1 - Fathers and Sons

Summary

Upon first being introduced to Án's eighteen-year-old son Þórir in Áns saga bogsveigis, Án's wife Jórunn remarks to her husband: ‘Kemr at því, sem mælt er, at hverr er auðgari en þykkist. Ekki sagðir þú mér, at þú ættir þenna son, en þó hygg ek ekki aukasmíði vera munu at honum’ (It comes to this, as it is said, that everyone is wealthier than he thinks. You didn't tell me that you had this son, but still I think that he will turn out to be no trifling piece of work). Her comment is characteristic of the attitude toward fathers and sons in the fornaldarsögur.

While less imaginative and descriptive than Guðrún's laments in Hamðismál and Atlamál or Ingibjörg's marital justification in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, the same transpersonal conception of kinship so vividly expressed by their use of arboreal imagery also underlies Jórunn's offhand congratulation of Án's paternity. Þórir is immediately considered an asset to his father despite the lack of any personal relationship between them, raised as he was by his maternal relatives. His identity as his father's son must be proven, by means of a golden ring, but once this is done Þórir belongs to his father, compared in Jórunn's implicit analysis to any other precious possession and valued as a productive addition to Þórir's household. Jórunn reckons he will be ekki aukasmíði (no trifling piece of work, not a superfluous thing), the smíð element of the compound conveying expectations of tangible contributions to his father's wealth. The verb eiga (to have) which she uses to denote the relation is also used to denote marriage in Old Norse sagas where it affirms the objectification of the bride by both her husband and her father. Here, instead the son is objectified. Just as father and son are bound together in the patronymic naming system (see Chapter 5) the son is here presented as an extension of the father to whom he belongs. Solidarity between father and son is assumed not on the basis of any emotional relationship but because the father-son relationship is conceived of as inherently solidary, though the balance of power is weighted firmly in the father's favour.