The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1981, Blaðsíða 24

22
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING, 1981
provides an interesting insight into what he
thought was good or bad behavior. To go to
Vinland was a dangerous and ambitious
undertaking. All the people that were
tempted to go were driven by a need for
something they thought would enhance their
position. They all fared differently; some
were successful, others were found want-
ing. The outcome of their voyage was in
direct relationship to their motives, their
ability to display leadership and their sense
of honour.
The most interesting contrast that Graen-
lendinga Saga offers is perhaps between the
two women, Gudrid and Freydis. Gudrid is
womanly virtue incarnated. Although her
entrance into the story is somewhat lacking
in dignity, being found shipwrecked on a
skerry, the author is at great pains to de-
scribe how attractive and what a wonderful
woman she is. “Gudrid was a woman of
striking appearance. She was very intelli-
gent and knew well how to conduct herself
among strangers.” (p. 62) If one were to
judge from the saga for a woman to know
how to behave was to be totally self-
effacing. Gudrid certainly knew her place.
She never asserted herself in any discernible
way and when asked for her hand in mar-
riage, she demurely referred to the head of
the household though as a widow she had
every right to decide for herself. The only
thing that attests to her stature and will is the
fact that she must have been one of the most
widely travelled women in her day. She
lived in Greenland, North America and Ice-
land and ended her days by going on a pil-
grimage to Rome.
Freydis on the other hand is the complete
opposite. She is not hiding her lust for
power and is introduced into the story as an
arrogant, overbearing woman married to a
feeble man.
It has been said that the sagas abound in
influential women. Very few of them, how-
ever, ever went out and did anything on their
own. Any direct influence on the action is
generally either through husbands or sons
and most often with disruptive effect on the
social order. Women’s role in society was
clearly meant to be limited to their own
households. Freydis knew no such restric-
tions. When she negotiated with the two
brothers about the voyage to Vinland and
later when she leased the houses from her
brother, she had clearly, from the saga
writers’ point of view, overstepped her role
as a woman and usurped that of a man. But
as a woman she cannot completely fulfill
that role. Being unwilling to endure the re-
strictions society put on her as a woman, she
was not likely to endure willingly those put
on men by a manly code of honour. In Vin-
land the people found themselves in a situ-
ation where the will of the strongest one is
law. Freydis was no doubt the most power-
ful person in that expedition and she knew
no limits. First she wanted a bigger share;
then she did not want a share at all. Claiming
to have been dishonoured, she threatened
divorce if her husband did not kill the
members of the other group. When the men
refused to kill the defenseless women, she
having no such scruples, picked up the axe
and killed them herself. Thus earning the
reputation of being the most evil woman in
all saga literature.
Contest between Christ and Thor
in Eirik’s saga
Eirik’s saga is a good deal longer than
Graenlendinga saga and more detailed.
Direct quotes being mostly one liners in
Graelendinga saga have given way to fairly
long conversations. Thus the author was
able to outline his characters more fully and
did not find it necessary to contrast them
merely by trying them out one after another
in successive voyages to Vinland. He,
therefore, recounts only three trips ar-
ranging the material so as to make the role of
Leif the Lucky and Thorfinn Karlsefni the
most important.
Moreover, in Eirik’s saga religion, espe-