Gripla - 01.01.1995, Side 120

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GRIPLA
I. The Torture
According to íslendinga saga, Sturla Sighvatsson appointed a certain
Þorsteinn langabein to put out Órækja’s eyes and to emasculate him.
Þorsteinn, although reluctant to carry out the order to put out
Órækja’s eyes with the peg, complied with Sturla’s request to thrust a
finger breadth of a knife into his eyes. He then proceeded to remove
one of Órækja’s testicles. The saga specifically mentions that Órækja
called on Saint Þorlákr and the Virgin Mary while being tortured.
Some time later, Órækja left Surtshellir, rode off, met Sturla Þórðar-
son, and was „as fit as could be.“
Of the few sholars who have commented on the episode, Andreas
Heusler appears to believe that the maiming of Órækja actually took
place. He writes: „Die Art, die derselbe Sturla im Jahr 1236 den Vetter
Órœkja der Verstummelung ausliefert, bezeichnet etwa die obere
Grenze von dem, was zwischen Blutsverwandten zweiten und dritten
Grades vorkam.“5 Other scholars, however, have been more sceptical.
In The Age of the Sturlungs, Einar Ólafur Sveinsson attributes
Órækja’s lack of injury to the drengskapr of Þorsteinn langabein, who
refused to carry out Sturla’s command, while the editors of Sturlunga
saga, who do not speculate about the events that took place in Surts-
hellir, suggest that Sturla Þórðarson believed Órækja had been mira-
culously saved through the intervention of Saint Þorlákr and the Vir-
gin Mary.6
Despite Heusler’s contention to the contrary, there can be no doubt
in a modern reader’s mind that Sturla’s description of the events in
Surtshellir is purely fictional: no one mounts a horse shortly after the
removal of one testicle and cheerfully embarks on a journey. There is
5 Andreas Heusler, Zwn islandischen Fehdewesen in der Sturlungenzeit (Abhand-
lungen der Königl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische
Klasse, Berlin, 1912), p. 36.
6 Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Tlte Age of the Sturlungs (tr. Jóhann S. Hannesson, Island-
ica 36, Ithaca, New York, 1953), p. 73; Skýringar og frœði, vol. III of Sturlunga saga I—III
(ed. Bergljót Kristjánsdóttir, Bragi Halldórsson, Gísli Sigurösson, Guðrún Ása Gríms-
dóttir, Guörún Ingólfsdóttir, Jón Torfason, Sverrir Tómasson, and Örnólfur Thorsson,
Reykjavík, 1988), p. lxix.