Gripla - 2022, Blaðsíða 89

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self is inattentive to the supernatural dimension and dismisses his dream,
its real-life outcome is apparent to others, like Gestr Oddleifsson, who
not only foretells Guðrún’s four marriages on the basis of four dreams
but also sees Kjartan slain by Bolli. He refrains from sharing this future
event with Óláfr. The saga public, too, knows better, from the experi-
ence of literary convention. An even more telling analogy is met in Njáls
saga. Hrútr Hǫskuldsson, Óláfr’s brother, has found the personal favor of
Queen Mother Gunnhildr of Norway. Their liaison extends over a period
when Hrútr is the king’s retainer. At Hrútr’s expressed desire to return
to Iceland, the queens asks whether he has a woman waiting there. He
replies in the negative, but Gunnhildr perceives a lie. She gives him a gold
arm ring in parting but says that he will never achieve sexual congress with
his wife but may have relations with other women. Thus, with Hrútr’s
marriage to Unnr Marðardóttir and her subsequent divorce on grounds
of failure to meet physical marital responsibilities, Njáls saga begins its ac-
celeration toward inter-family violence and feud. Gunnhildr’s equivalent
to Þórveig’s curse reads:
Ef ek á svá mikit vald á þér sem ek ætla, þá legg ek það á við þik, at
þú megir engri munúð fram koma við konu þá , er þú ætlar þér á
Íslandi, en fremja skalt þú mega vilja þinn við aðrar konur. Ok hefir
nú hvárki okkat vel. Þú trúðir mér eigi til málsins.37
(If I have as much power over you as I think I have, then I place this
spell on you: you will not have any sexual pleasure with the woman
you plan to marry in Iceland, although you will be able to enjoy
yourself with other women. Neither of us will come out of this
affair well, since you did not trust me with the truth.)38
We note the presence of mál ‘matter, affair’. Later, in Iceland and after the
marriage of Hrútr and Unnr, and some very specific marital difficulties,
Unnr informs her father Mǫrðr of her intention to divorce her husband.
The effects of Gunnhildr’s spell are ironic if not subtle. Instead of a lack
of sexual desire in the presence of Unnr, Hrútr experiences a hyper-tu-
37 Brennu-Njáls saga, 21.
38 Adapted from Njal's saga, trans. by Robert Cook, in The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, ed.
by Viðar Hreinsson (Reykjavík: Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, 1997), 3: ch. 6, 9.
RINGING CHANGES