Gripla - 20.12.2006, Page 138

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the characters and plot share a role in defining the narrative as partly legal and
the law as partly narrational in nature. Likewise, insults provide characters
with the opportunity to sum up and represent important features of another
character’s life, perhaps the most famous example of which is Skarpheðinn’s
self-destructive verbal abuse of chieftains in Brennu-Njáls saga, when Njáll
attempts to secure support after the killing of Hƒskuldr Þráinsson. Such insults
can be read as a reflection of the saga authors’ interest in characters’ fame as
well as the authors’ pleasure in a form of characterisation that juxtaposes the
action with a character’s reputation, both distinguishing features of the family
saga genre.15
Impressive rhetoric in the sagas is given to women inciting men to vio-
lence (Cook 1992:40). Such female whetting, and incitements to violence by
other characters dependent on men, is to be found predominantly in the family
sagas, but they are also present in Sturlunga saga (for example, in Íslendinga
saga, the whetting of Eyjólfr prior to the burning at Flugumýri), and indicate
to us something of the power that well-timed or highly-charged language
could give to those otherwise disenfranchised (Miller1990:212-13).16 Dreams
are also of interest here. They, like insults and calls to action, often contain in-
tertextual allusions to the mythical world or to the past more generally, a con-
figuring of historical and mythical characters that can be performed in order to
vocalise a prediction, understanding, and interpretation of the meaning of
events in the saga. Saga characters themselves recognise these functions of
dreams and, as we see in the case of Guðrún’s discussion with Gestr in Laxdæla
saga, the meanings possessed and generated by dreams must be interpreted by
those who, perhaps rather like saga authors, are wise enough to understand the
15 There has been considerable discussion of sexual libel, or níð (e.g., Gade 1986; Jochens
1992; Sørensen 1980). Clunies Ross 1986 examines the ways in which truth is thematized by
virtue of the saga society’s closeness to oral art, and considers the development of complex
poetry as a means of veiling criticism and maintaining a poetic elite. Of course, here, the legal
regulations of níð, some of which are to be found preserved in the medieval law code Grágás,
can be viewed as a regulation of authorship and speech, and reflect a sensitivity to honour
quite as elaborate as modern defamation laws. The situation ‘favoured the development of an
elaborate formal means of slandering others while appearing to produce quite innocuous
utterances’ (Clunies Ross 1986:65). Finlay 1990-1993 discusses the role of insults in the so-
called ástarsögur (romantic sagas), in which insults are structured as part of a feud narration
(see esp. 170-171). See also Swenson 1991.
16 See further Clover 1986; Jochens 1986 and 1996; Frank 1973; Helga Kress 1977. Cf. Cor-
mack 1994; Sigurður Nordal 1941; Scott 1985. See also B. Sawyer 1980 and 1990; Vésteinn
Ólason 1998:147-156.