A Common Reading Paper on the Laxdæla Saga

In the context of reading the Norse Sagas and Myths, there are many things one needs to consider: first, there is the issue that the stories began as oral stories. The second concern is the people writing the stories wrote them down years after the stories supposedly happened. The final problem is that when people finally got around to writing them down, their perspective was  different as Iceland was no longer Pagan by the 1200-1300's. In addition, we do not know who wrote it, and there may have been initial translation errors. The sagas, though in most part cannot be taken as truth, do have nuggets of information that we can use. We can see gender roles very clearly highlighted by Thorgerd and Egil, and Olaf and Hoskuld, as well as understand the importance of aligning yourself and networking with other strong people. The Laxdœla Saga excerpt contains only a small snippet of the whole, but from it we can still glean some important information including gender roles, the importance of wealth and status, and networking.

To summarize the excerpt: Olaf Hoskuldsson, the illegitimate son of Hoskuld (born by an Irish slave who had been a Princess in Ireland1), is an accomplished warrior who just come back from raiding in Ireland'. Hoskuld wishes his son to marry and broaches the subject with his son about a potential marriage proposal and the opportunity to gain land (McDonald, 105). The woman is Thorgerd, daughter of Egil Skallagrimmson.

Olaf doesn't want to be embarrassed by rejection and his father assures him not to worry (McDonald, 105). They go to the Althing assembly and Egil is there as well as his daughter, and there, the fathers speak of the marriage proposal (McDonald, 105-6). Egil is very excited at the prospect, acknowledging Olaf's warrior prowess, fame, handsomeness, and excellent family (McDonald, 106). Egil then says he must speak with Thorgerd as she must agree. When Egil broaches the subject, Thorgerd shuts it down immediately, stating that her father must not love her if he intends to give her to someone who is illegitimate.

Egil says her prejudice is misplaced and that indeed he is, however, illegitimate, but to a princess and thus better born on his mother's side than his father's; however, Egil does not push Thorgerd further, and instead, he allows her to dwell on the matter (McDonald, 106). The next day, the fathers speak once more, and Egil informs Hoskuld that it did not go well; Hoskuld, after listening to the story, says the situation appears "impossible', but there is no blame (McDonald, 106).

When Olaf had asks Hoskuld how his marriage proposal went, Olaf is upset because Hoskuld had assured him he wouldn't be rejected (McDonald, 106). Olaf then decides to take the matter into his own hands and departs from his father to meet with Thorgerd himself (McDonald, 106-7). Olaf dressed up in his fine red clothes, given to him by King Harald (Greycloak) of Norway, and carries his gilded helmet and sword he received from his Grandfather, King Myrkjartan of Ireland to impress Thorgerd and to show off his wealth (McDonald, 107). Olaf then sits next to Thorgerd and speaks with her, acknowledging he is born of a slave-woman (McDonald, 107).

Thorgerd then says he must have done brave things to sit next to a woman at all let alone her. They then speak, and Thorgerd changes her mind, overcoming her prejudice towards him; they are betrothed immediately with witnesses all around (McDonald, 107). They are to marry at Hoskuldstead after the seventh week of summer (McDonald, 107).

The text is very concise and nothing unnecessary is included. This can be telling about what mattered to Norse people. Due to the fact that these were oral stories, the stories were widespread. They were told for entertainment purposes, but likely, also as lessons.

In The Laxdœla Saga, Thorgerd's son is murdered, (not part of the excerpt) and she shames her other sons for not avenging their brother. She calls them cowards and tells them they bring shame to the family. This is telling about what matters. There is also evidence that fathers cared or at least some did-about what the daughter thought of a match. Egil makes it clear that Thorgerd's approval is required for the match, but that he himself approves.

In addition, the sagas put an immense emphasis on genealogy. In Iceland, it was important to know who came before you even just for the purpose of settling land disputes2. The sagas suggest inherent values including issues in decision making such as Thorgerd initially disagreeing to the proposal the importance of wealth and status shown by Olaf in his red garb and weapons and the significance of obtaining allies.

Iceland, due to its remoteness, was not overly populated. It was never visited by raiders, and thus no military was ever required. The society was set up differently than the rest of Scandinavia in the sense that there were no kings or any formal government. There was a lawspeaker who would interpret laws and decide; if there was a feud there would be a court and the lawspeaker would be impartial and could not interfere or influence the court. The people had to have allies and to be strong because the land was not populated, and you could not rely on many to begin with3. The aligning of Olaf and Thorgerd meant that the network expanded and there were more allies they could count on, though down the line this can get complicated because one could find themselves with two feuding allies, such as a brother against a brother (spoiler alert.)

The acquiescence of wealth and status is very important and can be seen through Olaf several times. Not only dos his status of being illegitimate nearly cost him his marriage to Thorgerd, but the fact that he was illegitimate royalty saved him. Because of this, Egil says he is “good enough” for his daughter.

Later, we see Olaf dress in his best flashy clothing and his weapons; the red clothing was a gift from the King of Norway and the weapons a gift from his grandfather, King of Ireland. He has these connections and when he's done speaking with Thorgerd, she agrees to marry him. In the text, it explicitly states that no one knows what they talked about, but they spoke for quite some time. He must have said something right. Olaf could then use his wealth and new wife to set up his own steading and thus be successful in his own right from warrior to landowner and eventually be a father.

The Norse had a rough climate, and the strong were the ones that survived. This can be seen in how the weak are treated and the old, as well as women being essentially sold off in marriage. It was expensive to have lots of people under the roof, and marriage solved it. Thorgerd being married off is indicative of this situation, but it must be noted that Egil, her father, does insist on her agreeing for the match to go forward. This does not necessarily indicate that all fathers took the daughters voice into consideration, but it could mean that some did. This shows how complicated marriages could get because even though the fathers are aligned, it doesn't necessarily come to fruition if the daughter's opinion held any weight.

There are several problematic issues that arise from looking at the context of the sagas. The primary issue is that the stories were initially orally composed; it is widely thought to have begun in modern day Germany anywhere from the years 950-1000, and then the stories made their way to Norway and eventually Iceland (Bugge, 261). The writing of the sagas began in Iceland, being written eighty years, and in some cases, even over a century later. The stories may have evolved beyond recognition and been embellished for the sake of a great story.

No one knows who composed it. There are some people that believe it was a woman because the content of The Laxdœla Saga is apparently more romantic in nature than the other ones4. There is a love triangle that was not usually seen in other epics between Gudrun Osvifrsdottir, Kjartan Olaffson (Thorgerd's son) and Bolli Porleiksson. There is no evidence beyond speculation, and it is too unsubstantiated to know.

In addition, there was such a disconnect between how Iceland functioned and the rest of Europe – even Norway – that it is difficult to discern how much of a difference there is between each story5. Is it simply a cultural  difference between a different society, or is it a woman writing a love story? (Byock, 155) In addition, there was a lot of contact with Frankia, and the French are known for romantic literature. It could have simply been an inspiration to use a literary form used elsewhere because of being bored writing the same sort of story. The saga follows the descendants of Ketill Flatnose, and it primarily takes place in Iceland following seven or eight generations spanning approximately 150 years6.

In conclusion, to understand the sagas, one has to understand that the values are what matters in them. The sagas have plots which are likely embellished and not to be treated at face value. They are stories of struggle and excellence and messy families. This does not mean, however, that there is no semblance of truth within them. The cultural values are likely the same including the importance of making allies since there was no central form of government to aid in the justice process, and the importance of marrying well. We see the importance of wealth through Olaf as well as the importance of status, and through Thorgerd, we see how some daughters may have been treated by their fathers as well as understand what was expected of them. The sagas truly highlight some important themes and the context is integral to understanding the themes.

 

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