Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Qupperneq 48

46
Robert Cook
advantageous marriage and having inherited a great deal of wealth, “þótti
það ávant um rausn sína að honum þótti bær sinn húsaður verr en hann vildi.
Síðan kaupir hann skip að hjaltneskum manni” (11:1545). In Norway, after
some delay, he visits King Hákon and receives from him a ship-load of
timber, with which he returned to Iceland. The saga fails to mention that he
used it. His son Ólafur raised a fine house at Hjarðarholt, using local
materials: “Það var á einu hausti að í því sama holti lét Ólafur bæ reisa og af
þeim viðum er þar voru höggnir í skóginum en sumt hafði hann af
rekaströndum. Þessi bær var risulegur.” (24:1569) Nonetheless, Ólafur made
a trip to Norway because, as he told Geirmundur, “hann vill afla sér
húsaviðar, kvaðst þykja mikið undir að hann fengi gott viðaval” (29:1575).
Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson permitted him to cut as much timber as he wanted,
and Ólafur went home to build a bigger and better hall. “Það sumar lét
Ólafur gera eldhús í Hjarðarholti, meira og betra en menn hafi fyrr séð”
(ibid.). It was decorated on the inside with wood carvings, about which
Úlfur Uggason composed “Húsdrápa” (29:1576). Toward the end of the saga
Guðrún’s fourth husband made a similar voyage, this time for wood to build
a church. “Þorkell lýsir því að hann ætlar að sækja sér kirkjuvið og siglir
þegar á haf er hann var búinn” (74:1647). This time the desire for splendor
goes so far that Þorkell insists on having a church of the same dimensions as
King Ólafur Haraldsson’s new musteri in Trondheim, even though Ólafur
wants him to reduce the size. The consequence is, as the king predicted, that
Þorkell drowned while ferrying the wood across Breiðfjörður. “Fátt eina
náðist af kirkjuviðinum”(76:1651),
Whether or not we wish to detect a progression in vainglorious ambition
and a moral judgement on it in these three instances of the motif of acquiring
wood, they serve to tie together some of the leading men of the saga in a
pattern of thirst for splendor and favored treatment by the Norwegian king
that relates to the displays of clothing and weapons cited above. It is striking
that all the leading men in the saga are received as men of exceptional
distinction at the Norwegian court. For example, when Ólafur returns to
Norway from Ireland, it is said: “Leggur konungur [Haraldur] og
Gunnhildur svo mikla virðing á Ólaf að engi útlendur maður hafði slíka
virðing af þeim þegið” (22:1565). Similarly superlative language is later used
of Kjartan when he becomes “handgenginn” to Ólafur Tryggvason:
“Konungur mat Kjartan umfram alla menn fyrir sakir ættar sinnar og atgervi
og er það alsagt að Kjartan væri þar svo vinsæll að hann átti sér engan
öfundarmann innan hirðar. Var það og allra manna mál að engi hefði slíkur
maður komið af íslandi sem Kjartan” (40:1598).
If we examine such passages in context, asking why it is these men are
received so warmly and showered with gifts at the Norwegian court, we are
likely to be puzzled. If we are struck by their lavish reception, we are also
struck by how little they do to earn it, and we begin to sense that there is