Gripla - 01.01.1995, Page 116

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GRIPLA
Icelandic chieftains who despite their abandonment of paganism in the year
1000 did not substitute their pagan ethics of revenge and government for
Christian morals. Such an allegorical interpretation of the saga is supported by
the anachronisms within the saga. It is striking in a family saga to find pagan
farmers committing the atrocities of wrecking temples and slaying sacred ani-
mals. Hrafnkell, though also a pagan, does not abandon his faith in order to
convert to Christianity, but for personal reasons. Even though the saga notes
that his temperament seems to mellow at this point, he continues with his au-
tocratic style of government and his relentless killing of Eyvindur is in notable
contrast to his former single combats (einvígi).
The crucial events at the heart of the saga, which are foreshadowed in the
dream in the first chapter, suggest an allegorical perspective for the saga. Such
an interpretation is further sustained by the fact that the only adversaries
worthy of Hrafnkell, Þorkell Þjóstarsson and Eyvindur Bjarnason, enter the
saga after a period spent in the Christian world. These two men had been
away for seven years and travelled to Constantinople where they had received
great honours. The author may be suggesting that they came into contact with
Christian ideas, which in the tenth century were foreign to Icelandic society.
These two men bring about dramatic changes in Hrafnkell’s life: Þorkell and
his brother Þorgeir overthrow Hrafnkell (and would have killed him if Sámur
had agreed), but Eyvindur falls victim to the belief that Hrafnkell would hon-
our his settlement more than his duty to revenge.
In this article an attempt is made to show that the two-fold structure of
Hrafnkels saga, together with its numerous Christian and pagan references,
and anachronisms, make an allegorical interpretation of the saga valid. It is,
however, important to emphasise that such a reading of the saga does not ex-
clude other approaches to this complex text.