Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 142

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in the Icelander’s breast, it promised fulfilment of the deepest desires,
it stood in connection with the noblest and best in man.
Hood, who was stationed in Iceland during the Second World War, writes as a
journalist to acquaint the English with ‘the spirit and achievements of the Ice-
landic church’ (Hood 1946:vii); and the inaccuracies, personal reminiscences
and occasional flights of fancy in his work all suggest that he is engaged in
creating an atmosphere rather than reconstructing past events. The atmo-
spheric setting is particularly marked in his account of fiorgeirr’s speech at the
Law-Rock: ‘The slanting rays of the sub-arctic sun, in the heavens there all
that night, would be shining over the lake, touching the stern background of
volcanic mountains with gracious colours’. In line with his stated aim, he
privileges stories showing the character of the Icelandic church: on how some
Icelanders preferred to be baptised in warm springs, he remarks that ‘some
might say that a certain tepidity has marked the Christianity of the nation ever
since; others that the incident illustrates its practical common sense’ (Hood
1946:32-33).
THE PROBLEM OF MIRACLES
Miracles and legends are problematic even for the devout among these early
historians, and meet with a variety of different fates. Maurer and Jörgensen
both include the supernatural and legendary in their work, but make note of
the less believable anecdotes: Maurer (1965:214, 218, 224, 385) three times
points out the presence of decorative additions in fiorvaldr’s mission and
expresses strong doubts on the subject of fiangbrandr’s youthful adventures,
while Jörgensen (1874-78:276, 362) refers deprecatingly to the role of „sagn“
(‘legend’) at the beginning of fiorvaldr’s life and the end of Stefnir’s. The
early twentieth-century histories tend to leave out the supernatural, but are less
critical about other legendary material: Björn M. Ólsen, for example, relates a
number of apocryphal events from fiorvaldr’s mission (such as his rescue of
Sveinn Forkbeard), but silently omits the battles with heathen spirits and
berserks and the miracles by which God protects his people. He keeps a brief
description of fiangbrandr’s youth, which Maurer found so problematic,
prefacing it with „er sagt“ (‘it is said’) in deference to his predecessor’s scep-
ticism, and exercises the same caution when telling of the incense mira-
culously smelt upwind at the Althing (Björn M. Ólsen 1900:28-29, 85). On the