Gripla - 2022, Síða 98

GRIPLA96
the girl at the cost of a number of deaths, although none within the dueling
framework, which is now retired from the narrative, as soon will be Bersi,
perhaps the most moderate man in the story, despite his readiness for acts
of violence. In this, his status as chieftain appears vindicated. His final
appearance in the saga, a “last hurrah,” is conditioned by his advanced age.
For socioeconomic advantages he has undertaken to foster one of Óláfr pái
Hǫskuldsson’s sons, Halldórr. This arrangement yields a new twist on the
mannjafnaðr, Halldórr wondering and Bersi musing on how he compares
with the younger man he once was. His skaldic verses on themes of old
age are reminiscent of those of Egill Skallagrímsson. Bersi concludes that
there is still one man worth his fighter’s attention, his brother-in-law Váli,
who is grazing his stock on Bersi’s land. This is also partly the outcome of
his troubled marriage, perhaps because of the presence of Steinvǫr in the
house. The ensuing encounter is not a judicial duel but a killing, in which
Halldórr and Bersi collaborate, the former with Bersi’s sword Hvítingr, the
latter with a halberd – a symbolic extension, not reduction, on the weapon
of war motif. The episode also has a positive generational dimension not
met since the opening chapter of the saga. Bersi has symbolic offspring,
while Kormákr has none.
Mediocrity: A Second Husband
With Bersi’s retirement from the action of the saga, the narrative intro-
duces Steingerðr’s second husband, Þorvaldr, nicknamed tinteinn. The con-
ventional introductory thumbnail portrait shows him as unprepossessing,
with little social influence, although his brother Þorvarðr is more forward
and capable of armed conflict.
Þorvaldr hét maðr ok var Eysteinsson ok var kallaðr tinteinn. Hann
var maðr auðigr ok hagr, skáld ok engi skǫrungr í skaplyndi. Bróðir
hans hét Þorvarðr, er bjó norðr í Fljótum. Þeir váru frændr margir,
ok var sá kynsþáttr kallaðr Skíðingar og hafði litla mannheill.55
(Now there was a man named Þorvaldr, the son of Eysteinn, nick-
named “Tin-strip”: he was a well-to-do man, a smith, and a skald;
but he was mean-spirited for all that. His brother Þorvarðr lived in
55 Kormáks saga, ch. 17, 263.