Gripla - 01.01.1975, Síða 145

PAGANISM AND LITERATURE
141
skinns, ch. 2; Sturlu Saga, ch. 4; íslendinga Saga, ch. 39) and we find
simply no mention at all of the öndvegissúlur which, according to so
many instances in Landnámabók, ought to be sure witnesses of a family
cult. Moreover, the word öndvegi itself is replaced by the continental
loan-word hásœti (in Prestssaga Guðmundar Góða, ch. 25) or even by
a perfectly neutral periphrasis: á inn eystra langbekk miðjan, á inn
vestra bekk miðjan (íslendinga Saga, ch. 170).
Let us now look at some of the pagan sacraments: there is no trace
in our texts of the ausa barn vatni; the only ceremony which is men-
tioned is the baptism (skírn, verb skíra); nor of the birth rites (such as
presented by F. Ström5 6); no tannfé, no indication of interesting sur-
vivals in betrothal or marriage. The rites of burial will be dealt with
at a later point.
The major annual festivals give an interesting example of substitution
or adaptation. They have more or less, all of them, been preserved,
but their significance has been altered, although some practices could
easily be kept without harm. For instance, jól has become the Chris-
tian Christmas, and nothing could prevent the maintaining of jóla-
veizla, jóladrykkja, jólaboð (Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch. 2 for instance)
and jólavist or jólafriðr, provided the object of all these practices
could be different from what it had been in the past. In the same
way, the Church has assimilated the vetrnœtr to the feast of Saint
Michael (although Guðmundar Saga Arasonar, ch. 41 makes the dis-
tinction) and the sumarmál to the feast of Saint John.° The sense of
the sanctity, past and present, of these dates, is not lost, and even
their names remain unchanged: we very frequently find such expres-
sions as á vetrnáttahelgi (for instance in Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch. 25),
á sumarmála helgi (íslendinga Saga, ch. 146), at miðsumarshelgi (Þor-
gils Saga Skarða, ch. 40). They go on playing an important part in
public life: marriages, payment of fines, the concluding of a settle-
ment often takes place at vetrnœtr or at miðju sumri (íslendinga Saga,
ch. 5). Curious also is the fact that the third day of the einmánaðar-
samkváma (The meeting of the hreppsmenn, supposing the hreppar to
5 Nordisk hedendom. Tro och sed i förkristen tid, Göteborg, 1961, p. 42.
6 L. Musset: Histoire des peuples scandinaves au Moyen Age, Paris, 1955, p.
135.