Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Side 119

Betrothal and. Women 's Autonomy
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By contrast, there is a striking absence of reference to Oddný’s opinion later
in the same saga, when her marriage to Þórðr is arranged:
Síðan kom Þórðr í Hjorsey ok bað Oddnýjar. Frændr hennar vildu eigi gipta honum
hana, fyrr en sú stund væri liðin, er ákveðin var með þeim Birni, en at sumri, er skip
kœmi, ok spyrðisk þá eigi til Bjarnar, þá spgðusk þeir mega um rœða . . . Nú heldr
Þórðr á málinu, ok verðr Oddný honum gipt. (122—23)
Then Þórðr came to Hjyrsey and asked to marry Oddný. Her family was unwilling to
marry her to him before the time had elapsed which they had agreed with Bjprn, but
they said that if nothing was heard of Bjprn when the ships came out in the summer,
they would be able to consider it . . . Then Þórðr continued to press the case, and
Oddný was married to him.
Bjgrn’s proposal is considered by Þorkell and Oddný alone; Þórðr’s provokes
negotiations with a plurality of unnamed kinsmen, the passive construction of
the final clause avoiding any attribution of personal responsibility. The silence
about Oddný’s feelings is emphasized by the community’s external and material
assessment of the match:
halda menn, at Oddný sé nú betr gipt en fyrr hafði til verit ætlat, bæði til fjár ok burðar
ok annars sóma; en ástir þeira váru at góðum sanni. (125)
People said that Oddný was better married now than had been intended before, from
the point of view of money, birth and other honours; but their love for each other was
moderate.
Where a woman in the sagas does object to the choice of husband made on
her behalf, the issue is not one of personal preference; the objection is usually
grounded in his inferior status. For instance, Þorgerðr in Laxdœla saga objects to
Óláfr Hgskuldsson’s illegitimacy, and Hildigunnr in Njáls saga refuses Hgskuldr
Þráinsson unless he becomes a goði.
(iii) Betrothal is primarily a fmancial transaction. In Bjarnar saga, intimations
of mutual affection stand alongside specifications of the financial arrangements:
‘Lagði Skúli fram með Birni svá mikit fé, at þat var eigi minna góz en allt þat, er
Þorkell átti, ok rnundr Oddnýjar, dóttur hans’ (114). [Skúli put forward on
Bjgrn’s behalf so much money that it was of no less value than all Þorkell owned,
including the bride-price to be paid for his daughter Oddný]. In Kormaks saga,
the hero’s inexplicable failure to honour his betrothal is rationalized by his
dissatisfaction with the financial arrangements:
Nú fara orð í milli þeira, ok verða í npkkurar greinir um fjárfar, ok svá veik við
breytiliga, at síðan þessum ráðum var ráðit, fannsk Kormáki fátt um . . . (ÍF 8, 223)