Gripla - 20.12.2012, Side 183

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Hallur
st Michael certainly seemed impressive to síðu-Hallur. four different
literary sources describe the Icelandic kristnitaka and all four describe
Hallur’s role in the process; two of them, furthermore, tell directly of his
affiliation to st Michael.
the story of how Christianity was accepted as the “state religion”
in Iceland is told by the medieval historian Ari fróði Þorgilsson in his
Íslendingabók, written c. 1122–1133.13 Íslendingabók ch. 7 gives a descrip-
tion of how this momentous decision was made at the Alþingi and certain
details are particularly relevant in the present context. Ari refers a number
of times to a man called Hallur Þorsteinsson, known as síðu-Hallur, who
came to play an important role in the kristnitaka.14 It may be noteworthy
that Ari himself claims to be descended from Hallur on his mother’s side,
which means both that he may have known of genuine traditions about
Hallur and that he may have had specific interests in how his ancestor was
remembered (Grønlie 2006, xv).15 According to Ari, Hallur was baptized
early on by the missionary priest Þangbrandur, who had been sent by king
ólafur of norway to convert the Icelanders. He further tells us that when
things came to a crisis at the Alþingi, with Christians and heathens fall-
ing out and being on the verge of fighting each other, Hallur was asked to
recite the law for the Christians but he diplomatically freed himself of this
responsibility (íf 1, 16–17; Grønlie 2006, 8–9; Cochrane 2010, 213–216).
Had he responded favourably to this request, Hallur would have put him-
self in a highly controversial position; instead, the responsibility fell on
the existing law-speaker, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, who decided in favour
13 It now survives only in two paper manuscripts from the seventeenth century: AM 113 a
fol., c. 1650, and AM 113 b fol., c. 1650 (ONP, 282). the paper copies, although late, are
generally accepted as accurately reflecting the twelfth-century document from which they
were probably copied (Grønlie 2006, xiii–xiv).
14 Cochrane 2010 discusses síðu-Hallur’s role in kristnitaka extensively; see also jón Hnefill
Aðalsteinsson 1999.
15 In the written sources that discuss kristnitaka, Gissur hvíti and Hjalti skeggjason are by far
the most active promoters of Christianity in the political landscape at the time; Hallur is
only mentioned as the man whom the Christians turn to when they want someone to be
their Christian law-speaker.
st MICHAeL AnD tHe sons of síÐu-HALLuR