Gripla - 20.12.2014, Blaðsíða 104

GRIPLA104
loss of life. As emily Lethbridge points out, Þórir’s father víkingr, like
Ámundi, Vígvarðr’s father in Mágus saga, has to choose between his bonds
with a sworn-brother/lord or blood relatives.58
the superior younger brother sees the risk that his sibling poses and
sometimes shows unwillingness to come to his aid; as the eponymous
protagonist of Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar dryly observes about Ketill, who
has returned from a failed bridal-quest to garðaríki: ‘Ekki er hægt at koma
ráðum við slíka menn við ákafa hans ok framgirni. er nú vel, at hann gjaldi
einræðis sjálfs sín, þar sem hann vildi ekki með várri forsjá fara’ [it is an
impossible task to talk sense into a man like him, because of his intensity
and competitiveness. It is fitting that he suffer for his obstinancy since he
did not show any regard for our guidance], suggesting that an older brother
should seek and accept his younger brother’s counsel before undertaking
such missions.59 Hrólfr’s wife Þornbjörg dismisses his grumbling, baldly
stating that there is no option but to support one’s brother: ‘[hon] kvað
þetta vera nauðsynja ferð at veita bróður sínum fullting’ [she said helping
one’s brother was a really pressing business].60 Fraternal bonds are, after
all, mutual, and as ketill’s assistance to Hrólfr in the previous episode, the
less excellent brother usually gives support as well as receiving it. Carolyne
Larrington notes that in Sturlunga saga, ‘fraternal norms of solidarity are
maintained when all other social bonds come under strain’ and the same
seems to go in these sagas: Grettis saga’s famous proverb ‘ber er huer ꜳ
bakinu nema sier brodr eigi’ [bare is every man’s back unless he has a
brother] crystallises the importance placed on loyalty between brothers.61
As Russell Poole has noted, Grettir mostly avoids homosocial bonds, but
his three brothers, Atli, Illugi and Þorsteinn drómundr – all versions of the
58 Lethbridge, ‘the Place of Þorsteins saga,’ 385.
59 Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, in Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, vol. 3, eds. Guðni jónsson and
Bjarni Vilhjálmsson (reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan forni, 1944), 93.
60 Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, 93; Hrolf Gautreksson, 80. Later in the saga, when Hrólfr’s
sworn-brother Ásmundr requires his help to win an Irish princess with a dangerous and
hostile father, Þornbjörg shames Hrólfr into upholding his bonds, reminding her husband
that Ásmundr had previously accompanied Hrólfr himself on his own dangerous bridal-
quest and bravely fought by his side; Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, 114. For further discussion
about women encouraging loyalty in Hrólfs saga (and elsewhere), see Jóhanna Katrín
Friðriksdóttir, Women in Old Norse Literature, 34–38.
61 f. 44r; Grettis saga, 260; Larrington, Brothers and Sisters, ch. 2.