Gripla - 01.01.1979, Síða 167

ALAN J. BERGER
TEXT AND SEX IN GÍSLA SAGA
Chapter II of Gísla saga is not a pretty story. The action begins with
a rumor: ‘some people said that Bárðr was seducing Þórdís,’ the sister
of Gísli and Þorkell. The father objects, but Bárðr says he pays no
attention to the words of a weakling—‘and I shall do as before.’ Gísli’s
opinion is the same as his father’s, but Þorkell is a good friend of Bárðr,
and ‘lent him a helping hand,’ var hann í bragði með honum. Gísli kills
Bárðr, but Þorkell is so displeased he goes to a certain Holmgang-
Skeggi—‘he was closely related to Bárðr’—and encourages him to
avenge Bárðr and marry his sister. Skeggi responds to the latter sugges-
tion, but when he arrives to ask for the sister’s hand, the father refuses,
and moreover, ‘it was said that Kolbjörn was intimate with (í þingum
við) Þórdís.’ Skeggi challenges Kolbjörn to a duel, but Kolbjörn turns
out to be a coward. Skeggi orders wooden figures made of Gísli and
Kolbjörn, ‘and the one should stand behind the other.’ Gísli steps for-
ward and fights Skeggi, cutting off his leg. Þorkell now goes home with
Gísli, ‘and the kinship between them now went well, ok þykkir Gísli
mikit hafa vaxit af þessum málum.’
Several things are wrong with this story. No other sister in the sagas
is courted by a scoundrel, a coward, and a near-berserkr in such rapid
succession. No other brother in the sagas is abnormally involved with
his sister’s villainous boyfriends. No brother seeks revenge the way
Þorkell does. Apart from this, Þorkell’s change from enmity to friend-
ship with his brother is entirely unmotivated.
No objections on moral grounds have been made in the published
commentary on this chapter. On the contrary, the chapter has been
found psychologically and narratively satisfactory, principally because
of certain parallels found between these events and later ones in the
saga. Anne Holtsmark said of the events of chapter II, ‘they set the
tune, and the tragic discord between the three children of Þorsteinn