Plan de l'article

Epopée, Recueil Ouvert : Section 2. L'épopée, problèmes de définition I - Traits et caractéristiques

Words, Wisdom, and Whetting. Intelligence and bynames in Brennu-Njáls saga

Résumé

Les sobriquets fleurissent dans la littérature norroise, et l’article se concentre sur les sobriquets qui renvoient aux capacités intellectuelles. Ils nomment ainsi différents aspects de l’intelligence dans les sagas familiales, comprises ici comme un genre parallèle aux épopées françaises. L’article analyse d’abord ces surnoms en tant que mots : leur composition et leur typologie. On s’intéresse ensuite au rôle de ces mots, qui sont le véhicule de la sagesse (et relèvent parfois de la poésie) aussi bien qu’un moyen d’“aiguillonner” l’autre (cf. l’anglais whetting : une raillerie aiguisée qui peut aller jusqu’à la diffamation). Une brève discussion sur le genre suit : quelles sont les raisons pour lesquelles les sagas familiales peuvent être mises en parallèle avec les épopées françaises, bien qu’elles soient des narrations en prose ? La dernière partie de l’article est une étude approfondie de ces surnoms et de leur rôle dans Brennu-Njáls saga, La Saga de Njáll le Brûlé – la plus longue et sans doute la plus célèbre des sagas de famille.

Abstract

Bynames abound in Norse literature. This article uses bynames reflecting intellectual abilities as an entry point to different aspects of intelligence in Norse family sagas, understood as a parallel to the French epics. These bynames are, first of all, words, whose composition and typology is scrutinised at the start of this article. The role of words, wisdom and whetting (i.e. goading) is then investigated, with an emphasis on poetry and defamation. A short discussion of genre follows, exploring how and why Norse family sagas may correspond to French epics, despite being prose narratives. The fourth and last part of this article is a close study of bynames and the role of words in Brennu-Njáls saga.

• 1 All translations are my own unless otherwise stated. The standard Norse dic...

1Characters named Þórðr istrumagi (‘fat-bellied), Rǫgnvaldr ráðspaki (‘wise in advice), Þórarinn loftunga (‘praise-tongue), and Styrkár glæsirófa (‘embellished tail), flourish in Norse literature.1 Such bynames are personal labels, tags flagging someone’s defining physical trait, their involvement in a memorable, perhaps trivial, incident, or their competence par excellence. And this competence par excellence is quite frequently related to intellectual abilities: knowledge, understanding, foreseeing, or specific qualities or skills.

2The point of departure of this article is naming practices in the Norse world, with particular emphasis on bynames suggesting the bearer’s intellectual abilities. The role of the word itself within Norse society, whether it is a byname, a poem, a reputation, the act of goading, will thereafter be discussed. Asking what types of texts the Norse épopées are, leads us to the question of the genre in different cultures, based on tradition, form, and content. Using Brennu-Njáls saga as a case study, different aspects of intelligence will be examined through the bynames and the role of the word.

I. Naming in the Norse world as a gateway to intelligence

• 2 An Icelander in a bibliography should thus be alphabetized by his first nam...

3Surnames or family names are practically non-existent in medieval Scandinavia, but, as in modern-day Iceland, patronymic names were common.2 They are frequently accompanied by blunt, humorous, and surprisingly honest bynames, which are rarely translated, the exception being protagonists such as Gunnlaugr ormstungu (‘serpent tongue’) and Haraldr hárfagri (‘fair hair’).

• 3 Steblin-Kamenskij, Mihail I. The Saga Mind. Odense Universitetsforlag, 1973...

• 4 See the “Nafnaskrá” of Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenz...

• 5 See chapter 4 of Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, Nordal, Sigurður (ed.). Íslenzk ...

4A short saga can contain several hundred names, and the corpus of sagas contains more than seven thousand names.3 The stock of personal names is limited and frequently overlapping; in Brennu-Njáls saga there are, for instance, 16 men named Ketill, 10 women named Þorgerðr.4 In a world where family, friends and foes, relationships and genealogies, are of the utmost importance, bynames, mostly adjectives, descriptive nouns or noun phrases in apposition to a name, underlining specific traits or qualities, differentiate between characters: in Brennu-Njáls saga there is a Ketill langháls (‘long-neck’), a Ketill inn sléttmáli (‘the smooth-spoken’) and a Ketill flatnefr (‘flatnosed’). Occasionally saga narratives comment upon nicknames and explain their background. Gunnlaugr ormstungu is a great skald with a tendency to compose libelous and derogatory poems,5 whereas Haraldr hárfagri (‘fair hair’) let his hair grow until the unification of Norway.

• 6 Ari fróði. Íslendingabók, Jakob Benediktsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. I...

• 7 Historia Norwegie, Ekrem, Inger and Boje Mortensen, Lars (eds.) Museum Tusc...

• 8 See Peterson, Paul. R. Old Norse Nicknames. University of Minnesota. PhD-di...

5Even derogatory and vulgar nicknames for high and low seem to have been tolerated and transmitted, King Eysteinn Hálfdanarson (c. 730) had the nickname fretr (‘fart’), not only in the Íslendingabók of Ári fróði6 but even translated into Latin: he is referred to as Eusteun Bumbus in Historia Norwegie¸ the first historiographical account of the history of Norway in Latin, dated to 1150–1200.7 Genitalia-related nicknames are not uncommon and there are characters such as Árni skaðareðr (‘harm-penis’) or Rǫgnvaldr kunta (‘cunt’). There is a plethora of verbal creativity, humour, and quite frequently wit in the stock of Norse bynames, and it is claimed to be higher in number and richer in variety than in any other medieval culture.8

• 9 Finnur Jónsson, Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur. Særtryk af Aadbøger...

• 10 Ekbo, Sven. “Nordiska personbinamn under vikinga- och medeltid”, in Janzén...

6Previous scholarship has focused on semantic content, morphological form, and their role in the narratives. Of particular interest here is Finnur Jónsson’s compilation of bynames in Old Norse literature, divided into ten semantic categories.9 More recent scholarship has organized this material differently and presents formal types of bynames, primarily based on morphological criteria, but supplemented by a categorization of the motivational processes by which bynames are given.10 Finnur Jónsson’s approach can be criticized for the lack of cross-referencing, as well as the principle of single-entry, when, obviously, most bynames belong to several semantic domains. Nevertheless, the categories and sub-categories chosen offer valuable insight into what constitutes a semantic domain and what epitomizes the Norse “intellectual or spiritual competencies, abilities”. The fourth section of his compilation is named “Tilnavne, der står i forbindelse med åndelige egenskaber, kundskaber, tro og lign.” (Bynames connected to intellectual/spiritual competencies, knowledge, beliefs, etc.), has 14 rather diverse subcategories and includes both the presence and the absence of these competencies. The list, quoted below, seems rather aleatory, a mix of knowledge, competencies, abilities, temper, acquired skills, positives and negatives, and not necessarily in harmony with a modern conception of “spiritual/intellectual abilities, knowledge, belief, etc.”.

1. Tilnavne, der betegner visdom og kundskab i almindelighed (Bynames, referring in general to wisdom and knowledge).

2. Specialkundskaber (Specific knowledge)

3. Skjaldekunst (The art of skaldic poetry)

4. Trolddom, spåkyndighed (Magic, fortune telling)

5. Tilnavne, knyttede til tro og religiøse forestillinger (Bynames, related to beliefs and religious conceptions)

6. Tilnavne, der betegner mangel på sjælesundhed og ro, galskab el.lign. (Bynames, referring to the lack of mental health and calm, madness etc.)

7. Tilnavne, der tager sigte på mod og stridbarhed el. det modsatte (Bynames, referring to courage and willingness to fight, or the opposite)

8. Tilnavne, der hentyder til væsen og derigennem karakter i det hele (Bynames, referring to someone’s nature, and thereby character)

9. Tilnavne, der betegner bæreren som glad, munter (Bynames, referring to the bearer as happy, cheerful)

10. Gavmildhed, Gærrighed (Generosity, stinginess)

11. Bravhed, godhed (The virtue of righteousness, goodness)

12. Nogle spredte tilnavne med delvis rosende positiv betydning (Some scattered bynames with partial positive praise)

13. Tilnavne, der antyder bisk, fjendtlig, slet sindelag (Bynames, suggesting a dissimisive, hostile, bad temper)

14. Kvindekærhed (The love of women)

Of these 14 subcategories, some deal with wisdom and gained knowledge/expertise (1 and 2), others with creative skills (3), some with the supernatural (Christianity/magic/fortunetelling) (4 and 5). Categories 6–14 all refer to innate qualities in a person, some exclusively positive (9, 11, and 12) or negative (6 and 13), others rather neutral (8), others stating a quality and the corresponding opposite (7 and 10), and finally the one odd category or philogyny, probably combined with gynephilia (14). Except for the objectification of women in the latter category, “the love of women”, the low representation of women is striking. They are, by no means, absent from the sagas, but are they not worthy of bynames referring to intellectual abilities?

• 11 Lind, Erik Henrik. Norsk-isländska personbinamn från medeltiden. Uppsala: ...

• 12 For an overview, see Peterson, Paul. R. Old Norse Nicknames. University of...

7The feminine absence in Finnur Jónsson’s list is partly explained by the different practices of awarding bynames for men and women in general. Of the 3 616 bynames in Lind’s collection of personal names and bynames, 97% (3 505) belong to men, the remaining 3% (116) to women and few of these have narrative explanations.11 A substantial portion of these 116 female bynames is given in reference to the beauty of its bearers, such as Helga in fagra (‘the fair’), or Gauthildr mjǫll (‘fresh snow’). Verbal abuse in female nicknames, is not uncommon, and is often related to physical appearance. It is, for instance, suggested that the height of Hallgerðr in Brennu-Njáls saga, gives her the nickname langbrók (‘long pants’).12

• 13 Comment from Finnur Jónsson, Tilnavne i den islandske oldlitteratur. Særtr...

• 14 Written towards the end of the 12^th century, the Landnámabók lists the gen...

8A close reading of Finnur Jónsson’s fourth section, searching for women having been awarded bynames referring to “intellectual or spiritual abilities”, leaves us with fourteen individuals of a total of 360. Three of these are listed under category 1, “general wisdom and knowledge”, and these are the settler Auðr hin djúpúðga (‘the deep-minded’) and then two with the same byname: Ástríðr and Jórunn are both awarded the nickname manvitsbrekka (‘the steep hill of human sense’), where the brekka (‘steep hill’) might be an allusion to their “fyldige barm” (‘full-bodied chest’), similar to the byname knarrarbringa (‘ship breast’) otherwise known.13 Four female skalds are on the list, but their bynames are mere compounds of profession and gender, there is the young Jórunn skáldmær (‘skald-maiden’) and the three skáldkonur (‘skald women’, sg. skáldkona), Þórdís, Þórfinna and Þórhildr. There are three sorceresses, Þórdís and Þuriðr are both spákona (‘prophetess’) and then Heimlaug vǫlva (‘prophetess, sibyl, wise woman’ֽ). Finally, Gróa hin kristna (‘the Christian’) occurs in Landnámabók, the book of the settlement of Iceland.14 and Finnur Jónsson suggests that the nickname is an insult to the minority of early converts. The last two women have bynames from category 7., referring to courage and willingness to fight, or the opposite. There is the great Sigriðr stórráða, (‘ambitious’) and then Gunnhildr snjalla (‘the quick, the wise, the eloquent, the brave’). Most of the female bynames listed here can be considered quite simple labels, whereas men’s bynames tend to be more varied, complex, and verbally creative, cf. some of the examples already quoted.

II. Words, wisdom, and whetting

9Whose word is to be trusted and what is the power of words? Snorri Sturlusson has gained the reputation of being the first in Scandinavia with explicit considerations on the trustworthiness of his sources. In the prologue to Heimskringla, he states that the skaldic poems are the best sources, because

en engi myndi þat þora, at segja sjálfum honum þau verk hans, er allir þeir, er heyrði, vissi, at hégómi væri ok skrǫk, ok svá sjálfr hann; þat væri þá háð, en eigi lof.

• 15 Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla. Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, Íslenzk fornrit...

but no one would dare tell the king himself such deeds of his as all listeners and the king himself knew to be lies and loose talk; that would be mockery, but not praise.15

Praise offered to a in a poem has to be truthful and a poem exaggerating, awarding undeserved glory, is no praise, but an insult.

• 16 «Ynglinga saga» in Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (...

• 17 Stanza 46, in Jón Helgason (éd.) (1955). Eddadigte. Vol. 1. Vǫluspá. Hávam...

• 18 See for instance Zavaroni, Adolfo, (2006): “Mead and Aqua vitae: Functions...

10The very art of poetry is linked to two pivotal figures of intellectual abilities in Norse mythology. Mímir, the wisest of all, is the guardian of Mímisbrunn, the well of knowledge and wisdom, situated beneath Yggdrasil, the world tree connecting the universe. He drinks from the well every day. On the other hand, Óðinn had to sacrifice an eye to gain knowledge from one sip from the well. Mímir’s wisdom survives his later decapitation, because but Óðinn “tók hǫfuðit ok smurði urtum þeim, er eigi mátti fúna, ok kvað þar yfir galdra ok magnaði svá, at þat mælti við hann ok sagði honum marga leynda hluti16 (“took the head and smeared it with herbs so that it would not rot and said magic spells over it and strengthened it so that it spoke with him and told him many hidden things”). At the end of the world, Ragnarǫk, the one-eyed god Óðinn can thus take advice from Mímir’s head.17 The accounts of Mímir are scarce, he is the guardian, the wise head, but his abilities are not elaborated upon in the transmitted texts. However, his name might be interpreted as “the one who remembers”, and an etymological link to Latin memor has been suggested, but is debated.18

11In Norse mythology, these two incorporate what constitutes intelligence and encompass far more than knowledge and wisdom. Among the qualities of Óðinn, there is for instance mastering magic (seiðr and galdr), the art of understanding the runes and composing poems, the understanding and processing of vast amounts of information, as well as the ability to (fore)see.

• 19 Whaley, Diana. “Nicknames and narratives in the sagas.” Arkiv för nordisk ...

• 20 See Whaley, Diana. “Nicknames and narratives in the sagas.” Arkiv för nord...

• 21 Whaley, Diana. “Nicknames and narratives in the sagas.” Arkiv för nordisk ...

12Bynames are words, verbal tags. When it comes to the semantic content of bynames, the seemingly generous tolerance for derogatory nicknames has its limits, and offensive nicknames are punishable by lesser outlawry by in the medieval Icelandic law code Grágás.19 Within the Old Norse society, a verbal insult is often at the core of a conflict of what incites a feud. A sexually oriented insult constitutes nið, defamation, and awarding someone a derogatory nickname leads to disaster in several episodes in the sagas.20 Bynames such as Strað-Bjarni (‘Fuck-Bjarni’, probably in the sense of being sodomized) or Erlendr bakrauf (‘back-hole’) might very well have this function. There are several possible explanations for the open-mindedness of derogatory nicknames in the sagas, the first being that they are true, and therefore do not constitute defamation. Another explanation, but perhaps a less plausible one, could be the time span between the events of the sagas and the time they were put into writing. And as Whaley comments upon, the bynames and the eventual “narratives built around them, are in some ways a counterpart, at a humble lever, to the verses which are quoted so abundantly in the sagas.”21 She points furthermore to nicknames being reminiscent of kennings, and from Finnur Jónsson’s list, mannvitbrekka (see above) could be categorized as a kenning.

• 22 "Laxdæla saga" in Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Laxdæla saga. Halldórs þættir...

• 23 "Laxdœla saga" in Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Laxdœla saga. Halldórs þættir...

13Using words as defamatory instigators, the spark igniting feuds and conflicts but leading to change, are fundamental to the activity of goading or whetting. Female whetters are plentiful in the sagas and they manipulate their surroundings through wit, words, and wisdom. In Laxdœla saga, it is suggested that Guðrún Ósvífsdóttir can goad her husband, insulting his masculinity, by offering him a woman’s shirt.22 Later on, she compares her brothers to women, a farmer’s docile daughters, inciting them to take action.23

14At the core of intelligence, are words, words, and then more words. Knowledge, gained or innate, depends on words and so do the ability to foresee, the mastering of literacy, writing, and poetry, as well as the strategic use of words in manipulating one’s surroundings.

III. Some brief considerations on genre. What is a Norse medieval epic?

• 24 For an introduction to metre and metrics, see Poole, Russel, “Metre and me...

15In the rich Norse poetic tradition, a stanza is given rhyme and rhythm through meters based on fixed numbers of syllables, complex patterns of alliterations, as well as the use of the rhetorical devices heiti and kenning. A heiti is an archaistic synonym, exclusive to poetry, and a kenning is a circumlocution in form of a phrase or a compound word. Kennings are syntactically complex, rather enigmatic, and require knowledge of heiti and mythology: “Herblótinn hneitir kalfa undirfjalfrs bliku alfheims” signifies “The people-worshipped vanquisher of the calves of the low hiding-place of the gleam of the elf-world” and is a kenning for the god Þórr.24 The complexity of Norse poetry renders it stable in (oral) transmission. Even though the iþrótt, the art or sport of composing poems can give poets fame, glory, and wealth, its complexity makes it unsuited for long narratives. Long poetic narratives are thus absent in Norse medieval literature – and the use of runhent, end rhymes, close to nonexistent.

• 25 See Jón Helgason (ed). Eddadigte I–III, København: Munksgaard. 1971.

• 26 See Larrington, Carolyne, “Eddic poetry and heroic legend”, in Larrington,...

16Some of the heroic poems of the latter part of the Elder or Poetic Edda25 “recall the Migration Age heroes whose names and deeds survived almost a millennium in the oral tales of the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans, and the Scandinavians,”26 but if the length of a narrative is of importance when looking into intelligence in the Western medieval epic, these heroic poems, sometimes interwoven with prose passages, should be left aside.

• 27 As stated by Philippe Haugeard in the call for papers for this volume.

• 28 Peterson, Paul. R. Old Norse Nicknames. University of Minnesota. PhD-disse...

• 29 For an overview and discussion of translations from Old French, see Budal,...

17One should then ask what is left and what constitutes the Norse equivalent to the (French) épopée¸ especially if “the principal matter of epic is war”27? Of the two paths relevant to pursue, the first leaves the poetic form behind and follows the trail of heroic content. The long narratives of the sagas, more specifically the sagas of Icelanders or family sagas, are considered to be the Norse equivalent of heroic epics. The war-like side of their content matter is primarily local feuds between prominent families in Iceland at the time of the settlement, from 930 onwards. These prose narratives were put into writing from the 13^th century and are written in a style “approaching the style of the epic (though in prose)”.28 The second path follows the generic trail of Old French and Anglo-Norman literature, translated into Norse during the 13^th century. A wide and varied selection of œuvres, ranging from épopées and chansons de geste such as Chanson de Roland, Elye de Saint Gilles and the romans of Chrétien de Troyes, to the Lais of Marie de France, Tristan et Iseult and Partonopeus de Blois – as well as a series of Latin texts, were all translated into Norse prose, the form suited for longer narratives.29

IV. The case study: Brennu-Njáls saga

• 30 Vésteinn Ólason, “Njáls saga”, in Pulsiano, Philip (ed.). Medieval Scandin...

18The choice of saga for this case study of intelligence in Norse medieval epic is perhaps a conventional one. Brennu-Njáls saga is “the longest and most widely acclaimed of the Íslendingasögur”,30 telling the story of the friends Gunnarr and Njáll, their families and surroundings over a period of fifty years. The saga recounts events from the 10^th century, put into writing towards the end of the 13^th century. The span of the name register of the standard edition in the series Íslenzk fornrit is 25 pages with two columns and a small print. The framework examining intelligence in Brennu-Njáls saga is the bynames and the categories presented by Finnur Jónsson in his list of “Bynames connected to intellectual/spiritual competencies, knowledge, beliefs, etc.“. The title itself contains a posthumous byname, referring to the protagonist Njáll’s death in a fire – this is “the saga of Njáll the burnt”.

Wise, foolish and conflict-seeking

1920 of the 346 men on Finnur Jónsson’s list are from Brennu-Njáls saga and they represent several of his sub-categories.

• 31 Sveinbjörn Egilsson: Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ Septentrionalis ⫽ Ord...

20From category 1. “Bynamnes, referring in general to wisdom and knowledge”, there are six men with variants of spakr (‘wise’) as bynames. There is Harf inn spaki, Móðólfr inn spaki, Þirðandi inn spaki, Spak-Bersi and finally the two Þórkell fullspakr, a grandfather and a grandson. Neither figures as an acting character, no descriptions are given – they are part of genealogies or part of the entourage of someone important. The adjective spakr is in particular used for innate abilities and legal competence, whereas fróðr signals acquired knowledge.31 Several of the early scholars of Iceland, authors, priests, chroniclers, were awarded the byname fróði: Sæmundar fróði and Ari fróði are perhaps the most famous ones.

• 32 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

21The opening words of the saga are “Mǫrðr hét maðr, er kallaðr var gigja”32, “There was a man named Mǫrðr, whose byname was Fiddle” and he possesses specialized knowledge, category 2. He is a rather prominent figure in the first part of the saga, but there is no mention of an instrument or music.

• 33 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

22One male poet of the saga has been given a compound byname containing skáld. Þórkell elfaraskáld composes a lausavísa, a single stanza poem, interwoven in the saga,33 and Finnur Jónsson suggests that his byname signals that Þórkell has spent time by the river Göta in present-day Sweden. Nothing else is known of Þórkell.

• 34 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

23From the fourth category, there is Galdra-Heðinn, Heðinn the sorcerer, and the noun galdr translates to ‘sorcerous incantation, magic spell, sorcery, witchcraft, magicְ’ – and this time the saga offers an explanation. Following a conflict, he is hired by pagans to kill their Christian opponents. Heðinn sacrifices to the gods, making the earth open beneath the leader of the Christian. His quick reaction saves him, but his horse and equipment are lost. Thereafter, Galdra-Heðinn is killed by the pagans.34

• 35 Ólafur Halldórsson, (ed). Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta. Editiones Arna...

24From the sixth category onwards, the subcategories are mainly referring to virtues, mood, or the temper of someone, positive and negative. Belonging to the sixth category are bynames referring to the lack of mental health and calm, madness, etc. and Finnur Jónsson places these as contrasts to the first category. Two men from Brennu-Njáls saga, Ketill inn fíflski (‘fool’) and Hrafn heimski (‘foolish’) belong to this category. Of Hrafn, no information is given, and heimskr is a quite common and rather unremarkable byname. More remarkable is the connection to a Ketill en fiflska by a variant in a 14^th-century manuscript of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, where he is named Ketill heimska.35 Such a substitution contradicts, in my opinion, Finnur Jónsson’s explanation of the byname. Using the variant finzki, from “ét hdskr” (a manuscript, no further information given), he suggests that fíflska in Brennu-Njáls saga is a variant of fiskni or fiskinn, and proposes the translation “the skilled fisherman”, before claiming that the fool probably had this byname because he was a Christian. This all seems rather far-fetched; the byname is found elsewhere, a series of compounds of fífl- is known in Norse, and there are mentions of a Ketill fíflsk in several texts and manuscripts from 1300 onwards.

• 36 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 37 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 38 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

25“Bynames, referring to courage and willingness to fight, or the opposite” is Finnur Jónssons seventh category, and there are the opposites Hálfdan hinn snjalli (‘the quick, the wise, the eloquent, the brave’) and a Brynjólfr rósti (a rough person, a brawler). Hálfdan figures in a genealogy, but of Brynjólfr more information is given: He is illmenni mikit (‘a very wicked man’)36 and Hallgerðr, the protagonist of Brennu-Njáls saga, asks him to join her without informing her husband. After some time, she goads him to kill Njáll’s thrall, thus forcing a retaliation. More men are killed and made murderers, conflicts are taken to the Allþing, fines are paid – and the conflict escalates further.37 Another two men are listed with bynames belonging in this category, Þorkell hákr, and Ulfr hreða. Words are named as one of the reasons for which Þorkell is called hákr: “hann eirði hvárki í orðum né verkum, við hvern sem hann átti” (he didn’t acknowledge who he dealt with, neither in words nor in deeds”). The word hákr is rare, but signals the excess of something: a mat-hákr is a glutton, whereas Þorkell is orð-hákr, a foul mouth. He is a great fighter, has traveled abroad, killed a dragon, a giant, and several evil men, and he brags and boasts. Þorkell ends up in a fowl verbal conflict, where masculinity is measured in words, boasting of previous deeds and the defamation of others. He loses.38

• 39 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

26The byname of Ulfr hreða is possibly of Celtic origin according to Finnur Jónsson, who explains it as ‘the violent’ or ‘un-peace’. The noun points toward a quarrel or a disagreement, and Ulfr is, as Þorkell, a great warrior, and there is a description of his actions in a battle, but no indication of verbal skills.39

27In the eighth category, “Bynames, referring to someone’s nature, and thereby character”, there is a Ketill Þrumr (‘a slow person, a moper’), an unflattering byname. No further information on his behaviour is given.

28None of the bynames of characters in Brennu-Njáls saga fall within the mostly positive categories 9, “referring to the bearer as happy, cheerful)” and 10 “generosity, stinginess”.

• 40 Finnur Jónsson (ed.): Landnámabók (1–3): Hauksbók, Sturlubók, Melabók m.m....

29Turning to the eleventh category, the virtue of righteousness, goodness, Ǫlvir barnakarl (the children’s man), has been awarded the byname because he “var vikingr mikill. hann let eigi hennda baurn ꜳ spióta oddum sem þa var vikingum titt. þui var hann barnakarl kalladr” (“he was a great Viking. He wouldn’t have children caught on spearpoint, as Vikings used to do back then. For this he was called ‘children’s man’”).40 Finnur Jónsson sees no reason to doubt this information from Landnámabók. In Brennu-Njáls saga he is mentioned as an ancestor in a genealogy.

• 41 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 42 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

30No one in the saga has bynames from category 12, “Some scattered bynames with partial positive praise”, but there are three men with bynames “suggesting a dismissive, hostile, bad temper” (category 13). First of all, there is Eyjólfr and Valgarðr, both called hinn grái (the grey), probably mostly referring to temper. Eyjólfr is merely a forebearer in a genealogy, whereas Valgarðr has a more central role in the saga. He is grey in mood: “hann var maðr grályndr ok óvinsæll” (“He was a malicious and unpopular man”).41 The adjective grár translates ‘grey’, but also ‘unfriendly, vicious, hostile, sadness’. Several compounds with grá-, such as grályndr, gráleikr (‘malice’), are known. The grábeinn (‘grey-leg’) is a wolf, and Finnur Jónsson suggests that the byname should be understood as “having a wolf’s mind”, thus evoking an image of treachery and deceit. To be a wolf or carrying a wolf’s head, is a common medieval reference to outlawry, including the Norse laws, for instance Grágás, the medieval Icelandic code of law. The pagan Valgerðr is Gunnarr’s enemy and conspires to murder him. Later on, he incites his son to murder Njáll’s sons, destroys crosses and other Christian relics, but is struck by destiny: ”Þá tók Valgarðr sótt ok andaðisk, ok var hann heygðr” (“And then Valgarðr became ill and died, and was buried in a mound”.)42 The third and last man of this category is mentioned in passing in a genealogy: Þórðr, with the byname illugi from ill-hugi (‘evil mind’).

31The odd last category of Finnur Jónsson, “the love of women”, has a single entry—from Brennu-Njálls saga: Hjǫrleifr hinn kvensami (‘the amorous’, kven- referring to women), the king of Hǫrðaland on the western coast of Norway, is also only mentioned in passing in a genealogy, and there is no frivolous stories told in this saga. His byname stem from him being married to three women at the same time in the fornaldarsaga Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka.

32The majority of (male) surnames of Brennu-Njáls saga related to intelligence are closely linked to the word: the mastery of words—or not—in science, history, knowledge, wisdom, religion, conflicts, defamation, bragging, bickering, and whetting. The latter is considered a mainly feminine activity, and we turn to women in Brennu-Njáls saga with bynames belonging to the category “intellectual/spiritual competencies, knowledge, beliefs. etc.” My use of the plural form, women, is misleading, as there is but one woman on the list.

The word-hag

• 43 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

33As previously commented upon, few women in Norse literature have bynames. The only woman from Brennu-Njáls saga that made it to Finnur Jónsson’s list of bynames of intellectual competencies is the female skald, Þórhildr skáldkona, who is orðgífr mikit ok fór með flimtan (a great word-hag that made insulting poems).43 An actual kviðling, a single-stanza poem, is found in Brennu-Njálls saga, where someone stares at Þórhild, and she is annoyed.

34The word-hag is in good company in Brennu-Njáls saga. The two female protagonists, Hallgerðr and Bergþóra, are the wives of two friends, Gunnarr and Njáll. If intelligence is understood as the faculty which leads to action and is the condition of the success of this acting, Hallgerðr epitomizes a particular kind of intelligence. She is famous for being sharp-tongued, ill-tempered, and is referred to as a shrew. She epitomizes the female whetter and illustrates one manifestation of female intelligence in the family sagas.

• 44 Heller, Rolf. Die Literarische Darstellung Der Frau in Den Isländingersaga...

• 45 Jochens, Jenny. Old Norse Images of Women. Philadelphia: University of Pen...

• 46 See, for instance: Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir. Women in Old Norse liter...

35The process of whetting is formulaic and starts out with an offense, the questioning of someone’s masculinity, and is part of a power struggle, and leads to some kind of action. And the female intelligence displayed in these acts is not only one of verbal manipulation, but of the strategic overview of relationships required for a successful outcome. According to Heller, there is 51 goading women in family sagas,44 but more recent scholarship suggests an even more elevated number.45 It should be noted that whether the female inciter is a mere literary motif with no historical basis or a real historical role for women is debated.46

• 47 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 48 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 49 See Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir. Women in Old Norse literature : bodies,...

36Hallgerðr has the byname langbrók (‘long pants’) and the first 18 chapters of Brennu-Njáls saga narrate her life from childhood and through three husbands. One marriage ends in divorce, whereas her foster-father kills her next two husbands. She is described as physically pleasing, especially the hair, but her bad temper is emphasized repeatedly, and even her father warns Gunnarr when he asks for her hand in marriage. Hallgerðr is a female inciter, who knows how to make things happen, what strings to pull. The successful outcome is never pleasant, and her whetting of Brynjólfr rósti has already been mentioned. No insult is forgotten, and she verbally incites conflicts, surrounding herself with death. Early in their marriage, Gunnarr slaps her in the face, and she tells him she will make sure to return the favor if she gets the chance.47 Her revenge is fatal. The strings she pulls, or rather denies Gunnarr, are two strands of her hair, needed for replacing his broken bowstring in his single-handed defense, largely outnumbered by a mob. She reminds him of the slap and tells him that his life is of no interest to her.48 He fights valiantly but is murdered. The events leading up to the attack are her own doing, goading and manipulating friends and foes, verbally igniting conflicts whenever she can.49

37The goading is primarily, but not exclusively a feminine enterprise, and there are some men, for instance the previously mentioned pagan Valgerðr hinn grái (‘the grey’) who goads his sons.

• 50 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

• 51 Brennu-Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson (ed.). Íslenzk fornrit. Vol. XII. R...

38Through strategical verbal manipulation, women change their surroundings, demonstrating knowledge of what strings to pull at different points in time and of the complex relations between friends and relatives. The power lies in the mastering of words, of aimed eloquent incitement. The generous and brave Gunnarr, Hallgerðr’s husband, resists her whetting on several occasions. Once, in response to a harsh comment from his wife, he jumps to his feet and proclaims that he will not be his wife’s eggjanarfífl, the fool who allows himself to be prevailed upon50. It is furthermore stated that “Gunnarr gaf ekki gaum at áeggjan hennar” (“Gunnarr could not be bothered by her whetting”).51

Conclusion: The cunning, the fool and the ill-tempered

39The Norse bynames are, at the most basic level, mere words, labels with semantic content. At the core of this article are words or the use of words linked to different aspects of intelligence, an initial framework being Finnur Jónsson’s list of Norse bynames. Not all of Finnur Jónssons categories fit smoothly with a modern concept of intelligence: the presence or lack of empathy manifested in not impaling children on your spear or being married to several women simultaneously are unusual. Both the presence of intelligence and the lack thereof, are linked to words and the use of them in Norse literature. Words give access to knowledge, belief, and religion, and enable someone to put it into writing, as well as composing intricate oral poetry. Poetry gives fame and glory, bynames give a point of reference, and verbal whetting gives impact and power. However, a transgression towards nið, defamation, in poetry, and bynames can lead to disastrous outcomes for everyone involved. When it comes to verbal whetting, the consequences are destined to be unpleasant.

40The bynames Finnur Jónsson classifies in the category of “spiritual/intellectual abilities, knowledge, belief, etc.” are predominantly masculine, and in a case study of Brennu-Njáls saga, some of these men are skilled in words in a positive way, clever and wise. Others are skilled in words, but difficult, sometimes through their malicious quarreling, deception, and boasting, i.e. the use of words. There is also a group of men defined by their lack of words – the fools, the simple ones. The one and only woman from Brennu-Njáls saga with a byname in this category is a word-hag, a female skald with a sharp tongue. Sharp-tongued is also Hallgerðr, one of the two female protagonists of this saga, and through her, the role and consequences of the word in the whetting process have been touched upon.

41Approaching the concept of intelligence in Norse literature through bynames, Finnur Jónsson’s classification of these, and a case study of a family saga, opens the multitude of intelligences linked to verbality and words. The intelligent and clever mastering of words gives power, both positive and negative. The opposite, the unwise use of words, or the lack of them, places someone at risk in the margins of society and power.

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