Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 126

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GRIPLA
En áðr Glúmr riði heiman, dreymði hann, at margir menn væri komnir
þar til Þverár at hitta Frey, ok þóttisk hann sjá mart manna á eyrunum
við ána, en Freyr sat á stóli. Hann þóttisk spyrja, hverir þar væri komnir.
Þeir segja: ‘Þetta eru frændr þínir framliðnir, ok biðjum vér nú Frey, at
þú sér eigi á brott færðr af Þverárlandi, ok tjóar ekki, ok svarar Freyr stutt
ok reiðuliga ok minnisk nú á uxagjöf Þorkels ins háva.’ Hann vaknaði, ok
lézk Glúmr verr vera við Frey alla tíma síðan.
Before Glúmr left home (to go to the Alþingi, where he was to be banished
from his estate) he dreamed that many men had come there to Þverá to
consult Freyr, and he thought he could see many men on the gravel banks
along the creek, and Freyr sat on a chair. It seemed to him that he asked
who these people were who had come there. They replied, ‘These are
your departed kinsmen, and we are now beseeching Freyr that you should
not be banished from Þverárland, but it is of no avail, for Freyr is an-
swering curtly and angrily, and now he recalls that Þorkell inn hávi made
him a gift of an ox.’ Glúmr awakened, and he declared that his relations
with Freyr were worse ever since.
This quotation supplies only a partial explanation for Frey’s hosti-
lity toward Glúmr. The location of the field Vitazgjafi adjacent to
the temple of Freyr, its almost miraculous nature, and the meaning of
the name Vitazgjafi (‘the certain giver’) suggest that this field was
sacred to Freyr much as the hill Helgafell was sacred to Þórr in
Eyrbyggja. Thus Glúm’s slaying of Sigmundr at that place could have
been offensive to Freyr. Furthermore, there are also indications that
Glúmr abandoned Freyr in favor of Óðinn during his sojourn in
Norway, whereas Þorkell could remind Freyr that he had been his
fulltrúi for a long time and had received many gifts from him.
In Gísla saga (ch. 15) Þorgrímr celebrates the advent of winter by
making a blood sacrifice to Freyr, whereupon he murders Vésteinn
and is promptly slain by Gísli in revenge. Freyr shows his apprecia-
tion for Þorgrím’s sacrifical gifts (blótin) by preventing snow and ice
from accumulating on the south side of Þorgrím’s burial mound. This
ironic comment on the efficacy of sacrifice to pagan gods follows
immediately after the description of Þorgrímr nef’s seiðr that contri-
butes to Gísli’s death by preventing him from receiving any effective
help during his outlawry.
The author of Ögmundar þáttr dytts ok Gunnars helmings also
employs irony in his exposure of the hégómi of worshiping pagan
gods. The gradual revelation on the part of Frey’s spouse of her af-