Gripla - 20.12.2007, Page 62

GRIPLA60
and the sagas of Icelanders tend to imply this idea rather than mention it ex-
plicitly, even though it must be at the heart of the heroic ideal.
With the king’s reply, one may note for the first time in the þáttr a tend-
ency to condemn the ancient heroes from an overtly Christian standpoint: ek
vilda engi heiðinn maðr vera, hvárki konungr né annarr maðr (II:219), ‘I do
not wish to be a heathen, were he a king or another sort of man.’ Such
condemnations appear in Old Norse compositions much more rarely than one
might think, despite the fact that the traditional interpretation of renown as a
kind of immortality and its association with Óðinn mean that the Christian
church must condemn heroic fame as a false god. Boethius, for instance,
writes:
Vos uero immortalitatem uobis propagare uidemini cum futuri famam
temporis cogitatis. Quod si ad aeternitatis infinita spatia pertractes,
quid habes quod de nominis tui diuturnitate laeteris? (1957 II.vii.14-
15)
‘You actually suppose that, when you think of your future fame, you
create immortality for yourself at the same time. But if you consider
the infinite time-periods of eternity what reason have you to rejoice in
the durability of your name?’
When the old man in the þáttr insists upon a specific answer from Óláfr, the
king finally admits that he would like to have the atferð ok höfðingskap Hrólfs
kraka, ‘might and dominion of Hrólfr kraki.’ The guest disapproves of this
choice:
„hví vildir þú eigi vera sem sá konungr, er sigr hafði, við hvern sem
hann átti bardaga, ok svá var vænn ok vel at íþróttum búinn, at engi var
hans líki á Norðrlöndum, ok svá mátti öðrum sigr gefa í sóknum sem
sjálfum sér ok svá kringr skáldskapr sem öðrum mönnum um mál
sitt?“
Konungr settist þá upp ok tók til tíðabókar, er var í sænginni, ok
ætlaði at slá í höfuð Gesti ok mælti: „Þú vilda ek sízt vera, hinn illi
Óðinn.“ (II:219)
‘why do you not want to be that king who accomplished victory over
whoever he was fighting, who was so handsome and accomplished at
skills that nobody was his match in the Northern lands, who could