Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 232
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Gunnarr of Hlíðarendi. the description of him emphasizes his physical
characteristics and fighting skills as well as his uprightness and spontaneity.
even though he says at one point: “Sáttgjarn hefi ek jafnan verit” – “I have
always been ready and willing to make a peaceful settlement” (Ch. 56),52 he
proves the opposite when he decides not to hold the agreement to leave the
country in the wake of his killings. It is a proof of his heroic character that
he does this in spite of knowing that it will lead to his death, as Njáll had
premonitorily warned him. But Gunnarr’s flaw is revealed in the way that
he dishonours the workings of the social system on which peace in the
‘Great village Community’, as Byock calls the Icelandic free State, depend
ed.53 In so doing, he chooses to resort to violence although the saga sug
gests that this action is a mixture of fate and heroism. the unconditional
ity of the heroic virtues places a fatal weight on the shoulder of the hero
and does not provide leeway for options that open up more reconciliatory
thinking.
Gunnarr’s example demonstrates clearly the relationship between
morality as (i) a system of moral/social norms: in this case the demand to
uphold one’s honour and reputation; (ii) the real behaviour of individuals
observing or defying these norms: Gunnarr observes the norm of honour
while defying the norm of keeping a settlement; (iii) individual self-forma
tion and selfunderstanding in light of these norms: Gunnarr accepts his
fateful choice with courage and serenity. 54 It is significant that throughout
his story he does not, unlike Skarphéðinn for example, instigate the dis
putes that lead to his killings.
The opposite of this heroic type is a man like Hrappur who has much
the same characteristics as a hero – physical strength, fighting skills, spon
taneity and the strength of character that is needed for courage. However,
this strength is not a virtue in his case because it is deliberately used for
reprehensible objectives and lacks the relationship with wisdom and mod
eration (these clearly need to go together). He even exhibits a kind of naïve
52 BrennuNjáls saga, ed. by einar ólafur Sveinsson (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornrita
félag 1954), 145. Njal’s Saga, transl. by C.f. Bayerschmidt and L.M. Hollander. (Ware:
Wordsworth Classics of World Literature 1998), 114.
53 Cf. Byock, Viking Age Iceland, 228–229.
54 this distinction is made by Michel foucault in The Use of Pleasure. The History of Sexuality
2 (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 25–29.