Gripla - 20.12.2005, Blaðsíða 159

KRISTNI SAGA AND MEDIEVAL CONVERSION HISTORY 157
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, although Kristni saga contains much of the same material as
Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, its approach is entirely different, and this
should be taken into account when evaluating its historical potential. Chrono-
logical order is observed, historical context is provided, the fullest and most
reliable sources are selected, miracles are pared down to the strictly relevant,
and a legal and political outlook replaces the exemplary and religious em-
phasis of Oddr and Gunnlaugr. In all, the compiler’s methods are not so
different from those of some nineteenth- and early twentieth-century histori-
ans, and the saga has the additional merit of being many hundreds of years
nearer to the events, at a time when oral tradition was still available as a source.
Although the compiler could not make reliable history out of unreliable, he
could and did rework his sources according to the principles associated with
Ari, the writing of apparently objective history with an eye for chronological
and genealogical detail. What he adds, omits and changes from the sources in
front of him is therefore worthy of our attention: at the very least it shows how
a serious historian in the thirteenth century approached the source material
available to him and adapted it into a detailed and plausible history of
Iceland’s conversion to Christianity.
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