FriðÞ Lv 1VIII (Frið 1)/8 — blik ‘bleaching ground’
Þat mun ek segja seggjum várum,
at görla mun farit gamanferðum.
Skulu ei skatnar til skips fara,
þvíat nú eru blæjur á blik komnar.
Þat mun ek segja seggjum várum, at görla mun farit gamanferðum. Skatnar skulu ei fara til skips, þvíat blæjur eru nú komnar á blik.
I will tell that to our [my] warriors, that pleasure trips will be completely out of bounds. Men must not go to the ship, because bed-sheets have now been placed on the bleaching ground.
notes
[7-8] blæjur eru nú komnar á blik ‘bed-sheets have now been placed on the bleaching ground’: Before the discovery of chlorine in the late C18th, sunlight was the principal bleaching agent for whitening flax-woven linen, for light energy causes a reaction in wet flax, producing a hydrogen peroxide solution that bleaches the fabric. Until well into the C20th in Scandinavia, after washing the household linen, women would set it out to whiten and dry off on a bleaching ground (ON blik; cf. ModDan. bleg, ModNorw. bleik, ModSwed. blek), usually a patch of grass beside the house (cf. Falk 1919, 40; Schlabow 1978, 76). Although conceived in the B text of Frið as a prearranged signal, the gesture of washing and whitening linen bed-sheets (blæjur) may well symbolise the termination of the intimacies understood to have been enjoyed between the women at Baldrshagi and the men of Framnes. Cf. Oddrgr 6/4, 25/8 and Rþ 23/9, where references to blæjur indicate sexual intimacy.