Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Qupperneq 45

Women and Men in Laxdæla saga
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brúðarbekknum til að hvetja menn til bardaga gegn þeim manni sem hún er
nýgift er stórkostlegt tákn um þá ósk hennar að brjóta af sér fjötra kven-
hlutverksins og vera gjaldgeng í þeim heimi sem karlmenn vilja ráða”(106-7).
There are also many other signs of female revolt in the saga, involving
Unnur, Melkorka, Bróka-Auður, and Þuríður. Of the last of these Helga
says: “í athöfn hennar má sjá ósk um hlutverkaskipti eða kannski öllu
fremur um afnám hlutverkaskiptingar” (106).
The “Inngangur” to Laxdæla saga in Sígildar sögur II. Skýringar (1987)
presents the same view of Unnur’s story that we saw above:
Ólafur maður Unnar er herkonungur. Eftir fall hans3 er Unnur drottningin sem
tekur við völdum eiginmannsins. Þjóðfélagsstaða hennar tryggir henni m.ö.o.
réttindi og áhrif til jafns við tigna karla. Eftir lát Unnar hefur engin kona í
sögunni sambærilega stöðu eða völd og hún. Samfélag sögunnar ætlar konum
ekki sama hlut og körlum og það markar byggingu hennar, ekki síst sögu
Guðrúnar. (1987:215).
This introduction is wide-ranging and covers many aspects of the saga,
but the doctrine of feminist rebellion recurs throughout like a leitmotif, e.g.
Margar konur sögunnar minna á persónur Eddukvæða, eins og algengt er í
íslendinga sögum en þær Guðrún, Brókar-Auður, Þorgerður Egilsdóttir og
Þuríður Ólafsdóttir eru t.d. ekki aðeins harðlyndar og stórlátar eins og Guðrún
Gjúkadóttir heldur rísa þær hver á sinn veg gegn því kvenhlutverki sem þeim er
ætlað. (1987:217)
A third statement of the idea that the women in this saga are in protest
against their position in society occurs in the B.A. thesis of Oddný Sigurrós
Jónsdóttir (1987) on the role of women in Laxdæla saga. This competent
survey of the women in the saga, saga research, and women in thirteenth-
century Iceland concludes that the skörungsskapur which characterizes most
of the women in the saga (only Hrefna accepts the role of the submissive and
powerless woman) constitutes a protest against masculine domination.
3 It might be noted that Ólafur hvíti is not called “herkonungur” in Laxdæla, nor is his
“fall” mentioned (though that of his son Þorsteinn is, 4:1538). Ólafur is simply
mentioned once, as “Ólafur hvíti Ingjaldsson Fróðasonar hins frækna er Svertlingar
drápu” (1:1537). In Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 1, on the other hand, he is called “mestur
herkonungur fyrir vestan haf,” and his descent is traced to Ragnar Loðbrók, as it is in
Njála, ch. 114. Eiríks saga rauba begins with an account of Óleifur (=Ólafur) hvíti, his
wife Auður (=Unnur), and their son Þorsteinn rauður, emphasizing the great exploits
of the father and son. My point is that although it is proper to assume that the initial
audience of the sagas had a certain amount of background information about such
characters, it is equally important to observe the way in which each saga uses the
information. It is of precise importance to observe that whereas in Eiríks saga the
emphasis is on the activities of the men around her, in Laxdala the doings of Unnur
herself are the center of attention.