Gripla - 2022, Page 90

GRIPLA88
mescence that prevents vaginal penetration and thus consummated marital
relations. Here, the extreme penile measurement (mál, although the term
is not used) leads to another mál, the divorce case, which will drive the
dynamic of the saga.
To return to Kormáks saga, the sagaman writes:
… þar kom um síðir, at Kormákr bað Steingerðar, ok var hon honum
fǫstnuð ok ákveðin brullaupsstefna, ok stendr nú kyrrt um hríð. Nú
fara orð á milli þeira, ok verða í nǫkkurar greinir um fjárfar, ok svá
veik við breytiliga, at síðan þessum ráðum var ráðit, fannsk Kormáki
fátt um, en þat var fyrir þá sǫk, at Þórveig seiddi til, at þau skyldi
eigi njótask mega.39
(… what finally happened was that Kormákr asked for Steingerðr’s
hand and she was betrothed to him and the wedding was arranged,
and then things were quiet for a while. Then there were discussions
between them, and these came to include certain disagreements
about money matters and strangely it turned out that after the mar-
riage contract was settled on, Kormákr’s attitude cooled, and this
was because of the spell Þórveig had cast that they would be not
enjoy one another.)
The key verb njótask is now repeated, underlining the efficacy of the
spell. Two measures are in play here: adequacy of financial settlement and
intensity of feeling. Where Hrútr’s desire took hypertrophic expression,
Kormákr’s emotions slacken off on less readily determined scales, both
quantitative and qualitative. The effects of the curse are subtle: Kormákr
cannot be said to have been queered. No dramatic shift in the course of
events is apparent but rather a slide from interest to indifference, a dimi-
nution of emotional intensity and foreseen advantage.
Kormákr’s new emotional engagement takes very obvious form when
he fails to show up for the wedding feast. While community opinion
might say that “Kormakr is a little less of a man than we thought,” the girl
and her family have been stood up in very evident form and keenly resent
the dishonor stemming from Kormákr’s disinclination to see the marriage
through. Narfi, a bit of a local Loki, comes up with a clever solution. The
39 Kormáks saga, ch. 6, 223.