Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 157

PAGANISM AND LITERATURE 153
and finally tumed into a so-called Northem mythological detail in
Gísla Saga.
Another point may attract our attention: the frequent presence,
especially in the dreams which constitute a kind of set theme in sagas
of all kinds, of animals and, accordingly, the link which one is temp-
ted to establish with old pagan beliefs. It is well known that the raven
was Óðinn’s favourite animal, the swine or the ox or the horse,
Freyr’s and so on. All these animals and others play a part in the
samtíðarsögur. The raven remains a bird of fatality in íslendinga
Saga, vísa 9 or vísa 21. The pig is present in Prestssaga Guðmundar
Góða, ch. 4, although I have suggested elsewhere5 6 that the detail may
have been borrowed from Pope Gregory’s Dialogues. There is a furious
bull in Þorláks Saga Byskups, yngri gerð, ch. 47 (and in Jarteinabók
Þorláks Byskups I, ch. 29) which is soothed by an invocation to Þor-
lákr. It is naturally possible to see in all these stories traces of ancient
religious fears, although they may equally well belong to stock images
resting on timeless superstitions and therefore not be specifically pagan.
It is an unexplained fact that the seal has been considered a special
and fateful animal by the Icelanders. The nickname Orknhöfði (head
of a seal) given to Hallr Teitsson in Þorgils Saga ok Hafliða, vísa 13,
and the monster Selkolla which frequently torments Bishop Guð-
mundr (íslendinga Saga, ch. 25; Jarteinabók Guðmundar Byskups, ch.
20) are evidence of this. What is to be pointed out here, however, is
that, very curiously, it looks as it were the Church itself which made
use of the strange properties of this animal: it plays an important part
in the tales of miracles, being very often the instmment of the miracle-
doers (e.g. Þorláks Saga Byskups, ch. 26; ibidem, yngri gerðin, ch. 45;
Jarteinabók Þorláks Byskups I, ch. 5 and 22).
There can be no doubt that the horse possessed a magical and rit-
ual value in the old Scandinavian religion. Once more, we can invoke
here Tacitus’s testimony,0 and we think also of Freyfaxi in Hrafnkatla.
The Church was obviously aware of the importance of the horse,
5 The influence of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues on Old Icelandic literature, in
The Proceedings of the First International Saga Conference, London, 1973, p. 14.
6 Tacitus: Germania X, 4-5, see also G. Gjessing: Hesten i förhistorisk kunst og
kultur, in Viking 7, 1943, and B. Egardt: Problem kring hástskallar, in Rig 33,
1950.