Orð og tunga - 2023, Qupperneq 12

Ármann Jakobsson: Cursing with trolls in Njáls saga 3
The main difference between the common image of trolls and what
we can discern from medieval texts is that the troll is now understood
as a particular category of otherworldly being, although its nature
may differ in the various Nordic cultures, and it has also changed
some what in the last two decades. In the medieval Norse texts, on
the other hand, the word ‘troll’ definitely does not denote a particu­
lar category of otherness, and this is precisely the issue that modern
readers often have with medieval words: they are in some cases used
less to categorise, although that does not mean they have a less fixed
signification (Ármann Jakobsson 2013).
2
The medieval meanings of ‘troll’ are several, but one of them is that
it may appear in a curse. One such instance, the topic of this study, is
from possibly the most renowned of all sagas, Njáls saga (composed
c. 1275–1280), when the heroic Gunnarr of Hlíðarendi, who has made
a name for himself abroad but then returned and entered into a mis­
guided marriage with Hallgerðr, rides to the annual summer parlia­
ment in Iceland, probably around the year 975. He admonishes his
new wife to be pleasant in his absence and not to attack his friends
in the region – mainly Njáll of Bergþórshváll, his wife Bergþóra, and
their son Skarpheðinn and his three brothers, all of whom have al­
ready turned out to be his friends but not necessarily hers. This ad­
vice is not well received by Hallgerðr, who responds very promptly
and eloquently: “Troll hafi þína vini” (The trolls take your friends)
(Brennu­Njáls saga 1954:92).
Gunnarr can see that it is useless to waste more words on her and
simply leaves without further ado. Hallgerðr, however, has no inten­
tion of being nice and follows up on her strong words by arranging
the slaying of a farmhand from the region, which in the end leads to
multiple killings of various labourers and a feud between Hlíðarendi
and the neighbouring Bergþórshváll that lasts for years.3 The escalat­
probably owes as much or more to the interpretations of the trolls in Scandinavian
folklore by influential authors such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis than to the actual
folklore itself.
3 On this episode in Njáls saga and on the structure of the saga in general, see e.g.
Lönnroth (1976); Kristján Jóhann Jónsson (1998). The first scholars to discuss the
gender discourse of Njáls saga in a critical manner, paving the way for fruitful
research, were Helga Kress (1979) and Dronke (1981).
tunga25.indb 3 08.06.2023 15:47:14