Gripla - 2022, Page 86

GRIPLA84
Haraldr’s statement on tvíræði and Sneglu-Halli’s extemporaneous com-
position in this mode make more credible the argument here advanced
concerning Kormákr’s first verse exchange with Narfi, a reply operative
on the two levels of tvíræði.
Mál as Matters, Affairs: Marriage Contracts
To return to Kormákr’s courting of Steingerðr, the signification of mál
as ‘poetry’ can be juxtaposed with his father’s measuring out of a house
foundation. Although the rigorous metrics of dróttkvætt may be compared
to the fixed metrical unit as established by the measuring rod,31 the result-
ing amorous verses repeatedly yield an apparently diminishing return: a
father’s opposition, a girl’s only modest interest. Yet, although Kormákr
is a suspect suitor (as was his father earlier), he is eventually accepted by
Steingerðr and her father as a prospective groom, just as Ǫgmundr’s house
gets built. Yet his impetuosity, lack of hóf, precludes a successful outcome
in the longer run. Kormákr has no patience for, or belief in, magic, as is
evident in his poor handling of matters open to coloring by the supernatu-
ral: the offense to the witch Þórveig and her curse that Kormákr will never
enjoy Steingerðr; the loan but poor handling of Skeggi’s temperamental
sword; somewhat later the bungled goose sacrifice that would have rem-
edied many of his ills, and more. Poet’s character and witch’s curse contrib-
ute to an intertwined causality. In general, sorcery in the saga is employed
in two related spheres, eros and thanatos, the latter met in the context of
judicial dueling, the validity of which can, conversely and perversely, be
jeopardized by magically endowed weapons and physical invulnerability,
not to mention errors of procedure.
Þórveig’s curse, well known as it is, will reward a closer examination. A
sequence of lausavísur, without accompanying prose contextualization, fol-
lows Kormakr’s encounter with Narfi. Steingerðr’s father, Þorkell, engages
the rambunctious sons of the neighboring wise woman or witch, Þórveig,
to add physical dissuasion to the poet’s courting. A poorly understood
31 In the poem Hǫfuðlausn Egill Skallagrímsson states: “kann ek mála mjǫt” (I know the
measure of words); Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, ed. by Sigurður Nordal (Reykjavík: Hið
íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933), ch. 55, 145, st. 20. This may be a double entendre – referencing
both metrics and the poet’s assessment of a notorious ruler – and a bit of parodic hyper-
bole.