Gripla - 01.01.1998, Qupperneq 164

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GRIPLA
laying of the worthless retum-gift into gifts of greater and greater value
during Refr’s visits to various men of power. With Neri’s help, Refr even-
tually wins the daughter of King Gautrekr and the title of earl. The simi-
larities to Auðunar þáttr are as follows: a farmer’s simple son takes a valuable
animal as a gift to a wise and powerful man. Through the manipulation of the
generosity of kings, the gift-giver is generously rewarded and, now known as
a man of luck („gæfumaðr”), he lives happily for the rest of his days. Auðun’s
two gift-giving joumeys (to Sveinn of Denmark and Haraldr of Norway) are
expanded into five in the story of Refr, as he goes fírst to the Norwegian earl
Neri, then the Swedish king Gautrekr, the English king Ælla, the Danish king
Hrólfr kraki, and finally to the sea-king Óláfr, but like Auðunar þáttr, the
story of Refr demonstrates the generosity of the Danish and Norwegian
courts, to the slight disadvantage of the Norwegian king.19
The parallels are at first glance not exact; the story of Refr emphasizes in
particular the generosity of the Swedish king Gautrekr, and Auðunar þáttr is
strongly colored by Christianity in a way that a narrative set in pagan times
cannot be, at least not on the surface. Auðun’s giving all he owns to buy the
polar bear echoes the Biblical parable of the merchant who sold all he had in
order to buy a pearl of great price (Mt. 13:45-6), while his generosity in giv-
ing the bear away and making a pilgrimage to Rome recalls the command of
Christ to the rich young man: „If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come
and follow me“ (Mt. 19:21).20 Although Auðun’s ostensible goal is the Danish
court, it is in fact his pilgrimage to Rome that occupies the exact center of the
chiastically structured narrative. His material gifts become gifts of the spirit;
he is moved not by what Joseph Harris (1976:7, 15) has called the „human-
istic“ value of a „general ethical principle ... unromantically conceived, that
of gift-giving“, but by charity. As Peter Hallberg (1973, 1975) and Hermann
Pálsson (1975) have established, the Old Norse words for „good luck“ or
„good fortune“ (gœfa, gipta, hamingja) by the thirteenth century were
harmonized with the Latin complex of words and notions relating to grace, so
19 In Auðunar þáttr, King Haraldr gives „good gifts" to Auðun only after King Sveinn has
proved himself remarkably munificent and Auðun has shown his own integrity by giving Haraldr
the gold ring. In Refs þáttr, the Norwegian earl Neri is a legendary miser, and rewards Refr only
with lodging and advice.
20 In some respects Auðun’s situation is the reverse of the rich young man’s, in that the rich
young man gives all he has to the poor, while Auðun (never rich and now reduced to begging)
gives all he has to the king, but the parallel acts of giving seem to have equivalent spiritual weight.