Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 131

ANTIPAGAN SENTIMENT IN THE SAGAS 127
signatio preceded baptism: ‘Þat segja menn, at Ormr væri primsigndr
í Danmörku, en hafi kristnazt á íslandi.’
The inner conflict resulting from the abandonment of the belief of
one’s kinsmen and ancestors for a faith proclaimed by a foreign king
is depicted in various ways. Sometimes the conversion is described as
a general growth, as in Laxdœla saga. Kjartan at first angrily rejects
the king’s proffer and even threatens to burn him to death in his
house. Gradually, however, the king’s kindness and patience mollify
Kjartan to the point where he declares he will no longer worship
Þórr. Before long his admiration for the king induces him to seek
baptism as eagerly as Óláfr desires him to accept it. After returning
to Iceland, Kjartan continues to grow in the faith. He is the first
person to observe a strict fast throughout Lent, and people come from
miles around to observe and admire him. Finally he makes the sup-
reme sacrifice, letting Bolli cut him down because he prefers to
receive death from his fosterbrother rather than to inflict it on him.
The only comparable demonstrations of the spirit of Christianity in
the Sagas of Icelanders are the death of Höskuldr in Njáls saga and
Njál’s sacrifice of his family in atonement for the sins committed by
his sons.
A similar development is undergone by Gísli Súrsson. Early in his
saga we learn that he has abandoned blood sacrifice to the pagan
gods following a visit to Christian Denmark. When his brother Þor-
kell is slain by Véstein’s sons, he cannot bring himself to harbor his
brother’s killers, but he does forego wreaking vengeance on them.
Ironically the former paragon of heroic paganism now places loyalty
to his spouse above loyalty to kinsmen—a virtue from the Christian
point of view, but the very failing from the pagan standpoint for
which he formerly found fault with his sister Þórdís. Gísli’s inner
conflict is symbolically depicted through the ominous dreams in which
a good and an evil dream woman appear to console and to harass
him. Finally, as he retreats to the cliffs for his courageous last stand,
he deliberately marks the trail so that his enemies cannot fail to find
him. He dies bravely, as did Roland and many another Christian
warrior. It is perhaps not insignificant that his death remains un-
avenged, and it is certainly significant that his wife Auðr goes to