Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1994, Qupperneq 102

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Fredrik J. Heinemann
The impression we gain from her tirade is that the hero had been prepared to let
bygones be bygones.23 In this respect he resembles Bjarni in Þorsteins þáttr
stangarhöggs, who must endure repeated insults before he takes sword in hand. If
there is little direct evidence for what Eyvindr intends when he rides by Hrafnkell’s
farm, there is even less for what Hrafnkell has been thinking for the last six years.
We cannot tell whether he has been planning revenge and waiting to get rid of
Eyvindr, as Þorgeirr suggests (see the discussion below ofXI. The Appeat), or
whether, unable to ignore the griðkona, he, like so many other characters in feud
literature who break the peace in hot blood that they have so long preserved in
warm blood, acts spontaneously.2'1
Recently, Preben Meulengracht Sorensen (1983) has studied the semantic and
literary contexts of sexual insults in the sagas. He maintains that:
In Hrafhkels saga, Hrafnkell still has vengeance owing him many years after being
humiliated and driven from home. One day a distinguished kinsman of his enemies
returns to Iceland by ship, landing not far from Hrafnkell’s new home. A serving-maid
catches sight of the rider, and runs home to report. Hrafnkell is still lying in bed, and
the girl taunts him with the proverb: Svá ergisk hverr sem eldisk “everyone gets argr as
he gets older” ... The serving-maid’s words contain a fusion of the two ideas. She hints
that Hrafnkell has lost his sexual potency with age, and in the same breath jeers at him
for being too cowardly to avenge himself (p. 20).
As Meulengracht S^rensen additionally makes clear, the griðkona is not suggesting
that Hrafnkell is homosexual. She indirectly attacks his moral character by
directly insulting his waning sexual energy. According to her, Hrafnkell has a
moral duty to restore his honor. Given her fervor, and the colorfulness of the
imagery not unique to her — the proverb also occurs in Fœreyinga saga — his
verbal response is measured. In avenging himself on Eyvindr he may be doing
what he had wished on many occasions in the past to have done, but it takes a
sharp insult to get him moving.
2^ Peter Hallberg (1975:443) and R. D. Fulk (1986:30, n. 15) both regard her role as comic. Fulk
comments: “The comedy serves a good purpose, because if she were not comic her taunts would
bite harder than they do, and it would then be difficult for Hrafnkell to accept her advice with
any sort of dignity. Her silliness invites his (and our) indulgence of her critical atttitude toward
him.”
24 For example, see Gregory ofTours’s account ofthe rupturing ofthe peace between Chramnesind
and Sichar in (1974:501-502). This passage is discussed by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (1962:139-
142), who also refers (n. 3, p. 141) to the incident in which Carl slew Aldred after reparations
had been made. See also Dorothy Whiteiock (1952:44—45), as quoted in Donald K. Fry (1974:
17-18). See also the incident in Beowulf, 11. 1142 ff, where the son of Hunlaf places a sword in
Hengest’s lap, thus inciting the latter to revenge for his fallen lord, Hnæf. Von See (1979) does
not believe that Hrafnkell is angry, citing his witty reponse to the griðkona as evidence. Two
responses occur to me: (1) saga characters often make jokes to cover their real thoughts in a
cloak of mystery; (2) Schottmann’s notion that dialogue is not a key to psychology might well
apply here. Hrafnkell is at the very least miffed at what the servant-woman has said, even if she
provides him with an excuse to act upon long-abiding, secret desires.