Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Qupperneq 203

Saint Olafs Dream House
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found in the pillars of Rauðúlfr’s house, but at the same time the number twenty
divided by four, like the twenty men of King Olaf divided between the four
quarters ofthe innercirclein the Flateyjarbókversion (Fig. 1). Theseresemblances
may suggest that both narrators are playing with numbers which identify the
houses as the cosmos. The authors may have had the same reason to place their
“heroes” on a central spot within a replica of the universe,64 but the apparent
originality of the author of Rauðúlfiþáttrsuggests that he was not just copying
some amusing stories from abroad but was fully aware of the allegory.65
Who was Rauðúlfr? The house belonged to him, so if the house was the abode
of the sun, Rauðúlfr may have been that sun. The classical personification of the
sun was that represented by Helios/Phoebus/Apollo, i.a. expressed in popular
works of late Roman authors like Ovid, Claudianus, Macrobius and Martianus
Capella. No similar tradition seems to have existed in the Norse paganism, as it
has come to us in the Eddas. Rauðúlfr’s name varies between manuscripts and
even within the same manuscript. Sometimes he is called Rauðr or Ulfr (Red or
Wolf). These names may give a clue.66 Red or reddish colours are traditionally
associated with Helios/Phoebus/Apollo. In the Metamorphoses (book 2) of Ovid
the sun (Phoebus) is dressed in a purple robe and in Martianus Capella’s Marriage
ofPhilology andMercury (§29 and §76) his cloak was “gleaming red” and “scarlet,
thickly flecked with gold.” Isidore {Etymologiae X 41.1) also associated the red
colour with the sun.
The wolf, according to the bestiaries, represents the Devil.67 It is difficult to
take the wise and honest Rauðúlfr for the Devil, but the wolf was also associated
with Apollo (Charbonneau-Lassay 1991). This idea was still current when
Macrobius wrote in Saturnalia (1.17.40, tr. Davies 1969):
From the city of Lycopolis in the Thebaid comes evidence that the sun is also called
lukos, with the meaning “wolf”; for Apollo and the wolf are worshipped there with
equal reverence, the object of veneration in each case being the sun . . .
Later in Saturnalia (1.20.15) Macrobius relates the trio ivolfilion-dog to time,
i.e. past, present and future. (“Time past is represented by the head of the wolf,
because the memory of things that are over and done is swiftly borne away”). It
M In Le Voyage de Cbarlemagtiewhen Charlemagne sat down in a seat used by Christ, the Patriarch
of Jerusalem said to Charlemagne: “You have sat in the very seat where God himself sat:
Therefore call yourself Charlemagne, great above all crowned kings!” (tr. Picherit 1984, p. 14).
65 Einar Pálsson (1969-95) has pointed out numerous cases where allegorical interpretation is
called for in the lcelandic Sagas, so RauÓúlfsþáttr may not be an isolated occurrence of allegory
in medieval Icelandic literature. Schlauch (1932) noted the similarity between the palace of
Hugon of Constantinople and the hall of Bricriu in the Irish legend of FledBricrend. This hall
was clearly based on a geometry and numerology of cosmological significance (Rees and Rees
(1961) pp. 148-154). This deserves further study and so do possible parallels with houses
described in Bósa saga and Rémundar saga Keisarasonar (cf. Schlauch 1929; Broberg 1909-12).
66 See Frank (1953, p. 246).
67 Tbe Book ofBeasts, tr. White (1954 pp. 56—61).