Gripla - 20.12.2009, Side 60

GRIPLA60
and Gunnsteinn raided a burial site and destroyed a statue of the pagan god
jómali in Bjarmaland.20 the story has a vividness that might suggest that
Snorri had been an eyewitness to the episode or at least had visited the site,
which of course was not the case. Nor are the details so specific that it is
necessary to assume any local knowledge; most probably, Snorri has
invented them himself. nevertheless, his need for visualising is striking.
We are presented almost with a map of the site and are told details such as
that Þórir used his axe to climb the wall and that mud stuck to the gold and
silver taken out of the burial mound, which seems obvious enough but
which increases the vividness of the story. The attack on the statue plays a
major part in the story and is also described in dramatic detail. Snorri does
not confine himself to merely noting that its head dropped off, but
describes exactly where Karli aimed his axe so as to loosen the costly neck­
lace the statue was wearing in the easiest way possible. The detailed
description of this attack, from Þórir’s warning against touching the statue
to karli’s chopping off its head, might look like a story of greed leading to
disaster. Admittedly, the sound of the dropping head alerts the guards that
are on their way – Snorri tells us that the raiders exploited an interval dur­
ing the change of guards – but Þórir’s magic saves the Norwegians.
Instead, the attack on the god serves as an anticipation of the later conflict
between Þórir and the brothers. Þórir’s warning seems to have served as a
pretext to keep the others away from the main booty, as he fails to heed it
himself, snatching a bowl full of silver from the statue, which results in
karli’s attack on the statue. on their return from the expedition, Þórir and
karli quarrel about the booty and Þórir kills karli, partly because of this
and partly as revenge for Karli’s having killed Þórir’s nephew Ásbjǫrn; he
pierces him with the spear with which Ásbjǫrn had been killed, which he
had received from Ásbjǫrn’s mother and with which he later pierced King
Óláfr. In this way, the raiding expedition in Bjarmaland enters into the
main story of Óláfs saga (below p. 61).
Representation and argument
The visual character of the sagas and the contrast here between the sagas
and classical and medieval Latin prose is reminiscent of Auerbach’s com­
20 Heimskringla II, 292–99.