Gripla - 01.01.1993, Qupperneq 189

SAINTS AND SINNERS
189
Ideally, sins should be formally confessed and atoned for during this
life; where this was not possible, last-minute repentence might suffice
to attain a state of grace and mitigate some of the pains of purgatory.
Although theologians disagreed about the precise extent to which this
was possible, popular miracle literature was full of examples illustrat-
ing the precept that ‘er eigi sva þung synd, at eigi megi hreinsaz fyrir
iöranar tar,’9 and that God ‘dæmer hvern epter idran þeiri er hann hef-
er i liflati sinu.’10 Death could serve as a penance, as noted in the Dia-
logues of Gregory the Great: ‘oc ma þ[aí] vera at farligr da>þe reinfe
Neqve/iar fynþer þe/rar.’11 The same idea is expressed in the famous
passage in Njáls saga: ‘guð er miskunnsamr, ok mun hann oss eigi bæði
láta brenna þessa heims ok annars.’12 Hungrvaka emphasizes the piety
of two bishops by describing their desire for a painful death.13
Accounts of confession or other pious actions preceding a man’s
death can thus suggest his subsequent fate. An author can provide evi-
dence of an appropriate spiritual condition by informing his readers
that men had attended church, observed a feast day, or recited prayers
shortly before death, or that doomed captives asked to speak to a
priest. Several condemned men express a desire to atone for their sins;
Hákon Þórðarson, Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson and Þórðr Þorvaldsson offer
to go on pilgrimage. This resembles a Christianized version of the tra-
ditional punishment of outlawry, but those proposing it go even fur-
ther. Hrafn and Þórðr demonstrate Christian charity by offering to
make the journey for the benefit of their enemies’ souls as well as their
own,14 while Hákon offers to have an arm and leg cut off before he sets
out. When this request is refused, he asks to be stabbed to death.15
9 Postola sögur, ed. C.R. Unger, Christiania, 1874, p. 803. See also the text of Homi-
ly for the dedication of a church found in AM 237a fol: ‘fva fcolom \er oc innan þva
iþranartærum fýnþa flecca af arnd várre', ed. Oluf Kolsrud, Messuskýringar, Oslo, 1952,
pp. 103-4.
111 Duggals leiðsla, ed. Peter Cahill (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á fslandi: Rit 25),
Reykjavík, 1983, p. 38.
11 The Life of St. Gregory and his dialogues: fragments of an Icelandic manuscript
from tlie I3th century. Hreinn Benediktsson, ed. (Editiones Arnamagnæanæ, series B.
vol. 4), Copenhagen, 1963, p. 60.
12 Ns 329.
13 Bp I 70, 78 note 8 / Bs I 88,103^1.
14 Stu I 198 / K I 203, Bp I 673 / Hs 55 / Stu I 226 / K I 314, Stu I 354 / K I 438.
15 Stu 1198 / K 1 203.