Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Qupperneq 57

Women and Men in Laxdœla saga
55
the saga presents with its large gap between the ideal and the actual. Having
got himself into a feud with Guðrún, largely because of his own actions, he
finds himself the victim of two thefts. When his sword is stolen, he takes no
action, on the advice of that well-meaning peacemaker Ólafur (46:1607). But
when Guðrún steals the head-dress,8 he retaliates. It is understandable that
he should do so, and the reader realizes that Kjartan is in a dilemma, not
wanting to take legal action and not able to use violence against a woman.
Nonetheless, the actions which he chooses to take are pointedly mean. He
bars the people at Laugar from access to their toilet for three days (47:1609),
and then he forces Þórarinn Þórisson to sell to him the land he had already
agreed to sell to Guðrún and Bolli (47:1609-10). The first is distasteful and in
sharp contrast with the supposedly elevated tone of the saga and the
courteous person that Kjartan is said to be, and the second is presented in an
unpleasant light: the author makes it clear that Kjartan has no need for the
land, whereas Bolli does: “Bolli þóttist þurfa að kaupa sér staðfestu því að
Laugamenn höfðu fá lönd en fjölda fjár.” The manner in which Kjartan
proceeds, taking advantage of a legal technicality (the agreement between
Bolli and Þórarinn had not been witnessed), and his use of an ultimatum
(“Ger nú annaðhvort að þú handsalar mér þegar landið að þvílíkum kostum
sem þú hefir ásáttur orðið við aðra eða bú sjálfur á landi þínu ella”) make his
action all the more ugly. It seems that in this chapter the author of Laxdæla
- like Shakespeare in the third act of Julius Caesar when he shows Caesar in
his worst light, as a stubborn, arrogant and conceited dictator - is
deliberately taking away whatever sympathy we might have had for Kjartan.
In both the play and the saga the audience is led to feel that these are indeed
men whose deaths are less than tragic.
On the other hand, Kjartan’s last days and death in chs. 48-49 bring out,
finally, all the nobility in his character. He disregards omens (like Julius
Caesar again) and goes boldly into danger, fighting against overwhelming
odds in the best heroic tradition. When he magnanimously refuses to fight
Bolli, preferring to throw down his sword and be killed instead, we cannot
help but admire him. When we consider his career as a whole, however, we
have a mixed reaction, realising that he fell far short of the ideal of courtesy
and humility which we expected to find.
4. Þorkell Eyjólfsson
The final character to be considered, though briefly, in this list of anti-heroes
again shows the discrepancy between promise and reality that characterizes
8 In Guðrún’s defense it must be pointed out that she does not consider taking the
head-dress an act of thievery and that she speaks openly about it to Kjartan: “Nú þó
að svo sé sem þú segir að þeir menn séu hér nokkurir er ráð hafi til þess sett að
moturinn skyldi hverfa þá virði eg svo að þeir hafi að sínu gengið” (46:1608-9).