Gripla - 20.12.2010, Page 197

JAMIE COCHRANE
*SÍÐU-HALLS SAGA OK SONA HANS
Creating a saga from tradition1
Introduction
IN THE YEAR 999 or 1000,2 some 130 years after the settlement and a
mere 70 years since its establishment, the very existence of the young
Icelandic Commonwealth was threatened. Prior to Christian missions of
the 970s there was a relatively small number of Icelandic Christians and
Christian tradition had little influence within Iceland. To have a Christian
in one’s family was considered a grave dishonour for a 10th-century
Icelander. However, by the year 999, although Christians still represented
a minority in Icelandic society, they were a powerful minority as many of
the most important, powerful and wealthy chieftains had become Christian.
At the Alþingi of that year (whether it be 999 or 1000) Christian and
pagan chieftains squared up for what seemed like an inevitable showdown.
To the Christians it seemed impossible to live under the same set of laws
that governed the pagans and they turned to one man, Hallr Þor steinsson,
a chieftain from Síða in East Iceland, to declare those laws that were appro-
priate to them. Such an arrangement would have surely led to social divi-
sion and ultimately to civil war, social breakdown and the failure of the
Icelandic Commonwealth. Hallr, however, rather than seeking to create a
rival Christian law-code and thereby escalate the conflict, approached the
pagan Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði the law-speaker and, after getting chief-
tains from both sides to agree to the outcome, gave him money to declare
1 An early version of this article was presented at the Viking Society for Northern Research
Summer Meeting in Leeds 2007. I am grateful to the Society for inviting me to speak and
for all the comments and suggestions made in the course of the discussion afterwards, from
which this paper has benefited.
2 Modern scholars tend to date the conversion to 999 rather than 1000 (see Ólafia
Einarsdóttir 1964, 107–126; also Strömbäck 1975, 2 note). See the discussion below regard-
ing the account of the conversion at the Alþingi.
Gripla XXI (2010): 197–234.