Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1994, Page 131

Víglundar saga
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ekki af að kenna sonum sínum” — Ketilríður is neglected by her mother —
"öngvarhannyrðirvildi Þorbjörgað Fossikennadóttursinni. Það þótti Hólmkeli
bónda mikill skaði” (p. 1963). Consequently, the father takes matters into his
own hands: he rides with his daughter to his good friend Þorgrímur, father of
Víglundur and Trausti, and asks Ólöf, their mother, to foster his daughter, “því
að Ólöf var kölluð bezt mennt allra kvenna á íslandi” (p. 1963). Ólöf’s own
upbringing by her father stands in stark contrast to Ketilríður’s, for he “lætur
kenna dóttur sinni allar þær kvenlegar listir er burðugum konum byrjaði að kunna
og það hugsaði jarl sem honum gafst að svo skyldi hans dóttir bera af öllum konum
hannyrðir sem hún var hverri þeirra fríðari” (p. 1957). The concluding portion
of the first chapter of “Víglundar saga og Ketilríðar” relates, not unexpectedly,
that Víglundur and Ketilríður fall in love.
The theme developed in the prefatory account, that is, the love of two
individuals and the opposition to the same from the daughter’s family, occurs in
variation in the main narrative. As his own father had done in respect to Ólöf,
Víglundur proposes that he and Ketilríður betrothe themselves to each other —
”að þau byndi sína ást með fastmælum” (p. 1963) — but she objects for three
reasons: 1) Víglundur might change his mind once he reaches maturity, because
men tend to vacillate in such matters;22 2) she does not want to do anything
without the approval ofher father: “að mér stendur það ekki, enda vil eg það ekki,
að fara eigi ráðum föður míns fram”; 3) not only is she not in a position to decide
her own future — “að eg sé mín eigi ráðandi” — but her mother plays the
determining role, and she knows that her mother has no great love for her: “og
veit eg að þar ganga mest að ráð móður minnar. Hefir hún lítið ástríki á mér” (p.
1964). She concludes by affirming that she knows no one whom she would rather
marry than Víglundur — “ef eg skyldi ráða” — but she voices her fear that great
obstacles stand in the way.
Like Ketilríður, Víglundur’s mother had stated in the prefatory narrative that
she did not wish to go against the wishes of her father, but in the end she did just
that. When Þorgrímur had asked Ólöf what her answer might be if he were to
seek her hand in marriage, she responded that she would not be opposed, “ef faðir
hennar vildi” (p. 1961). Þorgrímur broaches the matter to the father on two
occasions, but he receives a flat refusal. Nonetheless, rumor has it “að þá hafi þau
bundið sitt eiginorð” (p. 1961). Indeed, in a stanza Ólöf confirms that she and
Þorgrímur have pledged their love to each other:
22 “Verðið þér jafnan hverflyndir karlmenn um slíka hluti” (p. 1963). Ketilríður’s objection that
men tend to be “hverflyndir” may have been inspired by Gunnlaugs saga (Borgfírðinga sögur, ed.
Sigurður Nordal and Guðni Jónsson, íslenzk fornrit, III [Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag,
1938], pp. 49-107), which depictsasimilar situation (twoyoung people being fostered together
fall in love with each other; in this case the young man leaves his family because of difflculties
with his father) and in which the eponymous protagonist is not only characterized as “óráðr”
by both his own father and the father of the girl he wishes to marry (ch. 5), but his own
subsequent actions confirm their assessment.