Gripla - 01.01.2003, Page 74

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GRIPLA
Knarrames at leita kynnis ok tók um morgininn vápn Bjamar, þau er heima
váru’ [Old Amgeirr left home, meaning to go to Knarrames on a family visit,
and in the moming he took those of Bjgm’s weapons that were at home]. The
second statement does not strictly contradict the first, but seems designed to
emphasise the hero’s lack, not only of his sword, but of all his own weapons.
A further complication is a verse in which the hero represents himself as
carrying ‘sverð mitt’ as he goes into battle (Borgfirðinga sggur, 197-98):
Ut gengk með lið lítit,
lítt sék hers við víti;
sverð fylgir menmyrði
mítt ok skjgldr enn hvíti;
en fyr einum runni
Ægis dýrs of Mýrar
vgndr skal hjalts ór hendi
hrpkkva, fyrr en ek stpkkva.13
Because the phrase sverð mítt does not fit the borrowed sword very
happily, it has been suggested that menmyrðir refers to Þorfmnr Þvarason
(Boer 1893, 103) or to Amgeirr (Bjami Einarsson 1961, 242). But the hjalts
VQndr of the second helming, which is most naturally understood to refer to
the same sword, makes these suggestions unlikely.14 In any case, though, the
verse clearly represents the hero as armed. The saga’s equipping Bjgm with
‘manskæri mikil ... ok skjgld á hlið; sverð hafði hann í hendi, er Þorfinnr
Þvarason átti’ (197) [a large pair of shears ... and a shield at his side; he had
in his hand the sword owned by Þorfinnr Þvarason] is likely to represent an
attempt to assimilate two competing purposes, that of exploiting the pathos
and drama of the brave defence of a ‘næsta vápnlauss maðr’ (203) [almost
unarmed man], and that of signalling the coming conflict through a warlike
13 ‘Out I go with a small following; I am not very wary of men’s vengeance; my sword and the
white shield go with the killer of necklaces (= the generous man); but the wand of the hilt
(=sword) must be wielded in the hand before 1 run away over Mýrar from one bush of the
beast of the sea (= man).’
14 Edith Marold (2000, 92-93) agrees that ‘sverð mítt’ refers to the sword the hero is carrying,
though I do not agree with her claim that the saga author himself took menmyrðir to refer to
the borrower of the sword. Her implication is that this belief motivated the attempts to
account for the absence of Bjpm’s own weapons. But Bjpm’s ‘near-weaponless’ state is
fundamental to the entire episode (see below).