Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 157

KRISTNI SAGA AND MEDIEVAL CONVERSION HISTORY
trouble, although they were not Christian’).7 This forms a strong contrast with
Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, where berserks, far from being a social
menace, are representatives of the heathen party, and only God’s grace pre-
vents the heathens from driving the Christians from the Althing by force
(ÓlTm I:289, II:189). Ambushes against Christians are cited here as examples
of the „mπrgum meíngerdum ok ofsoknum er hei›nir menn ueittu Fri›reki
biskupi ok fiorvalldi“ (‘many harms and persecutions which heathens inflicted
on Bishop Fri›rekr and fiorvaldr’): the missionaries’ outlawry is never ex-
plicitly mentioned and the connection between fiorvaldr’s vengeance killings
and the heathens’ attacks is obscured by the intervening exempla of Ingi-
mundr and Máni (ÓlTm I:294-97). Likewise, fiangbrandr’s first attempt to
leave Iceland is described as the result of heathen malice and intolerance:
„hann sa sik lítit vinna ikristni bo›ínu“ (‘he saw that he was making little
progress in preaching Christianity’) and his outlawry is mentioned only in
passing upon his return to Norway (ÓlTm II:158-59, 163). In Kristni saga, on
the other hand, such violent encounters are clearly motivated by legal issues:
the heathens bar fiorvaldr and Fri›rekr from the assembly at Hegranes
immediately after fiorvaldr has killed two poets, and gather to burn Fri›rekr in
his home after the missionaries’ outlawry deprives them of the law’s pro-
tection (ÍF XV:12-13). fiangbrandr tries to leave Iceland after he is outlawed
for the killings of Vetrli›i and fiorvaldr, and his next clash with heathens,
unique to Kristni saga, is occasioned by a further breach of law: his theft of
food from Skeggbjƒrn and refusal to restore it upon demand (ÍF XV:22-23).
In Oddr’s Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar and Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en
mesta, the struggle between good and evil gives the stories dramatic shape,
but the tensions of Kristni saga are political rather than ideological. The
strained relationship between Norway and Iceland is particularly evident in
the scenes involving Óláfr Tryggvason (ÍF XV:27-29): the king threatens to
repay the Icelanders for their reception of his messenger fiangbrandr, and his
decision to grant the Icelanders peace only „flar til er reynt er hversu fletta mál
7 This explanation was popular among later historians, most of whom do not mention
explicitly that it comes from Kristni saga; see, for example, Maurer 1965:439-40 („Zwischen
den beiden sich schross gegenüberstehenden Partheien der glaubenseifrigen Anhänger der
alten und der neuen Religion stand eine dritte Parthei in der Mitte, welche äußerlich zwar
dem alten Glauben zugethan war, der aber Staat und Rechtsordnung über die Religionen
ging“); Jón Jóhannesson 1956:161 („Í ö›ru lagi hafa i flokki beggja veri› menn, sem vildu
umfram allt stilla til fri›ar [...] fleir hafa gengi› á milli, svo a› enginn bardagi var›“).
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