The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1981, Qupperneq 19

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
17
She did not try to avenge herself by hurting
or killing this man. She simply ignores him,
squanders all his money, and then leaves
him and gets herself another lover. The fact
that this second man was already happily
married was to her a matter of no import-
ance. She encourages him successfully to
leave his wife so that she herself could
marry him. But shortly thereafter this man
was drowned. In the meantime Kjartan and
his brother Bolli had been in Norway. Bolli
returns stating that Kjartan will most likely
remain in Norway, and that he is on very
intimate terms with Ingibjorg, the sister of
King Olaf. After a while Bolli proposes
marriage to the already twice married
Gudrun, and she accepts him reluctantly,
still thinking of Kjartan, her childhood
lover. Then all of a sudden Kjartan returns,
the royal romance having come to an end.
Finding Gudrun married to his foster-
brother, Bolli, he does everything in his
power to insult and hurt the newly married
couple, until Gudrun can endure it no lon-
ger, and takes matters into her own hand.
She now plans and puts into execution the
most dastardly plan of which there is a
record in the otherwise bloodbespattered
saga literature. She makes her husband and
brothers ambush and kill Kjartan. At first
Bolli objected to this plan since it involved
the slaying of his best friend and step-
brother. Gudrun agrees with him that this is
an unfortunate and embarrassing situation,
but quietly expresses her disappointment at
having a man for a husband who lacks the
courage to vindicate his wife’s honour, but
that since such is the case she will forthwith
leave his board and bed. She knew that this
was his weak spot, as he loved her dearly.
Bolli surrenders, and later that same day
kills Kjartan with his own hands. He comes
home crestfallen, and tells the sordid news
to his wife. Gudrun seemed highly pleased,
but expressed a sentiment which was both
vile and contemptible: “What I think is
most important is that Hrefna (Kjartan’s
wife) will not go smiling to bed tonight. ’ ’ Of
course this led to a chain of revenge and
counter revenge, costing Bolli his life, with
several other men, leaving Gudrun a chance
to marry the fourth time. But this marriage
— like her second one — was terminated by
the man’s accidental drowning.
As Gudrun grows older she is left with her
many unpleasant memories. She speaks of
her four husbands to one of her sons, one of
whom was worthless, one wealthy, one
wise, and the fourth a great lawman. “But
which one of them did you love the most?”
asked her son. After some evasion and hesi-
tation she says softly: “I was worst to him
whom I loved most.” This is one of the
famous “last words” of an important per-
sonality, and they have become the theme of
endless stories and plays in many lan-
guages, analysing and elaborating on the
eternal love triangle. Some Icelandic writers
have gone into ecstasy over Gudrun Osvi-
fursdottir. William Morris, a well known
English poet immortalized her in English
literature in 1968 by writing in her honor a
very sentimental and romantic poem of
5000 lines, entitled “The Lovers of
Gudrun”.
According to the record Gudrun became
very religious in her old age; she even be-
came the first Icelandic nun, and spent much
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