Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 147

PAGANISM AND LITERATURE
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to convey any particular religious significance, and may be relevant to
the so to speak natural ways of proceeding (as, for instance, the kví
in íslendinga Saga, ch. 80), and besides those which may be described
as Viking customs (the bera allt til stanga of Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch.
60), we find the famous wedge formation earlier noticed by Tacitus9
in íslendinga Saga, ch. 155 or Þórðar Saga Kakala, ch. 42. We know
from Skjöldunga Saga that Óðinn himself was supposed to have initi-
ated this tactic.10 íslendinga Saga, ch. 155 has the word rani (the
snout of a pig). But here as elsewhere, it is never apparent that the
possible religious sense of the practice is still of living or conscious
significance. On the other hand, in battles such as the one at Örlygs-
staðir, the strategy, if one can describe it as such, is banal, and the
great warman of the time, Þórðr kakali, tries to apply European
tactics in Iceland. We can also mention the swearing of the truce,
grið, a very frequent practice in the samtíðarsögur. These texts give us
every possible detail about this practice, and we have every evidence
that the institution was highly regulated (see for instance íslendinga
Saga, ch. 67, or Þorgils Saga Skarða, ch. 15). If, as seems certain
seeing the formulas preserved in Grágás or in Grettla, the operation
had a sacred character, then the Church had no difficulty in adapting
it and associating it with the truce of God such as edicted by the
Council of Nice in 1041. The fact is that we see the progressive
appearance of the word kirkjugrið (e.g. Þórðar Saga Kakala, ch. 31)
in our texts, to replace the simple grið.
There remains one very interesting survival in Hákonar Saga
Hákonarsonar11 by Sturla. The latter remarks that, in the year of
Hákon’s accession to the throne, ‘there was a good year, fruit trees
yielded fruit twice in the year and the wild birds hatched twice’. This,
naturally, reminds us of the ancient belief in the sacred king elected
til árs ok jriðar, ársœll ok jriðsœll.12 True to say, this detail, which
would obviously show a clear survival, applies to Norway, not to
XlIIth century Iceland. Has Sturla felt it inoffensive for his com-
patriots where the situation was quite different? Or have we to inter-
9 Germania, VI, 6: acies per cuenos componitur.
10 See Cleasby-Vigfússon-Craigie: articles hamalt, svínfylking and rani.
11 Quoted here after the Norwegian translation by A. Holtsmark.
12 See F. Ström: op. cit., pp. 48-51.