Steingerđr's Nicknames for Bersi (Kormáks SagaImplications for Gender, Politics, and Poetics

When the marriage contracted between Kormákr and Steingerơr is not realized due to the curse by the sorceress ƥơrveig and Kormákr's vacillation, the young woman is given by her family to the widower Bersi Véleifsson of Saurbrer, a cousin of óláfr pai and descendant of the matriarch Auðr djúpauðga. Bersi is wealthy and is renowned as a juridical duellist. Like the hero of the saga Bersi is a poet, but their temperaments and reputations are significantly different. The quarrelsome Kormá.kr continues to pay his attentions to Steingerðr long after the marriage. This leads to two challenges to single combat according to the formal rules of hÓlmganga. The alternating blows, from which the antagonists were protected by shields held by their "seconds," were suspended at first blood. Bersi and his party win the first encounter in ambiguous fashion, when the tip of Bersi's sword is broken off but still splits Kormákr's thumb. Given the erotic ambience of the saga, this injury is consonant with the psychological impediment or sexual dysfunction resulting from the curse by ƥÒrveig, whose sons Kormákr had killed (Sayers 1992). Kormákr rejects the magical stone associated with Bersi's sword to assist the recovery from the injury, just as he is impatient with the ritual associated with magically endowed weapons or the acquisition of partial invulnerability in combat. In a second duel Kormákr's uncle Steinarr, also a fighter of repute, faces Bersi, while the irascible poet holds the shield. Steinaxr’s sword glances from the shield held before Bersi, clips one buttock, and buries itself in the bone at the side of his knee. Yet Bersi is able to strike a blow that splits Steinarr’s shield and reaches his chest. A halt is called and the dubious victory goes to the other party. Bersi’s leg wound is the more serious of the two and is slow to heal.