Gripla - 2022, Page 104

GRIPLA102
offers indirect evidence of Kormákr’s status in the community as a well-
known crafter of verse. Yet in such a stanza, Kormákr would have gone
beyond the bounds of moderate social behavior and would have shown
himself a lesser man by any measure. It was comparable verses on equine
sexuality that so angered Queen Þóra of Norway in the run-up to the
scene in Sneglu-Halla þáttr discussed above. Whether intentionally or co-
incidentally, the metaphors echo those of the shared-bed stanza, e.g., male
weapon (spear) as the equivalent of the penis. By referring to Steingerðr
as “Þrúð þráða” ‘goddess of threads’ (= women’s finery), the poem also
gets in a dig at Tinteinn, since þráðr does double service as both ‘woolen or
linen thread’ and ‘metal wire’. This makes Kormákr’s authorship appear
more plausible. The community may well have known that such poetic
treatment was unprecedented in Kormákr’s production, but Steingerðr is
outraged, and Kormákr is unable to disabuse her. Although the situation is
now less intimate than that in the cookhouse, Kormákr is again obliged to
reply to a poetic charge of unmanliness, now not effeminacy but imagined
bestiality. Kormákr clearly recognizes that he has been the object of an act
of defamation, níðingr.69 He concludes that Narfi is the source of the libel
and kills him, death now being the retribution for dishonoring verses,
not a clever poetic riposte. In a slightly later context of conflict with the
Skíðungar clan, Kormákr says again that he can defame with the best of
them, yet he refrains from attacking the Eysteinssonar in the same scur-
rilous register.
These developments lead to yet another judicial duel, this between
Kormákr and Þorvaldr’s brother, Þorvarðr. Familiar motifs recur: magical
practices to create physical invulnerability, Kormákr’s impatience with
these, leading to his cutting short (the diminution motif) the sacrifice of
domestic geese that might have protected him. With both combatants
protected by the same witch’s charms, the duel is initially inconsequen-
tial. Finally Kormákr delivers a blow that cracks or breaks Þorvarðr’s ribs
(another instance of impaired linearity?). No blood has been drawn, but
Þorvarðr is unable to continue fighting, and Kormákr is the victor. He sac-
rifices a bull, which seems to have been part of the ritualized event, but its
carcass is then bought by Þorvarðr and family for use in a healing process.
A second combat between the two, again attended by magic intended to
69 Kormáks saga, ch. 21, 280, st. 67.