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young woman will be offered to the widower Bersi, whose history and
reputation as dueler makes him well placed to meet any repercussions
from Kormákr, if he in turns judges himself slighted. Thus far in the saga,
Kormákr has faced two conflictual encounters: a verse-capping contest
with a workman in a low register with both domestic and sexual allusions
(art perverted), and a face-off with a witch involving eviction and a spell
that will stymie romance, marriage, and family alliance, and lessen a man’s
social standing (social relations hampered by the supernatural). A third
act of male measuring is now initiated by Þorkell betrothing Steingerðr
to Bersi, a mainstream member of the local community, the embodiment
of conventional virtues but with a suggestion of démesure, given that he
has killed more than thirty men. His thumbnail portrait offers a pic-
ture of the man that is not only organized a bit differently than that of
Kormákr but also highlights different qualities and reaches a different
summation than that of the áhlaupamaðr Kormákr. “Bersi hét maðr, er
bjó í Saurbœ, auðigr maðr ok góðr drengr, mikill fyrir sér, vígamaðr ok
hólmgǫngumaðr” (There was a man called Bersi, who lived at Saurbæ,
well-to-do and very manly, big of build, a fighter and judicial dueler).40
The portraits of Kormákr and Bersi are of equal length and offer a number
of points of comparison, although correspondences among the criteria of
effective manhood are subtle. No explicit physical description is given of
Bersi except his stature; “mikill fyrir sér” might also be read figuratively
as referencing importance or self-importance as well as physique. There
is no retrospective reference to family that might suggest youth. Instead,
Bersi is presented as wealthy, mature, and settled. The summary and static
judgment, “góðr drengr,” encapsulates many conventional Icelandic male
virtues, as illustrated by the careful definition of drengr in the Dictionary
of Old Norse Prose: “person of integrity, person of honour, stalwart, coura-
geous/brave person.”41 This characterization establishes Bersi as oriented
toward hóf ‘moderation’, while Kormákr is dynamic and impetuous, orient-
ed toward excess.42 These miniature portraits often hint at more than they
40 Kormáks saga, ch. 7, 224.
41 Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, s.v.
42 The most complete exposition of hóf in the sagas of Icelanders is the introductory portrait
of Gunnarr Hámundarson in Brennu-Njáls saga: “Manna kurteisastr var hann, harðgǫrr
í ǫllu, fémildr ok stilltr vel, vinfastr ok vinavandr; hann var vel auðigr at fé” (Brennu-
Njáls saga, ch. 19, 52; “He was very courteous, firm in all ways, generous and even-
RINGING CHANGES