I finished “Laxdaela Saga” yesterday and it’s got to be one of my favorite sagas, although I tend to say that after every saga. Except “Saga of the Jomsvikings.” One or two good, bloody chapters there but a lot of preamble that doesn’t pay off.

I realize after browsing my last post that the plot of “Laxdaela Saga” isn’t clear. It’s basically this. A young man (Kjartan) and a young woman (Gudrun) are two of the finest, most promising Icelanders and are attracted to each other at a young age. Kjartan travels abroad to Norway with his best friend and foster brother, Bolli, who is second only to Kjartan in terms of greatness. Kjartan and Bolli meet the king of Norway and convert to Christianity at his behest but he keeps Kjartan as a friendly hostage, refusing to let him return home until Iceland embraces the new faith. Bolli returns and immediately begins wooing Gudrun, telling her that Kjartan has eyes for the king’s daughter (which he kind of has a summer romance with) and that he’s in no hurry to come back. Gudrun reluctantly gives in to Bolli’s pressure and marries him, believing that Kjartan stayed in Norway to be with this new woman. Iceland converts and Kjartan comes home only to find his best friend and his one true love married; both are incensed at each other, although Bolli is the one who deserves blame. Kjartan marries another Hrefna, a fine woman, but not Gudrun’s equal. The next several chapters are heartbreaking as Kjartan and Gudrun trade barbs with each other and with their own spouses and it becomes painfully clear that they still love each other deeply but cannot free themselves from their fate. Insults and affronts grow more serious until Bolli and a gang attack Kjartan, who fights bravely while his foster brother watches, not taking part in combat until it becomes clear that Bolli’s band can’t finish the job at hand, and they persuade him to join the fight by reasoning the only thing worse than killing Kjartan in a sneak attack is failing to kill Kjartan in a sneak attack. Bolli draws his weapon:

Then Kjartan said to Bolli, “It is an ignoble deed, kinsman, that you are about to do; but I would much rather accept death at your hands, cousin, than give you death at mine.”
And with that, Kjartan threw down his weapons and made no attempt to defend himself; he was only slightly wounded but very weak with exhaustion.
Bolli made no reply to Kjartan’s words but dealt him his death-blow all the same. Then Bolli caught him as he fell, and Kjartan died in Bolli’s lap. At once Bolli repented bitterly of what he had done.

Maybe you need to understand the tone of the sagas for this, or the Gudrun quote in the previous post, to have any emotional impact. Sagas are incredibly understated and this death scene is heart-wrenching when you consider that vikings fought until they could no longer stand as a matter of pride–Gisli of “Gisli’s Saga” is remembered most for holding his entrails in with one hand while dispatching several enemies with the other, a feat that single-handedly immortalized him in literature–and that death is normally dealt alongside verbal barbs and insults. So for Kjartan to throw his weapon down, almost as though this betrayal was worse than death, and for Bolli to wordlessly dispatch his best friend and catch him in his arms as he dies…well, that’s powerful stuff.
And so is everything surrounding Gudrun. In the post before I mentioned the scene where she asks to see Hrefna’s elaborate wedding headdress, the one she herself would have worn had she married Kjartan, and she says nothing. The author spends a paragraph describing the richness and beauty of the headdress that Kjartan receives from the Norwegian king and believes will be delivered to Gudrun, yet Gudrun looks at it in silence and then asks for it to be put away and then, as the author describes, goes and parties as though nothing is wrong. The same sort of scene unravels when she hears of Kjartan’s death–she makes a flippant remark but astute observers note how the color drained from her face, and even Bolli knows she regrets the act, too.
Which makes one of the final scenes so powerfully stirring. Gudrun has grown old and seen four husbands come and go–unsurprisingly, Bolli, Gudrun’s second hubby is murdered in revenge for Kjartan’s death–and becomes a nun. Her son Bolli (named after his father) comes to visit:

The Bolli said, “Will you tell me something, mother, that I am very curious to know? Which man did you love the most?”
Gudrun replied, “Thorkel was the wealthiest and the greatest chieftan, but no one was more accomplished than Bolli. Thord Ingunnarsson was the wisest of them and the greatest lawyer; of Thorvald I have nothing at all to say.”
The Bolli said, “I understand clearly what you are telling me about the qualities of your husbands; but you have not told me yet which man you loved the most. There’s no need to conceal it any longer now.”
“You are pressing me very hard, my son,” said Gudrun. “But if I must tell someone then I would rather it were you.”
Bolli begged her to do so.
Then Gudrun said, “I was worst to the one I loved the most.”
“I think,” said Bolli, “that the truth has now been told.” And he said she had done right to tell him what he had been so curious to know.

In chapter 78 in her last words of the saga before old age claims her, even then the proud Gudrun cannot find the strength to say she loved Kjartan more than the rest. This is as tender as we get in a saga and it damn well nearly brought tears to my eyes.
And what makes it even more tragic is that now it’s over and I have to read something else! While “Njal’s Saga” is commonly regarded as the superior saga, this one definitely tugged at the heartstings more and it will stay with me forever.