Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 261

Umsagnir um bœkur
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being aware of women’s past roles and for not being sufficiently attuned to new
signals from feminist scholarship.
The difference between the title of the Danish essay in NK, ‘The prophetess’
and the Icelandic book, Mighty Maidens, might suggest that poetic creation is
emphasized in the former and rebellion in the latter. An examination of the pieces
in MM not included in NK shows, however, that the author divides her attention
evenly between the two endeavors. She thus enlarges the chapter on Ingunn (Jóns
saga helga) and adds one on Aslaug (Ragnars saga) to show these two women’s
importance in the literary field, and she includes Hervör (Hervarar saga og
Heiðreks), and Þornbjörg (Hrólfi saga Gautrekssonar) as examples of women who
resist their families’ marital plans on their behalf.
Within the context of NK the first half of Helga’s thesis works well. Without
necessarily subscribing to her idea of ancient female poets dominating Norse
culture, many readers will concur that western literature and the canon itself
would have been entirely different if women had been included with their own
identities and allowed to perform in the literary and cultural establishment of the
past. Thus, Elisabeth Moller Jensen, the editor of NK, explains that the contri-
butors decided not to attempt to place women authors within the established
literary tradition of genres and periodization, but to take their point of departure
in the works of the authors themselves and to think freely, in the hope that other
paradigms might emerge (NK 13). Helga’s essay provides a good starting point
for this endeavor.
There is much to admire in Helga’s brilliant insights. Her demonstration of
Snorri’s blindness to the violence toward Gerðr in Skírnismális well taken (MM
73). That the women who assembled at Sigurðr’s body engage in a kind of
mannjafnaðr as they compare their grief and try to console Guðrún is also worth
noticing (84), as is the recognition that both Melkorka and Aslaug resort to silence
when under duress (100). Another good observation is Guðrún’s eloquent body
language in Laxdœla saga. The demonstration that Helga Bárðardóttir (in the
manuscript most commonly used for Bárðar saga) refers to her foster mother and
not her foster father in what Helga Kress calls the first Icelandic patriotic song is
also important. (The traditional reading of foster father has been retained in the
most recent edition in Islenzk fornrit 13). Valuable also is her reading of Auður’s
tears in Gísla saga (178-79). Most significant, perhaps, is Helga’s demonstration
that laughter and gossip serve as female criticism of men. In fact, readers may
regret that she provides only the barest resume of her valuable article on gossip
published in Skímir (1991). They may also miss the last paragraph from NK in
which she lists the female names of many of the ancient manuscripts as poignant
reminders ofwomen’s poetic roles (NK 81).
Most of these examples, however, can be found both in NK and MM. In the
context of NK Helga’s frequent retelling of plots and stories and extensive
quotations are also justified since Scandinavian readers may no longer be familiar
with the texts. On the other hand, one would assume that an Icelandic audience