Gripla - 20.12.2004, Page 105

THE PAST AS GUEST 103
probably does lie behind Nornagests fláttr at whatever distance, but that very
long historical view is unlikely to have been shared by the medieval con-
sumers of this text and its analogues.8
In order to get a better idea of what those consumers might have connected
with these gestir, a closer look at the laws is in order, particularly at what is
said about their being called gestir:
Hir›skrá 38 (43)
Flestum mönnum er flat kunnigt í konungs hir› at gestir eru næstir
hir›mönnum at sœmdum ok at nafnbótum ok öllu réttar fari. ... fiví
heita [fleir] gestir at fleir hafa flar mörgum stö›um gisting sem fleim
ver›r engi flökk fyrir kunnat (Imsen 2000:154, 156).
It is known to most people that in the king’s hir› the gestir are next to
the hir›menn in honor and title and in all rights. ... They are named
gestir because they take hospitality many places where they are shown
no gratitude.
A comparable sentiment is to be found in Konungs skuggsjá:
... ok heita fleir gestir ok fá fleir flat nafn af fjölskyldri s‡slu, flví at fleir
gista margra manna *híb‡li [ms. hilyli] ok fló eigi allra me› vináttu
(KS:41).
and they are called gestir and they get that name from their varied
duties, for they stay at many men’s homes, and yet not with the friend-
ship of all.
Most remarkable about these passages is the seeming irony implicit in the
very name of these húskarlar. They are called guests, but apparently they are
so called for being less than exemplary in that role, or at least for the break-
down of that role around them. Hir›skrá goes on to give some hint of what in
the duties of the konungs gestir results in their peculiar reception:
8 Compare Beck’s suggestion that the gestr complex in these tales, Hervarar saga, and Vaf-
flrú›nismál reflects the social reality of the professional warrior as wanderer. Like Cipolla, he
seems also to be thinking about a very ancient background, citing hlewagastiR from the
Gallehus horn inscription for evidence on the connection between warmaking and gestir
(Beck 1997:466).