Gripla - 20.12.2017, Side 230

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3:20–21). In Eyrbyggja saga several legal issues tip into conversation, land-
transfer and inheritance matters (Íf 4:25–26), a matter of legal redress (Íf
4:85), and a question of slave compensation (Íf 4:118–119). In Laxdœla
saga the proper division of an inheritance prompts a discussion among
brothers (Íf 5:72), and the context suggests that the dress code for both
men and women may have been a quasi-legal matter (Íf 5:96). In Gísla saga
a similar question of property division leads to a discussion between the
brothers Gísli and Þorkell (Íf 6:34–35). Later in the same saga the legal
search of a house prompts a formal request and a formal, albeit devious,
response (Íf 6:87).
the motif of a house search accompanied by dialogue recurs in
Fóstbrœðra saga (Íf 6:166), where we can also find a case of theft with a de-
tailed exchange of words (Íf 6:187–189). Bandamanna saga, which has the
highest percentage of conversation in any saga, provides verbatim accounts
of the temporary conferring of a chieftaincy (Íf 7:303), a full legal discus-
sion (Íf 7:316–18), and a unique reporting of court proceedings (Íf 7:322–
357). Vatnsdœla saga dramatizes the exact exchange of words prompted by
an alleged illegal introduction of a sword into a temple (Íf 8:48–49) and
the formulation of a banishment from a district (Íf 8:50–51). Svarfdœla
saga does the same in the case of financing a ship (Íf 9:163–164) and again
in the establishment of a financial caretakership (Íf 9:199–200).
Legal issues can of course escalate into regular confrontations, and
there is no dearth of these in the sagas. they too are profiled with the
exchange of words. thus an inheritance or money claims or priority
in grazing rights can be vigorously disputed in Egils saga (Íf 2:157–158,
173–174, 280–281). Pasturage recurs as a disputed issue in Hœnsa-Þóris
saga (Íf 3:43), and Eyrbyggja saga provides examples of property disputes
with words to match, or contested whale rights (Íf 4:142–143, 161, 159).
Sometimes the disputes seem slight, but the words are no less conten-
tious, as in the case of a borrowed horse in Fóstbrœðra saga (Íf 6:127), a
family dispute in Hallfreðar saga (Íf 8:149), a quarrel at a thing-meeting in
Vatnsdœla saga (Íf 8:88), or a dispute over status or seating precedence in
Ljósvetninga saga (Íf 10:17–18, 58–59). not all such communications are
hostile. Some can be undertaken in the interest of forming an agreement
or an alliance, for example in Hœnsa-Þóris saga (Íf 3:27), Eyrbyggja saga
(Íf 4:68–69), Vatnsdœla saga (Íf 8:21), Svarfdœla saga (Íf 9:201–2), or