Les Demoiselles D'Islande: On the Representation of Women in the of Icelanders

by

Christopher W. E. Crocker

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of

The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Icelandic Language and Literature

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg

Copyright © 2011 by Christopher W. E. Crocker ii

As the sweetapple reddens on a high branch high on the highest branch and the applepickers forgot – no, not forgot: were unable to reach - Sappho

Words bounce. Words, if you let them, will do what they want to do and what they have to do. - Anne Carson

Conversation strives toward silence, and the listener is really the silent partner. The speaker receives meaning from him; the silent one is the unappropriated source of meaning. ... For the speaker speaks in order to let himself be converted. He understands the listener despite the flow of his own speech; he realizes that he is addressing someone whose features are inexhaustibly earnest and good, whereas he, the speaker, blasphemes against language. - Walter Benjamin

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. - Ludwig Wittgenstein mæli þarft eða þegi - Hávamál iii

For my grandparents, Elizabeth and Ellis Crocker, and Mary and W. I. Hann. iv

ABSTRACT

For much of the history of scholarship, questions of origins, the role of feud, kinship, and the structure of the society, and its institutions, have been fertile grounds for research. As such, the female characters – who were certainly less overtly prominent in the settlement of the country as outlined in the texts, as well as in the public and institutional structures – have often been overlooked as subjects of in depth scholarly enquiry. Turning a sharp gaze upon three particular characters, from three different sagas: Auðr from Gísla saga, Guðrún from Laxdæla saga, and Hallgerður from Njáls saga, and entering upon a comparative analysis of the introductions, marriages, and divorces – if applicable – of the characters, this study refutes the archetypical models under which these characters are sometimes studied, and examines the idea of marriage, contrary to its commonly perceived function, as largely a destabilizing force. v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For their enlightening, inspirational, and understanding guidance during the completion of this project I wish to offer my sincerest gratitude to Professor Birna Bjarnadóttir of the University of Manitoba, and to Professor Ármann Jakobsson of Háskóli Íslands. Furthermore, I cannot possibly fail to mention the three years of literature studies that I have taken under Birna's direction – a teacher to whom I owe more than I am able to express. I would additionally like to thank my Icelandic language instructors, Elín Una Jónsdóttir, Sigrún Steingrímsdóttir, and Peter John Buchan, whose tireless work has opened up a new world to me, as well as Darlene McWhirter for her matchless efforts in assisting with the numerous administrative issues and tasks that I – like most other graduate students – have faced along the way. I also wish to acknowledge the University of Manitoba, the Manitoba Provincial Government, and Mr. James and Mrs. Sandra Pitblado, under whose financial support this project was completed. Likewise, the resources of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library at the University of Manitoba, and Landbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn at Háskóli Íslands have been indispensable toward the completion of the present work. Finally, it would be impossible to forget, though it is likewise impossible to measure, the share that a wide network of family and friends – by no means exclusive of those mentioned above – have played in the completion of this piece, both directly and indirectly, wittingly and unwittingly. As an exhaustive list of these individuals would surely extend this note to an unreasonable length, along with my grandparents, to whom this work is dedicated, I wish to acknowledge my parents Mairi and James Crocker, whose unwavering, seemingly indestructible support has too often been overlooked; but, what is to be expected when two people administer their comfort, encouragement, and love with such a masterfully deft touch that your often not sure that they've done anything at all. vi CONTENTS

Abstract ...... iv

Acknowledgements ...... v

Contents ...... vi

Chapter I – Early Saga Scholarship ...... 1 The Origin of Species ...... 3 The origins of medieval Icelandic literary scholarship – The book-prose versus free-prose debate – Icelandic nationalism and oral tradition.

Author! Author! ...... 8 The Icelandic School – Icelandic nationalism and literary tradition – The birth of the saga author.

Schoolhouse Rock ...... 13 Responses to the Icelandic School – The European, the Norwegian, and the Ethical-Aesthetic schools.

Chapter II – Recent Scholarly Trends ...... 18 Matter + Form ...... 18 The first structuralist approach in saga scholarship – The re- blossoming of structuralism – Late structuralist and formal methods.

The Meanness of Reality ...... 21 Early anthropological approaches to the sagas – Extending the structuralist method – The anthropological-literary perspective.

Independent Women ...... 25 The historical, proud Nordic woman – As an undeveloped area of scholarly enquiry – Recent approaches to women in the sagas.

Chapter III – Character Introductions ...... 34 Lasting Impressions ...... 34 Auðr Vésteinsdóttir – Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir – Hallgerðr Hǫskuldsdóttir.

Battle of the Sexes ...... 41 Maternal and paternal ancestral inventories – Personalities and physiology – A question of gender or renown. vii The Burden of Expectations ...... 46 The products of ancestry – Individualized characterizations – Withholding genealogical information.

Chapter IV – Marriage Negotiations ...... 50 Un court dimanche de fiançailles ...... 51 Auðr's betrothal to Gísli – Silent implications in Gísla saga.

The Driver's Seat ...... 52 Guðrún and Þorvaldr – Guðrún and Þórðr – Guðrún, Bolli and Kjartan – Guðrún and Þorkell – Loving and loveless marriages.

A Girl of Sufficient Means ...... 63 Hallgerðr and Þorvaldr – Hallgerðr and Glúmr – A widow's rights – Hallgerðr and Gunnarr – A short-lived infatuation.

Chapter V – Marriage Endings ...... 77 I'm Sticking With You ...... 77 Gossip folks (Auðr and Ásgerðr) – Auðr and Þorgrímr's failed romance – Steadfast love.

Standing in the Way of Control ...... 85 All happy marriages end alike – Two manufactured divorces – The culmination of an uncharacteristic feud – Seeking vengeance for a slain husband.

Beneath the Underdog ...... 98 Under a foster-father's care – A happy marriage ends badly – Discordant laughter – A truly destructive romance – The three blows.

Chapter VI – Conclusion ...... 112

Bibliography ...... 118 1

CHAPTER I - EARLY SAGA SCHOLARSHIP

However, when true accounts of the past are given, it is not the things themselves, which … the investigator of an ancient piece of literature have passed away, that are drawn forth from often apprehends no more of the work itself and memory, but words conceived from their of the spiritual world expressed in it than a worm images. These images they implanted in the gnawing the parchment on which it is set forth. mind like footsteps as they passed through - M. I. Steblin-Kamenskij2 the senses. - St. Augustine1

Although women's history has enjoyed a relatively long tradition in studies,3 much scholarly energy has been focused on the heroic and mythological aspect as represented in the poetic, and legendary works, rather than the more earth-bound characters of the Sagas of Icelanders.4 While this has not always been the case, one must feel quite disoriented – and might possibly be stricken with a serious case of vertigo

– upon completing a reading of Gísla saga, Laxdœla saga, or Njáls saga, to read the following statement:

The gallery of women in Celtic poetry is a remarkably rich one. Even Shakespeare has his Lady Macbeth and Cordelia of Celtic extraction. In the Icelandic saga, on the other hand, the men are more interesting. The most characteristic women are those who know no difference between good and evil, who attract men irresistibly by their unfading beauty, who by their vain and unbounded passion for revenge bring death and destruction upon friends as well

1 Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. John K. Ryan (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1960) 291. 2 M. I. Steblin-Kamenskij, The Saga Mind, trans. Kenneth H, Ober (Odense: Odense University Press, 1973) 14-15. 3 Jenny Jochens, Old Norse Images of Women (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1996) 234. 4 The specific collection of medieval works considered in this piece are generally called The Sagas of Icelanders, but are sometimes referred to as the Icelandic Family Sagas. For the remainder of this study it is this collection of works that are intended when referred to simply as the sagas unless otherwise noted. For an overview of the Literary Background of the sagas, see Vésteinn Ólason, Dialogues with the Age: Narration and Representation in the Sagas of Icelanders, trans. Andrew Wawn (Reykjavík: Heimskringla) 38-62, and G. Turville-Petre, Origins of Icelandic Literature (London: Oxford University Press, 1953), and for information regarding the various types of sagas other than the Sagas of Icelanders see Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf, eds., Medieval (Garland Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages) (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1993), and Carol J. Clover and John Lindow, eds., Old Norse- Icelandic Literature: a critical guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005). 2 as foes, but who themselves unharmed live on to a great age. To this type belong Hallgerd of Njal's Saga and Gudrun of the Laxdæla.5 This particular view – Alexander Bugge's – is by no means systemic, and is in fact somewhat dated, but likewise, considering the more modern structuralist approach to saga analysis, is it not a severe simplification to reduce Laxdœla saga to a story built around a several-point narrative structure based on blood-feud and vengeance? Can this text that traces the biography of Guðrún Ósvifrdóttir, a character that never raises a weapon – apart from her sharp tongue, unbreakable will, and seemingly boundless cunning – really be reduced to one among many tales about quarrelling land-owners?

Perhaps a sound method for approaching these questions is to first develop an historical context in which to discuss them, namely, by recounting a short history of saga- scholarship. Following this, I will examine closely the later development of structural and literary anthropological approaches to the texts, which will lead into a short summary of the historical, as well as some of the more recent scholarship on the women of the sagas. And then, to form the main part of this study, I will embark upon a comparative analysis of three characters within the saga texts themselves, Auðr Vésteinsdóttir from

Gísla saga, Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir from Laxdœla saga, and Hallgerðr Hǫskuldsdóttir from

Njáls saga. The analysis will examine these characters through their marriages, the manner under which they are established, and the ways by which they can end. Focusing on the extent and the limits of their respective control and influence in this arena, will reveal some of the confluences as well as the wide gulfs in their individual characterizations, and, additionally, this in depth examination of marriage in the sagas

5 Alexander Bugge