Gripla - 20.12.2017, Qupperneq 56

GRIPLA56
the narrative of her life, through the introduction of the saga’s vast number
of minor characters and its meandering fringe disputes.
this interest is present in Þorkell’s part of the narrative, too. Þorkell
Eyjólfsson’s fate is first alluded to in Guðrún’s fourth dream, where a
splendid helmet falls from her head into the water of Hvammsfjǫrðr.50
Later, King Óláfr Haraldsson expresses foreboding about the arrogant am-
bition of Þorkell, a farmer’s son, and then Halldórr Óláfsson tells Þorkell
that he will get hold of the seaweed in Breiðafjǫrðr before his cousin gets
hold of Hjarðarholt. finally, Þorsteinn has a sense that Þorkell’s journey
home will not go well and tries to dissuade him.
The audience does not need to be told four times that Þorkell is going
to drown in the process of maintaining of his own splendour; but then
again nor does the audience need it repeating that Kjartan and Bolli’s
friendship will come to an unhappy ending. Laxdœla saga makes more use
of foreshadowing than most sagas. In gathering together accounts of vari-
ous prophecies and traditions about Þorkell’s fate, the saga has strayed into
another person’s story: that of Þorsteinn Kuggason.
Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Sigurður nordal took Halldórr’s pronounce-
ment regarding Þorsteinn’s fate to be as accurate as the prophecy concern-
ing Þorkell.51 It certainly fits an observable pattern in the sagas, where a
seemingly casual suggestion is later revealed to be an accurate prediction of
events. the compiler of Laxdœla saga seems to confuse the matter though:
the inclusion of Beinir sterki and his axe in the scene makes Halldórr’s
statement that “boløx mun standa í hǫfði [Þorsteins]” look more like an im-
mediate concern than a warning of future events. Describing Beinir as “inn
versti maðr” is extreme, given what we are told of him (he has been a loyal
member of the household since Óláfr pái ran Hjarðarholt), but his presence
adds to the ambiguity of the scene. If Laxdœla saga had some other source
for Halldórr’s encounter with the cousins, then it was not aware of, or
interested in, the fulfilment of the prophecy related to Þorsteinn. Perhaps
Þorsteinn’s fate at this point was so well known that it did not need to be
spelled out, but this does not explain why the saga would include Beinir
in this scene, in a role that muddles the clarity of the prediction. Perhaps,
it rather indicates an awareness that Halldórr’s dangling prediction, if not
50 Ibid., 89.
51 Ibid., 220, n. 3; Sigurður Nordal, Introduction to Borgfirðingasögur, lxxxii.