Gripla - 2020, Side 241

GRIPLA240
leggings: ‘Eigi er þat logit af yðr Þorbrandssonum, er þér eruð sundrgørða-
menn miklir, at þér hafið klæði svá þrǫng, at eigi verðr af yðr komit’21 [It
is no lie that you, sons of Þorbrandr, are very fancy dressers, as you have
such tight-fitting clothes that it is difficult to get them off you]. Only then
does Snorri goði notice that it is not the tight clothes that are the prob-
lem, but rather the fact that ‘spjót stóð í gegnum fótinn milli hásinarinnar
ok fótleggsins’22 [a spear pierced the leg through between the heel and
the lower leg]. Despite this description of the wound, the saga does not
specify, or even mention, if and how the men take care of it; the audience
is left to assume that this severe wound is treated medically.
The scene is soon after mirrored in the depiction of Þóroddr’s brother
Snorri, of whom it is initially said that he ‘var hressastr þeira brœðra’23 [was
in the best condition of the brothers]. This comment is soon put into per-
spective, however, when it turns out that Snorri is having difficulty eating;
and on being asked why he is eating so little and so slowly, Snorri answers
laconically that ‘lǫmbunum væri tregast um átit, fyrst er þau eru nýkefld’24
[lambs are quite reluctant to eat just after they are newly gagged].25 As he
did previously, Snorri goði investigates his kinsman for a further wound;
in feeling his name-sake’s throat, he discovers a broken-off arrowhead
sticking in the throat down to the root of his tongue (‘Þá þreifaði Snorri
goði um kverkrnar á honum ok fann, at ǫr stóð um þverar kverkrnar ok í
tungurœtrnar,’26 [Then Snorri goði felt his (Snorri Þorbandsson’s) throat
and found that an arrow stood across the throat and in the roots of the
tongue]). This time, however, it is made explicit that the object is removed
with the help of a pair of tongs, but again the saga does not say how the
wound is treated after the arrow-head’s removal. Instead, the short scene
is brought to a close with another offhanded comment: ‘Ok eptir þat
mataðisk hann [Snorri]’27 [And after that he ate].
21 Eyrbyggja saga, 129.
22 Eyrbyggja saga, 130.
23 Eyrbyggja saga, 130.
24 Eyrbyggja saga, 130.
25 This statement alludes to the practice of farmers weaning lambs by putting a stick in their
mouth laterally, meaning that they can no longer suckle as the stick pokes the udder of the
ewe.
26 Eyrbyggja saga, 130.
27 Eyrbyggja saga, 130.