Gripla - 01.01.1998, Síða 162

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GRIPLA
propriate as the family deity of pretematurally stupid peasants.12 It is a nice
touch to have the master of the house take his servant to Vallhalla with him
because „Oðinn mun eigi ganga í mót þrælnum, nema hann sé í [Skafnört-
ungs] föruneyti"13 (Gautreks saga:5). According to the traditional account of
Vallhalla, the stingy peasant master would hardly qualify as a companion for
heroes like Sigurðr and Helgi!14 The debased nature of the peasants’ Oðinn-
worship also shows itself in their sacrificial practices. An evidently traditional
part of Óðinn-worship is here taken to absurd extremes, becoming literally
the self-sacrifice of the faithful.
For the second narrative strand of Gautreks saga, the author shifts from the
obscure to the well-known; he retells the legend of the giant-like Starkaðr.
The protege of Óðinn, Starkaðr incurs the wrath of Þórr, who counters every
gift of Óðinn’s with a parallel curse. These take effect beginning with Stark-
aðr’s treacherous sacrifice of his lord to Óðinn and continue throughout his
triple lifespan. However, the narrative focusses on the early part of Starkaðr’s
life; the infamous betrayal is one of the last events described. The narrative
begins, as does the story of Gautrekr, with an account of the begetting of the
hero. The next two chapters are concemed with the feud between King Víkarr
and the three grandsons of Friðþjófr. The narrative ends with the determina-
tion of Starkaðr’s fate by the gods, the sacrifice of Víkarr, and quotations
from the poem Víkarsbálkr in which Starkaðr relates the trials he has had to
endure.
The story of Starkaðr contrasts vividly with the story of the begetting of
Gautrekr. The scene is Norway, rather than Sweden, the characters are gods,
kings, and heroes, rather than peasants and fools, the action is military, rather
than agrarian, the „source-style“ is that of legend, rather than folktale, the
tone serious, rather than satiric. Yet these narrative strands are not unrelated.
Both begin with the unusual begetting of the protagonist, contain a triad of
subsidiary characters (the sons of Skafnörtungr, the grandsons of Friðþjófr),
a series of similar events connected with the triad (foolish misunderstandings
and battles), and end with a sacrificial gesture (the slaying of the ox with a
12 See Milroy (1966:206-212) for further reasons not to interpret this episode as an authen-
tic description of pagan practice, though I disagree with his analysis of its function as authen-
ticating. Ellis Davidson (1943:74) describes it as „a parody or misunderstood echo of the tra-
dition of dying by fire [associated with an Óðinn cult]“.
13 „Óðinn would not accept the slave unless he were in Skinflint’s company."
14 Harris (1986:202) refers to Völsa þáttr as „wonderful satire" and states, „In general the
treatment of heathenism [in the þættir] is humorous".