Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Blaðsíða 125

Betrothal and Women ’s Autonomy
123
In Bjarnar saga, more ominously, it is the treacherous rival who upbraids the
hero for dividing his atten tion, signalling to all but the unsuspecting Bjgrn himself
the betrayal in store: for while Bjgrn is delayed on his travels, his rival Þórðr bribes
merchants to give a false report of his death, and himself marries Bjgrns betrothed.
In both sagas, then, while blame for the failed betrothal lies fairly and squarely
with the rival who appropriates it, the situation is complicated by the hero’s failure
to reconcile his conflicdng ambitions. Advancement abroad is set against a happy
domestic life back in Iceland, for as Bjgrn remarks:
. . . ek þykkjumk enn of lítt reynt mik hafa í framggngu ok óvíða kannat hafa góðra
manna siðu, en ef ek fer þegar til Islands, þá mun ek eigi nenna at fara svá skjótt frá
ráðahag mínum. (IF 3, 118)
1 think I have not yet tested myself enough in adventures and not widely enough
explored the customs of good men, and if I go back to Iceland at once, I will not want
to travel again so soon after my marriage.
Against this background of potential tension, it is striking that in Laxdœla saga
Kjartan does not, at first, propose marriage to Guðrún; rather, in a scene of
understated comedy, she initiates the proposal. Presumably unsurprised by her
displeasure at his intending to go abroad, he offers her consolation: ‘Lát þér eigi
þetta mislíka; ek skal gera annan hlut, svá at þér þykki vel.’ (115) We could read
this, as Magnusson and Pálsson do in their translation, as an attempt to fob her
off with extravagant though unspecified compensation: ‘Don’t let yourself be
upset over this; I will do anything else that would make you happy,’26 or, as I
would prefer: ‘I will do something else which will please you,’ assuming that
Kjartan has a specific consolation in mind: the three-year betrothal he goes on to
suggest. Either way, the wind is taken out of his sails by her alternative proposal
to accompany him abroad, demonstrating the gulf between his complacent
expectations and her unconventional ambitions. Guðrún’s demand amounts to a
proposal ofmarriage, although this is not explicit. It is interesting to note a parallel
with Kormaks saga, in which the heroine also initiates the proposal of marriage:
‘Nú biðr Steingerðr Kormák stunda til fgður hennar ok fá hennar, ok fyrir sakar
Steingerðar gaf Kormákr Þorkatli gjafar.’ (ÍF 8, 223) [Then Steingerðr told
Kormakr to seek out her father and get her hand in marriage, and for Steingerðr’s
sake Kormákr gave Þorkell gifts].
compared with his father’s:
Þorsteinn svarar: ‘Þat eitt finn ek Gunnlaugi, at mér þykkir hann vera óráðinn,’ segir hann,
‘en ef hann væri þér líkr í skaplyndi, þá mynda ek lítt seinka’. (ÍF 3, 67)
Þorsteinn answered: ‘the only fault I have to find with Gunnlaugr is that he is unsettled,’ he
said, ‘but if he were your equal in temperament, then I would not hesitate.’
26 Laxdœla saga, translated with an introduction by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson
(Harmondsworth, 1969), 142.