Gripla - 2022, Page 103

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curse. The closing helming might then read: “Whenever we go carefree
to a single bed, Freyja, the scabbard beast (= sword = penis) goes mushy
as dregs before the down-island.” Here, superficially, the poet has stayed
within his known parameters of taste. It is at this juncture that Steingerðr
makes her longest speech thus far in the saga, gaining in distinction from
the contrast with Kormákr’s ongoing versifying. It is well worth noting for
its succinctness, directness, and analysis of the situation from a woman’s
perspective. The topic, established by Kormákr’s stanzas, is intercourse:
“Þat skal eigi verða, ef ek má ráða, ok skildisk þú svá at eins við þau mál, at
þess er þér engi ván” (That is not going to happen, if I have any say in the
matter; you withdrew from the arrangements between us in the one way
that made sure you could have no hope of that”).67 Mál ‘affair’ reenters the
discourse, with its several resonances: measure, speech, poetry.
Mál and níð ‘Defamation’: Escalation
Despite Kormákr’s various indecisions and mismanagement of both hu-
man and supernatural relations, no outrageously insulting verse occurs
again until late in the saga and then in two forms. Some stanzas are critical
of Steingerðr’s second husband, Þorvaldr tinteinn, for his general ineffectu-
ality. The other recall of possible earlier scurrility is a stanza that may have
been composed by Þorvaldr or Narfi and that is circulated through the of-
fices of a paid accomplice under Kormákr’s name. Defamation is the only
mode in which men like Narfi and Þorvaldr can compete with Kormákr.
The purpose of the stanza is to insult Steingerðr and simultaneously divert
her affections permanently from Kormákr. The verses in reality reference
only natural and conventional sexual activity, not acts under social sanc-
tion, and owe their abusive nature primarily to their likening of Steingerðr
and Kormákr to a broken-down old mare and stallion engaged in the act
of mating. Difficulties in interpreting the closing verse of the stanza may
be due to its poor initial crafting or to some editing in the interests of taste
in the subsequent tradition.68 What is important for present purposes is
that the deception has inherent credibility in that some people, Steingerðr
included, are ready to believe that Kormákr was the author. This episode
67 Kormáks saga, ch. 19, 275.
68 Kormáks saga, ch. 20, 277–78, st. 64 and note a.
RINGING CHANGES