Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 23

STYLISTICS AND SOURCES OF THE POSTOLA SÖGUR 21
power of God is thus shown here in the way in which Christ’s apostles are his
agents in the struggle against and defeat of Satan’s subterfuges (Collings
deems this conflict to comprise the saga’s thematic core):25 just as Christ
through refusing to succumb to Satan’s temptations defeated Satan thrice
(Christ refuses to turn stones into bread, rejects Satan’s offer of the wealth of
the world, and refuses to step down from the temple), and then defeated him
again through his death and resurrection, thereby rendering void the wiles that
Satan successfully used against Adam and freeing mankind from the ‘exile’ of
death, so also does Bartholomew defeat the agents of Satan26 and heal and
redeem the people, by first exposing the deceitfulness of the demons when
they hurt people physically and consequently spiritually (when the people
pray to the idols for delivery from physical harm), and then destroying the idol
and banishing the demon.27
The lessons given in Bartholomew’s sermon, like those given in the other
Pseudo-Abdian romances belonging to the same cycle,28 are magnified by the
way that they are mirrored in the saga’s subsequent action. Bartholomew dis-
plays his power over the demon Astaroth by allowing the bound Astaroth to
speak,29 and Astaroth admits to using his wiles (a manifestation of Satan’s
temptations) to ensnare people into worshipping him and believing him to be
a god, although he, or his idol in this case, is of the same nature as a ‘stone or
stump,’ thereby echoing the lesson concerning Adam’s succumbing to Satan’s
temptations, which caused mankind to lose its place in the eternal and to
become ensnared by the mortal and the deathly (*Post.:748.29-749.28). Fol-
25 See Collings 1969:182.
26 Astaroth clarifies his and the other demons’ role when he names Satan as his ‘chieftain’
(„Hπf›ingi varr,“ *Post.:749.6), and, in an interesting passage revealing some of the saga’s
Scandinavian idiom, Hel as the demons’ queen („[...] en hann heria›i a Hel drottning vara
[...],“ *Post.:748.33-34). For a discussion of the unique appearance of this character here, see
Bell 1983:263-8.
27 Bartholomew draws specific analogies in his sermon between Christ’s work and his and the
other apostles’ own: „[...] sva sem flu ser, at konungr stigr yfir ovin sinn ok sendir riddara
sina ok li›smenn i alla sta›i, fla er ovinr hans haf›i velldi yfir ok leggr sitt mark og eigu a allt,
sva ger›i ok Jesus Kristr, fla er hann ste yfir fiandann, at hann sendi oss i oll lond, at ver
rekim a braut alla fliona diπfuls, fla er byggia i hofum ok i skur›go›um, en ver leysim menn
or anau› fleira ok fra velldi fless, er yfir var stiginn,“ *Post.:748.1-7.
28 The narratives belonging to this cycle include the lives of Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and
Jude, Thomas, and Philip.
29 The narrative here utilizes the common Pseudo-Abdian topos of allowing the enemy to indict
himself.