Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 166

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William Sayers
their packhorses had to pass through the structure, while in the other Landnáma-
bók accounts this same notion of obligatory contact on the part of travellers is
covered by the phrase um þvera þjóðbraut (um þjóðbraut þvera), doubtless too
common an expression to encourage belief in any dependence of the one passage
on the other. Other details, however - the woman on the chair outside, the
ever-present table, the invitation to enter — do suggest an institution sufficiently
well fixed in popular memory as to retain distinctive descriptive trappings.2 Worth
noting is that the account of Geirríðr in Eyrbyggja saga duplicates the Þorbrandr
entry in Landnámabók in making passage through the structure (í gegnuni) a
necessity. In all cases the food is plentiful and in none is there mention of either
a charge levied or compensation offered. In some, but not all, accounts, the
provision of food to travellers enhances the reputation of the host.
Of the three occurrences of the hosteller, those with the two women lie in the
Western Quarter, that with the man in the Northern Quarter. The Western
Quarter, to judge from the explicit information on settlers in Landnámabók and
also from the high incidence of story-telling motifs with Celtic analogues (see
below), appears to have been the destination of large numbers of land-takers with
immediate antecedents in the Celtic realms.3 These would include resident Norse,
the offspring of mixed Celtic-Norse unions, and free and unfree Gaels. There is
a fair amount of incidental data in the three items under consideration with
‘Celtic connections’. Geirroðr’s and Geirríðr’s origins lie in Hálogaland in north-
ern Norway, but Geirríðr’s son Þórólfr’s viking activities would likely have been
in the Western Sea, with a fair chance that the raiding was carried out in the
British Isles. In the case of Langaholts-Þóra, her husband’s grandfather Váli had
settled in the Hebrides, while his sons seem to have immigrated directly from
Norway as stated in the passage cited above. But a later entry devoted to Auðun
stoti Válason (S83) has him married to the daughter of an Irish king, which is
hardly conceivable if he had not visited Ireland (unless we have another enslaved
princess like the Melkorka of Laxdœla sagd). Auðun is also the recipient of the
services of a supernatural horse that aids him in his morning farm work before
returning violently to the sea at day’s end, a motif perfectly consonant with the
Irish ech uisce ‘water horse’ and possibly tied here, via the marriage, to Irish
notions of rulership, equine hypostases of the sovereignty goddess, and the like.4
2 Jakob Benediktsson, editor of Landnámabók, suggests in his notes that neither is there present
archaeological evidence nor was there likely earlier need for the halls mentioned in these passages,
e.g., because of difficult terrain or volume of traffic (1968, 127n8, 234n5, citing Matthías
Þórðarson 1932, 23f.). But in the intended function I propose, whether historical or legendary,
it is less need than perceived opportunity to provide a unique service that would have motivated
construction.
3 See Gísli Sigurðsson 1988 for an overview of studies devoted to the various aspects of this
interaction. Sayers 1988 listed some of the more recent studies of a Iiterary nature. Additional
investigations into specific areas of possible Celtic influence are noted in the following.
4 Note the similar motif, Pictish pygmies of Orkney who lose their strength at noon and hide
underground, in the Historía Norvegiae (1880, 88ffi).