Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Qupperneq 66

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Marianne Kalinke
be the one to decide how his feelings for Kolfinna are to be translated into
behavior. Parental authority and that of society tell him that the accepted vehicle
for expressing his love for the woman lies in marriage, but Hallfreðr wants to have
his own way. An interpretation of Hallfreðarsagaas the biography of a young man
rebelling against paternal authority rather than the biography of the rejected
member of a love triangle provides a better basis for understanding the placement
of the two segments in which the poet and Kolfmna interact. Before Hallfreðr
returns to Iceland he has actually fallen in love with Ingibjörg and proposed
marriage to her (2:30,17—19). The author of Óláfi saga finds nothing to report
concerning Hallfreðr’s domestic period at the side of his heathen wife. Instead he
turns to Óláfr’s proselytizing, including Iceland. Finally, the king’s conversion
efforts meet up with Hallfreðr’s apparent relapse, and one night he appears to the
poet in his sleep. The king is quite angry (“syndiz Olafr konungr isuefni reiðuligr”
2:167,1—2); he tells Hallfreðr that it is more advisable (“raðligra”) to return to
him with his family and to reaffirm his faith. The erstwhile rebellious son in
Iceland now shows himself to be the epitome of docility, for “gekk Hallfrpðr
glaðliga undir alt þat er honum var boþit” (2:167,18-168,1). When Óláfr orders
him to compose an Uppreistardrápa for the sake of his soul,27 the poet “s(agði) sik
þat giarna uilia ok alt aNat þat er hann mætti gera eptir uilia Olafs konungs”
(2:168,7-9). At the conclusion of this episode we are told that Ingibjörg dies.
Her death, which Hallfreðr considers a most grievous loss (“þotti Hallf(reði) þat
hinn mesti skaði” 2:168,11-12), is prelude to his return to Iceland.
Hallfreðar sagp is tripartite: in three acts we read about his early life in Iceland
and expulsion; his experiences with King Óláfr in Norway; and his subsequent
return to Iceland, where his father has died in the meantime. His erstwhile bitter
leavetaking from his father in Iceland contrasts with his distress when he takes
leave from King Óláfr: the narrator remarks that it was obvious that Hallfreðr
took the parting from King Óláfr much to heart (2:201,14-15). Norway has
meant a stable and loving marriage for Hallfreðr as well as a strong and loving
relationship to a father figure, neither of which he had experienced in Iceland.
While Hallfreðr appears to have come to terms with the father figure, there is still
one loose end: his relationship to Kolfmna and her husband Gríss.
Our interpretation of the life of Hallfreðr rests on the “biography” interpolated
into Óláfssaga Tryggvasonaren mesta, which does not contain all the stanzas found
(“Lidenskab eller ægteskab. Et tema i skjaldesagaerne, belyst ved to eksempler,” Kritik, 41
[19771,43).
27 Scholars disagree whether this was a poem on Creation or on the Resurrection or, as Finnur
Jónsson suggests, a poem of rehabilitation. He writes: “Navnet betyder sikkert ikke ‘opstandel-
sesdigt’, men ‘oprejsningsdigt’, idet det, efter kong Olafs udtryk at dömme, má have været et
slags rehabilitationsdigt” (Det oldnorske ogoldislandske Litteraturs Historie, 2nded. [Kobenhavn:
G.E.C. Gad, 1920], 1:550. In fn. 4 on the same page he rejects the possibility that the word
“uppreistardrápa” can be understood as a poem on Creation, inasmuch as Hallfreðr would not
have had the necessary “dogmatisk indsigt” for such an undertaking. Cf. Bjarni Einarsson,
Skáldasögur, p. 207.