Iceland review - 2015, Síða 55

ICELAND REVIEW 53
West Iceland, and makes an effort to find him a worthy bride.
Laxdæla reads: “She summoned Olaf Feilan and said to him. ‘I
have been thinking, kinsman, that you ought to establish yourself
and take a wife.’ Olaf agreed readily, and said he would rely on
her guidance.” The chosen one, Álfdís barreyska (of the Barra
Isles), hails from the Hebrides—like Auður.
In Iceland, Auður keeps her Christian ways, setting up crosses
at Krosshólar, hillocks by her farm, where she prays. Sources dis-
agree on the ritual of her burial. Laxdæla says that Auður was laid
in a ship with a “load of treasure” and buried in a mound, which is
heathen practice. In Landnáma, however, it says that Auður’s wish
to be buried at the seashore at Hvammur was honored. While
not a Christian tradition, the religion does teach that all water,
wherever in the world, was made sacred when John the Baptist
baptized Jesus Christ in the river Jordan, Vilborg reasoned in
the episode about Auður djúpúðga in the television documenta-
ry series Ferðalok (RÚV, 2013). In being buried at the seashore,
Auður makes sure that water regularly washes over her grave.
The timing and manner of Auður’s passing, which sound rather
fictive, are considered to be a symbol of her power and dignity.
“Having lost my husband, mother-in-law and father in the space
of 17 months, I’ve come to believe that people can actually have a
say in the timing of their deaths,” Vilborg asserts. After arranging
for Ólafur’s and Álfdís’ marriage, Auður hosts a big feast. Laxdæla
recounts that Auður announces “that this house, and everything
in sight that goes with it” is to belong to her grandson and then
she retires to her bedchamber, encouraging her guests to con-
tinue enjoying themselves. Walking briskly down the hall, they
remark “how stately she still was.” The party carries on until late
in the evening but as Ólafur goes to wake his grandmother the
next day, she is dead, sitting upright in her bed. Laxdæla reads:
“Everyone thought it most impressive how Unn [Auður] had
kept her dignity to her dying day.”
While the Icelandic sagas and other medieval documents
cannot be relied upon as historical sources and are often contra-
dictive, Vilborg reads between the lines. “Overall, there are only
about ten pages where Auður and her family are mentioned.” But
there’s no doubt in her mind that Auður existed and was a great
leader. “She not only settles in Iceland but names and distributes
her land. That takes power. Only a leader does that,” she argues.
Auður’s shrewdness in escaping from a tight situation with all her
people and valuables is further evidence. “In Landnáma, Auður is
called djúpúðga but in Laxdæla djúpauðga. The former means ‘of a
deep mind’ but the latter ‘deep in wealth’—Auður was both.” *
HISTORY
Hvammur in Dalir, West Iceland,
where Auður built her manor.