Hrafndaelar Saga - das Experiment
THE POWER OF THE WORD
Words and Reputation
To "begin to speak" is an important action in the Íslendingasögur, and the words of men can in turn generate actions, whether their own or those of others. People make a request and that request is either granted or denied. Consent involves an obligation which an individual must discharge; otherwise things will turn out badly. Refusal represents disrespect directed at the individual who has made the request. Agreements, breaches of agreements, threats, insults and challenges are all verbal events which can have unhappy consequences (Amory 1991). It would, however, be wrong to consider only the negative force of words. People are judged by the extent to which they are likely to stand by their pledged word. Keeping one's word was, of course, more important in a society less familiar with written documents and agreements than is the case today, but few would deny its importance even in modern society.
In many places in the Íslendingasögur we find a faith in the power of the word to a degree which is surprising to the modern mind. Words spoken without any evil intent can nevertheless have the direst consequences. There are many examples of prophecy and interpretation of dreams giving offence, even though the statements or claims are plausible and do indeed come true; it is as if men fear that dreams will come true through the very act of voicing an interpretation of them, or that spoken prophecy can help to bring about the event prophesied. One of the best examples of this is the end of Guðmundr the Powerful as narrated in Ljósvetninga saga. A man called Þórhallr, who has no other role in the saga, has a dream and then goes to Dream-Finni to have it interpreted. Finni has no wish to hear the dream, and tells Þórhallr to leave, urging him to speak with Guðmundr the Powerful. Guðmundr listens to the dream and dies almost immediately. His brother Einarr has an explanation for this: ""Your dream is not without some force, Thorhall_ said Einar. "Finni could see by looking at you that the man you told your dream to was doomed and he wished that on Gudmundr"" (ch. 21; iv 232). Dream-Finni was the brother of ìorkell the Insolent Whose death Guðmundr had brought about.
Belief in the power of the word is widespread in Grettis saga and is often connected with the proverbs of which the saga has such an abundance. When Grettir resolves to confront the ghost Glámr, he goes to meet his maternal uncle, Jökull Bárðarson, who advises him against the exploit, which he considers dangerous and foolhardy. Grettir is not convinced by this warning, and Jökull says:
"I can see there's no point in trying to dissuade you, but the saying is true, that fate and fortune do not always go hand-in-hand."
"Peril waits at a man's door, though another goes in before," said Grettir. "You should consider what fate you yourself will meet in the end."
Jokul replied, "We both may have some insight into the future, but neither of us can prevent it happening."
After this they parted ways, and neither was pleased with the other's predictions (ch. 34; ii 105).
It is, of course, also possible to interpret this kind of reaction to predictions and dream interpretations as meaning that the person about whom the prophecy is made believes that an evil thought or wish may accompany a bad prophecy.
The hypersensitivity of saga characters to what other people say often seems remarkable to the modern reader. The explanation lies in the faith placed in the power of the word and, at the same time, in the importance attached to what is said about people in a society which relentlessly measures the deeds and status of men, and which assigns honour or dishonour on the basis of such judgements. An insulting speech invariably produces a strong reaction, and the insulted party has the option of answering back. Failure to do so leaves him with no other choice than to seek redress either through compensation or violence, if he is not to lose face. Slander of every kind is much more dangerous, leading to vengeance directed at the original slanderer rather than at those who help to circulate the remarks though, in truth, both could end up as victims.
In the Eddic poems and legendary sagas there are several instances of characters exchanging insults with their enemies before a fight or, where circumstances prevent armed combat from taking place, as a means of venting their aggression. Such an exchange was known in Icelandic as a senna [flyting], and features prominently in the poetry of the ancient Germanic peoples. Most frequently the kernel of the exchange is an insult which casts doubt on the masculinity of one of the parties, often through accusations of an inclination towards same-sex relationships. It is an accusation of just this sort which leads finally to a breach of the settlement made after the killing of Höskuldr the Hvítaness chieftain. Flosi reads sexually insulting implications into a gift which Njáll has added to the agreed sum of compensation, and makes taunting reference to Njáll's lack of a beard, attributing it to his deficient masculinity. Skarpheðinn answers this with a still more brazen insult: "if you are the sweetheart of the troll at Svinafell, as is said, he uses you as a woman every ninth night" (ch. 123; iii 148). In law such a remark would justify a revenge killing, and the attempts to reach a mutually acceptable settlement come to nothing. Earlier Skarpheðinn had shown his verbal dexterity in a kind of flyting directed against a group of chieftains who had been reluctant to offer him support after Höskuldr's death. His accusations on that occasion, however, related more to their want of courage than to their sexuality, though in such exchanges these two elements were often closely linked. There is certainly no mistaking the sexual overtones of Skarpheðinn's jibe when he invites Þorkell the Insolent to pick from his teeth "the mare's arse you ate before riding to the Thing" (ch. 120; iii 144) because both mares and arses are frequently referred to in such insulting remarks.
Verbal skirmishing was measured as part of the continuous process of evaluation to which men's actions were subjected;in the honour and shame culture of the commonwealth period, and this is clearly the case in the Íslendingasögur, as many examples confirm. Bandamanna saga, probably composed around 1300, is remarkable for the extent to which its characters fight with words rather than with weapons, with the exception of the framework narrative about the unlucky Óspakr. In the comic account of the conflict between the elderly Ófeigr from Reykir in Miðfjörðr and the chieftains, the climax takes the form of confrontations at the Althing: first the mockery which Ófeigr directs at the chieftains, when he selects the arbitrators, and later the exchange of words between Egill Skúlason from Borg and the other chieftains when the terms of the arbitration are announced. The accusations here involve avarice, meanness and stupidity, depending on the individual concerned, and the chieftains are compelled to endure such accusations without redress. It is clear that they lost honour as a result of the case as a whole, and that includes Egill and Gellir whose support Ófeigr bought. They exhibited unseemly greed and indifference to justice; and subsequently they lacked the wit to see through Ófeigr's trickery. Those who suffer the most are the ones who have to endure the verbal mockery. The saga probably expects its readers to consider what the gossip of the countryside might have been after the events at the Thing, and who might have been the main targets for the derisive laughter."
Vesteinn Ólasson, Dialogues with the Viking Age
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