-Lj6ts saga (ch. gJ.
Thorir Helgason- lived
Horgardale and it should not be lurprising
-in
that the householders rhere
selected him as their chieftain, making thE
valleyde facto "his territory." Presumably the farmer at Baegis" *ir rttached to Thorir.
r64
il
hall:rkrng lr thirrl si<lc.'l'tre high seat was the seat of honor located in
the mirltllt: ol'ottt: ol'the longLenches. Thorir Helgason occupies the
center posirion ott tlte ,,p1l.rsiti b_ench. See the description of the seating
arrangemenr.s u( rhc nr:rriiage of Gunnar and Hallgerd in Njdk saga g4:
88-89.
Lj1saetninga
The Sagas
saga
(ir,
over marital precedence is reminiscent of the legendary quarrel between Brynhild and Gudrun (Andersson r98o: 186-94) and looks
ahead to a similar dispute over precedence at table
in Njdk
saga
Zb: gr.
Ljdsuetninga
The Sagas
166
.,Those are cruel words," Thorlaug said. "You are surely the
first person ever to say anything like this'"
"[t muSt be true," she replied, "because more than one Person
with my
says so; Thorkel Hake mentioned it to me first, along
husband Thorir, and everyone with a tongue in his head says the
same thins."
While the f'east lasted, the men and women slept in separate
quarters. In the morning when people got up and went to church
fir. *osr, Gudmund siw thai Thorlaug was not among the
women. He asked one of them the reason, and she said that
Thorlaug had become ill. "One of you men come with me," said
Gudmund. "The rest of you stay here'"
He went to her bed. "Are you sick, Thorlaug?" he asked.
of three words, all of which implied being used as a woman' Some key
nortions of the provision follow: "If a man names a person with a name
irrri ir'""i hi;; il is punishable by lesser outlawry-if the latter should
purtake ofl'ense at it; and ilso those who transmit the nickname for the
p"rl.ia.faming
a
Irirrg"
(Grd,gd,s
II gg I -92).
*u6,
L-
6o-6t'
saga
(i7
"But I wish to
"I'm very sorry about this," said Gudmund, "but I'd pref'er
that everything run its normal course fbr the rest of the feast."
"Nothing can do me any good as long as I'm here," she replied. "If I have done anything to deserve your good will, then
do as I wish."
"Whatever you have in mind, you are asking a great deal,,, said
Gudmund-and then he left.
when the services were over and the main meal had been
eaten, Gudmund said, "we will saddle our horses now and ride
home because Thorlaug is ill."
"Don't leave for home so soon, Gudmund," said 'l'hr>rstein.
But he replied, "Don't ask for more th:rn I wislr to give; it will
be to no purpose." Then they rocle awity.
When they got as far as the woocls lrt l,:rugulanrl, (lrrrlrrrrrrrrl
reined his horse back and said to the nran who was il(:(:()nrl):ury-
(:()nr-
"I want to talk with you, Thorlaug, because I can see that y()u
are not sick," said Gudmund. "Tell me what the reason is for this."
"I will do so," she replied, "but I've seldom spoken words t.
you before that will please you less. A subject hai come up that I
cannot conceal from you." Then she told him what she and
Geirlaug had said, and the malicious talk about him.
"I think now it would have been berrer if I had prevailed and
we hadn't left," he said. "That would have given less grounds for
gossip." But every difficulty must be met somehow. As soon as
we get home, the first thing for you to do is to stay in bed for a
week and recuperate at leisure. I will talk to you as usual. I'm not
at all sure this matter won't turn out well for Lls."rn From there
they rode home, and things were done as Gudmund proposed.
"Gudmund's concern about appearances is not idle. Should it look as
though he left because of the insult, he confirms his unmanliness by not
having made an immediate and aggressive response. An early departure, in any event, would set people to talking. Any deviation from ioutine was newsworthy. See n.38 above.
TnThe meaning
of this sentence is uncertain. vigfiisson and powell
(rgo5: 393) translate: "But I do not know, after all, whether this pla.
The Sagas
Lj1saetninga saga
r68
will be of any avail." The thrust seems more positive to us; Gudmund
is
L.
r(iq
duction, p.52.
see Inrro-
r7o
Lj1saetninga
The Sagas
ChaPter t 4
Einar had his shepherd rise early each morning and be about
while the sun was up during the longest days of summer. But as
the summer went on and days grew shorter, he was to mind the
herd until the evening star rose and stay out at sundown. He was
to keep a sharp lookout for anything he might see or hear, and
lclgason, wio
turn
deter
A slrort time later Gudmund had his horse fetched and rode
down to'l'hvera. No one had gotten up yet except the shepherd'
He grectctl (itrclmund and asked why he was riding alone.
fiisson assigns the same sense to the shorter manuscript reading (r94ir:
24 n.4), but it seems to us that Gudmund is not making a specific answer but merely evading the question.
"The A text is explicit that this is the cloak Helgi gave ro Gudmtrrrrl
,uTwo witnesses were required for the transfer of the case to be vali<l;
see
at home?"
Helgig"odgifts,andwiththattheyparted'Helgiandhismen
gft
17
him to receive the payment due. But because he was busy, H9lgi
that
srowed it in the teni without looking at it. He remarked
Thorir had come rather late. Thorir said he had better things to
do than to look after merchants, and he departed'
They hoisted sail and made for Hris Isle. There the wind
bags
abated and they lowered the sail. Then Helgi opened.the
"This
a
great
is
and found cloals in bad shape and full of holes.
fraud; it's uoing to turn out badly for him'"
He[gi ro*ed"to shore, found a horse, and rode to Modruvellir.
H. a.riu.d early in the day and took Gudmund aside. Gudmund
gave him a good reception-'(ryfu21's the news?"
He said there *u, ,ro ns14r5-"gven though I've been tricked"'
"How so?" asked Gudmund.
Helgi related his dealings with Thorir Akraskegg-"and I
I am
wish, drrdm.r.rd, that you wbuld take over the case because
eager to sail."
Lyo,, have been valuable to me on many occasions," said
Gudmund, "and this will not be the least of them. This is going
and
to come in very handy." Gudmund then called two men over
gave
Gudmund
took up the case against Thorir Akraskegg.'u
saga
n.54 above.
t-
r72
Lj6suetninga
The Sagas
he had seen. Einar got up immediately and went outside; he directecl his attention'io where the men were riding and stared at
them fbr a while. Einar was a man of acute senses; he had sharp
and
eyes and keen ears."" When the sun appeared on the horizon
Eishields'
have
"These
men
said,
,h.rrr" over the district, Einar
ther they are men of distinction from another district who intend to visit my brother Gudmund, even though I -h.u'-" l:"9
nothing about that, or it is Gudmund himself. I think this is
more liiely.r' I have a good idea where he is headed and what he
has in mind. But it *o-rr't take long before we find out for sure'"
Einar told the farmhands to keep i lookout for his return-"and
keep our horses close to the yurd." Einar went in again and back
to bed.
Later that day around the middle of the afternoon Gudmund
seThe first Icelander credited with astronomical learning is a certain
saga
t7Z
and his men rode back. Einar rode out to meet his brother, ancl
they exchanged warm greetings.
"Where have you been and on what business?" Einar asked.
"I rode out to Horgardale and summoned that scum* AkraThorir for defrauding Helgi Arnsteinsson," answered Gudmund. "He litigates with everybody; he's been swindling for
a long time and has accumulated a huge amount of money.,,
and wrongdoing.
"I will give you gifts of friendship il yorr will srrpporl rnt.irr tlris
matter," said Thorir Akrask.gg.""
A short time later Thorir Helgason rode to 'l'lrvera [o rrrcet
with Einar and said, "I've come to seek your assistance, llinar, as
we have discussed."
"Very well," he said, "though we have been somewhat outmaneuvered. I will get together with Gudmund to seek a settlement and I will go to the thing before he succeeds in undermining me completely. But I have a suspicion rhar he will accept
nothing but outlawry."
He then rode to see Gudmund, and the brothers exchanged
from Modruvellir.
174
t7r,
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga saga
"There is a great difference between rny power an<l (ltrtlmund's," said Thorir. "Nevertheless, he may have to put up with
some unpleasantness
from me."
against us."
and he did so. Those who had debts to collect from Akra-Thorir
were summoned, and all the property was gathered where the
e"'Your success will fall short of your ambition" translates the idionr
ok hann uera, at skammt taki frd, bordi ("and it may be that the morsel won'l
get lar from the table" [?]). Bjorn Sigfiisson notes (rg4o: 32 t.6) that
the meaning is uncertain. Gudbrandur Vigfiisson (lgo5: 4oo) transl:rtes: "but maybe it will be but a short triumph." See Halld6r Halld6rs-
'uWhat Akraskegg seems to be saying here is that, although the balance of power is very much against them, still it might be worth making
some soit of diplomatic representation to Gudmund rather than giving
monetary settlement.
&-
q6
Ljdsuetninga
The Sagas
saga
t77
the shed.
"You've struck it rich, Gudmund," said the shepherd'
"Thorir's thingmen are loaded with wealth," he replied'
The shepherJ responded, "That would be true if you had
your hands on all of it."
"What's missing?" asked Gudmund.
..Not much," rrid th. shepherd, "but even less would be worth
looking to," and he told him about the goats'
.,Th[ may be your lucky day)'said Gudmund. "Nothing would
please me more than to have Thorir make himself liable for full
outlawry." "'u
been aware.
'o'This is a nice legal question and depends on matters of' law not
precisely ascertainable from the surviving law texts. Could all gifis that
the outlaw made be set aside, or only those made once the wrong had
occurred or since the suit had been initiated? Was the problem that
the gift had not quite been completed; the goats appear to have still
been in Thorir Akraskegg's possession? (The same issue provokes
strife in islendinga togo zdr-zaO.; ffte A version raises clifferent issues
with facts more favorable to Thorir Helgason. There the goats were in
his possession but he did not claim them as his own; they were simply
in his keeping. He also did not knowingly withhold the goats; Thorir
claimed he did not know that they had been left behind, and the author, before that, informs us that Thorir had intended to have them
driven to the court session as he was required to do by law (See Appendix pp.247-48 and Grdgd,s L ge). The A redactor seems to interpret the C text to mean that Thorir is in some measure guilty; he
()r to the men of his local disirict if he was outlawed at the spring thing'
'l'his latter share was to be used for the maintenance of the outlaw's deany, or to the district's needy if he had l:1..
1>t:n<lent.s, if there were
fl'lrc
otr(law's dependents were assigned to different households. If the
did not hold a corrt of confiscation for his outlaw, he
.ju<lgrrrent-holdei
'*or'l,i,rr*.,1t'
liable for lesser outlawry at the suit of those people burdene<l with the outlaw's dependents who would not have been so burdenecl il'the <:ourt had been held. The sentence of lesser outlawry was
revoked if'n<l r:onfiscation court was held. See Grd,gd; Ia 83-96 , rL2-2o'
'ouln fhct, a person who withheld property_ from the confiscation
therefore tries to exculpate him by suggesting that the goats were held
back from the confiscation without his knowledge. We may surmise
that the knavish shepherd Odd in A has framed Thorir in order to
curry favor with Gudmund.
court was liable for lesser outlawry (Cragat Ia 86), as indeed both
,1;
ru
The Sagas
178
Lj1saetninga
Chapter
Einar reffirms
his
to
free himself from the special agreement contracted with his brother, but
Gudmund is adamant.
his
rit't, t lrotrgh it is true that Akra-Thorir could not maintain himsell irr thc legion in the face of his opposition. There is a good
deal ol'.jrrstit.e on your side. It may be that Gudmund thinks I
won't lrt: so trard to get at if he separates me from friends like
you, or others I could name. The plain truth is that I will never
break ofl'our f riendship as long as you wish to keep it intact."
Then'l'horir rode home.
Einar rode to meet with Gudmund and had the cloak along
t
t7\)
"Do you think that this gift was legal while the case was pending against him? You knew that all the property was subject to
confiscation," said Gudmund.
saga
i.
,t,
fi
T
.E
il
,*
3
i:
t
t.
"''"I call it fraudulent and declare our agreement void',: it does not
app9u.- 1o be a simple. mauer to avoid a ,6* because the other parry
withhel^d key information or misrepresented his intentions. The *frotlt
point of eliciting a vow was [o lock someone into a certain course of conduct in the face of uncertain future events. The fact that future events
did not turn our to the liking of one
tl,g parties did not in itself pro"fof thb vow respectably.
vide.an adequate. basis for getting out
The'folk
"If
b"een easier
io
they
r8o
Lj6suetninga
The Sagas
Chapter
i:
The author relates a childhood incident that sowed the first seeds ol
suspicion between Gudmund and Einar. At the ensuing thing Gudmund
and Thorir entrench themselues in irreconcilable positions. Thorir breahs
the deadlock by denouncing Gudmund publicly and challenging him to
single combat.
saga
,ffi
*
1E
,1'
tt!
$:
f
I
r t] r
of their kinship
"That's not good news," responded L,inar, "but it is not a cowardly resolution."
It was the custom of the brothers Gudmund and Einar, when
they were at the thing, to go to services together. They sat on
the south side of the church with Einar's men standing to the
west and Gudmund's men to the east. This was always the arrangement, whether they were on good terms or bad. Thorir
Helgason sat next to Einar, and next to Gudmund sat vigfus
viga-Glumsson, some of whose associates were at the thing.
Many people were involved in the efforts to bring about a settlement between Gudmund and Thorir. Nothing came of it because Gudmund would agree to nothing but self-judgment, and
Thorir refused to pay compensation.
One day at the Law Rock, when people had concluded their
legal business, Thorir asked whether Gudmund was present at
the Law Rock.
He said he was.
r05"can it be that
he thinks you have spoken too loosely?": the writer
previous chapter.
Thorir in the
r8z
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
"Many of our friends and distinguished men have put themselves out to mediate our CaSe," said Thorir.'uo "They reproach
me fbr not wanting to offer money for the offenses with which
you charge me. I shall now put an end to this. I propose to make
the offer just that much better to make up for the long delay: I
will accept your brother Einar's binding arbitration."
"I will accept n<l arbitrator in this case but myself," declared
Gudmund. "[ suspect that you are aware that you Horgardalers have long been of two minds about which of us is more powerf ul."
'I'hen'I-horir spoke for all to hear: "I haven't gotten to the last
of'my off'ers yet, Gudmund, for I know that you have a lot more
against me than just the marks on Thorir Akraskegg's goats; -I
know that you blame me alone for saying what many say, though
others are no less implicated, namely that I have called you an
effeminate pervert. I now wish to test whether that is true or not,
so I am challenging you to single combat to be held in three days
on the islet in Oxar River where duels used to be fought. Let the
two of us do battle according to the ancient laws."" Before that
'ouThe Allthing was of course the chief forum for Icelandic orarory, rhe best exahples of which may be found in Njd,k saga.-Thorir's
ringing denunciation of Gudmund is the closest. thlng l? 3 pubtic defa*uiiurii.t Lj6suetninga saga. On the Norse oratorical tradition in general
see Knirk r 98 r.
,orThe hillmganga. or duel, had very much the look of thejudicial duel
of the ContinJnt.-Co-me.ttators, however, agree that it did not involve
ajudgment of God or the gods, but was simply a private arrangement to
a[ree"to decide an issue by determining who was mightier. Yet it should
be noted that later in the chapter Gudmund tries to bolster his sagging
morale by hoping that the du-el was a sort of judicium Dei: "I think good
firrtune and the iigt t cause will determine the outcome of the combat
between us." Vigfus Viga-Glumsson, however, agrees with the Comrpelrztors that tlie test was of skills in combat rather than of thejustice
ol'I lrc c:luse: "Einar's chances in a duel with me are no better than yours
irg:rirrsr 'l-horir." But compare the remarks of Iiot (VL ch.4); and-see
,-r.'r4", llelow. Gudmund's ientiment might be a thirteenth-century gloss
of'a iiirnly understood tenth-century practice. The "ancienf laws" of dueling hari been abrogated in roo6, about eight years before the events
here took place; see eunnlaugs saga ormstungu I I : 93. H6lmganga-:o19s
in for rather harsh treatment in both Lj1suetninga saga and Valla-Lj6*
saga. Skegg-Broddi finds it offensive: "I dislike the idea of fighting
saga
ti3
t*,
*$
$
st
Chapter
r7
deaises a counterscheme
He uarns Gudmund to
combat.
whereby he will challenge Einar to single
brother's
glee and immediately
his
detects
heep a straight face, but Einar
Gudmund's
offers self-judgment before the new plan can be put into effect. Gudmund
exacts a heauy f,ne and exiles Thorir Helgason.for three yeo,rs.
That evening the brothers Gudrnund anrl Flin:u' wcltt l() vespers as they were accustomed, antl (iudnrutrd was in high sllirits.
But later at night, when it was dt'awins toward mortlitts, Vigl trs
Viga-Glumsson woke up and said to Gudmund, "You are sleeping lightly tonight, Gudmund. Don't you like the prospect of'a
duel wiih Thorir? Just how do you intend to proceed in your
CASC?,,
"for I
Thorir has offered
me what I should have offered him. I think good fortune and
the right cause will determine the outcome of the combat between us. I believe the time has come to refute the slander."
"Now I will reveal what I haven't gotten around to telling you
"It
t
lt
:l
'i
I:.
duels; they are a heathen custom" (ch. 3o). In Valla-Lj6ts saga, Halli's
challenge to Ljot to fight it out one-on-one is punished posthumously by,
using iito reduce the compensation paid for his death (chs. 4-5). Of
the fbur contemplated challenges that occur in the context of lawsuits,
none leads to actual combat. In each of these cases the suggestion of the
possibility of a h1lmganga prompts third-party intervention. It is perhaps significant that, unlike h\lmggngur, the performance of the ordeal
of hot iion (ch. z3) elicits no editorial hostility from eittrer the writer or
his characters. This would seem to support the view that the natives, at
least in the thirteenth century, did not perceive hdlmganga as an ordeal.
For further discussion see BO rq6g, Ciklamini r963, and Jones r932.
r84
Lj1suetninga saga
The Sagas
father is told
in
V(.ga-
z6-zii: 87-g8. According to this account Glum kills an encnry in riie t.sphoeling ilar, .ra..r.d Thorvald krok, but manages.to deIleri thc 1>rosecution io another. When it emerges that Glum is in fact
the sl:ryci, he swears an ambiguous oath to avoid prosecution. But this
trickery is unmasked and hii enemies pe_rsuade Einar to renew the
prosecution. FIe succeeds and drives Glum from his property at Thvera.
Oltirn^s.srt,grt,
30-3l.
bf farts
r8L
t<r
aL
church?"
'Just what I would wish," he said. "He didn't seem to be carrying his head very high. And as the dishonor he's facing draws
closer, he'll be still more depressed."
"That wasn't my impression," replied Einar. "Yesterday at vespers it struck me that he acted very cheerfully but that he was in
reality dispirited; and this time he seemed quiet, but didn't you
see the fibers on his cloak ripple when he laughed? I suspect
they have devised a great plan that will do us no good if it is put
into effect. We should not await the outcome. We must immediately go to meet with Gudmund and conclude the matter as
soon as we can."
186
The Sagas
Ljdsaetninga saga
Chapter
Thorir spends three winters abroad, then liues out the remainder of his
respected. No sooner has Gudmund outlawed
Thorir than he makes his next rnoae by arrangtng to hire the ne'er-dowell Thorbjorn Rindil. Thorbjorn infiltrates the house of Thorhel Hake
and sets the stage for Gudmund's attach.
case.
ttz
ch.
saga
only rarely show the lesser grades of outlawry being imposed as a consequence of a court judgment. See further Heusler rgrr: r58-63 and
n. r89 below.
"'"Spend three years (uetr) abroad just as in lesser outlawry. And for
each winter (uetr). . .": this passage is strangely perplexing and causes
some translation problems. In Old Icelandic, years were counted in
winters (uetr). And we translate "years" for the first appearance of uetr
in the passage above. The explanatory accompaniment of the phrase
"iust as in lesser outlawry" mandates "years" (see n. rrz above). The
lrrolrlcm arises with the second uetr. For each uetr Thorir stays in the
c()untry he is to pay another hundred (actually rzo) ounces. Our first
irrr lirr:rtion was to translate "year," assuming that the provision was
nleilr)t lo be an inducement for Thorir to go abroad as quickly as possitrle. I l' he delayed his exile it would cost him a hundred per year. But
t'u
Icelanders counted two seasons, winter and summer. Winter Nights
was the name of the pagan festival inaugurating the winter season,
which began on the Saturday falling within the week of October 1 r - r Z.
For a discussion of Icelandic time-reckoning see Hastrup rg85: 17-49.
"uThe Svinfellings were a prominent family whose power base was in
the southeast. They figure prominently in Njdk saga.
Thrrrir''.s strbsequent actions seem to indicate that the second aetr means
I
I
i
.il
l.
rBg
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
r88
"I
of Eyjolf."
"Now I have it," he said. "I hear that you bring most people
good luck, but I haven't much to trade. I'm a poor man."
"There's more than money," said Gudmund. "Why don't you
come to the north this summer and look for work at a lot of
places, but agree to nothing until you meet with me." "'
"I will come," he said. This was now arranged, and the thing
was then dissolved.
When the time came for the assembly in the Eyjafiord district,
Rindil had arrived and was very gregarious. Then Gudmund
said, "Who is this fellow sticking his nose in everybody's ear and
looking for work everywhere without deciding on anything?" "n
"My name is Thorbjorn," he replied. "Will you give me work,
Gudmund?"
assassins
See Kersbergen
so,g(r z<r'.
27z-73,
5t|-(iq,
" rr,1i,,,1,nuncl's
Viga-Glil'ms saga
r3-r4i
2r-zgi
remark calls attention to the fact that Rindil is in violation o{'the law which required household attachments to be negotiated
by the end o{' May. In some circumstances, however, pe-ople could. {trl
moring into new h<luseholds until midsummer (Grdgas Ia rz8-29). The
Eyiafio"rd assembly met at least two to three weeks after midsummer.
t20The accepted view is that there were no regional accents in medieval lceland, and even today there is very little regional phonological
r9t
The Sagas
Li1suetninga saga
r90
there."
"I
the host in defen"se of his guest as when, for instance, Hlenni (ch' zo)
asked Gudmund nor ro kili-Eilif before his eyes. Shaming rituals of this
sort offered people of lower status a means of exercising social co.ntrol
against theii roiiul superiors. Compare the Indian ritual of "sitting
d"harna" and see also iViak saga 88i z16. For a discussion of shaming
rituals as social control see Baumgartner r984: 3 r6-zo'
here?"
"I
fence."
"I now see clearly that you are doomed," she said. "Let him
warm himself now, then take him to our shed."
"I'll pay no heed to your babble," said Rindil; "I will stick to
what Thorkel offered." "'
She proceeded to rant and rave at him, but Rindil answered
her in kind.
When night came on Thorkel saitl, "Sit here trext to me,
Thorhall. I can see that the women tltltt'l take t.o y{)tl."
took two stones and put them on the wall and left the door unlatched. But he thought it was a problem if the women were uP
and about when Gudmund came.
Thorkel had locked the bed-closet, then fallen asleep. The
mistress of the house went down the room and out into the hall
and said, "I thoughl 5s"-211d latched the door.
'2'Thorkel's kindness to the villain Rindil, his patience with the scolding women, his lack of suspicion, and his closeness to his four-year-old
daughter all combine to soften his image in his final hours. This sort of
last-moment rehabilitation of a somewhat doubtful character is not uncommon in the sagas. Grettir is perhaps the clearest case.
'23The device of involving an insider who is commissioned to unlock
the door so as to admit a nocturnal killer is paralleled in Gtsla saga
r5- r6: b2-bZ; a nearly exact parallel also occurs in Porgik saga skarda
75: zr8.
r92
Ljdsuetninga saga
The Sagas
1
'ir
1E
I
,$
Chapter r g
Gudmund and his men inaade Thorkel's house. Thorhel treats Gudmund with biting scorn but is euentually ouerwhelmed and killed.
Gudmund ,ffrrtt a nominal reconciliation with Thorhel's hinsmen.
Then men made for the house and entered it. Gudmund had
arrived with twenty men. Thorkel woke up at the tumult and
clash of arms but had no time to put on his mailshirt. But he
grasped his thrusting spear and put on his helmet. There was a
milk vat in the corner of the house, and narrow quarters.
Then Gudmund said, "Now you have the chance to face Gudmund, Thorkel, and not hide in a cave."
"I'll face you all right, Gudmund," replied Thorkel. "You
didn't come any sooner than expected. By the way, what route
did you take here?"
"I came by way of Brynjuridge and Hellugnupspass," he replied.
"You had a steep and arduous trip," said Thorkel, "and I can
irnagine how sweaty your ass must be from such exertion on
the way!"
'I'hen he ran forward with drawn sword and immediately took
r93
"I certainly do not," she said. "You can clear out as first lts 1t<lsI'd rather be with him dead than with you alive."
sible.
ir,
jr
;
'25Thorkel's obscene wit restates in its crudest form the insult Thorir
and he have leveled against Gudmund. Thorkel sers up this line perfectly by having first made Gudmund's ass thirsty from the arduous
journey. The image also inverts Gudmund in other ways, turning him
upside down by making his anus his mouth. See n. 76 above.
'26This sentence is translated only approximately because the read-
ings in the manuscripts are unclear. See Vigfiisson and Powell rgo5:
''nIn a famous passage in Njd,k saga 76: r85-86 the attackers advancing on a house lure the dog away and kill it so that the inhabitants will
not be forewarned by the barking; see ibid. 48: rz3.
"TGisli's killers offer to escort his wife Aud after the deed is done, but
she rejects the offer (Gklasaga 36: r r5).
"YI
q
r94
Lj1saetninga
The Sagas
Chapter zo
Thorkel Hake's second cousin, Eilif, kills Thorbjorn Rindil. Gudmund
pursues him relentlessly, and is only dissuaded from burning down the
'house
in which he has taken refuge because his oun son Halldor is in the
house and refuses to come out.
Rindil went home with Gudmund, who treated him well. But
Rindil was not generally liked.
The brotherJat Gnupufell were related to Thorkel Hake. Eilif
was married to Thordis the Poetess. He was big and strong and a
good man with the bow; he was illegitimate. Bruni was married
to Alfdis, daughter of Kodran; she and Thorlaug, Gudmund's
wife and the daughter of Atli, were first cousins. Thorkel Hake's
mother was Gudrid, who was married to Thorgeir the Chieftain, not Hjalti Eiriksson; her mother was the daughter of Hrolf
[son of Helgi rhe Lean; rhe brothers Bruni and Eilif were the
sons of Hrolf],"n son of Ingjald at Gnupufell. The brothers at
Gnupufetl and Thorkel Hake were related. Hlenni the Wise
,2*It is a sign of Gudmund's unmatched power in the region.that
Thorkel Uak6's brothers accept a dictated settlement without making
even a pretense of more aggressive action. Th.I are-reduced to mumbling und g.rr-bling. gut iiis also notewo11hy that the limits of power
are iuch th"at Gudmind still never doubted for a moment that he would
pay compensation, and a substantial one at that. Hence the need to firur.. rh; kiuing with the mulcts from Thorir Helgason's thingmen..
&
rii
saga
95
,'
r96
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga saga
(:()urse."
And when the farmhand got over the river and into the woods,
(iurlrntrnd and his men came toward them. "Why are Eilif and
his c<lmpanion so slow?" said Gudmund.
"' ln Vd,pnfirdinga saga 8: 4r-43 Geitir Lytingsson surreptitiously removes the bodies of slain men in coal boxes loaded on horseback.
t97
"'A similar incident occurs in Gudmund,ar saga djra 14: rgo, in which
a descendant and namesake of Gudmund thJ powerfu^l in?icates that
the presence of his daughter in the farmhouse he was burning would
not have deterred his course of action. When burnins was reso"rted to,
women, children,.servants,.and guests were generail| offered purrug.
from the flames, although the noim was breaihed in iienificant *uvrT.,
three of the most famous saga burnings; see Hensa-Dtiis saga g: 24, irlendinga saga 172-74: 487-94, ana Niak saga rzg,
33o-i. 5n Cudrnund's response see Introduction, pp. +g-So-, ro6,* r r r.
rg8
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
if my mother
dies
in
these
flames."
Chapter
zr
saga
0g
were set, ofeig put his fist on the table and said, "How big does
that fist seem to you, Gudmund?"
"Big enough," he said.
!o you suppose there is any srrengrh in ir?,,asked Ofeig.
z7z Bardi Gudmundarson's foster mothef is described as ,.wlse uia uicient (i.e., heathen) in spirit" and in Grettis saga 7g: 245 it is explained
that Thurid is a witch because "although theland *rr^th.irtiui,
sparks of heathendom remained." See Baetke tgTZ:33g_4o. -u.,y/
2oo
I would like to know whether my sons will escape reprisal," said Gudmund.
"That's a more onerous task," she said'
She waded out into the shallows and struck a blow in the
water. There was a loud crash and the water turned all bloody'""
Then she said, "I think, Gudmund, that the blow will fall close to
one of your sons. I will not exert myself again because I do so at
no little cosr ro myself; neither threats nor coaxing will lYurl." .
"I will not impose this strain on you ever again," he said' Gudmund returned home and continued to live in good standing'
when he got on in years, it is reported that.there was a man
named Thorhall, a worthy farmer living on Eyjafiord. He had a
dream and rode north to meet with Finni, who was standing out
by his door. Thorhall said, "l've had a dream that I want you to
interpret, Finni."
.,Git away as fast as you can, for I have no wish to hear your
dream," said Finni and he closed the door and said, "Go and tell
it to Gudmund at Modruvellir, or I shall drive you away by force
of arms." He left and went to Modruvellir, but Gudmund had
ridden out into the district that day and was expected home in
the evening.
His brother Einar lay down for a nap and fell asleeP. He
rlreamed that a magnificent ox with great horns went through
rhc <listrict and .uri. to Modruvellir, going to"' each building
"Now
"Then
""'li()r irrr analogy to this portent see the laga of .the Jomsaikings:
there was this: that we saw great waves rise againsi one another with
much tumul[ ancl with blooi. That will betoken the discord of some
of great. account within our land" (p' g8)'
men
- ,rz11rii
is the point at which the frafmentary A manuscript breaks
off.
Lj6suetnin{a
The Sagas
saga
zo
on the farm and lastly to the high seat, where he fell dead. "'l'his
must signify great tidings," Einar said. "Such are the fetches of'
men."
*
H
l&
138
Chapter
zz
tall in stature.
when Kodran came of age, he asked Eyjolf for a division
of property, but he answered, "I don't want to have a joint
household at Modruvellir, and I don't want to move on your
account."
''2
'o'The battle pitted the Irish high king Brian against a Norse-Irish
coalition and wai fought near Dublin on Good Friday, 10r4. See Introduction, pp.77-78.
,rrA bof c<iuld'not take up any inheritance that might have befallen
ttirrr unf il he was sixteen years old. Until then the property was under
The father, if living,- had the
tlrc <.:rre <rl'a guardian (fjd,nteizlumadr).
"followed
by brothers and then mother. The
grr:rrtli:rnship as of right,
the income from
[rr:u'<lian was rewarded for his effort with the lghl to
ii,.' 1,,',,1r.rty (Grd,gds II 77-8o). The ward had a-right to reclaim lands
:rlir:ri:rrtxl by the giardian as well as a claim for the value_of the capital
(l I 4 I r,- r 8). It should be noted that the property division Kodran is asking t,rr'<kres not contemplate his moving out to set up an independent
esiablishrrtent. [t appears he wants his property earmarked and valued
prior to assurning io*e kind ofjoint householding arrangement.where
iach hacl charge-of his own property. For further discussion of the dis-
Ljdsaetninga saga
The Sagas
202
'iri
ti
rl
'$
2()'l
Then Kodran met with his foster father Hlenni and told him
how things stood: "Is there no valid defense if I'm going to be
robbed of my inheritance?"
"Eyjolf's arrogance comes as no surprise to me," replied
Hlenni, "and I do not advise you to forfeit your inheritance.
2o4
Ljdsaetninga
The Sagas
Hoskuld.
''""'Fi)ster brothers at Veisa": the text has Veisusynir, i.e., the sons of
Veisa. 'I'he farm is conceived as the symbolic mother of these "brothers." 'I'he name emphasizes the importance of co-residence in group
formation and in the creation of social identities. Place names figure
prominently in the names attributed to or adopted by groups; e.9.,
Ljosvetnings, Modrvellings (Miller r g88b).
saga
zob
When they were almost ready to leave, they took Thorkel aside.
"We two foster brothers intend to go abroad," said Hoskuld,
"but we want to transfer to you the prosecution and defense for
any claims that involve us. Let's have the transfer witnessed." r45
"I haven't refused you anything," Thorkel said, "but, for a
number of reas<lns, this hardly seems like a trouble-free matter.
Still, I leave it up to you." It was done accordingly. They went
abroad and were held in high esteem.
Fridgerd stayed behind and was deemed to be an honorable
woman, and a high-spirited one; she fell in readily with the
young people and was an energetic person and a hard worker.
One day she approached Thorkel. "As you know," she said, "I
have been hard at work here, but now it has become more diflicult for me because I am becoming larger and don't move about
so easily. I haven't needed any help so far, but with this development I now need some, for I am pregnant."
"Who's the father?" asked Thorkel.
She said that Brand was.
"It was ill-willed of'him not to have told me," said Thorkel.
"This is a difficult case for me. There has been a lot of merrymaking here, and you haven't been exactly withdrawn. I don't
know whether he is the father, or some other gadabout, though
hardly in the same class as Brand. It seems to me that I would be
doing the foster brothers a disservice if I admit their responsibility in this matter."
She was very despondent over this and returned to her father,
whose wealth was rapidly depleting. She said that her trip had
turned out disgracefully, as might be expected.
"It didn't turn out well," he said, "but there was no good solution to be had."
n.b4
above.
!
206
Lj1suetninga saga
The Sagas
2o-7
Chapter z3
Eyjolf and Thorkel at veisa agree that Fridgerd shall submit to an ordeal to uerify her charge. The ordeal is indecisiue, and the contending
parties separate with bitter words. Hoskuld and Brand return from
abroad and reinforce the Ljosuetning clan. They confer with Hrafn, son
of Thorhel Hake. Eyjolf seelu aduice from Einar Arnorsson, then rides to
Drafl,astead. A spy sent.from Draflastead guesses that the Ljosaetnings
haue gathered in force a,t Veisa.
irrte r-vcne."
"l will take the case," said Eyjolf, "though it is not trouble-free.
l:rve her brought to me. But I will not be demanding about
Irrrrcnrls. I expect that Thorvard will respond best if his counsel
prcv:rils, but I expect little honor from the others that are inI
volvcd." They joined hands, and Isolf turned the case over
to hirn.
Lli
2o8
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
"As a sign that I am willing to settle," said Eyjolf, "I will accepr
the stipulation."
Then Thorkel pledged paymenr of her compensation to the
priest and a day was set for paying it over if she succeeded at the
ordeal.
of the parties. The rittr was due for slander (Grd,gd,s Ib r8r,II 3go), fornication (Ib 52, II r83), and every injury of any consequence.The rAfir
was doubled for offenses that violated the peace of the things (Ia g7). In
spite of its ubiquitousness in the laws, in the entire saga corpus rittr fig'
ures only in this case (Heusler r g r r : zoz), although an atte_mpt is made
in Islendinga saga zo: 246 to settle a fornication action by offering "more
than double the r4fir." Presumably, it was taken into account by arbitrators in fashioning their awards, but the sagas are strangely silent
about it.
'n8The laws expressly allow for proof of paternity claims by ordeal,
but they do not make them the exclusive means of proving paternity.
One Grdgd,.s provision discusses explicitly "those four ways by which
people are filiated to a kin group in our land" (II rgz): (r)if the child is
born to a woman who lives with her husband, (z) if the man formally
if
the ordeal, or (4) if a verdict determines the man guilty. The fact that
the laws allow disputed cases to be settled either by verdict or ordeal,
and then give no indication when one mode of proof is to be preferred
to the other, emphasizes the importance of disputant choices and strategies in the performance of any ordeal. In this case the disputants
agreed to the ordeal; the law did not demand it. See Maurer 1874.
There has been much recent work on ordeal. For bibliography and further discussion of the Icelandic materials in the context of this work see
r5oPart
of the reason Eyjolf might be so incensed is that he expecred
more favorable treatment from a priest who seems to have been atiached
in some way to Eyjolf's people, the Modrvellings. The farm where the
ordeal takes place, Laufass, was also in the control of descendants of
Eyjolf in the late twelfth century; see Gudmundar so,ga djra 3: fi3
'u' Isleif Gizurarson was the first bishop of Iceland from ro56 to ro8o.
See Hungraaka (Kristni saga rgo5: 8g-g6).
-'u'Thf laws provided for more than one ordeal in paternity cases
where the results were not clear (Grd,gd,s Ib z 16). There ii no indicarion
that a different proband was allowed for subsequent performances.
Proxies, however, did bear the iron in some cases; see, e.g., Sturlu saga
g: 7Z and for further discussion Miller rg88a.
Miller rg88a.
t'nAccording to one
stale
,u,
Fridgerd
then fasted. Eyjolf'proposed to supervise the ordeal and said it
was clear that the others would hinder the procs55-"211d for
that reason I will pay even more attention."
Thorkel arrived, and her hand was unbandaged. The priest
was slow to decide. Then Thorkel said, "Why are you such a blot
on your father's name that you don't state outright that her hand
is burned|"-2n61 he named witnesses to this.
The priest said, "It's out of order for you two to pronounce
the judgment and take the case out of my hands; the decision
is mine to make. We shall make a second, clearer trial of' tht:
matter."'u'
"It couldn't be clearer," said Eyjolf, "but for your enmity anrl
bribetaking, and because of that I will pursue the claim as if it
were my own inheritance."
"We Ljosvetnings have known for a long time that your hostility toward us is unsparing," said Thorkel.
"You started the hostility," said Eyjolf, "and it came down hard
on you just as you deserved." r53
'"The "personal compensation" or rittr was set at six marks for all
free men and women and was owed by wrongdoers to the injured parties, although in this case it was pledged to a third party by agreement
2oq
(II
I
I
ro
Ljdsuetningasa.ga
The Sagas
i*
body knew it. Njdk sagais, however, quite explicit about the Ljosvetning
responsibility for the gossip (see Introduction, p. 82).
ing for the Ljosvetning chieftaincy. Hoskuld's impatient question suggests his eagerness for a greater say. See n. zo5 below.
tuuThe place name appears to be a corrupt reading, perhaps
tisan, it never makes clear how the Ljosvetnings initiated the accusation
2rr
:t.
t;;
&
f,
$
,ft
I
IB
&
212
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga
mand. My advice is to set out with eighteen men and say that you
are going to Flatisledale for provisions."
zr1
he took him in a wrestling hold and said he was "in the habit of
seducing our womenfolk."
The farmhand began to lose his footing. He tried to get in the
other door, but Brand was there and said, "You won't get in
here-she's asleep." And they pitched him back and forth across
the field and tore his clothes until he was huppy to escape.
Then he went home, and Eyjolf asked about his trip. He said it
had turned out badly: "The foster brothers were outside, and I
think they were suspicious of me. They kept having at me and
they tore my clothes. The doors were closed when I arrived, but
still I got to see from the door what was going on inside. I suspect there is a large force on hand and that they may have been
informed of your trip."
"That seems not unlikely," said Eyjolf. (Thorvard Thorgeirsson'un was subsequently in the habit of saying, whenever
there was a ruckus, "Let's try the Veisa grip.")
"I suspected as much," said Atli.
"It doesn't look good for my venture as things st:rrr<I," said
Eyjolf.
"I will give you ten well-armed men," said Atli. "V)lr slrorrl<l g<l
back home without putting your men in peril."
Chapter z4
earlier. If his age makes his presence plausible, his presence could
only serve to link Eyjolf's expedition to prior Modrvelling aggressions
against the Ljosvetnings and would have been so perceived by both
The two parties clash at Fnjosk Riuer. Eyjolfs men are a,t .[irst repelled, but he gathers reinforcements. The Ljosuetnings in turn a,ppeal to
Thortard, who is goaded into action by hu wife. He recruits Otrygg and
Gunnstein. A battle is engaged at Kakalahill and results in the death of
sides.
saga
in rzoJ,
-L
tg: 2rZ.
214
The Sagas
Otrygg. Otrygg's son Hall arriaes on the scene and auenges his father by
inflicting a mortal wound on Kodran. The battle is broken off when
Hrofn leads Eyjolf to belieue that Thoruard is more seriously wounded
than he really is. Kodran dies the following night.
Lj1suetninga saga
1r
!
:.?
1
r"o'l'he
ubiquitousness of rivers in Iceland means that they figure fre<;rrt:rrtly as places of battle, since rarely would one party noihave to
(:tr)ss one to get at the other. Thus fords were natural places of con-
Iirrrrtution. Under other circumstances, rivers provided-a natural defense lor one's rear. Rivers also mark boundariis and hence provide a
liminal sl)ace in which battle is figuratively as well as strategically uppropriate. See, e.g., Laxdula saga 87: 244-47; Njdk saga 6z:. 156, 7i:
175-77-
$
,ri
Eyjolf and his men rode toward the river. They saw thar men
were riding from the houses on the other side, no fewer than
seventy in number, who immediately started throwing rocks at
them.'oo Eyjolf's men got a good thumping about the shoulders
and had to turn back. Atli said that it had gone as he suspecred.
"Now we shall send for our friend Oddi Grimsson at Hofdi,"
said
2r5
}
I
li
fi
I
*
k
li
&
'u'I>d, uar m,gnnum hleypt t,il herbods d, haern bu. The word herbods (levy)
is a conjecture for the rn:rnuscript's fird,nsd6m.s (court of confiscation),
which is meaningless in the r:ontext. The conjecture, though graphically
remote, makes sense, an<l we <:an find no better solution. It is hard to
guess what men would h:rve gone to all the local farms for other than
reinforcements.
'l'horqilsson (ro68?- r r48) wrote that at
'62In the twelfth century Ari
the time of the settlement "lcelanrl was wooded between the mountains
and the shore" (islendingabdk t: q,). Itrllen samples confirm the tradition.
The first colonists found woodlands o['dwarf willow and birch. These
2r6
Ljdsuetninga
The Sagas
there were men headed for Bilzarpass, and they then turned
back to tell their men.
"Now we're through unless Thorvard joins in," Hrafn said.
Hoskuld replied, "You no doubt think it would be a good idea
for me to go to Fornastead and ask Thorvard for help."
He did so, and arrived at Fornastead, where he entered
the sitting room. It was full of men, kinsmen and friends of
Thorvard.
"My business is briefly stated," said Hoskuld. "We need help.
We will be quickly overwhelmed by Eyjolf's numbers unless we
have the benefit of your support"-he told him everything fhat
had happened.
"I've been let in on these events late in the day," said Thorvard.
"It would have been handled more moderately if it had been up
to me. I won't urge my men to rush into this foolishness."
"I won't spend a lot of time asking you for little things," said
Hoskuld, "because what you have to offer won't amount to much
or be very useful. But I will never desert [hem."
Then Thorvard's wife spoke up: "You should consider that
you'll be involved anyway if Hoskuld is killed. It's no easier to
prosecute on behalf of a dead man."'o'
"I know how vehement women are," Thorvard replied, "but it
will be a good idea to put a limit to this trouble."
"You won't be much good at prosecuting for his death if you
won't help him when he's alive," she said. "I won't bear and raise
another son if you give this one up to the sword."'nn
"You women are likely to prevail as usual," said Thorvard.
2 L7
il
quir:kly yielderl to the settlers' axes, and their sheep made sure regenerat.ion would no[ occur. The treeless landscape of modern Iceland
w:rs :rlready a reality within roughly a century or so of the colonization.
Sec Mr:()overn et al. r988.
"" Ordgd,s la 167: "A man's son is the principal in a killing case, sixteen
yc:u's or older. . . . If there is no son or he is younger than this the case
lies with the man's father next." Should Hoskuld be killed, Thorvard
would be the lawful plaintiff in any legal action arising from the killing.
164'l'he goading women of the sagas have received their share of attention.'l'hree recent works (Clover rg86a, rg86c; Miller r983b) try to
make the case that they are more than stock literary figures.
saga
#
irri
)i
zt:
zJg,
2r8
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga saga
219
ing a red tunic. He had girded up the skirt of the runic, and
Otrygg's thrust went into the folds. Thorstein the Strong brought
his ax hammer down so hard on the spear that it drove the spear
blade into the ground. Otrygg bent down for it, and when Eyjolf
saw that, he pierced Otrygg through with his spear. He twisted
away, f-ell in the stream, and died there. There was no need then
to goad Thorvard.
There was a man with Thorvard who was named Starri. He
was married to Herdis, the daughter of Halldor Gudmundarson,
Eyjolf 's brother. He was the son of Thorgerd, Tjorvi's daughter,
and was friendly with both sides. Thorvard made a rush and
stepped over Otrygg, but Starri ran ar him and held him back.
At that moment Eyjolf landed a blow on Thorvard's thumb, and
thejoint was left hanging from the sinew. Thorvard asked Oddi
from Myvatn to help him. (He was rhe son of Thorgeir Axstaff,
the son of Grenjad, and descended from Fell-Oddi. He was married to Thorvard's sister Vigdis.) Oddi rushed at Starri and
delivered a blow with the hammer of his ax so that starri fell
head over heels. Thorvard was hampered by his wound and he
wanted to twist off his thumb. "Let it dangle as it is," said Oddi,
profusely.
in the narrative. It
l-
221
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
And when he got to the battle site, he halted and asked, "What's
the news here?"
"Can't you see that your father has been killed and is lying
here at your feet?" said one of the men. "Eyjolf Gudmundarson
killed him."
Hall plunged into the fray. But Kodran went between the
combatants and tried to separate them. It had gotten to the
point that only those men were fighting who had prior grudges.
By then most of them had broken off; they needed no more urging to separate. Kodran seized the remaining combatants on
both sides and pushed them aparr. At that momenr Hall struck
him a blow in the head. Then a man called out, "There went the
best man from Eyja{ord."
"Good or not, he was Gudmund's son," said Hall.
Kodran was carried away on a shield and his wound was bandaged-the Ljosvetnings were gathered by a wooded area. Eyjolf
now urged his men to exert themselves as best they could.
Thorodd Hjalm replied, "You are reacting to what has been
done, Eyjolf, but you are less concerned with your brother's
comfort. one of Einar of Thvera's farmhands has now been
killed too."
"Put a tent over Kodran," said Eyjolf. "I'm reluctant to look
for medical care for him here. He should be taken to Svalbard to
Thorvard the Healer."
People said that Hrafn had no less an eye to the woods than to
the battle. "one plan would be to hide in the woods," said Hrafn,
"another to report that Thorvard is mortally wounded.",zr
"That's a safe course," replied Hoskuld, "though not at all in
the spirit of my father. But I will talk to him about 11"-2n61 56
he did.
"Tell him in my exact words," said Thorvard, "that he can
make himself out to be as cowardly as he likes, but he is not to lie
about me, because that will provoke my wrath."
The day was well advanced, but Eyjolf urged his men ro attack. Hrafn had spent the night ar Hals and had come down
from Flatisledale. The action was more than he had a stomach
for. He sought out Eyjolf and said, "This has been a hard battle,
t"See n. r8 above.
Chapter z5
Thontard entertains the Ljosaetnings that night and conceals Hall
Otryggsson during the winter. He offers Eyjolf compensation but is re.jected. Eyjolf in turn seeks to strengthen his alliances by sending out feelers, notably to Gellir Thorkelsson, Hrafn, and Shegg-Brrtddi Bjarnason.
S ke gg-B roddi is noncommittal.
""'Eyjolf flushed": the text reads Eyjdft sagdi (Eyjolf said), but that
makes no sense, and we conjecture, as have others (Ranisch and Vogt
r964: zo6), nyjAlf, rodnaili (Eyjolf reddened). A good example of flushing from extreme emotion may be found in Hd.uardar saga Isf.rdings z:
298. On swelling from grief see Egils saga 78: 244 and Vgkunga saga ch.
29. In these cases the swelling causes Egil's and Sigurd's clothing to split.
In the latter example the motif goes back to a stanza probably from the
late (and largely lost) Eddic poem Sigurdarhaida in meiri.
Y
223
The Sagas
Lj1saetninga saga
ounce per man and a half mark to each chieftain who rode to the
thing. He sent word to the sons of Eid at As '77 in Borgar{ord and
offered to pay them for their aid, and likewise the Goddalers. It
was agreed that Hrafn would not be prosecuted, because he was
judged not to have been a threat during the battle. Most of the
chieftains promised Eyjolf aid.
There was a man named Harek living at As in the Kelda settlement. He was married to Thorgerd, Thorvard's daughter. He
was Skegg-Broddi's thingman.'7'Thorvard sent him to Skegg-
o o.>
status or prowess?"
"Hrafn shall be seated next to me," he answered.
the district thing if plaintiff and defendant were attached to the same
district thing, which does not appear to be the case. It has been suggested that the Hegranes thing was a quarter thing, meeting in the
quarter rather than at the Allthing. But the laws and sagas provide only
scant support for this proposition; see Grd,gd,s II 356 and Vtga-Glnms
saga 241 82. In any event, no argument on improper venue or lack of
jurisdiction is made by Thorvard. See n. 55 above.
"'According to
Eyjolf sent word to all the chieftains to request aid, and also to
his friend Gellir in the west,'" askins him to attend the Hegranes
thing "o in force. Gellir was a worthy man. Eyjolf offered a silver
Landndmabdk
pp.40, 44,48,
'7nThe passageway is formed by the space between the wall and the
paneling that backed the seats running the length of the walls in the
sitting room.
''uGenealogical information from other sources indicates that Gellir
Thorkelsson and Eyjolf were also affines. Gellir's wife was Valgerd, who
i e she was Eviorf's nrst
'
ffi,:nffi**:fli::::PJ:::i":,T,:''u''
224
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
he also sent Hrafn half an ounce of gold. And when the messengers arrived, Hrafn accepted this offer.
Then they met with Skegg-Broddi and presented the case to
him. "I don't know about aid," he said. "The Modrvellings have
not accorded their kinswoman much honor. Furthermore they
scarcely need assistance from the East Quarter. I will come to
the thing but promise no aid." Those who had been sent re-
Eyjolf readied his case, and no one hindered him."' Then they
rode out.
The mountains were almost impassable and there were severe
losses among the farm animals. Thorvard met with his friends
and said, "Shouldn't we get started on our ride to the thing? If
you are willing to support me, I think the best plan is to travel
with two men to a horse because I know that Eyjolf will be there
turned home.
in force."'"
The men responded readily and he got an able-bodied force
of a hundred men. They left a day earlier than Eyjolf and went
by way of Oxdaleheath and down into Nordrardale, and they
rested at Swinesnes. Eyjolf had close to three hundred men.
Thorodd Hjalm and Einar from Thvera were in his company.
When the others left Swinesnes, Eyjolf and his men arrived
there. At that point Thorvard and his men were delayed because
a pack harness broke and the load fell off'. "What now, kinsman
Hrafn?" said Thorvard.
"I see no choice but to get away," he replied.
"Is that a decent way to take leave of one's men?" Thorvard
asked. "Is it any worse to meet Eyjolf now than it was before?'*"
Even if your advice was heeded then, still I will not heed it now."
The others were not ready with the pack horse yet.
Einar saw Thorvard and his men and realized that there was a
Chapter z6
Thortard's messenger Harek has greater
success
with Skegg-Broddi.
Eyjolf has an ominoru dream but prepares hk case. Both sides gather
forces and ride to the thing. On the uay an encounter is narrowly
aaoided.
225
r8r
"No one hindered him": if Eyjolf initiated the suit by summons, he
would have had to ride to Thorvard's farm; if he intended to initiate by
publication, he would have had to call the neighbors living closest to the
scene of the battle to make up the jury-panel. Either way required a trip
into unfriendly territory and was fraught with danger. The observation
that no one hindered him suggests that hindrance would not have been
unexpected. Cf., for example, the unfortunate summoning in ch. r.
r82"Two men to a horse": there appear to be two reasons for this. It
would be difficult to find grazing for many horses because of extensive
snow cover. This can be deduced from the observation about the impassability of the mountains and the losses of farm animals. Also, two
men to a horse could disguise the size of the muster. Similar ruses are
found in Sturlu saga zr: 9r and Heidartiga saga z7i 2g4.
'83 Bjorn Sigftisson prints this sentence in the declarative without a
question mark (rg4o: 86), but the sense seems to be that it is not worse
than before. "Before" refers to the time in ch. z4 when Hrafn urged
breaking off the engagement at Kakalahill by hiding out in the woods or
letting it be known that Thorvard was mortally wounded.
s.
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga saga
Chapter z7
226
i
i:
i:
&
li
;t
,<)a
The allied chieftains arriue, Gellir with the redoubtable sheggi the
strong
in
sheggr and shegg-Broddi are queried about the odds. Getlir and skeggBroddi join forces to urge a settlement on Eyjolf, without success at
first.
As the court pleading is about to begin and the clash is imminent, they
finally preaail on Eyiolf and Thorrard to desist and leaue the judgment
in Gellir's hands. T'he penalties are determined, but Eyjolf remains
dissatisfied.
'
i
;!
ii
{
{
Eyjolf came to the thing with a large force and needed to secure quarters f<lr all of them.''u rhe thing was very crowded.
Gellir came fiom the west with two hundred men. And when
they rode to the thing they arranged themselves single file. They
were an impressive company and people stared at them. There
was one man on horseback who seemed most impressive of all,
though it seemed a defect that he was riding a mere foal. But
when they dismounted and the horses were let loose, the horse
that that man had ridden seemed by far the largest. He turned
out to be Skeggi the Strong, brother of Alf from the Dales.,',
When the people had been at rhe thing one nighr, they saw a
boat in the {ord with twelve men aboard. one was in a wolfskin
cloak with a blue cape over it-the wearher had been biting.
They had a look of special distinction, bur the chieftain exceeded them all. Eyjolf and his men wenr ro meer them at rhe
landing, while'I'horvard and his men went toward them where
the footing was less good. When they had furled the sail, SkeggBroddi looked at the assembled men and said, "we will join the
company of these men over here."
'8oSee
n. z6 above.
:,.
&
228
The Sagas
Lj6suetninga saga
"I am well enough acquainted with Thorvard," said skeggBroddi, "to know that he will want to assess the compensation
awards by himself and thar he will want all of them to have the
right to return to Iceland except Hall. I would like that issue to
be turned over to us so that we can determine the terms of
exile."
"Consider first what the price may be," said Gellir.
Then they met with Eyjolf, and skegg-Broddi said, "Ir is inadvisable not to settle because not everyone is going to oppose
Thorvard. Let Gellir and his trusred friends mediate.,,
"I do not see that I am under any obligation to honor your
wishes," replied Eyjolf.
_"My power is not such that I can support my party with fbrce
of arms," countered Skegg-Broddi, "but nevertheless there will
be a few bruises before Thorvard is slain."
Gellir said, "our cause is ill served if this escalates. [,ven if
skegg-Broddi has only a few men, it is not proper to slieht him."
"The court does not look favorably on Thorvard's cise," said
Eyjolf.
w_o1d got around that the court was to convene. Eyjolf was
confident in his numbers and ordered them to form up- next to
the court while they presented their case. "We will let the others
squeeze through to the court if they wish," he said.
when Thorvard learned this, he said, "what is to be done
now? would it not be a better course to fight before we are outlawed? we should arm ourselves; some of you should gather our
horses because the upshot of the encounter may be thit some of
us will get away." They did so and fell in sharply. There was a
Tun named Dag in Thorvard's force; he was married to sigrid,
the daughter of Thorgeir the chieftain. He led the way with five
abreast right behind him, then ren, and they marshalled their
whole force, for there were few who were keen on going last.,eo
,fi
',
l'
,'
line," he said.
Gellir said, ["I will ease your part in the proceedings."]'*u
"That would be fitting," said Skegg-Broddi, "and it might
serve some purpose. There are men involved with us in the case
who would only make things worse if they were outlawed, and
then the trouble would be greater than before. We should join
together in finding a way to prevent misfortune."
"I am well enough acquainted with Eyjolf to know that he will
want to set the terms himself and assess the amounts of the compensation awards," said Gellir. "He will not settle with Thorvard
unless Brand, Hoskuld, Thorkel, and Hall are exiled as full outlaws with passage abroad allowed them." ''n
'"A third <lf a line is missing in the manuscript. The lacuna is filled
with unclear wording in the paper manuscripts. See Bjorn Sigftisson
rq4o:89 r.r. We make the best sense we can of the wording in the
229
paper manuscripts.
offense for which he had been outlawed (Ia 95-96).The outlaw granted
pas^sage was said to be ferjandi, i.e., one having passage.
'n0See ltga-Glilms saga 24: gz for a similu. ulte-ptIo restrict access to
court and an identical wedgg formation to overcome it. The laws purport to.punish by a fine of three marks any litigant who attended the
court with more than ten men (Grdgas Iu s3). Tlie sagas make no men-
ferjandi): a sentence of full outlawry (sh6ggangr) did not allow the outlaw
passage out of the country. Anyone providing it was guilty of aiding
and abetting the outlaw and was himself subject to lesser outlawry
(Grdgds la rzz-23; also Ia 88-gz). But with permission of the lggrdtta
the sentence could be reduced to the extent that the outlaw was granted
passage abroad. While abroad he was to be immune from attack for the
v
?
The Sagas
230
Lj1suetninga
z1r
words?"
saga
he said.
"It's not good that people should fight here because of you,"
Skegg-Broddi said. "I consider it best that each restrain his men."
"It is plain to everyone that the worst option is to fight," said
Gellir. "I will offer my services to judge the case."
Eyjolf responded, "Isn't the best man the one who deserves
support? I did not give you gifts to get ultimatums."
"Given what you have in mind," Gellir said then, "the situation is becoming very diffi6sl1"-2nd he turned toward Thorvard: "What is your intention now? You are proceeding very
impetuously."
"We have peaceable intentions."
tion of the stricture and universally show its systematic violation. The
provision looks like the wishful thinking of legalists.
s.t!.
El
The Sagas
Ljdsaetninga saga
232
Chapter z8
Thorrard and his fellow exiles take passage for I'{orutay. Eyjolfs lastminute attempt at blood aengeance is thwarted by misleading information from Thorkel at Hlid. The ship bound for l'{orutay is becalmed until
a murderer on board is put ashore. Hall Otryggsson recoaers the ship's
anchor in a daring feat.
233
taken passage?"
He acknowledged his presence.
Then the man said, "Take your kinsman Thorvald the Leper
aboard or we will prohibit your passage.",n,
"I
people," he said. "I will take him there." Mar returned later, saying that he had made provision for him.
Now fall came on and there was still no wind. The Norwegians
consulted and said that they would either leave the ship oi prrt
Hall ashore. Thorvard said, "I have a different plan. we should
fast for three days and determine whether God will reveal what
is causing the calm. Let each group cast lots and set that man
ashore whose lot comes up, whether he is ours or yours.,,,rn
The lots were blessed, and the lot of Kalf's group came up.
re2Fornastead
is Thorvard's farm.
'e3It was illegal to abandon dependents.
!r
&
The Sagas
Li1netninga saga
Mar was in their company, and his lot came up. They put him
ashore and said that he must have dealt foully with his kinsman.
He had little to say about it, but it turned out that he had murdered him. The others were ready to kill him, but the matter was
resolved when he repented and gave half his property to the
poor and the other half to the victim's relatives.
They then headed out from Hris Isle, and there was a ship
making for the coast. It was owned by Eldjarn, the son of Arnor
Cronenose and Thorlaug, daughter of Viga-Glum.'nu Then
Eldjarn said to Thorvard, "Don't take Hall abroad; we've had
more than we can swallow without that too."
Thorvard responded, "What is more fitting than that he should
have passage with us, his kinsmen?"
A northwest wind sprang up and the weather turned cold.
Thorvard's crew hoisted their anchor, but the cable broke. Thorvard asked for a volunteer to show his mettle-"2n6[ that means
you Norwegians, too." The Norwegians held back.
Hall then said, "I'm not looking to get off easy-give me the
cable." He took off his cloak and dove deep into the water. He
managed to attach the cable to the anchor so that it could be
raised, and this feat earned him a good name.
who had previously disliked him spoke well of Hall. Then they
headed out for sea. Hall was a spirited man and could be counted
on when needed.
They made their landfall in northern Norway and then sailed
south with a stiff wind. They saw a boat by a skerry with two boys
aboard; one was rowing the boat and the other was bailing.
234
231-r
Chapter zg
Off the coast of l{oruay Thontard and Hall rescue two boys whose boat
is about to be swamped. This deed stands them in good stead at the Norwegian court when Ey.jolfs cou^sin.larn-Sheggi plots reuenge. Further
aduenhtre.; of the exiles.
'l'hey drew abreast of Eldjarn's ship. The cable was frozen and
I lirll hard gloves on to haul the anchor. A man on the other ship
spokc to him: "I'm not afraid of you, Hall my mate, when you
nec<l gloves to haul a cable." After this incident many people
''uUlf the Marshall (Ulfr stallari) was the illegitimate son of Ospak
Osvifrsson by Asdis, sister of Ljot the Wise, according to Landnd,mab6h
(r8+). Ljot subsequently had Ospak outlawed. This is confirmed by
Laxdula saga bo: rb6-b7, which notes that Ulf "later became King
Harald Sigurdarson's marshall." He is also mentioned as Harald's closest
retainer along with Halldor Snorrason in Morkinshinna g- tg; Fagrskinna
26, zyb, z6z, 264-66; and Haralds saga (Heimskringln III g: 79, 14: 86,
36: r Lg, Z7: r2o, 6r: r47).In all these sources King Harald is said to
have spoken a handsome epitaph over Ulf's grave before embarking on
his ill-fated adventure in England (Mork r r r, Fagr. zJ6, Heim. III 79:
r75): "Here lies a man who was most trustworthy and loyal." The
of Landruimab1k (rzS) adds that Ulf was the great-
Sturlub6k redaction
Kodran.
The Sagas
Lj1suetninga saga
"What Icelanders have the highest standing in the king's retinue?" Thorvard asked.
"Ulf ranks highest," they answered, "but there is another man
there whose name is Jarn-Skeggi." Then Thorvard gave them
236
stones."'ne
"That is not the way it is going to be," said Kalf. ,,We do not
intend to leave yr)u." They all wanted to stick by Thorvard.
had gotten a ship for his purpose. He then soughr out
__.skeggi
King Harald and said, "Now I have an armed following, lord."
"Have you talked to ulf and did you get his support for rhis?"
asked the king. "If so, we have no quarrel."
Then skeggi wenr to Ulf and put his wishes before him. Ulf
answered, "You have been much to my liking, and for that reason I will anticipate what you ask."roo
Then skeggi came before the king and reported Ulf's words.
nouns to designate them; they also called them lazy; see, e.g., Eyrbyggla
saga Zgi rog; Gtsk pdttr lllugasonar 4; ZZ7; Halld1rs pd;ttr I 253; and
p. t47 above. The most common theme of the so-called Islendinga pettir
''nThe stones were used to throw at the enemy; see also ch.24.
passage. It is clear that ulf suys somethiig that
can be understood two ways,because the king notes cryptically thai "it is
up to you to decide which way he is inclined." The text as it siands does
not provide the ambiguity called for: ok munu air par fyrir ueita pir pat,
er p(r bi6r (and we will therefore granr fueital you that which you ask). It
is the verb aeita that should contain the ambiguity, suggesting both permission and refusal depending on what the listener *i.rts t6 hear.'we
conjecture rashly-that the verb may originally have been bj6da (offer).
The phrase could then have been undeistood either as "w6 will therefore
offer you" or ' we will in this case (par) forbid (fyrirbj6da)
.(h_ar fyrfr)
In
other
words, the understanding dependi on where th,e listene.
I9,r._'
divides the words. That the author has a taite for punning is indicated
by the pun on/orlgg at the very end of the saga (se-e n. z r5-b.lo*). presumably a scribe failed ro catch the ambiguity and substituted the unequivocal ueita for the equivo cal (fyrir)bj6da. For a similar case of wordplay deprn9Fg
the listener's
of the words see viga-Glilms
"" tried to renderdivision
saga 2b:86. We have
the ambiguity here with "anIicipate,"
which can mean "anticipate and grant" or "prevent by anticipating."
','This is a difficult
237
V
The Sagas
Lj1saetninga saga
one side of the ship. He swung the yard with both hands and
maimed the attackers. When his shipmates saw this, they took
courage and defended the other side. As things turned out, the
merchants prevailed.
Thorkel, Brand, and Hoskuld went to Rome with their kins-
238
239
man Thorvard.
Chapter 3o
Back in Iceland, Eyjolf satisf,es his desire for blood aengeance 4 hilling Thoruard's brother Thorarin. Hrolf, the great-grandson of Thorgeir
the Chieftain, prosecutes the case on behalf of the Ljosuetnings without
success. When he resolues to challenge Eyjolf to a duel, Shegg-Broddi
and Gellir finally conuince Eyjolf to make a monetary settlement. on his
returnfrom a pilgrimage to Rome, Thoruard learns of his brother's death
but elects not to pursue the aendetta further. Hall Otryggsson is killed in
the serrice of Ha,rakl Sigurd,arson.
240
Lj1suetninga
The Sagas
saga
24r
Thorkel's time the chieftaincy was in Hoskuld's line, held by his son
Thorvard. Following'I.horvard's exile it reverted again to Tjorvi's line.
But by the twelfth century it was held by Thorgeir Thorvardsson, a descendent of Hoskuld; see n. l59 above.
'ouAccording to the chronology of Vdpnfirdinga saga (xxii-xxiii) and
chs. g-rz of Lj1suetning'a saga itself, Thorkel Geitisson was involved in
events around the year rooo and could hardly have been active as late
as the middle of the century. See Bjorn Sigfiisson rg4o: xxviii and ror
n.3.
'o'On the duel as an extraordinary means of legal relief see chs. r r
and r6 above.
ideally suited to hold the chieftaincy if that were not prevented by his
lawspeakership (cf. J6n J6hannesson lg74: 48). In uny euert, afrer'
I
I
The Sagas
242
this.
Lj6suetninga saga
he replied. "They are a
heathen custom."'ot
Skegg-Broddi said, "What else was to be expected when a man
pursues his claim in a completely vile way, killing innocent men
in the face of an acknowledged settlement, but that he should be
paid back in like fashion?"
This was reported to Eyjolf. "You are again my enemy, SkeggBroddi," he said. "You have now failed me twice."
"I got you out of the difficulty that threatened at the Hegranes
thing if you had outlawed Thorvard and his kinsmen," SkeggBroddi said. "-fhen you killed his brother, and now you refuse
to pay compensation. What is it you have in mind? There are two
choices available: to let Gellir and me determine and judge the
issue, or proceed with the duels."
Eyjolf conceded that it would be better to pay compensation.
Many joined in, and as it turned out wergelds were assessed, and
the whole amount was paid up.
Now when Thorvard and his kinsmen came north from Rome
to Saxony, they fell in with some Norwegians, who told them of
Thorarin's killing that had occurred the previous fall. Thorvard
said, "It's a long way between our axes and the Modrvellings.
And they will still want them wielded if I go to lceland. But let it
be as St. Peter wishes.'on I think it would be better if I did not
return there." It is reported that he went only a few miles further before he lost his eyesight from infection and then died.
After that Brand traveled to the court of King Harald Sigurdarson and stayed with him, as did Hall Otryggsson.''o He was in
his arnry east in G'autland when King Harald foughtJarl Hakon
Ivarsson. When King Harald was ready to leave, his ship got
Iiozcn in the ice, and his men were chopping ice between the
'"*See n. lo7 above.
'""()rl the suggestion that Thorvard's conciliatoriness may be conwith Bishop Ketil's exemplary story in Dorgils saga oh Haflida see
Intro<luction, pp. 8 r -82. In both cases the Modrvellings are the antagonists. It is also curious that in both cases the loss of sight is involved.
2ro'['he following episode is taken over from the kings'sagas, perhaps
from Morhinshinnq (gz) or perhaps from the source of Morkinshinna, the
ne<:te<l
duction, p.8o.
Heimshringlalll7z: t65.
See
Intro-
fi
,}
243
He was plotting against Hall's life. And when the king said
"Kodrankiller," Thormod rushed at Hall and delivered his
death wound, and then leapt onto Magnus's ship. King Harald
was furious and ordered an attack on them. But as they crowded
in on Thormod, the ice broke beneath them, and many drowned.
Chapter
3r
Brand dies in the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Hoskuld returns to lceland, and a new clash with Eyjolf k narrowly aaerted. Oddi Grirnssorr,
uisits Rome and the court of King Cnut the Great, then ends his days in
Iceland. His son Gudmund quarrels with Bishop Ketil, but later succumbs to misfortune and is succored @ him. In a concluding anecdote
Harek and Skegg-Broddi test their strength.
244
The Sagas
Lj6suetninga saga
Harek ran after him and got his arms around him and said,
"Calm down, friend. This is no such chance."
Eyjolf's men said, "There have been times when you showed
more eagerness; let's ride after them."
"This is not the way I will repay God, who has seen to our
difficulties," answered Eyjolf. And with this they went their separate ways.
the case so that he got nothing but more dishonor. Later, when
Gudmund was destitute and in need of help, Ketil took him in
and cared for him as long as he lived. From then on everything
turned to Ketil's honor. Eventually he was elected bishop, and
his goodness was thus rewarded.r,,
to you."
"Do you think the amount too small?" asked the king.
Oddi replied, "Lord, it would seem to me a good gift for one
man, but there are twelve of us."
"You're probably right," said the king. "Give each of them
three marks." Then the king said, "Are you the Oddi who fought
against his kinsmen in Iceland?"
"There were men present who were related to me," Oddi answered, "but I spared them."t'u After that he voyaged out to lceland and was considered a distinguished man wherever he went.
He was the father of Gudmund, who put Bishop Ketil's eye
out. It came about because Gudmund's enemies whispered to
Ketil, when G'udmund was living at Modruvellir, that he was se<lrr:ing Kctil'.s wif'e, the daughter of Bishop Gizur. They met on
thc open road, and Ketil attacked him. But they were unequally
rrurtr.hed; Gudmund got the upper hand and put out his eye.
Kctil wanted to prosecute him, but there were people to quash
2r:(lntrt the Great (d. ro35) had been dead some
30 years before
Oddi came to visit him. Svein Ulfsson was king of Denmark at this time.
For a similarly forthright critique of a king's (Harald Sigurdarson's) miserliness see Brands pd,ttr grua.
2r3"Bu[ I spared them" translates Bjorn Sigfiisson's text en ek aagja i
m6ti. We do not understand the form of aagja and conjecture uagda in
the past tense.
245
Of Harek it can be told that he wenr to meer with SkeggBroddi and said, "I am curious to know how strong you are
because you have quite a reputation. I too am known for my
strength, but I won't match you. You try first to pull my clasped
hands from my head."
"That seems pointless to me," Skegg-Broddi replied. He nonetheless took hold and promprly pulled away his hands. Bur when
Harek took hold of skegg-Broddi, he stood still with his hands
clasped to his head and no effort of Harek's could budge them.
One could tell by this test which of them was superior.
Then Skegg-Broddi said, "I don't think you are a strong man,
but you are a sound one."
246
The Sagas
Ljdsuetninga saga
247
Chapter 6
When summoning days arrived, Gudmund rode with thirty
men and summoned Thorgils for fraud.
Thorgils said, "I would like to propose that you and Thorir
arbitrate the case. I didn't know that the wool and sheepskins
were useless."
"I don't think that Thorir and I will get far with a settlement if
it's up to the two of us alone," replied Gudmund, and he added
that Thorgils deserved to lose his property for his deception.
Then he summoned him to the Allthing and rode home.
Thorgils went to see Thorir and told him that he had been
summoned. He said that Thorir seemed to be losing a lot of
ground to Gudmund. Thorir replied, "What happens to many
others can happen to me too." Thorgils returned home.
Then Gudmund rode to the thing, along with others, and
brought his case against Thorgils. When the time for judgment
came, Thorir came forward and offered to pay compensation
on Thorgils' behalf; he said that this was the kind of case that
should be settled. Gudmund said that he would accept no offer
of settlement. Thorir said that he was sparing them no dishonor,
**
The Sagas
Lj6suetninga saga
He went in, wakened Einar, and told him that his br<>ther
Gudmund had come and wanted to speak with him. Einar got
up and went out. He gave his brother a good welcome. Gudmund
responded in kind and was in good spirits.
"I am not pleased that we are on such poor terms," said
Gudmund. "I have come now because I would like our relations
to be better from now on than they have been. It would seem
more appropriate for us to be always of one mind, kinsman."
"This would certainly be a good proposal," said Einar, "if I
could count on your having your heart in your words."
"I will prove that it is very important to me that we have good
relations," said Gudmund-and he took the cloak and showed it
to him and said, "I wish you to have this as a gift from me."
"This is a handsome item and I will gladly accept it," said
248
"I would like nothing more than that Thorir should make
himself liable for outlawr/," said Gudmund. "And you, Odd,
stand to gain either good fortune or bad from this information."
They turned their horses and rode to Laugaland and came to
the shed that Odd said the goats were in. The goats ran out as
soon as the door was opened.
"This will be worth something," said Gudmund. They rode to
the main house, where Thorir was standing outside.
"One should take his time trusting men like you," said Gudmund. "I thought you were an honest man, Thorir."
"I did not know about this," replied Thorir. "But now the fact
is both that you are proceeding belligerently, and that I am perhaps not without fault."
Gudmund said, "I'm going to have to proceed as if you did
[pe14r"-and he named witnesses to the fact that Thorir had no
valirl title to the soats. With that they parted.
'l'he strrttrnel'w:ls utreventful. One morning Gudmund got up
t'rrrly :rrr<l tolrl his strepherd to get his horse. The shepherd did
so,:rrr(l when the h<lrse was ready, Gudmund mounted and rode
oll';rlorrc, taking the cloak that Ingjald the Norwegian had given
hirn. I lt' r'o<le to'fhvera to meet his brother Einar. The brothers
were gt:rrerally not on very good terms; but Thorir was a great
friend ol'l.inar's.
Gudnrund came to Thvera and knocked on the door. The
shepherd came out and greeted Gudmund. Gudmund asked
whether his brother Einar was up yet. He said that he wasn't.
Gudmund said, "Ask him to get up and say that his brother
Gudmund has come to speak with him."
249
Einar.
L.
250
The Sagas
Gudmund said, "I'm finding out for the first time that my
brother Einar's advice is not to my advantage." This rankled for
a long time.
Everything was quiet in the latter part of the summer. As it
came to an end, Gudmund rode with nineteen men to Laugaland to summon Thorir for having concealed the goats. Attempts were made at reconciliation. Gudmund did not want to
settle the matter and said it was time to test which of them had
more mettle. Then he rode on home.
It was early in the morning. His brother Einar was accustomed
to get up early and meet with his shepherd. This was the case the
day Gudmund had set out from home. Einar said that the shepherd should keep a lookout for when they returned home. And
when the day was well along, the shepherd came and told Einar
that they were on their way back.
Einar told him to saddle his horse and he did so. Einar
mounted and rode toward Gudmund and his men and met
them above the farm Hrafnagil. Gudmund gave his brother a
warm greeting, and he responded in kind.
"Where were you riding so early this morning, kinsman?"
asked Einar.
"I have a lot of business around this part of the district," re-
plied Gudmund.
"You don't usually ride around these parts with so many men
if it's just a matter of minor business," said Einar. "Tell me where
you've ridden."
Gudmund answered, "I rode out to Laugaland to summon
Thorir for concealing the goats he secreted from Thorgils'
property when I was supposed to have his forfeit possessions."
"You've gone about this in secret," said Einar.
"You haven't been following the news," replied Gudmund.
"Still, I want to request that you assist me in this case."
"I'll join in efforts to get you and Thorir reconciled," said
Einar.
"I had in mind that we should now test which of us is more
powerful," said Gudmund. With this the brothers parted and
Einar went home to Thvera. Gudmund rode home with his
men too.
Some time later Thorir went to visit Einar and told him how
Lifsaetninga saga
25r
:w,
t
ffi
''lf
said Thorir.
252
Ljdsuetninga saga
The Sagas
'tt
ij
[Gudmund thought that Thorir] had paid the price for his
words, and it occurred to him that he now had enough money to
pay compensation for a certain person.
When the thing disbanded, a man came to Gudmund who
was named Thorstein and had the nickname Rindil. He asked
Gudmund for a job. Gudmund asked what district he belonged
to; he said he was a southerner.
"Why are you better off in a strange district than at home?"
asked Gudmund. He said he was an outlaw.
"Are you any good as a workman?" asked Gudmund.
He said he was-"and I'm handy at a lot of things."
"V)u <krn't look as thoush y<lu'd shrink from anything," said
(lrrrlrnrrrr<1.
In the spring Thorir set sail and had a big investment in the
ship and a lot of property. People thought he had managed
magnificently, and now he settled down on his farm. Here his
story comes to an end.
During the summer Gudmund wanted to have his homefield
mowed. He told Rindil to pitch in and mow around the buildings, and he gave him a scythe. He began mowing.
Gudmund stood by and said, "You're clumsy at this work and I
imagine you may be better at something else. Would you prefer
to ride with me to the warm springs during the day and do no
work?" He said that would in fact suit him better. Gudmund said
that messenger jobs might be more in his lins-"and then perhaps you won't be considered such a burden." In the morning
they rode to the springs and had a lot to talk about.
"Now I'm going to confide in you and tell you matters of great
importance," said Gudmund. "They will bring you either good
fortune or death, but I am intent on having something for my
favor."
"I'll be faithful in delivering messages and carrying out missions," said Thorstein, "but I'm not brave with weapons."
"You may be useful all the same," said Gudmund, "and now
I'll entrust you with my confidence."
"I'll put my hope and trust in you," said Thorstein. "Send me
wherever you want."
Gudmund went on, "I have declared war on Thorkel Hake.
Now I propose to send you there to observe his circumstances
under my direction."
"Tell me the plan and I'll follow it," said Rindil.
Gudmund continued, "This fall I intend to attack Thorkel
Hake in his house. You can be more of a help to me with cunning than in the actual assault, but your life is at stake if you deviate from the plan."
"My life's safe enough," said Thorstein.
Gudmund said, "There is a great famine these days, but there's
an abundance of whale north at Tjornes and many people are
headed there from the districts here in the west. Proceed north
over Vodlaheath with two ordinary horses and say that you are
from Halfdanartongue in the west because you most resemble
the people from there. Pretend that you are going north to purway.
fl
( lrrrlrrrrrrr<1.
helpr:rrrrl spt'rrt the summer at home. Then in the fall he left Iceland arrrl strrye<l on the Orkneys during the winter. But in the
spring he srtile<l back and had both flour and other goods. And
when he got honle, he hired help and spent the summer at home
attending to the farm. In the fall he went abroad and spent the
winter in Norway. At that time Olaf Haraldsson was king of Nor-
&-
253
Y
254
Ljdsuetninga saga
The Sagas
There was a fire on the hearth and the mistress of the house
chase whale meat and put saddle baskets on the horse and head
up from Kaupang and over Reykjapass and Hellugnupspass and
so from the east to Bardardale and on to Thorkel's. Bend your
255
farmhand, but this man was away at a job. Rindil came to the
house in a great deluge, unloaded the horses, and led them into
Oxar River Gulch.
When he got back to the house, a dog bayed at him. A woman
was sent out and then went inside again. She told Thorkel that a
man was outside and had unloaded the horses and led them
away. Thorkel jumped up and said that he was a brazen fellow.
At that moment Rindil came in and every thread he had on
was dripping. Thorkel asked who he 14725-"2nd why have you
c()me here?"
"l thouglrt it was time to rest," said Rindil.
" l (krrr'l krrow yorr und you seem rather pathetic," said Thorkel.
&
r
?
Valla-Ljdx
saga
2b7
After that he died. Hrolf was eighteen at the time, Halli fourteen, and Bodvar twelve.
'i
,t
t,l
'Valla-Lj6ts saga'
'*
.it
,4
ri*
Chapter
,ffi
T&:
in
ii
Torfi seehs the hand of the Sigurdarsons' mother. She refers the matter
to her three sons, who are not in accord about the worthiness of the match.
But the
There was a man named sigurd who was the son of Karl the
Red. He was married ro rhe daughter of Ingf ald from Gnupufell.
He had three sons; Hrolf was the eldest, the second Haili, the
third Bodvar. They were big, strong men. Hrolf was contentious
and grasping. Halli was cheerful, good at law, and very selfimportant. Bodvar had a good disposition and became a trader.
There was a man named Torfi who lived at Torfufell, rich but
Modruvellir, and Gudmund, his son, was living there with him.
Sigurd took sick and gathered his sons together. He urged
them to get on well with each orher; he said that he was abli to
discern what sort of men they were: "you should see to it that
you are not self-seeking''u beyond what your honor requires."
. "l"S:llseeking": stnglarnir is an emendation of a corrupt MS sinnugjgr"lri. M.S /'s- s-md,gjarnir is unamested elsewhere bur, if possible is
"small-minded," would make good sense. see ciklamini r96^6:
3o5.
;lr.
who was sixteen or older; thus it is Hrolf's right to determine the marriage if his mother also consented; see Grd,gd,s Ib zg and n. 64 above.
"'Helgi Droplaugarson is similarly disapproving of his mother's remarriage in Droplaugarsona saga 4: r47.
2re"Winter Nights": see n. r r5 above.
258
The Sagas
Valla-Ljdts saga
Time passed and we are told that one day when the women
were in their room, Halli entered. His mother said, "I have to
pay the servant women their wages today. I want to send you to
Torfufell to tell Torfi to provide me with a pig."o But don't go
about it too impatiently because the pig will be hard to handle.
Torfi will turn it over if I say so."
"I will go because you have a faithful friend there."
When he arrived, Torfi was working and did not look up at
him. "My mother sent me here for a pig to make a meal for her
women," said Halli to Torfi.
He didn't look up at him but said instead: "That's fine with me.
Help yourself and start working on it."
"It's not an honorable task for someone not used to it to slog in
the mud for an old sow," said Halli."'
"What did you say, great hero?" replied Torfi.
"This is one feat I'm not going to risk. Send anyone else
you want."
Torfi said, "I don't think you are as brave as the sow."
"That was better left unsaid," answered Halli. "I don't think
my courage and a sow's are comparable; this might be considered a provocation." He rushed through the gate of the pen,
hurtled in and immediately hacked off the pig's snout, took the
animal and went out.
Torfi said, "You can take the pig to your place and give it to
your mother."
Halli said nothing and rode away toward home. The area was
wooded. He got off his horse and sat down in the woods until he
saw a man in a blue cloak riding across the river and recognized
'ltrrfi. He sprang to his f'eet, rushed at him, and dealt him his
rlt:irtlr bkrw, though he was armed with both spear and sword.
I lirlli tlrrcw lrim under the bank, covered his corpse,"' and took
thc lrorse with him.
He came home and met his mother. She asked him about his
errand and he told her that the outcome was that Torfi would
not go to bed with her nor send her a pig-"considering fhe way
we parted. The marriage is off, as unlikely as that may seem
to you."
"I think you are destined to do evil," she replied. "This will be
the start of your bad luck, and you will either be outlawed or
killed since men like Eyjolf are responsible for prosecuring the
22o'l'he
wages are apparently discharged by feeding the women a certain kinrl of'fbod, in this case pork, since in most cases servants would
receive their board as part of their compensation anyway.
"t See n. 2()q, above.
""'Covered his corpse": the law required the killer to cover his victim's corpse to protect it from animals or birds. Failure to do so gave rise
case."
259
"'
z6o
The Sagas
clear more can be had from us kinsmen. We should not let this
lead to a falling out."
"So be it," said Eyjolf, "Halli is related to usrru and he is also
descended from a great line."
They were reconciled on these terms.
Halli was seventeen years old at the time he came into his
inheritance."o
Chapter
that Halli was quite right. Halli was much involved in lawsuits.
A little later Eyjolf drowned in clnupuf'ell River; he was buried
at Modruvellir in the homefield and had accepted preliminary
baptism before he died."' Then ()udmund the Powerful, his
An (rpilti.sord gave rise to liability lor lesser outlawry and
(()rr)J)ensation; see n. t47 atrove ancl Grd,gd,s II
for personal
39o-gr.
both are secon'<r
..,*,,1;li:ill,.1,i:,1,,Y,'f,;lti,i'ii),r1i:.T8J*"',:;;'T,i"d
2:"Oorrr1l:rre n. I4z
allove.
baPrisnr" (prtmsigning): the sagas tell that pagan Icewotrl<l bc<:onre catechumens by having the sign of t6e cross
made over tltcnt; they were thus allowed easier access to Christian markets and benelhctors. some, perhaps Eyjolf, were primesigned as a way
of hedging their lrets. Primesigning did not disappear once Iceland coriverted to Christianity; it still served as a preliminary to baptism. f-lrt:
twelfth-century laws make frequent reference to it. Children who die<l
""'l'r'clirrrirr;rry
.landers
r
t
.1
t
,lr
ffi,
fl
Valla-Ljdts saga
z6r
v
z6z
The Sagas
Valla-Lj1ts saga
"What does it mean that the conditions there are praised so,"
said Gudmund, "when they don't seem so praiseworthy to me?"
"I've been thinking about removing my establishment and relocating it there among my ancestral lands," said Halli.
"Why should it be better for you there than here?" Gudmund
asked.
will cease if I go away. Still our friendship will continue as before. But I should say openly that I have lost popularity because
of my dealings with your brother Einar,"n and I wish now to rid
myself of the matter."
"There's some truth to what you say," said Gudmund, "but
I think too that it has been a cause less of dishonor than of
unpopularity."
"It is nonetheless certain that the sons of Ingjald, my kinsmen,
are my superiors," replied Halli. "I cannot be first among our
kinsmen as long as we are all here; there, however,
to be the leading man."
I may claim
"I don't think that you'll get more honor there than what
you've had here," said Gudmund. "I can think of four men there
in particular, none of whom wants to give up his honor for you."
"Who are the four who would oppose me?" asked Halli.
Gudmund said, "One is Valla-Qot, the son of Ljotolf "o the
chieftain; he's the greatest man in the valley. Then there's Thorgrim his brother. The third is Bjorn from Hofsa, and the fourth
is his brother Thorvard; they are Thorgrim's sons and they be-
krns to a powerful kin group."' And don't imagine that you will
Thorir. It seems to me that you're
z8 zo7.
5-6 it appears that Bjorn and Thorvard
Saarfdala saga,
'3'In
chs.
Ljot's brother.
z6z
"I'll
wore a blue tunic and carried an ax with a recurvate blade ind was
rather menacing." On the ax types see Falk rg14: ro7-8, tt4-rq,. It is
264
Valla-Ljdts
The Sagas
Chapter
There was a farmer named Hrolf who 1ived above Klaufabrekka; his sons were named Thord and Thorvald. He was a distinguished man. He took sick and died. The brothers inherited
their father's estate and wanted Ljot to make a division of both
the lands and the personal properry they owned. Ljot,s journey
was postponed for some time. The country had .....rily been
christianized and sundays had been given rhe sancrion of tiie law.
The meeting was fixed for Michaelmas.rru rhorir and Halli
had seen men gathering and came too. Ljot was partitioning the
brothers' lands. Snow had covered the Loundaiy markerr] u"
divided the lands and took a line of sight to a cerrain srone and
from the stone to the river; he went straight along that line, positioning himself alongside rhe river, wherl he cut up some tuif in
the shape of a cross and said, "This is the way I divide the land.,,rn,,
usually assumed that Bo-lla pdu-r borcowed from vatta-Lj6ts saga (see In-
troduction, p.
9sl, but the verbal correspondence is no-t verfclose
an<l
sa,ga
z6b
makes much of the following dialogue seem a non sequitur. Halli does
not read "I will support your case" to reflect Ljot's willingness to accept
his deman9; h9 appears to read ir as an offer ro pay somelhing less. But
Ljot had clearly said he was not going ro pay any compensaiion. perhaps the Icelandic should be rendered more generally as "so I agree
with your basic point." Thar is, Ljot will concede that Halli is right uEorrt
the law, but that concession alone should be sufficient to satisf! Halli in
this trivial matter.
v
The Sagas
Valla-Lj1ts saga
"That's not the way it's going to be," Halli said. "Do one or the
other, pay the money or I'll summon you."
"I do not want you to summon me; I'd rather pay the money
and get friendship in return. Our kin have long been quarreling
with each other," said Ljot, "and it just might be that you take
after them. I'll pay promptly, because I do not wish to anger the
angel. Now if you meant this out of friendship, you will be my
shield,"' but if you did this because of greed and hostility toward
me, as indeed I think, then that may well come to light by itself."
Halli took the payment.
That same autumn there was a feast at Modruvellir and Halli
attended. His son Bersi had returned from Norway then and
was also present. Gudmund seated Halli next to himself. He had
learned of the dealings of Ljot and Halli and said, "How do you
like it out in the valley?"
Halli said he liked it.
"Are you getting along with the people out there?" asked
Gudmund.
Halli said that things were going fine.
"It's been said," remarked Gudmund, "that you have taken
money from Ljot for a trivial case."
"That's not quite it," Halli replied. "I proceeded justly and
he chose the course that best suited him. You can see the silver
right here.""o
"Yes," said Gudmund, "I can see that you think you've played
it well. But something tells me that your hair will be reddened
before the third Winter Nights.'n' I now want to advise you not
to return there. I'll buy land for you here, but I won't answer for
you out there."
"That's a generous offer," said Halli, "but it has the defect that
I prefer. I'll keep testing the water; I don't intend to abandon the cause yet." Halli's son, Bersi, left with him
and they arrived in the valley by Yule time.
Thorir invited Halli to a Yule feast at Grund-there was a
church there-but Bersi, his son, stayed home. Thorir sent for
hay because his hay supplies dwindled as Yule wore on. The only
talk that came to Ljot's ears concerning his dealings with Halli
266
23e"You will be my shield": i.e., you will have saved me from incurring
Michael's wrath.
2noThe compensation was paid in silver. Silver gave way to uadmd,l as
the normal means of payment during the eleventh and twelfth centuries as silver supplies from Viking activity dried up, although it never
ceased being used as a standard of value. See Gelsinger rgSr: 33-a6,
zL7 n. b7; and n. l l r above.
'n'On Gudmund's prophetic powers see Ljdsuetninga saga, (ch. 7) antl
n. 63 above. Perhaps this ability was, along with lavish hospitality and :r
highly developed sense of honor, traditional knowledge.
267
After Yule, Halli got ready to leave, and that morning the
shepherds at Grund and Vellir met and asked each other for
news. They talked about who had put on the better feast during
Yule, and each took the side of his master. Thorir's man said the
entertainment could not have been as good at Ljot's "because no
one is more entertaining than Halli, who visited during Yule."
Ljot's servant asked when Halli would be traveling home. Thorir's
servant said he would set out the last day of Yule.
Thorir questioned his servant when he returned home about
what people he had met, and the man told him. Thorir asked
what they had talked abour, and the shepherd told him everything that had taken place. "Very well," said Thorir, "you have
spoken to the point, and you, Halli, shall not leave today." He
told him what had come up and what the servants had discussed.
"I am not pleased that they talked about your trip. I suspect that
it will turn out much as Gudmund said it would when he pre-
Chapter 4
Halli is intercepted by Ljot, who hilk him in single combat. Bersi,
Halli's son, assigns the case to Gud,mund the Poweiful and, then goes
abroad.
\l
268
The Sagas
They set upon him, but he moved quickly and got away downhill. They couldn't get at him while they were on the slope. Halli
took up a position on some level ground higher up. "Now he
may brag that he stands higher than us," said Ljot.
"I will take advantage of my bravery and quickness and not
wait around," said Halli.
"Your grandfather, Karl, would have waited when he was
alive," said Ljot, "and he never let himself be chased like a
goat."'n'
"I'll stay put and fight it out, just us two," said Halli. "That's
honorable for you, otherwise it's shameful."
2a2In this
sequence involving the sighting of an enemy, identification
by appearance,.discounting.of d,anger, and the dismissing of a companion or companions the author is making use of a well-worn narrative
lil'rrrrrla. See Heinemann ry74.The closest analogue is Bjarnar sagu,
fl
it,thr l,nfutppa
'"'l lalli,
\z
: I gg-
2oo.
Valla-Lj1ts saga
"I
z69
killer.
Bersi went irnnrediately to meet with Gudmund and told him
of these events. He said that things had turned out as he surmised. Bersi asked him to take up the action-"1 wish to go
abroad."
been abolishecl.'"'
Chapter
dula saga
4$ tby-b4.
ticularly chivalrous.
2nu
Ljot perceives the duel
as an
z7o
The Sagas
had paid Halli was not deducted because Ljot wanted that sum
to be assessed asainst him for his negligence. His friends urged
him to take the half hundred for himself, but on no account
would he do that. He said the amount paid for Halli was small
anyway because of Halli's having challenged him to a duel.
(]udmund was ill pleased with the outcome of the case, but he
kept the money for Halli's kinsmen.
During the summer a ship put into Eyjafiord and a big market
was held there.'n7 The Svarfdalers attended and in their group
were Ljot's nephews, the sons of Thorgrim, and Ljot's servants.
They purchased merchandise. A man named Sigmund was also
there.
Valla-Lj1ts
saga
27
Hrolf
Chapter 6
Halli's other brother, Boduar, returns from abroad and remains aloof
from the feud. IIe transacts some buiness with a certain Asmund and
must trauel north to collect the payment due. Weather preuents Bodaar
from returning by ship. On his way back by land, in bad weather, he
stumbles upon the larm of Ljot's brother Thorgrim, who gtaes him hospitality. Sigmund, a lodger at the farm, sneaks away to urge Bjorn
Thorgrimsson and Ljot to aaenge Thoraard Thorgrimsson. Ljot refuses,
but Bjorn and Sigmund set out to seek reinforcements for an ambush of
Bodaar.
Valla-Ljdts saga
The Sagas
272
Bodvar.
son and Bersi Hallason. They went to visit Gudmund right away.
He told them what had happened and how the case had been
resolved. Bodvar was moderate and composed. He said he ap-
In the end that was what they agreed to, and then they went
on their way. Gudmund returned home and they told him about
their transaction. He said, "This sale wouldn't have occurred if I
had been home."
Yuletime passed and the weather was fair. Bodvar asked Bersi
and his companions to travel with him to claim his payment.
Gudmund, however, said it was ill advised to stumble into the
clutches of the Svarfdalel5-"1[6sgh I believe that Ljot won't attack you." Still four of them set out together. When they reached
Olafsfjord, the payment was not ready because many had trans''r5')'l'lre
s()urce depicts hard bargaining over place and time of paythe nleans of securing the payment, but not over price. This
slrows that the real annoyances caused by bulky means of payment like
ttui\rruil were more likely to lead to impasse than were disagreements
ovt'r' 1r[ir;e, which presumably was largely constrained by custom; see
n. 7 :rlrove. When Bodvar goes to deliver his goods and collect payment,
"tlre glayrnent was not ready because many had transacted business."
This would seem to indicate that Bodvar had to wait until Asmund
could have more uadmd,l woven, or could procure more already woven
from others. 'fhe inefficiencies caused by the accepted means of paym_ent end up costing Bodvar his life. For further discussion of problems
of exchange see Introduction, pp.5l-5b,and Miller rg86a.
nlclrl,
273
arr<l
i
I
_-1
f1
F
The Sagas
Valla-Ljdts saga
The man went back in and told Thorgrim that the people who
had arrived wished to receive the invitation from him directly-
274
"l|o<lvar, Halli's brother, and he's intending now to travel inlanrl t.o Eyja{ord," he answered.
\jorn said, "It's not right to rekindle hostilities and breach the
tion to men of rank. See, e.g., Htrnsa-Dbris saga ro: z8; FdstQrtzdra saga
rzg; and Bjarnar saga Httdalakappa z7: r84.
Z:
275
B-jorn.
"Is that your plan, kinsman, to kill an innocent man and break
"I won't accompany you on this expedition and risk my honor by attacking my brother in his home."
"'We don't need to attack your brother in his home in order to
get at them," said Bjorn. "Let's ambush them when they leave."
"We will keep an eye on their movements," said Sigmund.
Ljot said he would not go.
They left, and when they had gone some way Sigmund said,
"Let's go to Tjorn, where Thorstein and his son Eyjolf live."
They were tough men and fearless.
the settlement?"'un said Ljot.
'u'For a discussion of the norms involved in selecting a vengeance target see Introduction, pp. 4g-bt, and also Hrafnhek saga 8: rz7-3o, in
which an innocent relative who has been abroad from the onset of the
dispute is attacked and killed. But that source has no intimation that the
victim was not an appropriate target.
'uncf . Skegg-Broddi's judgment in Ljdsaetninga saga (ch. 3o): "What
else was to be expected when a man pursues his claim in a completely
vile way, killing innocent men in the face of an acknowledged settlement, but that he should be paid back in like fashion?"
r
i
The Sagas
Valla-Ljdts saga
276
Chapter J
Bod,aar is killed, in an ambush along with Bersi Hallason. Bjorn and,
his men seeh out Ljot for protection. He is irritated with their actions but
stands by them nonetheless.
Now the story turns to Bodvar, who was preparing to set out
with his companions in the morning.
"I'd prefer, Bodvar, that you not take the common route,"
said Thorgrim. "I'm well aware that a man got away during the
night and will have told about your trip. And I wouldn't wanf
anything to happen to you when you have visited me at home."
Bodvar said he had done well by him and "I will act
accordingly."
They now set out but took the common route nevertheless.
In Bjorn's group Sigmund announced, "I see them now, they're
in front of us." They pursued them hard and met up with them
at a thicket above Halsby between the farm and Hella, where
Narfi lived.
"There are some men over there," said Bodvar. "What could
they want?"
"They're not likely to have good intentions," said Bersi. "We
rnay yet clrown in sight of dry land."
"Wo'r'c not g<ling to run," said Bodvar.
"l wusn'l strggesting that," replied Bersi; "we'll make a stand
I | (: r'(:. "
li<l<lv:rr', Ilersi, and the ship's steersman were the ablest of
therrr. 'l'hey were seven all told, but there were eleven in Bjorn's
party.
"We should proceed with some deliberation," said Thorstein.
"It's not. clear how this will turn out; they have a good position
and tough men. Some of us should attack from the rear, and
you, Thorgrim, should stay here." Just then a big man ran to-
277
278
The Sagas
Valla-Lj1ts saga
279
Chapter
grf* of weapons. In
"Thorgrim
all the routes and hidden ways, but we'Il need luck for
such
plans."
Gudmund said he would run the risk, and they left for the
valley.
"Ljot will ride on the high road along the mountains down to
Vallaby," said Narfi.
"We'll stay put and wait," said Gudmund, "while you get news
from the farms."
Ljot owned a sheepshed not far from them. The news at
the farms was that the Svarfdalers had all arrived at a feast;
Gudmund's group had not been aware of that. Ljot was accustomed to get up early and check on the work and the cattle.
Gudmund and his men sat on a spit of land between two ravines
in the woods; they observed a man walking from the farm in a
black tunic carrying a halberd; he went into the pen and drove
out the animals. Gudmund ordered his men to.i.r-p up and lay
hands on him without using weapons against him. Ljot saw what
was happening and made off, keeping the halberd before him.
He leaped into the gorge, but it turned out there was crusty
snow below in the ravine. He slid down along the bottom of the
ravine and escaped injury.'u'
"There he goes now," Gudmund said then, and he hurled his
spear at him and hit Ljot's halberd. Ljot picked up the spear and
2uTViga-Glum makes a similar escape in Reykdeln saga z6; 233-34.In
D6rdar saga kahala tr: 24, a certain Svarthofdi pushes his horse over a
cliff and jumps after him in order to escape his pursuers. Soft snow be-
z8o
The Sagas
went home. Gudmund went back to the woods and said, "Ljot is
quick with his hands; such men are well endowed. He does not
look for trouble, yet he is courageous and decisive. He took the
only option he had, and he must have known beforehand that
the ravine was traversable. Let's wait now and see what steps he
takes, and not let them run us off, even though we keep up a
rather good pace." 258
Ljot kept the spear among his possessions when he got home;
it was inlaid with gold. The others asked him where he had gotten the spear.
"Gudmund the Powerful sent it to me," he answered.
They asked whom Gudmund had delegated to bring it, but
Ljot said Gudmund hadn't relied on anyone else for this. "He
did it himself."
They said he had kept this concealed roo long.
He disagreed. "I knew I wouldn't have been able to stop you if
you had known this before. Bur amacking those Eyja{ord people
would have been a hard struggle for us and more than we could
handle."
Ljot did not proceed with a charge for the amempr on his
life.'un Time passed until the thing met; it was well-attended.
The northerners-Gudmund and Ljot-were there. Gudmund
brought a killing case against Ljot,uo and people tried to arrange
v
{
Valla-I.i6ts saga
z8r
a settlement.
Ljot and his friend Skapti met with each other and talked. Ljot
told him the whole story of his dealings with Gudmund's party:
with a man name<l 'l'hrand. Bjorn gave him Ljot's message: that
he was sent there lirr aid and sustenance while the thing was in
session-"and he will resolve my case there."
Thrand said therr that he would do whatever he could.
'"""(iurlrnund brought a killing case against Ljot": Ljot did not participatc in t he killing of'Bodvar and Bersi, although he subsequently aidecl
and sustained tlre killers in violation of the law. Howevei, he is not a
prope.r_de['endant in the killing case. It is clear from the nexr chapter
that killing cases were also brought against the proper defendants. The
author is probably using Ljot as a meronym for the members of the
grgup that he heads, but it could also be that Gudmund consrrues Ljot's
actions as a breach in the prior settlements for Halli and Thorvardind
is reopening the killing case for Halli against Ljot.
'u'On the exchangc ol'gilis in this passage see Introduction, pp. 5354, and on Gudmutt<l's <'ott<'crn with honor see n. zz8 above and Intro-
r8E
z8z
The Sagas
Chapter g
At the Allthing the cases are put to the arbitration of skapti and
Gudmund, who agree on an award. Hrolf, howeaer, stillpursues thefeud,
and attacks Bjorn, extorting two hundred ounces from the fishermen of
Grim's Isle. Ljotinforms Gudmund of Hrolfs aggression, and Gudmund
forces Hrolf to return. the money to the islanders so that the settlement is
secured.
the
an honorable monetary award. Many of the lesser men complained about this, bur the others felt they had much to gain
from it.'?uu Ljot was concerned that everyone be reconciled ind
262"The
cases were summed up" (uaril mhtin retfd): reifa md,l (to sum
up.a-case) was an important part of formal court procedure. prior to
arriving at a-judgment, one judge summed up theplaintiff's case, another the defendant's, each rehearsing the formal pioofs presented by
the party and indicating ro whose diiadvantage tiey weie (Grd,gris la
7
| -72).
- 'utThe less powerful tended to bear the brunt of the penalties handed
down in arbitration proceedings. In one sense this was a concession to
grim reality, a tacit admission of the difficulty in getting rhe more
powerful.to comply withjudg_ments rhat displeased them. In this regarcl
consider how certain types of sanction were e*cluded beforehand flom
t]re.
.competence of the arbitrator by powerful dispuranrs. Thorkel
Geitisson offered Gudmund self-judgment but excluded exile from the
award (Lj1saetninga saga ch. r r); see also Einar Konalsson's remarks to
Thorkel Hake's brothers: "Gudmund wishes to offer you compensation
and a substantial wergeld, though it is not to be expected that he will
rrr()ve from his land" (ch. rg). The reality was that iompensation payrnerrt tended to be the penalty of the powerful, the vaiious formi of
o_utlawry and exile the Iot of the weaker. There were exceptions. Thorir
Helgason and Thorvard Hoskuldsson both endured thrie-year exiles.
And rrcasionally exceptional men, like Grettir and Gisli,'were outlawed. But when this happened, the significance of outlawry was transformed fiom the humiliating into the heroic. In the sagas of'Grettir and
Gisli, it is as if society itself must pay for geming thingJwrong. Contrary
to the usual wisdom, the sagas of the ouilaws migtrt uest be"seen rrot ui
praise of the underdog but as reminders to the established to take care
Valla-Ljdts saga
283
that Gudmund should gain honor from it. It came about that
Ljot wanted Skapti to arbitrate on his behalf, but Gudmund
wanted to arbitrate for his side himself. That's how it turned out
and the arbitrators came to a full agreement.
Skapti was to announce the judgment, and there were many
people present to hear it. "In these cases," said Skapti, "we balance the ambush of Bodvar with the killing of Sigmund; the
deaths of Bersi and Thorstein cancel each other out; for the
merchant, two hundred ounces of silver, but that shall be offset
with the amount which was assessed for the killing of Thorvard.
Nine men shall not be allowed to return; Bjorn shall pay one
hundred ounces and be absolved and also make payment at the
fall assembly firr two years"264-ar1d they were reconciled on
these terms.
Bjorn was well cared for on the island with Thrand. One day
while the thing was still meeting, Bjorn was eager to row out with
Thrand. Thrand said there was no need for this. "I'd prefer
there be no attempt on the person that Ljot sends me. There is
less chance o{'defense in small boats than on the island."
"No harm will come of it," said Bjorn.
That day thirty boats, most of them small, set out from the island. The weather was good and the men were cheerful because
the craft lay near each other. "There's a ship moving down the
-fhrand. "I recognize Gudmund's ferry. I wonder
{ord," said
who it could be. Do you know whether Hrolf Jaw was at the
thing?"
The fishermen answered that he was at home.
"It'll be him," said Thrand, "and he's bent on meeting you,
Bjorn. You will be recognized in our company. We'll have a hard
time defending ourselves in small boats and the men aren't careof their own. Then,
Y
The Sagas
Valla-Ljdts saga
ful about what they say. They have a large ship and substantial
284
state formation. Both Gudmund and Ljot presume the power to bind
third parties by their settlements. And in sodoing they c[aim for them-
[.jot's remarks later in this chapter and in ch. 5 that it is up to "the leaders of'the district to restrain men from carrying out . . . misdeeds." The
'1nis<leeds" in question are the feuds of lesser people that threaten
the stability of affairs between Gudmund and Ljot and are contrary to the
claims those two have to rule the behavior ofthese lesser people. one
person's misdeeds are often another's justified actions. Bul th-e saga is
not unsubtle about these matters. It disapproves of Halli as much when
his "misdeeds" are in the service of chiefiainly power as when they challenge it. There is no doubt, however, that the iaga writer feels that the
best chance for peace lies with responsible chieftainship and obedient
thingmen.
z8b
merchant, but he is threatening to retain the sum due from Bjorn at the
fall assemblies for the next two years.
A: List of Characters
*
'Lj6svetninga saga'
*Alfdis (daughter of Kodran, wife of Bruni)
xArnstein at Aerloek
*Atli at Draflastead
*Bard (friend of'Thorvard Hoskuldsson in Norway)
Bjarni Brodd-Helgason (also known from Bandamanna saga, Fljdtsdala saga, Gunnars pdur Didrandabana, Landnd,mab6k, Njdk saga,
Vd,pnfirdinga saga, and Porsteins pdttr stangarhqggs)
* Brand Gunnsteinsson
* Brand Thorkelsson (Vodu-Brand) at Myr
* Bruni at Gnupufell
is men-
tioned in Landnd,mab6k)
Eid Skeggjason or Thorhallsson (both known from Landnd,mab6k, the
former also from Heidarltga saga and Laxdula saga, and the latter
Einar at Krossavik
Einar Eyjolfsson (brother
also knowrr
290
Appendix A
List of Characters
* Halldor (brother of Thorvard Hoskuldsson)
saga, Vatnsdula saga, Vtga-Glfims saga, Pbrdar saga hredu, Porsteins saga
* Finni
in Fnjoskadale
from
Landnd,mab6k)
*
of Isolf )
Eyrbyggja saga, F1stbrudra saga, Gtsla saga, Grettis saga, and Landnd-
mab6k)
Landnd,mab6h)
Forni at Hagi
* Fridgerd (daughter
29r
and Landndmab6k)
sister Vigdis)
_i
Appendix A
292
List of Characters
*Otrygg at Ozla
Sigrid (daughter of Thorgeir the Chieftain; also known from Landnd,mab6k)
Njdk
(a follower
of Hoskuld Thorvardsson)
kuldsson)
Landnd,mab6k)
saga)
&rlu
.saga)
Land,ndmab6h,
see
saga,
*Thoralf
saga)
293
Land,nd,-
Stdu-
*Thorvald (a leper)
*Thorvard at Svalbard
*
(a physician)
Landnd,mab6k and
the kings'sagas)
Appendix A
294
List of Characters
fellsd,ss, Egils saga, Fl6amanna saga, Grettis saga, Gunnlaugs saga, islendingab1k, Landndmab1h, Njdk saga, Steins pdttr S haptas onar, It 6rarins
'Valla-Lj6ts saga'
Lj1suetninga saga)
* Eyjolf Thorsteinsson at
* Havard (a Norwegian)
Hrolf (farmer above Klaufabrekka; with two sons Thord and Thor-
vald)
Karl Thorsteinsson the Red (father o1'Sigurd; also known from Landnd,muhih, Surnldcela saga,, It.j6st6lli saga hamramma. and l>orleifs pdttr
jurl.s.skdkls)
fiom Bolla
p,fuur, Landnd,mab6h,
xuntrut)
Narli
mab6h)
saga
Tjorn
295
*Thorstein at Tjorn
Genealogies
III.
Karl the
Halli's Kin
Red
tt
Sigurd :
B: Genealogies
Hrolf Jaw
297
Halli
Da
Signy
Bersadottir
Bersi
The following genealogies have been reconstructed from Lj6saetninga saga and Valla-Ljdts saga and supplemented from other
sources.
I. Thorkel Geitisson's
Brodd-Helgi: Halla
Herdis
Sorli: Thurid
(see
Thorkel
VI)
Jorun
(see
VI)
Skegg-Broddi
II.
Valla-Ljot's Kin
Ljotolf
I
V:rllir-l,iot
'fhorgrim at Upsir
Thorgerd
Bjorn
tlt
Kodran
Bjorn
Alfdis
VII)
Arnor
(see
Eld.jarn
Bjarni
r=_-r
: Atli
Thorlaug
(see VI)
Geitir
Kin
: Thorgrim
Thorvard
VII)
Bodvar
V. Ljosvetnings
I
Thorgerd
ljorvi
Hoskuld
Finni
Oddi
from
Thorkel
Sigrid
Gunnstein Solveig
lltl
ll
Otrygg
Brand
Thorkel
the
Myvatn Lawspeaker
from
Miklaby
Hrolf
Hoskuld
Hall
Starri
(see
VI)
Thorgeir Hallason
I
VI.
Modrvellings
Einar
Valgerd
Oddny:
Eyjolf
Konal
Gudmund
the
Valgerd
Powerful = Thorlaug
(see
Einar
IV)
Jorun
Thormod Valgerd
Halldora
ceitisson
(see
I)
: Gellir Skegg-Broddi:
(see I)
Thorkelsson
Thorarin
Gudrun
Halldor
Herdis
I
:
Starri
(see V)
Thorstein
Bishop Ketil
fsee I)
cc
ii
bo
ca
o-.=-'=
ld
:E
*i
6> q,
Ety
tr
.l
,H
F.-
tv
ar
5b':
r-u >
v
-ct'[-\J-
Select Bibliography
v
dl
q.)
bo!
)!r
LUA
d
(.)
(JJ
)L/
(,
ilE!
.t
v
i
rA
tl
o
U)
tJE
si
:s
:
:J_
CXqr
V^\JbD
QqJ
+r -C
t)
bocd
'it
?v
!_
!t
ii
r:o
-=
o)
\+r-
(.)
s
ilJ
c z
(s
U)
+<
qi
Fi
(!
.B
E]
o
tr
tr
FA
I
.I,
bo
c-n
H
q)
6i
=a
o
il
(n
o
,r
(HE
r"s
'J
'a
E-;
Fl.
'trEs
Fq
&
!_*
!s
n40
bb
H
Select Bibliography
I. Primary Sources
A. Ari Thorgilsson's islendingab1h, Landnd,mab6k, the family sagas,
and most of the kings' sagas are cited from the series islenzk Fornrit
published in Reykjavik by Hid islenzka Fornritaf6lag as follows. References to IF in the commentary are to chapter and page numbers-for
example, Egik saga (36: go).
Bandamanna saga. r936. Ed. Gudni J6nsson.
H erman n Pdlsson. T he
C onfe
if 7: 299-262.(Trans.
side, r975.)
IF 4: r8g-gr. (Trans. Henry Goddard Leach. "Brand the Openhanded." In his A Pageant of Old Scandinaaia. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1946. zo r - z.)
ryb4 Ed. Einar 61. Sveinsso.r. iF r z. (Trans. Magnus
Magnusson and Hermann Pdlsson. Njal)s Saga. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, r96o.)
Droplaugarsonasaga. Lgbo. Ed.J6nJ6hannesso.r. iF , r: r35-8o. (Trans.
Margaret Schlauch. ln Three lcelandic Sagas. Trans. M. H. Scargill
Brennu-Njd,ls saga.
1r
Zo4
Select Bibliography
Select Bibliography
roz-35.)
Egik saga Skalla-Grtmssonar. rg33. Ed. Sigurdur Nordal. IF z. (Trans.
Hermann Pilsson and Paul Edwards. Egil's Saga. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, r926.)
Eirlhs saga rauda. rg3b. Ed. Einar Ol. Sveinsson and Matthias F6rdarson.
iF 4: rgr-23J. (Trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann P6lsson.
The Vinh,nd Sagas. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965. 75- lo5.)
Eyr.byggla saga. rg,\b. Ed. Einar 61. Sveinsson and Matthias F6rdarson.
iF 4: .r- rti4. (Trans. Hermann Pilsson and Paul Edwards. Eyrbyggia
.snga. 'l'<rronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.)
Fi44vshirmu,. rg85. Ed. Bjarni Einarsson. IF zg: g7-364. (No English
t.r:rnslaIi<ln.)
hirnrboga, .saga. tgbg. Ed. J6hannes Halld6rsson.
305
245-74.)
Hei\araiga saga. rg38. Ed. Sigurdur Nordal and Gudni J6nsson. if 3'
zr3-328. (Trans. in part William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson. The
Story of the Ere-Duellers with the Story of the Heath-Slayings as Appendix.
Ari
Njdk
glish translation.)
Valla-Lj6ts saga. tg56. Ed. J6nas Krisqj6nsso.r. iF g: 23r-6o. (Trans.
W. Bryant Bachmann, Jr. Four Old lcelandic Sagas and Other Tales.
Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, rg85. $-67.)
#
Select Bibliography
306
Select Bibliography
McKinnell.
Vtga-Gltrms Saga
uith
bdrariru pdttr. ry4o. Ed. Bjorn Sigfrissor. if ro: L4Z-47. (No English
translation.)
I>6rdar saga hredu. 1g5g. Ed. J6hannes Halld6rsson. iF ,4: 163-25o.
(Trans. John Coles. "The Story of Thorda Hreda (the Terror)." In
r935. 6Z-lZ.)
the British /s/es. Rolls Series 88. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,
r887-94.
III
366-68.)
iF rr: 67-79.
(Trans. Hermann Piilsson. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories. Harmondsworth: Penguin, r97 r. 7z-8r.)
Qlkofra pd,ttr. ry5o. Ed. J6n J6hannesso.r. iF rr: 83-94. (Trans. Hermann Pdlsson. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, Lg7r.8z-gg.)
II
t 47 -z<>li.\
isleruli,ngt.sttgrr. Slnr/riltga,.\a,ga. I zzg-534. (Trans. McGrew. IL7-447.)
Preslssugtt, Ou|lnnmdrtr uidu. Sturlunga saga.l r r6-59. (Trans. Thomas II
93- t43.)
Sturlu saga. Slurho4{o, .\ugo,. I 6g- r r4. (Trans. McGrew. I 59- r r3.)
Porgik saga oh Huflidu. Sturlunga saga. I r2-5o. (Trans. McGrew.
27-7a.)
II
borgik
II ro4-226. (Trans.
3(J-7
McGrew.
II
z+7-+8s-)
C. Other
sagas
Hardar saga Gri.mkeksonar. 196o. Hardar saga. Ed. Sture Hast. Bibliotheca Arnamagnaeana 23. Copenhagen: Munksgaard. (Trans. in
part Gudbrandur Vigfiisson and F. York Powell. Origines Isktndicae.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, lgob. II a6-87.)
Kristni saga. rgo5. Kristnisaga; pd,ttr Dorualds ens utdfgrla; pdur istel|s
Biskups Gizurarsonar; Hungruaka. Ed. Bernhard Kahle. Altnordische
Saga-Bibliothek rr. Halle: Niemeyer. Fb7. (Trans. Gudbrandur
Vigfiisson and F. York Powell. Origines Islandicae. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, rgo5. I 376-4o6.)
Morkinshinna. fi67. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra f|rste haludel af det
trettende aarhundrede. Ed. C. R. Unger. Oslo: B. M. Bentzen. (No English translation.)
Pd,k saga byskups. 1953. In vol. r of Byshupa sdgur. Ed. Gudni J6nsson.
Reykjavik: Islendingasagnaritg6fan. 3 vols. z5 r -83. (Trans. Gudbrandur Vigfirsson and F. York Powell. Origines Islandicae. Oxford: Clarendon Press, lgo5. I 5oz-34.)
Saga of the Jorn^ntikings. rgg5. Trans. Lee M. Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Vgkunga saga. 196g. The Saga of the Vokungs. Ed. and trans. R. G. Finch.
London: Nelson.
D. Law texts:
Ia, Ib. r852. Grdgas. Islandernes loabog ifristatens tid, udgiuet efter
det Kongelige Bibliothehs haandskrift. Ed. Vilhjilmur Finsen. Copen-
Grd,gd,s
II.
Stadarhdkbdk. Ed.
Select Bibliography
308
II.
Select
8r: r-23.
Iifiith, A. U.
ln Honour and Shune. E.l.J. G. Peristiany. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. rgl-241.
Bibliography
3og
Press.
g5: 17b-94.
r966. "The Concept of Honor in Valln-Lj6ts
glish and Germanic Philology 65: 3o3- 17.
ies
Press.
rg86b. "The Long Prose Form." Arkiu fdr nordisk filologi ror:
ro-39.
85,3b-49.
Dennis, Andrew, Peter Foote, and Richard Perkins. rg8o. Laus of Early
Iceland: Grdgd,s. University of Manitoba Icelandic Studies 3. Winni-
ro
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Fornrit:rl(:l:rg.
r 1;72. "(ienre and Narrative Structure in Some islendinga
pattir." Scandfuutuiatt Sludies 44 r-zJ.
Hastrup, Kirsten. lgU4. "Defining a Society: The Icelandic Free State
Between Two Wcrrlds." Scandinauian Studies 56: 235-55.
Harris,.|oseph.
3rr
ro7-3o8.
commonuealth.
forlaget.
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Zr2
Gripla3: rz8-62.
Kreutzer, Gert. rg87. Kindheit und Jugend in der altnordischen Literatur. Teil I: Schwangerschaft, Geburt und friiheste Kindheit. Mtinster:
Kleinheinrich.
(lalifornia
Press.
l,ouis-Jensen, Jonna.
ry77.
Heimskringla. r r8-46.
rg: 139-48.
19o7- ro.
Mr:(iovern, Thomas, et al. rq88. "Northern Islands, Human Error, and
I,,nvironmental Degradation: A View of Social and Ecological Change
irr tlrt: Medieval North Atlantic." Human Ecology (forthcoming).
Mt'rrlcrrgr':rr:lrl Sglrensen, Preben. ry77. Saga og sarnfund: En indfgring i
old,i.sltnrl,.sh I it,t,erutur. Copenhagen: Berlingske Forlag.
'l'lu, (Jnmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Northern
| 1)t13.
'l'r':rrrs..foirn
'I'urville-Petre. Odense: Odense University Press.
Sociely.
Miller, Willi:rrrr lrrn. rqtJqa. 'Justifying Skarphedinn: Of'Pretext and
Politics irr the k:elan<lir: Bloodfeud." Scandinauian Studies gg: 316-44.
rgS3b. "Choosing the Avenger: Some Aspects of the Bloodfeud
in Medieval Iceland and England." Law and History Reaieu l : r 59-2o4.
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Bibliography
3r3
z8:95-r34.
rg86a. "Gift, Sale, Payment, Raid: Case Studies in the Negot.iation and Classification of Exchange in Medieval Iceland." Speculmn r{
6r: r8-5o.
Nader, Laura, and Harry F. Todd, Jr. rg78 "Introduction." ln The Di.sputing Process: Law in Ten Societir-s. Ed. Nader and Todd. New York:
Columbia University Press. r-4c.
Naumann, Hans-Peter. r987. "Warenpreise und Wertverhiltnisse im
alten Norden." UHV. Pt. 4: Der Handel der Karolinger- und Wikingerzeit. Ed. Klaus Di.iwel et al. Abhand. d. Akad. d. Wiss. in Gottingen.
Philol.-hist. Klasse. Series 3, no. 156. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht. 374-89.
Nordal, Sigurdur. rgl4. Om Olaf den helliges saga: En hritisk undersQgeke.
Copenhagen: Gad.
rg37-3g. "LJm Islendingasogur: Kaflar rir h6sk6lafyrirlestrum." Ed. Sigftis Blondal and Einar Ol. Sveinsson. Safn til sdgu Islands ogtslenzhrab1kmennta. Vol. VI, part 3. Reykjavik: Rikisprentsmidjan Gutenberg. S66-gS.
P6lsson, Hermann. 1966. Sidfredi HraJnhek sdgu. Reykjavik: Heimskringla.
rg7l.
gaard.
Geschichten
atu
dern
\\
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Zr4
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dstlichen Nordland.
Diederichs.
Schach, Paul. 1978. "Character Creation and Transformation in the
Icelandic Sagas." ln Germanic Studies in Honor of Otto Springer. Ed.
Stephen
Enterprises. 227-79.
+8-zr.
Storm, Gustav. r888. Islandshe annalerindtil r578. Oslo: Grlndal & SOns
Bogtrykkeri.
Thompson, Claiborne W. Lg77."Moral Values in the Icelandic Sagas:
Recent Re-evaluations." In The Epic in Medieual Society: Aesthetic and
Moral Values. Ed. Harald Scholler. Ttibingen: Niemeyer. 947-6o.
rgZ8. "The Runes in B6sa saga ok Herrauds." Scandinauian Studies 5o:5o-b6.
Toorn, Maarten C. van den. 1955.
Ethic.s uruJ
Morak in Icelandic
Saga
r963-64. "Uber die Ethik in den Rrrnaldarsagas." Acta Philologica Scandinauica z6 r9-66.
'Iurville-Petre, E. O. G. r964. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion
ol' Aru:ienl, Scu,ruliruntia. London: Weidenl'eld and Nicolson.
Vigliissrrrr, ()rri)lrr':rrr<lrrr'. 1U55. (Jrn, tfunat,a,l i islend,inga sdgum t forndld.
S:rllr lil s(igrr Isl:rnrls og islenzkra lxlkmenta ad fornu og n!'ju z.
( lrpcrrlr;rgctr: I Iii) Islt:trzk:r lkikrnentaf6lag.
rltTl^1. "l'r'olt:goln(:na." ln Sttrlunga Saga. Vol. r. Oxford: Clarctrrlorr l't't'ss. xvii-ccxiv.
Vigliiss<rrr, (irri)lrrirnrlur, and F. York Powell, ed. and trans. rgo5. Ori-
ghns l.shtntlit'tt,t': A OoLLection of the More Important Sagas and Other Natiue
Wrilintr4s Ilrlil,lirt,t! to lhe Settlement and Ear\ History of Iceland. z vols. Ox-
ford: (ll:rrcrr<lorr
l)r'ess.
Vries, Jan <lc. rr;zfl. "Een indisch Exempel in een ijslandsche Saga."
Tijdschrift uoor nederktndsche Taal- en Letterkunde 47: 63-8o.
White, Stephen D. r986. "Feuding and Peace-making in the Touraine
Around the Year l loo." Traditio 4z: 19g-263.
315
Index
*
Names
saga (Ljbs.)
these sagas, see Appendixes, pp. z89-3oo. For names of characters or events in
other sagas, the reader should consult the title of individual sagas.
Aerloek, r3r
Affines,
seu
Marriage
See
ako Things
Alpta{ord, r53
Arbitration, g, 23-go passim, 45
Ari Thorgilsson,
Arnarstead,
see
Thorgilsson, Ari
zrz
gb
9r, g2
Bleiksmyrardale, r54
Blood-brotherhood (f6stbrddir), zr. See
a/so Friendship
Blood feud, see Feuds
Blood vengeance, sae Vengeance
Bodvar Sigurdarson, 256, 257, z6o,
272-78 passim,283
Bolla pdttr,85
Borgarfiord, zz3
Borggreve, Cecilia, 66, 7o
B6sa saga, t 5o (n. 5 t )
Brand Gunnsteinsson, 2o3- tx,
2tg, 228, zgt, 2Zg, 242, 242
prt.ssitrt,
Index
320
Brands pdttr graa, 244 (n.
zrz)
r44-b4
passim,
t6z
Brettingsstead, z39
r5o (n.5r); and court ofconfiscation, r76 (..gg); and case summation, z8z (n. z6z). See ako Grdgds;
specific terms
Dales, zz7
tl-g;
and transfer
ol'r:hie Itaincy, ro- r r; as arbitranrarr bon<I,
ownership, r3r-82
relations with other householders, r63 6.72); and maintaining
power, 284 (n. 265)
Children, in the sagas, r3-r4, r85
(n. r ro)
Christianity, in lceland , b, I r, 84,
r r 5, z6o-6 r (n. zz7)
Chronology of the sagas, 4-b, 74-78.
See ako Dating of the sagas
Church, the, see Christianity
Ciklamini, Marlene, r r5
Classes, social: and upward mobility,
ro-rl; and gift-exchange, b4-bb
Clontarf, Battle of ,2oz
Clothing, as motif for identificarion,
t4r-42 (n.S8)
Clover, Carol, 94
Cnut the Great, King,244
Ooercion, sue Violence
( )<rnrpensation, see under Dispute
prrrt:cssing
( irrrrrlxrsition
<>f' I
iorr, I l4
(ilrrlrrcl:
"Contenrlx)r'lry"
sil,.iirs, .l
r116
(n.s8)
Contracts, 8
Co-residence, 8, 2o4 (n. r43).
See
Fosterage
ako
see
16z,
t7r-74
passim,l7A-A7 passim,
Slavery
40-4t;
(n. 263)
passim
passim;
32r
Fell, r98
Fell-Oddi,
in V.L., z6z
Fetches
Dag, zzg
Brynjuridge, r92
( lorr< ili:rt
Index
Erlendsson, -16n,64
Ethnic identity, Icelandic, 236 (n. t97)
Exchange, modes of, 5t -52. See ako
Gift-exchange
Eyrir, 243
r8
sagas of, 2z-zg; and class differences, z5; legal phases of, z6; and
Fridgerd's case, 32; as ideology, 4o;
as system of social control, 46-47;
Fnjoskadale,
2tt,2t7
F1stbrcedra
2o4-ro
passim
o/so Households
Father/son relations,
see
Kinship
r5r
(n.
q,z)
r6z-66
passim
-Zr
pas-
See ako
322
Index
Gnupar, rzz
Gnupufell, r63, r94, rg7,2bg
Gnupufell River, z6o
godar, see Chieftains
zr8
Grettir Asmundarson, t2 I
sa9a,44,46,90, rzr, 146
(n.42), r64 (n. 73), r88 (n. r r7),
r99 (n. r35)
Grettis
Grund, 267
Grytubakki, zr7
Guardianship, zoz (n. r4z)
G'uardian spirits, zor (n. r38)
( )udbrandur Vigfiisson, see
Vigflsson, Gudbrandur
( lrr<lrrrrrrrrl Oddason, 244, 24b
( irr<lrrrrur<l the Powerf'ul: personality
,r1,77, ttrz-4, ro6-J, z6r (n. zz8);
;rs plorrrilrt'nt Iigure in sagas, 86tyr; :rrrrl rrrr:rlysis ol'Ofeig's visit,
l(x), lx,t'lr':ry:rl irr s;rgas of, r r7- r8;
and Solrrrrrrr<l Vi<llrrsson's case,
r25-33 fxt"ssirtt:. rrrr<l .Sorli BroddHelgi, r3l1-38 ltu.tsinr; and Ofeig's
visit, r39-44 Nxr"tsim; urr<l reconciliation with Thorkel ()citisson, r5z6r passiru; and prophetic talent, r58
(tt.68), 266 (n. z4r); and charges
of homosexuality, r6z-68 passim;
Index
and vengeance against Thorir
Helgason, r 69-86 passim, 2 46- gz
of, rg8-zoz
with Halli
Sigurdarson, 266, z6o, 26r, 262,
266, 267; and dealings with Ljot
Ljotolfsson, z69-7 z passim, 272 -8b
passim
Gudmundar saga
r6q,
164
rgt,2t7
t5z (n.53)
77,84, 85,
17,
zz8-43 passim
Halldor (brother of Thorvard
Hoskuldsson), ez6
passim,
t88
r94
Hella, 276
householderS,
9- ro;
ancl hotrsc-
Hjalli, z78
Hjalti Eiriksson, r94
Hlenni the Wise, rg4-97 passim, zoz,
2r4
2O3,
86-92
323
-68,
7t
, rz4
(n. z5z)
sim,228,2Zr,2Zq,24Z
r94
lnterpolation Lheory, 7 z
lsleif Gizurarson, 2og
istendingabi& (Ari Thorgilsson), 5,
. 227 (n. t87), z7 r (n. z4g)
Islendinga saga,68,
y7 6.ror),
U6,
r97
Jakobsen, Alfred, 66
Jansson, Sven B. F., 66
r57-6r
passim
Kaldakinn, rq8
Kalf the (llrristirrrr, 232-37 passim
Karl thc Rc<|, zrr(), z(iti
Karrlrarrg, 2<t7, 2rr4, z7<t (rt.247)
Kcl<l;r, zzrl
Kt'til (pri<'st o['Lau[ass), zog
Kt'til ut Frrjoskadale, z39
Kjol, 243
Klaufabrekka, 263, 264
Kodran Gudmundarson, bo-b r, 2o2,
Kroksdale, r54
Krossavik, r49, r5o, r6r
Kvi:rbckk, z7z
l ,;urtl:urtol
I
2rr5
Index
Index
324
(rr.:l.jr)
Laulirss, zor;
See
49-50
ako
Households
Legendary sagas, 98
Leid, r zg
Liest6l, Knut, To
Ljosavatn, l2l, lz6, r4r, r98
Ljosavatnspass, 163, r89, 254
Ljfsuetninga saga: main concerns of,
zg; and importance of community
opinion, b5i and social leveling, 6r;
and honor, 6z; and portrayal of
Gudmund, 62,72,86, 88, 89; textual problems of, 63-74; chronology of , 75-78; dating of, 7884, zrq (.,. rSg); characters in,
8S-g3; Gudmund-Einar relationship, 8q-go; and pd,ttr theory, gg;
composition of, 97-98
-6, rog- ro
I,jot I,jotolfsson (Valla-Ljot): portrayal of, r r6-r7; introduction
roE
z7t;
Louis-Jensen, .|onna, 7q
"Lumping it," as mode of dispute
processrng, 23,24
Lundarbrekka, z ro,22Z
Mager@y, Hallvard, 65, 66, 70, 72,
ll2
See
ako
Trade
Marriage, 4, 8, r8-zo, r59-6o (".6+)
Maurer, Konrad, viii
Mediation, as mode of dispute processing, z3
Leifsson, Gunnlaugr, 79
Lesser outlawry, sae Outlawry
l)b-97,
Bodvar
Naust, rgg
Negotiation, as mode of dispute processlng, 23,24
Nes, z rg
nid, tig-66 (.,.26), r73 (n. gz). See
also Defamation
Njd,k saga: and role of women, zo;
and arbitration, 2g; and comparative dating, 77, Z8; and Gudmund,
87,88, 89, r63 (n.Zo); and characters in common with Lj6s.,90, 9r,
93, r3o (n. zr); and pdttr theory,
94, gb; and leader vs. chieftain, r zz
(n.g); and lawspeaker's power, rz6
(n. ,5); and jury panels, r3r (n. zz);
and intimidation tactics, rg2 (n.24);
and legal process, r33 (n.27); and
household size, r35 (n. 3r); and de-
325
Nordrardale, zz5
Oaths, r79 (n. roz)
r29-24
mund. rZg-44 passim: as peacemaker in Vodu-Brand's case, r r, r 6r passim; and the seat of honor,
r98-99
o/si (arrogance), ro6
Oikotypes, 93
Olaf Haraldsson, King, zq,z
Olafsfjord, z7z
Oldfs saga helga,66, Bg, r37 (n. 33)
Qlhofra hdur, 87 -93 passim
son), r39
Saa a/so
Verbal
competitions
Ordeals: and socio-historical in[irrrn:r'
tion, 4; description of, 3q,-q(i; vs.
the duel, r83 (n. ro7); and l)atcr'nity suits, zo8 (n. r4B), zory (n. r r,r)
Index
326
Index
tzr, r24
Orkney, r87
Reykjahlid,
Orkneyinga saga, 96
Ospak, 235
Reykjapass,254
zz8-zg (n.
rtt<;)
Oxarfiorul, r..q,r
Oxar River, r tiz
Oxar Rivcr' (iulch, zri4
()x<lukrlrt:uth, zz5
()zla,
zrl
lermann, q8
I':rrtitions, sre Property
I':rternity suits, 93, 35, 86, zo8 (nn.
t48-49), zog (n. t5z). See ako Fornication suits
Peacemakers, 30, 42, bb, r57 (n.5g).
See ako Arbitration; Conciliation;
Mediation
Permission to settle (blggdarleyfi), z6Z
l'lilssorr,
(n.zgg)
Pidal, Ram6n Men6ndez, ix
Political sagas, gG
Prestssaga Gudmundar g6da, 83
(nn. 236-37)
, 264-65
Regional differences,
in lceland,
.ree
.saa
Honor
Legal residence
(n.z+)
Seduction, l lo, lzz (n.5)
Self-judgment, r6r (n. 6Z)
Seljadale, r95
Silfrastead, zzG
Skagafiord, r87
Skalaholt, zog
Skapti Thoroddssorr, 7, 27 r, z8o,
Defamatiorr
zrB
Svarfadardale, z0r, z7 g
Svarfadardale River, z3z
Suarfdela saga,64, z6z (n. z3o), 263
(n. z3z), zGB (n. 243)
Svinfellings, the, r 87
Swinesnes, 2zri
Thingvellir,6
zrg
Thorbjorn Rindil,
Skord,
z8r,
283
Skutar, 248
Thord I{rolf.sson,
264
Starri,
327
r52
sru
Rindil
48 passim
16z
4-5,76,
86.
See also
Thorir Finnbogasorr, 2 | 2, 2 | 6
Thorir Helgason, 16z-87 passim,
246-bZ
passim
possim,
24r,252
Thorkel Hake Thorgeirsson: and killing of Solmund Vidarsson, 127-Zr
passim; as source of gossip about
Gudmund, 163, 166, 168; death of,
r89-g+ passim, r98, rgg, 246, z5g,
2b4, zbb, children of , 2to, 2r7
Thorkel Hallgilsson, 2oZ- ro passim,
z2t, z28,2gr, zgg
Thorl6ksb6k,64
Thorlaug (wife of Gudmund), r(iz
67 passim, rg4, rg7, zot
Thorlaug (daughter of Viga-( )ltrrn),
234
fiz-67
passim
prt"ssint
lxt.s.t
'l'horv:rkl
[Irolfsson, 264
tt passim; and
Battle of Kakalahill, z16-zt passim; and conflict with Eyjolf Gudmundarson, 222-go passim; outlawry of, 2Zr-42 passim
Thorvard Thorgeirsson, 2 l?
Thorvard Thorgrimsson, 262, 27o,
z7t,275, z8g
Thrand from Grim's Isle, z8t-85
gerd's case, 2o3-
passim
Thridlungford, z r5
Tiorn, 27b,277
Ti<rrnes, r46, r8q, r98, 2o4,2bZ
pttssim,
, 24<t, 2r',4
Mlurt'lctt (1. vrrtt <lt'rr,
| 1)4
'lirolrr,
<;tl
'lirr lr :rt lirr lrrlcll, :trr(i' rrr;
ltossint
'lirr lrrlcll, .rr,(i, ::r,lt
'lirrlrrrr', irr llrc s:rgrts,,1 r,
'l)'lrrlr': gt'rrcr;rl lr('irtnr('lrl ol, rrt; ltlttl
pru<'tict's
Lt
passim
Upsir, 272,277
Trade
Vagli, rz7
Vallaby, z79
Vallalaug, zz6
Valla-Ljot,
282
rl
Index
Index
328
see
passim
Vik (Norway),
Ljot Ljotolfsson
Vd,pnfirdinga saga,
pas-
zr8
Vigftsson, Gudbrandur: and trans-
7,r
Vengeance
Vodlaheath , r4r, 2rz, 24o, 2bZ
It orstein s saga
Wergeld, g (n.z)
z:18
of society, r r3-r8
Violence: in the sagas, zz; and coercion, as mode ol'dispute processing, 23, 24,26,32; regulation of ,
rz8-zg (n. r8). See ako Feuds;
329
passim
Itorsteins pdttr, t
(n.zg)
r,
gS