Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 142

138
GRIPLA
the North as elsewhere, in fighting against paganism.6 The Church
acted in four different directions: a) it accepted such features or be-
liefs which did not in any way contradict its own teachings (for in-
stance, belief in the existence of another world, a tenet common both
to Northern paganism and to Christianity); b) it adapted those features
which could easily be christianized, as for example some of the major
festivals, jól becoming similar to Christmas, or such rites as ausa barn
vatni, supposing this last one to be actually anterior to, and different
from Christian baptism; c) it tried to devaluate features and beliefs
which appeared to present a threat to Christian doctrine. Certain be-
liefs in the Nordic gods may be included in this category, and one is
justified in seeing a Christian intention behind eddic poems such as
Lokasenna and Hárbarðsljóð, where gods are more or less ridiculized;
and d) it openly struggled against features and beliefs which it could
not accept, human sacrifices for instance, or the exposure of new-bom
children, and apparently, it succeeded in this work of eradication. It
is, for example, most surprising to discover that there is no mention
at all in the samtíðarsögur either of these practices, or of those fea-
tures known to us through the íslendingasögur, such as hólmganga,
fóstbrœðralag (I mean here, the ceremony itself), and, what is still
more surprising, seiðr.
Anyhow, it remains clear that in our present discussion only points
c) and d) above are of importance to us.
2) Now for the principles: I should like to try to show that the so-
called pagan revival in Iceland is the result of foreign and literary in-
fluences, which came to Iceland through the institution of the Church,
which acted here either directly, or as an intermediary. I would also
like to show that there is a kind of displacement of time (décalage) or
deliberate attempt to fuse past and present by including archaic ele-
ments in the texts. And, finally, that the pagan features which may
appear in the samtíðarsögur have, not unfrequently, an origin which
is not local: they could have been borrowed from foreign sources and
adapted to local taste.
This paper being a study in method, I shall not try directly, or at
6 See H. Delehaye: Les légendes hagiographiques, Bruxelles, 3é éd. 1927,
Chapitre VI.