Olaf Peacock and His Pride

Show those tail feathers!

The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason’s Tale, translated by Veneva Kunz, is quite a tale. A character in the saga that has given me quite a laugh is Olaf Hoskuldsson, otherwise known as Olaf the Peacock.

Now, his namesake was given based off of his strikingly handsome appearance and incredible fashion sense. However, I would like to argue that he acts exactly as male peacocks do.

“Peacocks have a built-in Pride in them and they cannot be blamed for that, nature has created them; Only the males, with such lovely iridescent colours and a unique long tail, with ‘Ocellated’ patterns (eye-like markings in multicolour), sometimes opened up fan-like to display, impress his Ladies — the Peahens.” See: Proud. . .as a Peacock

While this quotation does mostly focus on the beautiful tail feathers peacocks possess (the female term of peacocks being peahens), I want to focus on the first part of the sentence: “Peacocks have a built-in pride in them and they cannot be blamed for that.” Olaf, it seems, it the same way.

When speaking to his father regarding a marriage proposal, he states:

“‘I’ll take your advice in the matter, as it seems a good enough proposal - if it’s accepted. But I warn you, Father, that if we bring up the question only to be turned down, I’ll be very annoyed’” (46).

This, in my humble opinion, is the embodiment of pride. Olaf will not stand for rejection as he has no reason to be rejected (I mean, look at his tail feathers). So, he haughtily states, and also, in a way, threatens his father with his annoyance if he were to be rejected.

Once it turns out that he was initially rejected by his future wife, Thorgerd, Olaf will not stand for it.

“‘It’s turned out just as I feared, Father, and as I told you I am hardly pleased at being disgraced by a refusal. It was your idea to start this business; now I intend to carry it through to the proper end. It’s true enough as they say, when one wolf hunts for another he may eat the prey’” (47).

Again, Olaf the Peacock will not stand for his pride to be squashed. He will have his way (this is similar to how peacocks often continue to fight for the peahen they have their eyes on). In fact, in mating, peacocks will go directly to their desired peahen and block their path. They do so to show off their beautiful feathers and, hopefully, immediately attract a mate.

Instead of allowing the marriage to be arranged by the fathers, as typically done in sagas, Olaf goes straight to the source, blocking her path as a peacock does.

“He noticed a woman, seated on a cross-bench, who was both good-looking and well attired, and decided this must be Egil’s daughter, Thorgerd. Olaf approached the cross-bench and took a seat beside her” (48).

Instead of allowing her to run away, Olaf decides to block her path and show off his tail feather—his peacock pride getting in the way. Thorgerd, however, is treated as a peahen. Although Olaf decided to block her path to show off his goods, Thorgerd has the final say in their marriage. In the courtship of peacocks, peahens always have the final say.

While it may seem like I was going off on a tangent, I believe that Olaf the Peacock’s name is well deserved not only for his striking appearance, but also because of his personality and actions. If you wish to learn more about peacock courtship, follow this link: GeoWild: Peacock Courtship.