Gripla - 01.01.1979, Page 171

TEXT AND SEX IN GISLA SAGA
167
future accomplice drop out of the conflict by pleading cowardice, and
he re-motivates hostility between Skeggi and Gísli with the wooden
figures standing one behind the other. The duel between Skeggi and
Gísli is described with terms borrowed from a duel in the first chapter.
The abbreviator had omitted the terms there, and so could use them
here. The chapter concludes with a restoration of friendship between
Gísli and Þorkell, as the abbreviator’s source required, but the abbre-
viator neglected to explain how Þorkell’s fratricidal displeasure was
dispelled. Once the lacuna is over, the stories run roughly parallel, with
no further instances of perversion.
The lacuna probably contained some material relating to a conflict
between Gísli’s family and the Norwegian king. In the text with the
lacuna, Gísli kills Skeggi’s sons when they are retuming from collecting
the king’s taxes, and Gísli’s family then emigrates. A great deal of
material on the emerging Norwegian kingship contained in the text with
the lacuna was omitted by the abbreviator, so Skeggi’s sons are killed
when they are retuming from collecting their land-rents, and no motive
whatever is given for the emigration. Holtsmark thought it was because
Gísli ‘finds the soil burning under his feet.’5
Seewald deduced that ‘Gislis Familie zahlte nicht zu den starksten,’6
and had to flee the consequences of killing Skeggi and his sons, but
neither text shows that Skeggi’s connections are more powerful than
Gísli’s. In the opening chapters, all is clear in the text with the lacuna,
but several things are unclear in the other.
In chapter I of the abbreviated version, five sentences report five
pieces of information. Gísli’s uncle Gísli kills a berserkr, he marries his
brother’s widow, he ‘takes all the property’ and becomes a ‘mikill maðr
fyrir sér’ his father dies and he takes all that property, and finally, he
kills all the men who had accompanied the berserkr. The berserkr’s
companions had not been mentioned before, and several editions and
translators (Guðni Jónsson 1956, Munch 1845, and Bááth 1909) drop
the reference to them. The longer version introduces them at the proper
place, and disposes of them in orderly fashion, before the wedding and
the funeral. The abbreviator preserves the berserkr’s companions as an
afterthought.
s p. 23.
6 p. 61.