Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 147

Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 147
PAGANISM AND LITERATURE 143 to convey any particular religious significance, and may be relevant to the so to speak natural ways of proceeding (as, for instance, the kví in íslendinga Saga, ch. 80), and besides those which may be described as Viking customs (the bera allt til stanga of Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch. 60), we find the famous wedge formation earlier noticed by Tacitus9 in íslendinga Saga, ch. 155 or Þórðar Saga Kakala, ch. 42. We know from Skjöldunga Saga that Óðinn himself was supposed to have initi- ated this tactic.10 íslendinga Saga, ch. 155 has the word rani (the snout of a pig). But here as elsewhere, it is never apparent that the possible religious sense of the practice is still of living or conscious significance. On the other hand, in battles such as the one at Örlygs- staðir, the strategy, if one can describe it as such, is banal, and the great warman of the time, Þórðr kakali, tries to apply European tactics in Iceland. We can also mention the swearing of the truce, grið, a very frequent practice in the samtíðarsögur. These texts give us every possible detail about this practice, and we have every evidence that the institution was highly regulated (see for instance íslendinga Saga, ch. 67, or Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch. 15). If, as seems certain seeing the formulas preserved in Grágás or in Grettla, the operation had a sacred character, then the Church had no difficulty in adapting it and associating it with the truce of God such as edicted by the Council of Nice in 1041. The fact is that we see the progressive appearance of the word kirkjugrið (e.g. Þórðar Saga Kakala, ch. 31) in our texts, to replace the simple grið. There remains one very interesting survival in Hákonar Saga Hákonarsonar11 by Sturla. The latter remarks that, in the year of Hákon’s accession to the throne, ‘there was a good year, fruit trees yielded fruit twice in the year and the wild birds hatched twice’. This, naturally, reminds us of the ancient belief in the sacred king elected til árs ok jriðar, ársœll ok jriðsœll.12 True to say, this detail, which would obviously show a clear survival, applies to Norway, not to XlIIth century Iceland. Has Sturla felt it inoffensive for his com- patriots where the situation was quite different? Or have we to inter- 9 Germania, VI, 6: acies per cuenos componitur. 10 See Cleasby-Vigfússon-Craigie: articles hamalt, svínfylking and rani. 11 Quoted here after the Norwegian translation by A. Holtsmark. 12 See F. Ström: op. cit., pp. 48-51.
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