Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 155

KRISTNI SAGA AND MEDIEVAL CONVERSION HISTORY 153
But now that I have proved you deceitful and very weak, it is right for
me and without any deceit to abandon you and flee under the pro-
tection of that divinity which is far better and stronger than you.
The scene is hardly recognisable in Kristni saga (ÍF XV:7-8), coming to less
than a quarter of its length in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta. In place of
the long didactic exchange between Ko›rán and fiorvaldr is the terse comment
that: „fiorvaldr ba› fƒ›ur sinn skírask en hann tók flví seinliga“ (‘fiorvaldr
asked his father to be baptised, but he was slow to respond’). This is a request
for the external sign of Christian allegiance rather than for inner change, and
the reluctance Ko›rán expresses is more like indifference than any active
attachment to paganism. There is no weighted comparison between the two
faiths and, indeed, the very existence of the spirit Ko›rán worships is put in
doubt by the use of second-hand report in references to it: „At Giljá stó›
steinn sá er fleir frændr hƒf›u blótat ok kƒllu›u flar búa í ármann sinn“ (‘At
Giljá there stood a stone to which he and his kinsmen used to sacrifice, and
they claimed that their tutelary spirit lived in there’). After Fri›rekr has chant-
ed over it, the rock admittedly bursts apart, but Ko›rán’s subsequent decision
to convert is described in indirect speech in a distinctly non-committal
manner: „fiá flóttisk Ko›rán skilja at árma›r var sigra›r“ (‘Then Ko›rán
thought he understood that the tutelary spirit had been overcome’). The tute-
lary spirit himself fails to put in an appearance, and the verbs kƒllu›u and
flóttisk, with their implications of subjective interpretation, incline towards
scepticism about its existence rather than wonder and awe at its defeat.
The compiler uses a similar method when telling of the heathens’ attacks
on the first church in the North of Iceland, led by Klaufi and Arngeirr. In Óláfs
saga Tryggvasonar en mesta (I:292), Klaufi’s first offensive is aborted
because the church is felt and seen to be on fire:
En er fleir nalga›uz ok gengu ikirkiu gar›inn. kendo fleir ákafligan híta
ok sa mikla gneista flaug vt í glugga kirkiuòar. foro fleir brottu vi› flat
at fleim flotti kirkian full af elldi.
And when they drew near and went into the churchyard, felt the in-
tense heat and saw huge sparks flying out of the church windows, they
went away because they thought that the church was full of fire.