Gripla - 01.01.1993, Síða 194

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GRIPLA
fate of whose body was also unknown.36 His biographer points out the
parallels between Ólafr’s life as a monk after the battle of Svoldr and
that of Harold Godwinson, ‘er fumir menn calla helgan vera.’37 Kjart-
an Ólafsson, like St. Olaf, flings away his sword even though he has
not yet been seriously wounded; similarly Höskuldr Hvítanessgoði,
who (for no obvious reason) has taken his sword with him to sow corn,
makes no attempt to defend himself.38 Lars Lönnroth has suggested
the influence of Placitus saga on Njáls saga, comparing the bodies of
Njáll, Bergþóra, and Þórðr, preserved unburned under the ox-hide, to
those of Placitus and his family, which were found unscathed inside a
brazen ox.39 Njáll’s body, like those of the martyrs, is preternaturally
bright. It may be added that both Placitus and Njáll had chosen to
undergo suffering immediately rather than postpone it (to the end of
his life in the case of Placitus, to the next world in the case of Njáll.)
In addition to these parallels with specific saints’ lives, the following
hagiographic commonplaces are found. Forgiving one’s enemies, as
Christ did on the cross, was the duty of all Christians; however, as
Bjarni Guðnason has pointed out,40 in practice it is rarely mentioned
outside hagiographic literature. The only layman I have found who ex-
presses such sentiments is Höskuldr Hvítanessgoði, whose dying words
echo Christ’s.41 After confessing, the Arnþrúðarsons wash their hands
and comb their hair as if going to a celebration (fagnaðr), actions re-
miniscent simultaneously of the Jómsvíkings and the early Christian
36 Det Arnamagnœanske Haandskríft 310 4to: Saga Olafs konungs Tryggvasonar er
ritaði Oddr muncr, ed. P. Groth. Christiania, 1895, p. 111. Postola Sögur, ed. C.R. Unger,
Christiania, 1874, p. 454.
37
Ibid. pp. 118-19. Of course it is necessary for him to reverse the chronology, mak-
ing Harold imitate Ólafr. ‘Hemings þáttr’ in Hauksbók calls Harold ‘sannheilagr’ (p.
348).
38 Laxdœla, p. 154, Njála, p. 280-81, cf. Hkr II, p. 385. It must not be forgotten,
however, that both Kjartan and Höskuldr are in a particularly difficult situation, in that
their attackers are tied to them by the relationship of fostering. The idea that ‘it is better
to be killed by than to kill’ a close relation is voiced by others than saints - besides
Kjartan and Höskuldr in the passages cited above, it is attributed to Tostig Godwinson
before the battle of Stamford bridge (Mork 276, Fagr 289).
39 Lars Lönnroth, ‘Kroppen som sjalens spegel,’ Lychnos 1963-4, p. 32; Njáls saga: A
Critical Introduction, Berkeley, 1976, p. 122 ff.
40 Bjarni Guðnason, Fyrsta Sagan (Studia Islandica 37), 1978, p. 102.
41 Ns 281.