Gripla - 20.12.2010, Blaðsíða 205

205SÍÐU-HALLS SAGA OK SONA HANS
text preserved in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta and Flateyjarbók (where
it is also preserved within Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar) (ÍF X, 119–125).
According to this short tale, Þiðrandi and not Þorsteinn is the eldest son of
Hallr and a most promising and gifted man (vænstr ok efniligastr). Þiðrandi
meets his end during one winter-nights celebration shortly before the con-
version of Iceland. Before the celebration a wise man staying with Hallr
named Þórhallr speaks with apprehension regarding the festival as he has a
foreboding that a spámaðr (‘soothsayer’ or ‘prophet’ but also Þórhallr’s
nickname) will die. Þórhallr seems to assume that this refers to his own
death, however Hallr reassures him that there is an ox named Spámaðr
which he plans to have killed and it is to this that the prophecy refers.11
Despite this, Þórhallr warns the company not to leave the building during
the night. Later in the night there is a knock at the door and Þiðrandi
answers it and steps outside where he sees nine women riding from the
north in black clothes with drawn swords and nine others riding from the
south in light clothes with white steeds. The black women attack Þiðrandi
and he dies in the morning after telling the household of these events. This
dream-like but clearly tangible apparition is explained by Þórhallr:
Þat veit ek eigi, en geta má ek til at þetta hafi engar konur verit
aðrar en fylgjur yðrar frænda. Get ek at hér eptir komi siðaskipti,
ok mun því næst koma siðr betri hingat til lands. Ætla ek þær dísir
yðrar er fylgt hafa þessum átrúnaði munu hafa vitat fyrir siðaskiptit
ok fyrir þat at þér munuð verða þeim afhendir frændr. Nú munu
þær eigi hafa því unat at hafa engan skatt af yðr áðr, ok munu þær
þetta hafa í sinn hlut. En inar betri dísir mundu vilja hjálpa honum
ok komusk eigi við at svá búnu. Nú munu þér frændr þeira njóta er
þann munuð hafa er þær boða fyrir ok fylgja. (ÍF XV, 124)
11 Merrill Kaplan (2000, 386) suggests that Spámaðr as the name of ox may be a sort of pun,
as Hallr comments the animal is spakari, usually translated as ‘wiser’ but here, according to
Kaplan, merely implying ‘more docile’, than other animals. The name, however, also reso-
nates with beliefs, common in agricultural communities (and in many cases with justifica-
tion), of animals being able to predict or detect natural phenomena, for example lying down
before rain. In Laxdœla saga an ox called Harri protects and finds food for the rest of his
herd (ÍF V, 83–85) and as such Spámaðr might be an appropriate name for him (particularly
if one compares its usage to instances in another conversion þáttr: Þorvalds þáttr víðfǫrla I
(ÍF XV, 63–68) where it is used of a stone-dwelling spirit whose advice protects the farmer
Koðrán).