Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 114

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GRIPLA
In Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls, as in Njála and Laxdæla saga it is a
benevolent sage who interprets the vision that appears to Þiðrandi as
a foreboding of a change of faith:
Get ek, at hér komi siðaskipti, ok mun þessu næst koma siðr betri hingat
til lands. Ætla ek þær dísir yðrar, er fylgt hafa þessum átrúnaði, nú hafa
vitat fyrir siðaskipti ok þat, at þær munu verða afhendar þeim frændum.
Nú munu þær eigi una því at hafa engan skatt af yðr, áðr þær skiljask við,
ok munu þær hafa þetta í sinn hlut, en inar betri dísir mundu vilja hjálpa
honum ok kómusk eigi við at svá búnu.
I think that there will be a change of faith here, and presently a better faith
will come to Iceland. I believe these spirits of you (and your kinsmen) who
held the old faith probably knew beforehand about the change of faith
and that they would be rejected by you. They must have disliked receiving
no toll from you before departing and exacted this (i.e., the death of Þiðr-
andi) as their due. The better spirits will have wanted to help him, but
arrived too late to do so.
The struggle between the nine women in black raiment and the
nine women in bright raiment in Þiðranda þáttr will be discussed
later. Suffice it to say that this þáttr constitutes one of the most vivid
condemnations of paganism in saga literature. The imagery is reminis-
cent both of the sight (atburðr) witnessed by Dörruðr in Njála (ch.
157) and of the good and evil dream women who appeared to Gísli.
In Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns there is an unusual description
of forebodings of the coming of Christianity:
En sá var einn hvammr í landi Geirmundar, at hann kvaðsk vildu kjósa
á brott ór landinu, ef hann mætti ráða, ok mest fyrir því—‘at sá er einn
staðr í hvamminum, at ávallt, er ek lít þangat, þá skrámir þat ljós fyrir
augu mér, at mér verðr ekki at skapi. Ok þat ljós er ávallt yfir reynilundi
þeim, er þar er vaxinn einn samt undir brekkunni.’ Ok þat fylgði, ef nökk-
uru sinni varð búfé hans statt í hvamminum, þá lét hann ónýta nyt undan
því á því dægri.
There was a hollow in Geirmund’s land that he said he would gladly be
rid of, if the decision were his, especially because: ‘There is a particular
place in that hollow, and whenever I look towards it I see a light in front
of my eyes that I dislike, and this light is always above the rowan bush that
stands on its own at the bottom of the hillside.’ And as a result, if any of
his livestock happened to graze in the hollow, he would throw away their
milk that day.