Woman, Captain, Rebel by Margaret Willson

Author:Margaret Willson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

At the fishing hut over the winter, Thurídur had begun to reconsider her off-season living arrangements. She’d been living as a lodger for a couple years; this didn’t give her the security of a farm but had allowed her to save. At fifty-one still strong and vigorous, why shouldn’t she invest her savings in a leasehold again? She didn’t have the funds for a full farm leasehold but could work a share. She could build on that, maybe eventually able to get a small place like Gata again.

She approached her friend and former deckhand Sesselja and her husband, Gísli, to see if she might sublease part of his inherited, large Kalastadir leasehold. Gísli was amenable. Thurídur could lease one-fourth of the farm—in exchange for farm goods.6

Great! On her way to being a farmer again.

When she moved to Kalastadir in May, she looked around the property. It was in terrible shape, having been neglected for at least thirty years. Well, she’d seen that before. She had funds and would start fixing it up immediately, removing stones, building a proper stone wall, putting in a vegetable garden. It was good land, near the sea; it just needed some hard work to get it to the level it could be.

Then she saw a figure in the distance. She shaded her eyes against the high spring sun.

Who was that walking her way? Jón Egilsson. Well, well, what might he want?

A formal divorce, it seemed, now possible, since they’d been legally separated for three years. Thurídur looked at him, his face reflecting urgency. He had some reason he wanted this now.

Yes, Jón Egilsson replied to her inquiry. He looked at the ground. The husband of Gudmundur’s sister had just tragically drowned…

Ah. Thurídur got it immediately—complicated relationships that she, like everyone else, had neatly cataloged in her head. The drowned man had a very good farm near his wife’s brother Gudmundur and Margrét; Gudmundur was looking after the interests of his sister—now a young widow with three children to support and in need of a husband. He knew and liked Jón Egilsson as their farmhand of eight years and, even with the husband barely cool in his grave, was pressing for a quick match between the two. The prospective couple, both of a similar age, also liked the idea. There was only one hitch—Jón Egilsson was still officially married to Thurídur.

Thurídur’s smile broadened while Jón Egilsson began to blush. Jón Egilsson had hit it lucky. Through this new marriage he now had an opportunity for all he’d wanted with Thurídur and more. This was a well-off family. No more being a farmhand for Jón Egilsson.7

Well, wasn’t this an interesting turnaround? Certainly, Thurídur would divorce him.

They set up the formal proceedings as soon as possible, on June 6, 1828, with Archdeacon Jakob presiding and Jón Rich sitting in as second witness. Only about one percent of Icelanders officially divorced, mostly the wealthier class, but when they did, unlike in most European countries, their assets were divided equally between men and women.

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