Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 143

KRISTNI SAGA AND MEDIEVAL CONVERSION HISTORY 141
other hand, he quietly passes over the magician Galdra-He›inn who, ac-
cording to the sources, caused the ground to swallow up fiangbrandr’s horse.
This is, interestingly enough, the only supernatural event Jón Helgason
(1925:40) sees fit to include, perhaps because of its dramatic qualities. Yet,
much as he may have appreciated the story’s artistry, he distances himself
from its historical truth by introducing it with „i Følge Sagnet“ (‘according to
the legend’).
An alternative to either accepting the miracles uncritically or omitting them
altogether is to strip away the supernatural while salvaging whatever can be
rationalised as history. In Kristni saga and Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta,
for example, there is an account of how the heathens were miraculously
prevented from burning Bishop Fri›rekr alive, when a flock of birds
frightened their horses just a stone’s throw from his homestead (ÍF XV:12-13,
ÓlTm I:297-98). Björn M. Ólsen (1900:20) suggests that this is in fact the
confused reminiscence of a „fjeránsdómr“ (‘court of confiscation’) held out-
side Fri›rekr’s home after he was outlawed: at some point the legal context
was forgotten, and the fact that the heathens left without harming the bishop
was reinterpreted as a miracle. Similarly, Sigur›ur Nordal (1928) has shown
that fiangbrandr’s horse really could have sunk into the ground in the area
mentioned in the sources: M‡rdalssandur beneath Katla in southern Iceland
(ÍF XV:19, ÓlTm II:156-57, ÍF XII:259). Giving examples from nineteenth
century records, he points out that, after a volcanic eruption, glacial cavities
are formed under the sand that can easily give way if they are ridden over.
Historians, he argues, must distinguish between events themselves and the
(supernatural) explanations later given to them: while doubt may seem more
scientific than faith, both rest on equally weak foundations („fia› er nú einu
sinni svo, a› efinn flykir vísindalegri en trúin, flótt hvorttveggja sé á jafn-
veikum rökum reist“; Sigur›ur Nordal 1928:113).
A more recent attempt to extract history from miracles can be found in
Gryte Piebenga’s discussion of the mission of fiorvaldr and Bishop Fri›rekr.
With the aim of distinguishing „hva som virkelig skjedde og hva som bare
beror på fantasi“ (‘what really happened and what merely rests on fantasy’;
Piebenga 1984:80), she selects a number of episodes from Óláfs saga
Tryggvasonar en mesta and Kristni saga for closer inspection, including
Fri›rekr’s defeat of a heathen spirit worshipped by fiorvaldr’s father Ko›rán,
and his victory over two berserks who walk through fire without burning
themselves. The first of these episodes, she suggests, might well have some