Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 112

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Alison Finlay
illicit relations. While personal feeling is not completely excluded, the concen-
tration of saga narrative on externality - on representing actions, rather than
emotions — means that it is deliberately left to function below the surface of the
text, to be deduced from the visible consequence of its influence on events.
An example of this, and of the way in which Laxdœla saga uses it to represent
a woman’s apparent autonomy in marriage as more problematic than it at first
appears, can be seen in the arrangement of the marriage of Óláfr pái to Þorgerðr,
daughter of Egill Skallagrímsson. When Óláfr’s father Hpskuldr proposes the
match to Egill, following the formal procedure according to which betrothal is a
contract between men, Egill agrees provisionally, but insists on his daughter’s
consent:
.. veit ek ok, Hpskuldr,’ segir Egill, ‘at þú ert ættstórr maðr ok mikils verðr, en Óláfr
er frægr af ferð sinni; er ok eigi kynligt, at slíkir menn ætli framarla til, því at hann
skortir eigi ætt né fríðleika; en þó skal nú þetta við Þorgerði rœða, því at þat er engum
manni fœri, at fá Þorgerðar án hennar vilja.’ (ÍF 5, 63)
‘. . . and I know, Hoskuldr,’ said Egill, ‘that you are a man of great lineage and worth,
and Óláfr has won recognition on his journey, and it is not strange that such men
should want to advance themselves, for he is not lacking in family connecdons nor
looks; but I must now discuss this with Þorgerðr, for it is not possible for any man to
marry Þorgerðr without her consent.’
Þorgerðr does not agree with her father’s estimation of Óláfr’s status, since he
is the illegitimate son of a slave woman, and resents the prospect of a marriage
she considers demeaning:
‘Þat hefi ek þik heyrt mæla, at þú ynnir mér mest barna þinna; en nú þykki mér þú
þat ósanna, ef þú vill gipta mik ambáttarsyni . . .’ (63)
I have heard you say that you love me the best of all your children, but now I think
you are proving it untrue, if you want to marry me to a slave-woman’s son.
The proposal is at a standstill, to the embarrassment of the male negotiators,
until Óláfr himself persuades Þorgerðr to change her mind:
Síðan taka þau tal milli sín ok tala þann dag allan; ekki heyra aðrir menn til tals þeira.
Ok áðr þau sliti talinu, er til heirntr Egill ok Hcjskuldr, teksk þá af nýju rœða um
bónorðsmálit Óláfs; víkr Þorgerðr þá til ráða fpður síns. (65)
Then they began to talk between themselves, and they talked all that day; no one else
heard what they said. And before they had finished talking, Egill and Hpskuldr were
summoned, and the discussion of Óláfr’s proposal began again; then Þorgerðr referred
the decision to her father.