Gripla - 20.12.2014, Síða 102

GRIPLA102
Fraternal bonds and virtues
Homosocial bonds are important in medieval Icelandic texts and the sagas
in AM 152 fol. feature many relationships between men where loyalties
and political allegiances are forged and maintained through family, mar-
riage or friendship ties. Henric Bagerius has shown how fornaldarsögur and
indigenous riddarasögur contributed to a discourse in which a new model
for aristocratic masculinity, influenced by ideas from chivalric literature
and monarchical ideology, was reimagined.50 Male characters of equal or
similar social standing form strong ties of mutual loyalty and support – of-
ten after one of them defeats another in a sea battle or single combat – and
help each other seek and win noble brides and complete other quests.51
to take one example, Ectors saga relates a succession of aventures or fame-
increasing exploits undertaken by ector, prince of troy, and six princes
who offer themselves for his service after a tournament in which Ector
unsaddles all of them.
Many of the sagas in this collection not only prominently feature male
companions who are friends, but, more specifically, sets of brothers. one
(or more) brother, usually the younger, is presented as physically outstand-
ing, popular and psychologically well-adjusted, if uncommonly tenacious
when it comes to avenging insults, while the older brother(s) is strong
and able but somehow lacking in mental attributes, e.g. impetuous, rash
or arrogant.52 Mágus saga’s brothers furnish a representative example:
Vígvarðr, the oldest, is described as ‘mikill ok sterkr; skapbráðr … svo at
hann sást ekki fyrir, hvat hann hafðist at, þegar hann var reiðr; hann var
svartr á hárslit, breiðleitr ok rauðleitr, ok hinn harðmannligasti’ [tall and
strong, hot-tempered so that he had no control over himself when he be-
came angry; he had black hair, a broad and ruddy face, and he looked war-
50 Bagerius, Mandom och mödom, ch. 5.
51 Because of their subject matter and narrative structure, Bagerius includes fornaldarsögur
such as Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Göngu-Hrólfs saga, Hrólfs saga kraka and Hjálmþérs saga ok
Ölvis in his analysis.
52 this pattern is the opposite of Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar and Brennu-Njáls saga’s
representation of brothers: as Carolyne Larrington notes, ‘[t]eenage Egill’s behaviour is
tiresomely attention-seeking in a mode typical of younger siblings’, while his older brother
Þórólfr exhibits responsibility and self-control, and the ‘domineering’ Skarphéðinn’s arrog-
ance, too, is characteristic of an eldest brother; see Brothers and Sisters in Medieval European
Literature, York Medieval texts (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, forthcoming 2015),
ch. 2.