Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 127

Betrothal and Women ’s Autonomy
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Fóru þá þegar festar fram, ok skyldi hon sitja í festum þrjá vetr, ok þó at Bjprn sé
samlendr fjórða vetrinn ok megi eigi til komask at vitja þessa ráðs, þá skal hon þó hans
bíða, en ef hann kemr eigi til á þriggja vetri fresd af Nóregi, þá skyldi Þorkell gipta
hana, ef hann vildi. Bjprn skyldi ok senda menn út at vitja þessa ráðs, ef hann mætti
eigi sjálfr til koma. (ÍF 3, 114)
Then the betrothal took place at once, and she was to stay pledged for three years. If
Bjprn should be back in the country in the fourth year, but unable to come and confirm
the betrothal, she must still wait for him, but if he did not come back from Norway
after an interval of three years, then Þorkell was to give her in marriage elsewhere if he
wished. Bjgrn was also to send people to Iceland to confirm the betrothal if he could
not come himself.
Gunnlaugssaga, which follows essentially the same narrative pattern as Bjarnar
saga and is likely to be derivative of it, also specifies a three-year (informal)
betrothal. But the three-year term is mentioned often enough in other narratives
to be established as at least a literary convention. The brevity of the reference in
Njdls saga, where Hrútr has to postpone his marriage to claim his inheritance
abroad, suggests its familiarity: ‘skyldi hon sitja þrjá vetr í festum’ [she was to
remain pledged for three years].28 The three-year betrothal is not specifically
mendoned in the laws, but the provision in Grágás that if no term was set for the
betrothal it was to be valid for one year implies that setting a term was not unusual
(Ib, 32; III, 604-05).
It is against the pattern of expectation established by the poets’ sagas that the
scene of non-betrothal in Laxdœla saga can be clearly seen as a parody. Guðrún
proposes a radical revision of traditional female roles, by proposing marriage, and
by proposing to go abroad. Kjartan slaps her down with his insistence on the
traditional formulas: the three-year betrothal, the deferring of marriage to allow
for the gain in status brought by travel, the duty of a woman to serve father and
brothers. Guðrún’s refusal to accept these terms problematizes the subsequent
course of the narrative, which follows essentially the same pattern as that of
Bjarnar saga and Gunnlaugs saga — the woman’s marriage to the rival, who
eventually kills the original lover - since blame for the tragedy no longer rests
entirely with the usurping husband. Kjartan shares some of the responsibility
because of his rejection of Guðrún, as indeed does Guðrún herself, who in a
28 ÍF 12, 11. References to a three-year betrothal are also found in Grettis saga: ‘Skyldu þær sitja í
festum þrjá vetr’ (ÍF 7, 10), FLóamanna saga (ÍF 13, 249), and Sturlaugs saga starfiama: ‘skyldi
hún sitja í festum þrjá vetr’ (Fomaldarsögur NorSurlanda III, 111). In Þorsteins saga hvíta,
probably also derivative of Bjamarsaga, the bride is committed to waiting for her betrothed to
return from a voyage, but a time limit is not stipulated: ‘Þorsteinn vildi fara útan fyrst, en ráð
skyldi takask, þá er hann kœmi aptr’ (ÍF 11, 8-9). Jochens comments, ‘this may be no more
than a romantic motif, but the law’s allowance of bigamy for Icelandic men living in Norway
suggests an awareness of the problem of too long absences’ (1995, 193 n. 46; see Grágás Ia, 226;
Ib, 240; 2, 70).