Gripla - 01.01.1993, Page 197

SAINTS AND SINNERS 197
husband52 was still on his conscience. The fact that he was himself slain
by another of her lovers recalls the deed, and Hákon admits the ap-
propriateness of the situation. The remark that he had spared this man
on three occasions when he had discovered him with her (and might
therefore legally have killed him) demonstrates the virtue of mercy
while reminding the reader why he himself needed to do penance. In the
end one feels not only that poetic justice had been administered, but
that Hákon’s crime has been paid for, both in this world and the next.
Evidence of a man’s salvation might also have important conse-
quences for his survivors. The condition of Sverrir’s corpse, for exam-
ple, was supposed to demonstrate that the ban on him - and his fol-
lowers - had been ineffective.53
Echoes of saints’ lives could direct the sympathies of the reader by
emphasizing the innocence of the deceased and/or the iniquity of his
slayers. Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, Kálfr Guttormsson, Þorgils skarði, the
Ormssons, and the Þorvaldssons are all represented as being at peace
with their enemies when they are slain, and the fact that Hrafn and
Kálfr were deacons makes the crimes doubly heinous. The Arnþrúðar-
sons are in a slightly more equivocal position, but a comment ascribed
to Ormr Jónsson makes it clear that, in the eyes of the author, their at-
tackers were breaking a truce {sœtt).5A It may be added that the victim
of such deceit was virtually guaranteed a good reception in the next
world; Sólarljóð tells how the souls of two men killed treacherously
are carried straight to heaven. The sins of the first, who had been a
robber and murderer, appear to be transferred to his slayer.55
When a man was like a saint, his enemies automatically became
agents of the devil. While statements to this effect can probably be dis-
missed as rhetoric in most cases, they may sometimes be meant literal-
ly, for example in the mutual recriminations of Sverrir and his oppo-
nents.56 The reverse was also true; descriptions of gratuitous cruelty in
a slaying might go far to rehabilitate the reputation of the victim.
The trappings of sanctity were in fact a valuable form of propagan-
52 Stu I 170 / K 1168.
53 Ss 194.
54 Stu I 200 / K I 206.
55 Den Norsk-islandske Skjaldedigtning, B: rettet tekst, ed. Finnur Jónsson, Copen-
hagen, 1912, vol I, pp. 636-9.
56 For example Ss 107. Another interesting passage in this context is the description