Gripla - 2022, Blaðsíða 97

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evades his fine; Bersi, although diminished, eventually recovers his chief-
tain’s standing and influence, and can remarry. Þorkell seeks to recover
Steingerðr’s property, and this leads to yet another duel. But it does not
proceed in due order, since Þorkell claims that Bersi’s sword is too long,
another recall of the earlier motif cluster. Bersi has a ready expedient: a
different sword, with which he promptly dispatches Þorkell. This fatal
outcome is also in contrast to earlier procedural mishaps and woundings
and establishes a reference point at the far end of the spectrum of judicial
dueling. With this death, matters in the saga take a more serious turn.
Men Compared (mannjafnaðr): Indirection
Another indirectly realized but significant mensurability motif is the
mann jafnaðr or comparison between men, which recalls the single com-
bat between Ǫgmundr and Ásmundr in Chapter 2 over pre­eminence as
Viking leader.54 Here the men compared are Bersi and Þórarinn Álfsson;
their respective proponents are the minor characters Oddr and Glúmr.
There is, however, no detailing of these heroes’ attributes and accomplish-
ments, nor any statement on the conception of a “good man,” i.e., a repre-
sentative of the mainstream. Instead of the criteria for such a comparison
being listed, it becomes the source of yet another squabble, with wider
implications. The more interesting comparison of prominent men – that
suggested by the narrative – would, naturally, have been between Kormákr
and Bersi. The former is unlikely to have come off the better. Yet the saga
author eschews such an explicit matching up. Also relevant in this context
is the term ójafnaðarmaðr, the agent of immoderate, unjust treatment of
others, as met in numerous other sagas. The argument between Oddr and
Glúmr moves to the level of the principals, when Þórarinn abducts a mar-
riageable girl, Steinvǫr Oddsdóttir. Her father engages Bersi, who recovers
54 Medieval Norse conceptions and literary realizations of “masculinity” have been profitably
explored in several recent studies and collections of essays. Particularly relevant to the
matters of Kormáks saga are Gareth Lloyd Evans, Men and Masculinities in the Sagas of
Icelanders (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019); Masculinities in Old Norse Literature,
ed. by Gareth Lloyd Evans and Jessica Clare Hancock (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020);
and Ármann Jakobsson, “Masculinity and Politics in Njáls Saga,” Viator 38.1 (2007): 191–
215. For the comparison of “champions” by two subalterns, see Keith Ruiter, Mannjafnaðr:
A Study of Normativity, Transgression, and Social Pragmatism in Medieval Authors (PhD diss.,
University of Aberdeen, 2018).
RINGING CHANGES