Iceland review - 2016, Page 45

ICELAND REVIEW 43
and characterization, it may very well
have been written by a woman. There
are several other strong female char-
acters in the saga, including the only
woman to lead a settlement expedi-
tion to Iceland, Auður (or Unnur)
djúpúðga, and the enslaved Irish prin-
cess Melkorka Mýrkjartansdóttir, who
fooled her captors and rose to esteem.
Although Laxdæla is partly fiction-
al, scholars have argued that Guðrún
likely did exist in late 10th and early
11th century Iceland. Told and retold
through generations, the saga was even-
tually written down in the mid-13th
century, romanticized on the exam-
ple of European knight legends and
complemented with the author’s own
imagination.
HOMEWRECKER
“The most beautiful woman ever to
have grown up in Iceland, and no less
clever than she was good-looking. She
took great care with her appearance,
so much that the adornments of other
women were considered to be mere
child’s play in comparison. She was the
shrewdest of women, highly articulate,
and generous as well.”
This is how the author of Laxdæla pre-
sents Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, the heroine
of the story, following the obligatory
family saga. But Guðrún was hardly a
saint. She was also proud, self-centered
and vengeful.
At 15, a marriage was arranged between
Guðrún and her first suitor, Þorvaldur
Halldórsson. Unhappy with the arrange-
ment, Guðrún did her best to annoy her
husband and eventually divorced him on
the grounds that he wore women’s cloth-
ing, something she herself had tricked
him into. At that point, she had fallen
for a married man, Þórður Ingunnarson.
He had helped Guðrún plot her divorce
against Þorvaldur and now she wanted
him to leave his wife for her. Þórður
accused his wife of wearing men’s cloth-
ing and soon enough, Þórður was free to
marry Guðrún. However, the marriage
was short-lived, as a sorcerer caused
Þórður’s ship to wreck; drowning him.
Left widowed and pregnant, Guðrún
gave birth to a son, whom she named
Þórður and placed in the foster care
of Snorri goði Þorgrímsson, a family
friend.
ENTER KJARTAN AND BOLLI
Kjartan Ólafsson and Bolli Þorleiksson
had been raised together at the near-
by farm Hjarðarholt and cared deeply
for each other. There were close ties
between the families of Hjarðarholt and
Laugar, with Kjartan’s father, Ólafur
Höskuldsson, and Guðrún’s father,
Ósvífur Helgason, regularly inviting
each other to feasts. Kjartan visited
Guðrún often, bathing with her—and
Bolli—in Sælingsdalslaug. Once, Ólafur
told his son: “Your visits to the springs
at Laugar make me uneasy … Gudrun is
… the only woman I consider a worthy
match for you. But somehow I have a
feeling … that our dealings with the
Laugar family will not turn out well.”
The story might have had a happy
ending had Kjartan not decided to leave
Best friends and sworn brothers Kjartan Ólafsson and Bolli Þorleiksson visited Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir
regularly at Laugar, bathing with her in Sælingsdalslaug natural pool.