Gripla - 01.01.1993, Blaðsíða 215

SAINTS AND SINNERS
215
cal. The reference to the body lying as if in prayer, however, is found
only in Hrafns saga, as is the green field on the spot where he was
slain.
It is not necessary to conclude that Sturla Þórðarson or the compiler
of Sturlunga deleted hagiographic elements from his sources; it is
equally possible that the authors of Aron’s and Hrafn’s sagas elaborat-
ed on theirs. However the differences originated, they provide excel-
lent examples of the way emphasis on different aspects of a man’s ac-
tions could vary from one saga to another. Indeed, both the material
and the form in which it is presented may tell us more about the saga’s
author than about the individuals he describes.
What they do not tell us is the reason these episodes were included.
Were they meant to indicate salvation or sanctity, to serve as exempla
for the living, or simply record current events? Does bravery in the
face of death illustrate the coolness of a warrior or the grace of God?
Sometimes, as in Hrafn’s and Aron’s sagas, the authors give us their
opinions; in others, they provide information from which we can draw
our own conclusions. To the examples cited above it may be added
that the account of Sveinn Jónsson’s ‘martyrdom’ concludes with the
words ‘sem guð hjálpi hans sál,’ a wish which would be inappropriate if
his soul were considered to be in a position to help others.
While knowledge of an individual’s life and death may suggest sal-
vation or even sanctity, such indications by themselves could never be
conclusive, and only the latter could ever be ‘proved.’141 The deciding
factor was miracles. Not those granted to the living - anyone could re-
ceive a miracle, for any number of reasons. Divine assistance might be
given in answer to one’s own prayers or those of others, because use
was made of a relic, or simply from the inexhaustible mercy of God.
Its true cause might turn out to be quite different from the one to
which it was originally attributed. It was dangerous to credit even the
most holy with sanctity during their lifetimes, lest pride lead to a fall.142
141 There are, of course, numerous examples of dreams in which the dreamer is in-
formed of an individual’s arrival in heaven; most such examples, however, refer to
known or suspected saints.
142 See Bp I 98 / Bs II 194. While this motif was commonly used to account for the
lack of miracles during a saint’s lifetime, it was generally ignored if an individual was in
fact considered to have performed them, as in the case of Guömundr Arason.