Gripla - 01.01.2003, Síða 81

INTERPRETATION OR OVER-INTERPRETATION
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point of view of Heiðarvíga saga, as scholars have observed, is over-
whelmingly masculine.23 Nevertheless, despite the effectiveness of Þorgerðr’s
whetting in Laxdœla saga, the motif of her accompanying her sons on their
mission of vengeance is inconclusive. It gives her the opportunity for a further
energetic declaration, but no further inciting speeches are recorded. Once the
attack begins she fades away, yielding her role of assertive female to Guðrún,
who first declares her intention of remaining with her husband, and after his
death, calmly makes sure of identifying his attackers. From this point of view,
the incident of the accompanying mother is more completely rounded off in
Heiðarvíga saga, although the female consciousness is of little importance to
this author. In ridding themselves of her company— ‘Þetta horfir til óefnis, er
hon er á ferð komin, ok mætti vér þess vel án vera’ (Borgfirðinga SQgur, 278)
[It looks like getting complicated now she has come on the joumey, and we
could well do without it]—her sons are re-asserting the primacy of the
masculine in the taking of effective action. Significantly, the inciting scene, to
which this is a sequel, occupies the feminine sphere of the serving of a meal
and makes metaphorical use of food to signal the outrage that calls for
vengeance. There is shame in having to be urged to revenge by a woman; the
hero and his brothers graphically confirm their heroic state of mind through
the bizarre unseating of Þuríðr. The insecurity of the humour is in line with the
uncertainty of narrative tone throughout the saga.
Literary Echoism
As these examples demonstrate, the establishing of the relative dates of sagas
by means of proposed literary influence is an uncomfortably subjective
endeavour. It is likely to remain unconvincing without the support of detailed
verbal parallels. It is presumably in an attempt to supply this deficiency that
Bjami Guðnason places great weight on what he perceives as extensive
literary echoism, in both Bjarnar saga and Heiðarvíga saga, particularly in
personal names. Thus, for example, Bjami argues that the minor villain of
Bjarnar saga, Kálfr illviti, has no basis in history or tradition, but is an
invention of the author’s, who modelled the name on that of the chief enemy
of St Óláfr. In Óláfs saga helga, the king is brought down by an army of
23
‘Though many women are listed among the characters, there are no important roles for them
to perform’ (Martínez-Pizarro 1986, 220).