Jul 25, 2018 - inefficiency, and negative modelling in the Old Icelandic. Kormáks ... in time manied twice elsewhere, cools somewhat; and finally, when given a ... reputation and a lot of wealth (that is, two of the things any typical saga hero ... home, his father told him that he would not increase his reputation with more.
The unwelcome suitor: patriarchal norms, masculine inefficiency, and negative modelling in the Old Icelandic Kormáks Saga John Stephens Parergon, Volume 10, Number 2, December 1992, pp. 155-166 (Article)
Published by Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.1992.0095
For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/495268/summary
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The unwelcome suitor: patriarchal norms, masculine inefficiency, and negative modelling in the Old Icelandic Kormdks Saga The irony is that the object of the competition, whether it be sexual, material, intellectual or even spiritual, is virtually irrelevant. The 'winner' will usually spend all his time protecting his prize and never enjoy it—or he will discover that he does not want it after all. What he wanted, in fact needed, in order to construct himself as a masculine subject was the competition itself. Anne Cranney-Francis, Engendered Fictions (1992), p. 91
Kormdks Saga seems to pivot around the strangest tale of unrequited love in Old Icelandic literature. At the beginning of the saga, Korm&kr and Steingerdr share a mutual desire; when a marriage between them is ananged, Kormaicr fails to turn up; as the saga unfolds, he remains apparendy obsessed w h d e Steingerdr, in time manied twice elsewhere, cools somewhat; andfinally,when given a chance to be together at the end of the saga both decline. A simple story explanation is offered in chapters 5 and 6, namely that a witch's curse prevents them from ever consummating their mutual desire ('bau skyldi eigi njdtask mega'—'njdta' meaning 'enjoy' in both a general and sexual sense).1 But what does all this actually mean? Sagas are notorious for their absence of thematic statements. A contrast can be drawn with such a nanative as Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, which opens with two answers to a reader's initial question, 'What is thistextabout?': one a 'story' answer, that a particular character underwent particular experiences; the other a 'theme' answer, to do with a cycle in h u m a n hfe from sonow to joy and back to s o n o w again.2 The themes of sagas are more covertly inscribed, and much less certainly attributable to an authorial, or even narratorial, presence. Rather, they are an implicit product of thirteenth-century socio-cultural ideology. In Kormdks Saga traditional and pseudo-traditional materials, when appliedtoa love story, disclose the social construction of sexuality, locating this within a strongly normative mascuUne frame, with theresultthat deviance from approved modes of behaviour alienates the deviating person not just from normal society
1
Islenzk Fornrit 8, ed. Einar Ol. Sveinsson, Reykjavik, 1939, p. 223. All references are to this edition. The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, That was the kyng Priamus sone of Troye, In lovynge, h o w his aventures fellen Fro w o to wele, and after out of joie, M y purpos is, er that I parte fro ye ... (1-5) The Riverside Chaucer, gen. ed. Larry D . Benson, Oxford, 1988, p. 473.
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but even from normal sexual capacity or function. In these terms, Kormdks Saga functions as a negative example rather than as the story of an exemplary forebear. If considered as a framing structure, the beginning of Kormdks Saga is as thematically potent as the beginning of Troilus and Criseyde. The main function of the beginning of virtuaUy any saga is to set out its spatio-temporal frame of reference and to introduce some of the major characters, but Kormdks Saga presents this in the form of a set of implicit ideological paradigms expressed in the career of Qgmundr, Kormakr's father. Chapter 1 m a y be summarized thus: Q g m u n d r was an exemplary hero, w h o spent his summers as a viking and his winters at the royal court, and gained for himself a good reputation and a lot of wealth (that is, two of the things any typical saga hero seeks; the third is an advantageous marriage). O n one of his viking trips Q g m u n d r fought against a certain Asmundr, a daunting figure of great military reputation, w h o m he put to flight after a four-day battle. W h e n he returned home, his father told him that he would not increase his reputation with more viking trips, and added: 'mun ek fa" p6r konu, Helgu d6ttur Fr66a jarls' ('I will get you a wife, Helga, daughter of jarl Fr66T: p. 203. They paid Fr66i a visit to ask for Helga, and he agreed, even though he felt there was still some unfinished business in relation to Asmundr. The maniage took place, and Helga went h o m e with Qgmundr, bringing with her her foster-mother, w h o had the power of second sight; Asmundr n o w reappeared, challenging Q g m u n d r to a duel, which he accepted. Before the battle, Helga's foster-mother ran her hands over his body, and declared he would not come to m u c h harm. In a brief fight Asmundr struck the side of Qgmundr's body with his sword; it did not cut but Qgmundr replied by cutting off Asmundr's leg, thereby winning the duel. N o w , although this narrative embodies very obvious socio-cultural assumptions and practices, its actual events are of no direct relevance to the events the saga subsequently deals with, except, perhaps, for providing a distinguished father-figure for Kormakr. In chapter 2, Qgmundr's wife and the child from the marriage both die, and he himself emigrates to Iceland because he is unhappy with the political situation in Norway following the death of Haraldr harfagri ('fine-hair'); there he remarries, and Kormakr is bom. But this nanative can also be seen to have a thematic function, in that it affirms a socio-sexual ideology against which the younger Kormakr is to be situated. Qgmundr's reward for being an exemplary hero istoget the girl, more success, more wealth. His son Kormakr is m u c h less successful, and w e can see his story foreshadowed in three aspects of the opening narrative. First thetextreifies Helga as a reward for masculine accomplishment and, as is usual, she is disposed of entirely by a process of masculine negotiation, here between her father and future father-in-law. She is implicidy complicit
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Marriages in the sagas, reflecting thirteenth-century practice, normally came about after the suitor or his representative approached the woman's father or an appropriate male close relative (in effect her legal guardian, as the law-book Grdgds makes clear); it was not necessary to seek the woman's consent or even inform her of the proposal. This procedure is never directiy commented on within sagas, even w h e n it is not followed, but there are strong unenunciated rules and implicit comments in narrative outcomes. A s Roberta Frank points out 4 in the family sagas relatives of marriageable w o m e n tend to seek bloodvengeance on any m a n w h o undertakes direct courtship without a prompt proposal of marriage, and most courtships resented by the woman's family end with the death of the suitor. Further, although marriages represented in sagas often break down, those arranged by the couples themselves or by the w o m e n of the families invariably break down. That is, a prerequisite for a marriage to succeed is that it must be an arrangement between consenting males. Frank suggests that the narrative function of the episodes depicting direct courtship 'is strictly Uterary:toinitiate a conflict',5 but they also articulate a social value and procedure. It is precisely these social forms which are to be repeatedly breached by Kormakr. Second, an agential role is assigned to a w o m a n with some kind of supernatural facility, w h e n the bride's foster-mother runs her hands over Qgmundr's body, and predicts that no harm will c o m e to him, though there is also a possible implication that she ensures that no harm comes to him. The sagas are often carefully ambiguous about the distinction between prediction and causality. At the least though, there is an implication that Q g m u n d r is receiving some kind of benediction from a female figure of otherworldly power who stands in a special relationship with his n e w bride: she bestows power on him. Q g m u n d r then easily overcomes, by a simple stratagem of feinting then changing sword-hand, an opponent w h o himself has a limited invincibility. This c o m m o n motif in descriptions of hand-to-hand combat is connected with the third aspect discussed below. Later in the saga, Kormakr, because of his endemic incapacity to grasp his society's construction of female roles, will repeatedly experience battle with the witch-power aligned against him. Third, Asmundr's challenge is m a d e in response to the news of Qgmundr's marriage, and this gives it a socio-sexual focus. The incident is modeUed on the
3
Roberta Frank, 'Marriage in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Iceland', Viator 4 (1973), 473-84; Jenny M . Jochens, 'Consent in Marriage: Old Norse Law, Life, and Literature', 58 (1986), 142-76. 4 See above, n. 3. 5 Ibid., p. 476.
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narrative schema of 'the berserk suitor':6 a berserkr demands a man's wife, sister, or daughter, and challenges him to a duel w h e n he refuses; the berserkr is supposedly invulnerable to iron, but the hero, by means of a ruse or special weapon, defeats him—often, as here, by cutting off a leg. The schema thus constructs w o m e n as sexual property and links male sexuality with martial skill. The outcome of the duel is a further confirmation of Qgmundr's male potency, but when versions of the schema subsequently appear throughout Kormdks Saga in response to very clumsily conducted arguments about w o m e n they tend to become parodic. The relevance of the opening incident for the rest of the saga seems to be confirmed in the second-last chapter, where Kormakr rescues Steinger6r from a viking band led by Asmundr's son, borsteinn, though Steingeitir is rescued by stealth and murder and Kormakr and borsteinn don't actuady meet. In chapter 3, Kormakr falls in love with Steingerfjr when he sees her at the farm where she is being fostered. It is an unusual and highly aberrant incident which places Kormakr at odds with social ideology on three counts, all of which are confirmed as the saga unfolds: first, he is driven only by physical desire; second, he courts Steingeror outside the proper, customary codes; and third, he is her social inferior. T o overlook thefirstis to misread the saga, as attempts to ground a union on desire and physical attraction 'carry authorial disapproval' in the sagas.7 The paradigmatic example is the marriage of G u n n a n and Hallgeror in Njdls Saga. W h e n at the end of the same chapter Kormakr asks his mother to make fine clothes for him so that Steinger6r will find him attractive, thus reinforcing hisfirstfault she responds by raising the other two issues. Both are also very evident w h e n )>orkell, Steinger6r's father, regarding Kormalcr's attentions as 'a dishonour to himself and his daughter' ('bykkir .ser horfa til 6vir6ingar ok dottur sinni': p. 216), takes appropriate saga action and recruits the sons of boiveig, a local witch, to kill Kormakr. In the meantime, in a strange episode, borkell, expecting a visit from Kormakr, has a drawn sword placed on one side of the doorway and a long-handled scythe on the other side; when Kormakr enters, the scythe falls and chips a great piece out of the sword. Thereupon )>orkell roundly abuses him, leads Steingerfir from the room, and locks her up in an outside building. Kormakr's relationship with Steingerfir's father here reaches its lowest ebb, and this seems to be symbolized in the sword and the scythe. The damage to the sword appears to signify the dishonour 6
For a discussion of this theme see Benjamin Blaney, 'The Berserk Suitor: tbe Literary Application of a Stereotyped Theme', Scandinavian Studies, 54 (1982), 27994. •7
Jenny M . Jochens, 'Before the Male Gaze: The Absence of the Female Body in Old Norse', in Sex in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, ed. Joyce E. Salisbury, New York, 1991, pp. 3-29 (p. 7).
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borkell is experiencing: on the one hand, it points to their difference in social standing; on the other, it perhaps signifies Jtorkell's wounded masculinity, as Kormakr continues to trample on his paternal authority. Swords seem to be imbued with m u c h symbolic force in this saga; the precise meaning of this symbolism is often obscure, though it usually seems to be closely connected with aspects of masculinity. Returning h o m e after breaking open the building where Steingeror has been shut up, Kormakr is attacked by the hired assassins and kills both, and soon after orders their mother to leave the district. Her revenge is to lay the curse upon him. This is a vital element in the text since the saga overtly attributes Kormakr's failure ever to consummate the relationship to this curse, and the curse has its ultimate cause in his deviant behaviour. W h e n , soon afterwards, Kormakr smoothes things over with borkell and a marriage is ananged, he fails to appear on the day because once everything has been ananged hefindsnothing in it to interest him ('fannsk Kormaki fatt um': p. 223), and this has come about because of borveig's spell. N o w , what I wish to argue is that the witchcraft functions as a formal device located at story level offering a simplistic explanation of events, whereas what is represented is rather a re-encoding into such devices of assumptions concerning patriarchal control of society. The absence of thematic pointing from sagas means that w e have to piecetogethera meaning from a sequence of contiguous events, and see that the curse relates not just on the story level to the death of the witch's sons, but on the ideological level to the social symbolism of the chipped sword. This, I think, is w h y the curse is invoked by thetextwhen the marriage fails to take place. Superficially, the accord reached between the two m e n might have represented a containment of Kormakr's social deviancy within the dominant patriarchal ideology; instead, he turns out to be radicaUy deviant, incapable of desire once the barriers have been removed. At the same time, though, it can also be argued that he has been afflicted with sexual dysfunction because he has been flaunting social authority and his accord with borkell was only a means to an e n d — ' o k fyrir sakar Steingerfiar gaf Kormakr borkatli gjafar' ('for Steingeror's sake Kormakr gave borkell gifts': p. 223). When, soon afterwards, Steingeror's father and brother marry her off without any consultation or even any warning until the evening before the marriage takes place, Kormakr's interest is immediatelyrevived,and through the rest of the saga his desire is constantiy whetted by his awareness of Steinger8r's husband(s). Here he goes in pursuit of the wedding-party as soon as he hears the news and demands to be given Steingeror. W h e n her husband, Bersi, offers instead to arrange a marriage between Kormakr and his sister Helga, a w o m a n described as attractive and quite incomparable, KonnSki is given a further opportunity to function within societal norms, in the form of a marriage agreement m a d e
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between m e n with the w o m a n in question embodying a pact of peace. But he declines the offer and instead challenges Bersitoa duel. This duel is, thematically speaking, diametrically opposed to the duel in the first chapter of the saga, and it encapsulates all that is amiss with Kormakr. The comment m a d e by his mother, Dalla, w h e n she hears of it is the closest the saga comes to an overt linking between the individual and the social construction of sexuality: 'Lltt verfir oss gaefu audit u m bin forlgg, b vi at bar hefir bu neitt inum bezta kosti, en mjok dvaent at berjask vifi Bersa; hann er garpr mikill ok hefir g66 vapn.' (p. 234) ("There will be little good fortune for us as far as your destiny goes, since you have refused the best of maniages, and Bersi will be very difficult tofightagainst he is a greatfighterand has good weapons.') A s is often the case with such destinal remarks, it couples the conceptual, or ideological, and the pragmatic, and as the preparations and the duel itself are described the two become increasingly interchangeable. T o counter an excellent sword owned by Bersi (and k n o w n as Hvftingr), Dalla suggests that Kormakr borrow a special sword named Skofnungr from Mififjarfjar-Skeggi. Swords have more than names, however: they have magical attributes, and they reflect the personalities of their owners. Skeggi's reluctance to lend the sword, because it is 'tomlatr' ('deliberate': p. 235) whereas Kormakr is '681atr ok661unda6r* ('rash and impetuous'), again underlines K o r m & r ' s social deviance, glancing not just at his temperament but also at the behaviour which stems from it. The special instructions for using the sword are very revealing, as the following example shows: 'Vandhoefi m u n per a" pykkja meoTerfiinni,' segir Skeggi; 'pungr fylgir, ok skaltu hann kyrran lata; eigi skal s61 skfna a it efra hjaltit, eigi skaltu ok bera bat nema bu buisktilvfgs.' (p. 235) ('It m a y be difficult for you to manage it' said Skeggi. 'A pouch goes with it and you are not to touch that. T h e sun must not shine on the hdt above; and you are not to bear it except when ready to do battle.') These are very palpable phallic motifs, hedged about with prohibitions and permissions,8 so that Skeggi appears to be lending Kormakr his masculine prowess and outlining the conditions within which it becomes actualized.9 W h e n Kormakr attempts to unsheath the sword as soon as be gets h o m e and, o
The word used for the pouch is pungr, which also means "testicles'. There is an analogy in Grettis Saga, ch. 75, when Grettir responds in verse to a servant-woman's derogatory remarks about the size of his penis. H e twice refers to it as his 'sword' ('sverti')—his 'hairy sword' ('sverf i hari*) and his litde sword' ('svertHitinn')—and boasts about the size of his testicles ('hre6jar'): see Grettis Saga, ed. Gufini J6nsson, Islenzk Fornrit 7, Reykjavik, 1936, pp. 239-41. The gesture thus functions as a more tangible version of the c o m m o n saga motif whereby a greater m a n lends his 'luck' to a lesser.
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failing to do so, graphically puts a foot on the hilt and rips the pouch off ('sett ba foetrna vifi hjoltin ok slftr af punginn': p. 235), the symbolic self-castration signifies his o w n disabled masculinity. Self-disabling begins to emerge as an overt motif w h e n it occurs again in the farcical duel which follows, the first parody of the 'duel-against-anunwelcome-suitor' schema. The two m e n fight under the mie that thefirstto bleed is declared the loser after several blows had been exchanged (during which Skofnungr has become notched), Kormakr slices the point off Bersi's sword, but in doing so is struck on the thumb by theflyingfragment and so loses the duel. Neither m a n comes out of the encounter with any honour, since Kormakr's injury is effectively self-inflicted; once again, swords function symbolically, the damagetoeach encoding the wounds inflicted on the masculinity of their bearers. Having linked the two men, the saga n o w reconstructs Bersi as a masculine model functioning as a counterpoint to Kormakr. Butfirsthe reaches rock bottom. H efightsanother duel and n o w loses, this duel being with Steinan, an uncle of KormaTcr's. Before the duel Steinan had snatched from Bersi's neck a pouch ('pungr': p. 249) in which he carries a healing-stone. This stone and pouch apparently have the same relationship to Bersi's sword, Hvftingr, as did the pouch for Skeggi's sword. Hvftingr fads him, he is badly wounded in the buttock and thigh, and, recuperating slowly without his stone, is divorced by Steingerdr because he is a 'cripple' ('kvezk eigi vilja eigi Bersa orkumlafian: p. 254). F r o m this nadir of masculine inefficiency, Bersi rebuilds his reputation: his stone is returned to him and he recovers, and he then kills several people, notable amongst w h o m is Steingeror's brother ( w h o m Bersi kills, using Hvftingr, in a dispute over Steingeror's property). That Hvftingr is specifically mentioned in two of Bersi's slayings reflects his regained masculinity. B y contrast KormaTcr's attempt to repair the notch in Skofnungr by re-sharpening the sword only exacerbates the flaw. The contrast between Bersi and Kormakr is taken still further w h e n Bersi acquires a n e w wife with a substantial dowry as part of a peace pact; that she is the sister of a potential enemy, and that the agreement is m a d e when the two m e n were confronting each other with drawn swords, functions as a comment on Bersi's o w n offer of his sister to Kormakr and implicitly recalls Kormakr's self-inflicted womanless state, which has been brought about by his o w n rejection of normal social processes. The final w a y in which Bersi's career mocks Kormakr's is through an incident in chapters 15-16 involving the 'unwelcome suitor' schema, an episode whose structural and thematicrelationshipto the rest of the saga resembles that of chapter 1. These chapters centre on a young w o m a n n a m e d Stein vor mj6beina ('slender-ankles'), whose n a m e recalls the circumstances in which
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Kormakrfirstsaw Steingeror.10 Steinvor's father, Oddr, has become involved in an idle argument over w h o is the best m a n in the district H e proposes Bersi, another man, a certain bully-boy n a m e d borarinn, and Oddr makes some pejorative remarks about borarinn, to w h o m the argument is later reported, to ill effect Sffian ferr borarinn ok tekr f brott Steinvoru 6r Tungu an r£6i Odds, fofiur henner, ok kve6r h o n u m eigi 6haett skyldu, ef hann teBi at. (p. 257) (After that borarinn went and took Steinvor away from Tongue without the consent of Oddr, her father, and said that he would put himself at risk if he complained about it) W h e n Oddr turns to Bersi for help, Bersi is again drawn into a situation involving the acquisition of a w o m a n against the normal societal procedures. He kills borarinn, again with Hvftingr, spears his three sons to death, and, of course, rescues Steinvor—whom he then keeps for himself, with her father's implicit consent (and to his wife's chagrin, but concubinage occurs frequendy in sagas). The message again seems to be clear: the w o m a n , however desirable in her o w n person, is an object to be used in relationship to male concerns about reputation, power, and social bonding, borarinn is a villain, and accordingly punished, for his contempt of the normal procedures by which w o m e n are disposed of; Bersi is once more a hero, and his society's patriarchal structure rewards him accordingly. Steinvor subsequendy becomes the more favoured of the two w o m e n in Bersi's household, a shift effected by representing bordis, Bersi's wife, as resistant to another bonding custom of patriarchal Icelandic society, the fostering of other people's children. The text then shows no disapproval w h e n Bersi's last act in the saga is to use Steinvor to set up an ambush in which Bersi kills his wife's brother, thus removing the last possible threat to his well-being. The essentially self-contained nanative of Bersi's life after his divorce thus constitutes a model of masculine efficiency. Its index is the abundance in which he acquires honour, property, and women. W h e n the saga returns to the story of Kormakr and Steingeror in chapter 17, it is with an account of Steingeror's next marriage and Kormaler's consequent renewed attentions. Her n e w husband, borvaldr, is described as being rich, skilled with his hands, a poet and no hero ('maflr aufiigr ok hagr, skaTd ok engi skQrungr I skaplyndi': p. 263), and his family is not generaUy popular. The first three descriptors are conventional positive attributes, but the whole set indicates a limited masculine efficiency, especially if compared with Bersi's. The report u
The coincidence may lie elsewhere, however. Jochens, who also links these two w o m e n , suggests that climate dictated that the Icelandic (female) body would lie beneath 'multiple layers of coarse wool': 'Before the Male Gaze', p. 21; perhaps, then, an 'almost Victorian focus' on the ankle (her n. 70) comes astittlesurprise.
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of the marriage states both that it w a s arranged through normal patriarchal procedure and that Steingeror did not oppose it ('at fraenda r&6i var hon h o n u m gefin ok ekki m e 6 hennar ntotmaeli': p. 264). Citation of Steingerdr's passive complicity here has lasting implications for the rest of the saga. A s Jochens has shown, 11 female consent to a marriage was important neither in thirteenthcentury Icelandic society nor in its Uterature. Steinger6r had unsuccessfuUy attempted to prevent her surprise marriage to Bersi, but now, in showing persistent loyalty towards borvaldr despite frequenttemptation,her behaviour in the saga increasingly upholds societal patriarchal norms, borvaldr is a complex figure, a potentially deconstructive element within the dominant ideology, but ultimately he represents another form of masculine inefficiency. H e is a gende person in a male-dominated society which tends to despise gendeness; what he principally has on his side, apart from having obtained Steingeror by the proper processes, is patience, a lack of concern for questions of honour, and trust in Steingeror herself. In these respects there is atellingjuxtaposition in chapters 19 and 20. In the former, Kormakr, having just returned from a trip abroad, waylays Steingerdr whtie she is ttaveUing by horseback. While they are talking they lose their horses and have to pass the night at a nearby farm, where they sleep in beds separated by a thin partition, and engage in a contrapuntal verse/prose dialogue—that is, Kormakr composes four poems expressing sexual longing, and Steingerdr replies negatively to each. Indeed, her resistance increases until she finally avers that she would never have sex with him if she could help it because of his failure to take her w h e n he should have. This chapter offers the clearest representation of Kormaler's sexual inefficiency: he verbalizes desire in eloquent and beautiful verse, but there is always a barrier between desire and fulfilment—beyond the barriers of the partition and Steinger6r's unwillingness lies the barrier of the social structure to which Kormakr will not conform. Against this situation, chapter 2 0 sets two incidents. First societal expectation also puts its pressure on borvaldr, when he is reproached for aUowing visits from Kormakr and defends himself by making a distinction between apparent and actual loss of honour ('tizk m 6 r skammlaust bdtt tali', 'there seems to m e no dishonour in it if they talk together': p. 277). But patriarchy demands the appearance of control, and thisfirstincident produces the second, w h e n borvaldr, his brother borvarfir, and Narfi commission a sexuaUy explicit lampoon about Steingeror and falsely attribute it to Kormakr. The poem, which depicts Steingeror as a mare in heat has its primary desired effect of making her enraged against Kormakr, though it also has two other implications within the legal and social structures of Scandinavian patriarchy:
1
'Consent in Marriage', passim; see also her 'The Medieval Icelandic Heroine: Fact or Fiction?',Viator 17 (1986), 35-50.
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the lampoon is potentially a serious legal transgression, and if it had been of Kormakr's composing he would have been liable to outlawry; and it further mocks him with the sexual liaison he seems unable to achieve. The upshot is a series of messy and unsatisfactory exchanges and duels between Kormakr and borvarCr, in which Kormakr always maintains the upper hand, but which are again characterized by inefficiency. Before this, during his journeys to the continent and the British Isles, Kormakr was reported to have distinguished himself heroically, in accordance with the narrative schema of 'the Icelander abroad'. But now, in the duels with borvardr, an obviously inferiorfighter,the outcomes are never very decisive, and I suggest that this is because in this context both m e n are negative models of mascutine efficiency. Their conflict is worked through as another parodic variation on the 'unwelcome suitor' schema— parodic because Steingerdr is a cause, but not a prize, and because, although there is a witch to blunt the edge of Kormakr's sword, borvardr is too inept to make use of the advantage (Kormakr simply thumps him until some bones break). After this sequence the 'unwelcome suitor' schema dominates the concluding chapters of the saga. In chapter 24 the three parties concerned in the triangle travel (simultaneously) to Norway, and Kormakr escalates his attentions, alternating between protecting Steingerdr from 'unwelcome suitor'figuresand playing the 'unwelcome suitor' role himself. In one incident he gives Steingerdr two kisses, for which he has to pay damages to borvaldr; in Norway, he intervenes when some vikings plan to rob borvaldr and abduct Steingerdr; but the next time he sees Steingerdr he kisses her fourtimes,and the time after that he manifestly adopts the role of the 'unwelcome suitor' and attempts to abduct her forcibly. In chapter 25 Steingerdrfinallybreaks out of the female passivity which is her role by social custom: when, sailing close together in separate ships, Kormakr assaults borvaldr with thetillerand knocks him unconscious, she responds by taking over the steering of the ship and ramming and sinking Kormakr's ship. This presages the end of the 'affair' between Kormakr and Steingerdr, which is precipitated when borsteinn's vikings rob borvaldr and carry off Steingerdr. The genealogical tink perhaps seems a litde forced, but it does remind readers that these incidents are connected to the beginning of the saga by theme as well as by coincidence. Before attempting a rescue, Kormakr drives h o m e borvaldr's insufficiency in a cruel catechism: Kormakr spyn: 'Hvat er at ordit er Steingerdr i hrottu?' borvaldr segir: 'Brottu er Steingerdr ok f6 vail aUt.' Kormakr mslti: 'Hvf sceki ber eigi eptir?' borvaldr segir: 'Eigi hofuv6raflatil'.Kormakr maelti: 'Segir pti 6matt Jnnn a?' )>orvaldr segir: 'Eigi hofu ver brektilat berjask vid borstein, en ef bu hefir afla til, seek jju bertilhanda.' (p. 296) (Kormakr asks, 'What has happened? Has Steingerdr gone?' borvaldr says, 'Steingerdr has gone, and all our property.' Kormakr said, 'Why
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haven't you tried to get her back?' borvaldr said, ' W e haven't the power to do that' Kormakr said, 'Are you admitting your weakness?' borvaldr says, ' W e haven't the strengthtofightagainst borsteinn, but if you have the power you try to get her for yourself.') That night Kormakr and his brother borgils row out to the almost deserted viking ship. Steingerdr has already been 'married' off to one of the vikings and is with him on the ship; the brothers slay him and carry her back to shore. I quote the aftermath in full: Kormakr... foerir borvaldi Steingerdi. borvaldr bad Steingerdi nu fara med Kormaki; sagdi hann drengiliga hafa eptir s6tt. Kormakr kvad pat vilja sinn. Steingerdr kvazk ekki skyldu kaupa u m knifa. Kormakr kvad ok ekki bess m u n d u audit verda; kvad illar vaettir bvf snimma skint hafa eda 6skop ... Kormakr bad Steingerdi fara m e d bonda slnum. (pp. 297-98) (Kormakr ... brings Steingerdr to borvaldr. borvaldr n o w told Steingerdr to go with Kormakr; he said he had rescued her like a man. Kormakr said that was his desire. Steingerdr said she was not to be traded like a knife. A n d Kormakr said they were not fated to be together; he said that evil spirits or a contrary destiny had prevented it from the outset... Kormakr told Steingerdr to go with her husband.) The breaking of the triangle occurs under great pressure from previous incidents in the text Like Bersi before him, Kormakr has acted in the place of a weaker m a n to regain a lost woman/possession, killed the woman's illicit possessor, and received as his reward the object of the quest. But it cannot be paid, and I think this is because both m e n involved have failed to conform to the mores of patriarchal power structure: borvaldr lacks the power to bestow Steingerdr, and Kormakr lacks the power to take her w h e n the patriarchal prohibition is lifted. Ironically, then, power in the situation has passed to Steingerdr herself, w h o is no longer prepared to be passed from hand to hand like an object W h e n she was on the viking ship, the language used to relate h o w the vikings had disposed of her was the language of marriage: she had been 'gipt manni' ('given in maniage to a man': p. 296), w h o as he is being killed is designated 'brudgumi' ('bridegroom') (the marital terms also imply that the 'marriage' was actually being consummated when Kormakr and borgils arrived, which would explain the man's fatiure to offer any resistance). The death of this viking doubles that of borarinn at Bersi's hands, a punishment for the anti-social appropriation of the w o m a n . The attempt to re-dispose of Steingerdr, however, fails as an attempt to assimilate action back into the dominant ideology: its proximity to the viking 'maniage' only discloses h o w these two 'disposals of the w o m a n ' are defective isomorphs of the heroically patriarchal pattern established in the saga's opening chapter. N o n e of these m e n can be allowed to possess Steingerdr (whether sexually or as property) because their deviations from societal norms render them unfit to do so. All that remains for Kormakr to
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do n o w is go adventuring and to meet his death in another act of impetuous folly. The outcome of the story of Kormakr and Steingerdr, situated in the narrative contexts of socially approved paradigms of masculinity and procedures for marital arrangements, thus suggests that the structuring ideologies are not merely a cultural given which informs the saga but are social values which the saga implicitly promulgates. John Stephens School of English and Linguistics Macquarie University
