Bolli‘s tragic destiny: Why the questions left open in Laxdaela saga make the story a good vehicle of moral education

Abstract

The Saga of the People of Laxárdalur takes place over a time span of almost one and a half century from about 890 till 1130. It tells the story of the first settlers in the district of Dalir in West-Iceland and their descendants for about seven generations.

This book, called Laxdæla saga in Icelandic, was written by an unknown 13th century author. It is widely used in schools as a choice example of literary text from the golden age of Icelandic medieval literature. Shortened versions in modern language are available for primary schools. Secondary school students read the original text in full-length.

The plot of the story is complex. Some chapters are almost independent small narrations inside a broad epic tale. Among the problems teachers face is how to simplify the story for teenagers who are reading it for the first time. One way to do that is to emphasise some thread or storyline that connects many episodes and makes them meaningful.

One of the main protagonists of Laxdæla saga is a woman, Guðrún. She was married to four men and outlived them all. At the end of the story she is both rich and powerful and, also, the first Icelandic nun. She forced her third husband, Bolli, to kill his foster-brother and friend, Kjartan. The reader can picture Guðrún as a cold, shrewd and cunning upper-class woman who uses her beauty and her connections to climb the social ladders. Much of what she does can, however, also be seen as a just revolt of a woman against paternalistic and oppressive social mores.

Another female character is Melkorka, daughter of an Irish king. She was taken captive by slave-mongers when she was 15 years old and bought by a rich Icelander. Her son, Ólafur, was adopted by a farmer of some means and married into the most powerful clan in the western part of Iceland. One of the two main male protagonists, is Melkorka’s grandson, Kjartan son of Ólafur.

Kjartan is the handsome man whom Guðrún fell in love with but never married. He was the one who was killed by Bolli, the third husband of Guðrún. Kjartan is described as a virtuous and noble Christian hero. Nevertheless, some of the things he says and does do raise suspicion that he was the spoilt and arrogant child of a newly rich father.

At the end of the story, the son of Guðrún and Bolli asks his mother which of the men in her life she loved most. She answered: “to him I was worst whom I loved best”. The reader is left to wonder; did she mean Bolli, whom she forced to kill his foster brother and friend, or was she talking about Kjartan, whom she loved but never married?

A storyline that goes through many chapters and episodes is the narrative of how Guðrún ascends the social hierarchy. In this paper it is, however, argued that although no single thread goes through all the beads, and many of them are tied to several storylines, the one that makes most of the episodes comprehensible is the story of the undeserved tragic destiny of Bolli. One of the questions posed by the story is which fate is worse, to kill a friend or to be killed oneself.

As the plot develops the reader gets to know what Kjartan, Bolli, and Guðrún do, and what they say, but not what they think. What we learn poses questions about who is honest and who is deceitful, who is truly brave and who is foolhardy and so on. The story is a masterpiece of ambivalence. The questions it poses demand attention. But they are left open in the text. The reader has to decide. And that is one of the reasons why this story is a good vehicle of moral education.