Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 54

52
Robert Cook
about Geirmundur’s desertion of his wife and child, Ólafur answers: “Hvað
er nú Þorgerður, er Austmaðurinn eigi jafn stórlátur nú sem um haustið þá er
hann bað þig mægðarinnar?” (ibid.) This is the reaction of a weak man,
achieving his petty triumph over the women who (he imagines) triumphed
over him by forcing him to agree to the marriage. A strong man would
simply have refused to give his assent to the marriage in the first place. Not
satisfied with this sarcastic rebuke to his wife, he has to carry her humiliation
one step further by giving Geirmundur a ship and seeing to it that he gets
away without meeting any of his obligations.
It is ironic that Ólafur, who is often thought of as a peacemaker, is given
that label in this scene, when Þorgerður and Þuríður try to persuade him to
take action against Geirmundur. “Komu þær engu á leið við Ólaf því að
hann var um alla hluti samningarmaður” (30:1576). His activities as a
peacemaker have varied success. Even the best-remembered instance, his
refusal to seek vengeance after the slaying of Kjartan, is a noble way of
dealing with his dilemma (his foster-son has killed his son), but it has no
other effect than to delay the inevitable.
3. Kjartan Ólafsson
With Kjartan we can see the same thing we have seen with the other men of
his line: a serious discrepancy between the image and the reality. The first
portrait of him is the most detailed in the saga, and establishes him as the
central hero. He is handsome even beyond his forebears in Laxárdalur
(“Hann var allra manna vænstur og fríðastur þeirra er fæðst hafa á íslandi”),
and in addition he has a good dose of strength from his mother’s family
(“Betur var hann og vígur en flestir menn aðrir”). On top of these he has
spiritual qualities not mentioned before; he is “lítillátur”, “léttúðigur og
mildur af fé” (28:1574).
Other “external” views of Kjartan provided in the saga amplify this
impression of a man outstanding in every way, such as Gestur Oddleifsson’s
comment to Ólafur when he sees the young men swimming (“Það mun
mjög ganga eftir ástríki þínu að um Kjartan mun þykja mest vert meðan
hann er uppi” [33:1582]), or the prowess which Kjartan shows in the games
at Ásbjarnarnes (45:1604-5). When he is the first man in Iceland to observe a
dry fast during Lent, people travel great distances to see him, and the author
comments: “Með slíku móti voru aðrir hættir Kjartans umfram aðra menn”
(45:1606). If we take such statements at face value, we will conclude, as does
A.C. Bouman, that “Kjartan is of noble birth (the Mýramen), big and
strong, surpassing all men in beauty, rich. Also he is the humblest of men,
and friendly, light-hearted, generous, proud” (Bouman 1962:124).
But does the “real” Kjartan, i.e. the Kjartan depicted in the saga, measure
up to this ideal picture? Not really. In spite of the epithet “vígur”, the saga