Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 132

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GRIPLA
Denmark to be baptized and then makes a pilgrimage to Rome, never
to return to Iceland. Auð’s motive seems quite clear when we recall
the pilgrimage of Sturla Sighvatsson to receive absolution from the
Pope for his and his father’s transgressions, or the several instances
in saga literature of pagans seeking to gain vicarious benefits through
the baptism of namesakes.
As already mentioned, the vision that appears to Þiðrandi Síðu-
Hallsson is one of the most vivid symbolic manifestations of religious
conflict in the Sagas of Icelanders. Þiðrandi sees nine women in black
raiment and with drawn swords riding toward him from the north,
and nine women in bright raiment riding toward him on white horses
from the south. The black-clad women arrive first and attack him,
and despite his stout defense they cut him down. He lives long enough
to relate his experience, the interpretation of which has already been
discussed. It seems likely that Þiðrandi, whose behavior and attitude
are almost too obviously those of a Christian, has undergone con-
version abroad, and it is a well-known fact that his father was con-
verted by Þangbrandr before Christianity was officially adopted in
Iceland.
The only one of the íslendingasögur that centers around the spiri-
tual conflict of an individual is Hallfreðar saga. On the surface this
saga is a love story, somewhat like Gunnlaugs saga, but the confron-
tation between Hallfreðr and King Óláfr (ch. 5) marks the beginning
of a spiritual struggle that ends only with the poet’s death. On his
arrival in Norway Hallfreðr is admonished by the king ‘to reject
witchcraft and the evil faith and to believe in the true God, the
Creator of heaven and earth’ (kasta forneskju ok illum átrúnaði, en
trúa á sannan guð, skapara himins ok jarðar). Hallfreðr agrees to be
baptized—but only on the condition that the king himself be his
sponsor. Unlike more zealous converts (ch. 6), Hallfreðr does not
speak ill of the pagan gods:
Hallfreðr lastaði ekki goðin, þó at aðrir menn hallmælti þeim, kvað eigi
þurfa at ámæla þeim, þó at menn vildi eigi trúa á þau.
Hallfreðr did not decry the gods even though other men deprecated them.
He said it was not necessary to disparage the gods even if one did not wish
to believe in them.