Gripla - 2019, Síða 98

GRIPLA98
The distinction between risar and jötnar in Þorsteins þáttr was hinted
at in the beginning of this discussion. As was suggested there, this op-
position is first alluded to by Goðmundr, who notes that his native region
Glæsisvellir lies within Risaland but is nevertheless bound to pay tribute
to Geirröðr, a jötunn who resides in Jötunheimar.56 This arrangement is
evidently dynastic, since Goðmundr reveals that his own father died while
travelling to Jötunheimar to render his tribute. After Goðmundr notes that
he must travel there himself to renew his hereditary vows of servitude, he
remarks: “þó unum vér illa við at þjóna jötnum” [though we do not like
serving the jötnar].57 Here Goðmundr draws a distinction between vér,
presumably the community of risar over whom he reigns, and the jötnar
to whom he must pay tribute. The differences in social sophistication
between these two groups is made clear when Goðmundr arrives at the
jötunn’s homestead. Geirröðr is insistent on securing the hlýðni “obedi-
ence” of Goðmundr, which he demands of him shortly after his arrival.
Goðmundr retorts “ekki er þat lög at krefja svá unga menn til eiða” [it is
not lawful to demand oaths of men so young].58 This tense interaction be-
tween Geirröðr and Goðmundr is illuminating: the jötunn Geirröðr acts in
a tyrannical and intemperate fashion that departs from expected standards
of kingship, whereas the risi Goðmundr appeals in the first instance to the
rule of law.
The sense that the author is offering a deliberately distinct charact-
erisa tion of jötnar and risar is heightened in the hall-games that make up
the majority of the saga narrative. In an obscene perversion of the kind of
hall-games that would be played in human social settings, Geirröðr orders
a gullhnöttr “golden ball” to be brought into the hall – an object which turns
out to be a two-hundred-pound molten seal’s head. Before this ludicrous
56 Goðmundr is one of several figures in Þorsteins þáttr who can be convincingly identified
as a risi, though it is not explicitly stated that he is such in the text. He appears as an
enormous, civilised, splendidly dressed and good-natured being whose hereditary realm
lies within Risaland, and so his status as a risi is beyond doubt. A Goðmundr also appears
in Örvar-Odds saga, and there he both lives in Risaland and is explicitly described as a
risi. Goðmundr’s likely status as a risi in Þorsteins þáttr bœjarmagns is discussed in Tom
Grant and Jonathan Hui, “Between Myths and Legends: The Guises of Goðmundr of
Glæsisvellir,” Margins, Monsters, Deviants: Alterities in Old Norse Literature and Culture, ed.
by Rebecca Merkelbach and Gwendolyne Knight (Turnhout: Brepols, forthcoming).
57 Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldarsögur, iv, 329.
58 Guðni Jónsson, Fornaldarsögur, iv, 331.