Gripla - 20.12.2007, Page 60

GRIPLA58
then produces a quatrain in a soft voice that causes even louder laughter.
Snorri’s poem would seem to have more force than Kári’s efforts (411). At
least two patterns emerge in the performance of Kári’s verses. One is that his
reputation grows in lockstep with his ability to spontaneously compose. A
second is that this reputation, which links with the collective reputation of
Njáll and his family (as the constant mentioning of Njáll in Kári’s poems indi-
cates), grows in lockstep with the number of witnesses to each recitation. In
sum, all of the attributes of the moment of transfer that occurs when Kári
praises Skarpheðinn’s great leap are repeated and gradually intensified during
the sequence of Kári’s poetry.
The last poem by Kári is, in contrast to the other occasions, a triumph in
every way. The social status of his audience has grown. He recites before a
king at an earl’s court that includes a large group of enemies. Unusually, these
foes end up tolerating his revenge by letting him escape. Some commend him.
They also approve of the obvious progression, in which the poem participates,
from lies to truth-telling during the episode. First, Gunnarr Lambason offers
an inaccurate account of Skarpheðinn’s behaviour at the burning. The be-
smirching of his brother-in-law’s reputation causes Kári to intervene. Later,
Flosi Þórðarson, the man in charge of the burning and therefore Kári’s most
significant enemy, ends up contradicting his ally Gunnarr’s words by pro-
viding the court with an accurate version of Skarpheðinn’s last actions; but be-
fore that, a suggestion of some kind of connection between Kári and Skarp-
heðinn appears again when the former jumps onto a table, recites his poem,
and beheads Gunnarr, which recalls Skarpheðinn’s great leap and attack upon
Þráinn’s head (443). This emphasis of the link between Skarpheðinn and Kári
at the height of the latter’s heroic career completes the development begun
when the former’s characteristic moment is first transferred to his brother-in-
law. More generally, these progressions suggest once again that Njáls saga is
very concerned with how a heroic reputation grows and with exactly how the
particular aspects and consequences of reputation operate in the society that it
is trying to convey or has reproduced from its sources.
With their rather sophisticated communicative and generative attributes,
spontaneous reactions such as Kári’s to Skarpheðinn’s leap come close to
functioning as signs within a kind of language. When saga-writers describe a
deed, then, they are very likely to describe also the emotion and the means by
which both action and emotion are communicated (witnesses), because all
three of these are inseparable as an act of communication for the oral culture
on view in — or part of the origin of — the sagas. Moreover, the saga-writers