Gripla - 01.01.1998, Qupperneq 165

FOLKTALE AND PARABLE
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that at the end of the þáttr, when Auðun is described as „inn mesti gæfu-
maðr“, I believe we can understand this in the spiritual sense. Despite Refr’s
situation in pre-Christian Scandinavia, he, too, is described as having „gæfa“
(Gautreks saga:45). What is more, this quality of his is mentioned precisely in
opposition not to some kind of secular bad luck, but to the specifically evil
magic and trgllskapr of the sea king’s counselor Refnefr, an illmenni who
rejects Refr’s gifts, throwing them into the sea. Significantly, the shadow of
Oðinn is completely absent from the story of Refr. His is a tale of good luck
and wisdom, rather than of bad luck and foolishness; it implicitly contrasts
the fruitful exchange of gifts with the barren sacrifices of the other stories.
The meaning of Gautreks saga is constructed by the reader very much in
retrospect. Not until the end of the saga can its elements be added up and
understood as a whole. Foolish, miserly, Oðinn-worshipping peasants bring
about their own destruction after an encounter with a generous king; an
immensely strong, intelligent, generous, unflinching, and loyal warrior brings
about the death of his equally unflinching and generous king and foster-
brother because of Óðinn’s demands; finally, a farmer’s son makes a gener-
ous gift to a clever man and eventually wins land and a princess from a gen-
erous king — none of these worship Óðinn, and all come to a happy end. Not
until the reader has noticed the parallels between the story of Refr and
Auðunar þáttr can the pro-generosity and anti-Odinic themes of the saga be
connected, for Auðunar þáttr, a narrative that explicitly associates Christianity
with the generosity of kings and the good luck of a farmer’s son, provides the
link missing in Gautreks saga: the name of the generosity that brings grace is
charity.
That this is indeed a Christian reinterpretation of the traditional qualities
that made a king popular is obscured by Gautreks saga’s pre-Christian setting,
but it is much clearer in the Flateyjarbók saga of St Óláfr. There we find a
curious pair of þœttir, Styrbjamar þáttr Svíakappa and Hróa þáttr, which
closely resembles Gautreks saga in its combination of themes.21 The first
þáttr tells of an ill-fated Swedish champion defeated by the enmity between
Þórr and Óðinn, and the second tells of a Danish merchant who, supported by
the good luck of King Sveinn Haraldsson, out-tricks the Swedes who try to
cheat him of his cargo and returns to Denmark with many treasures for the
king. Similarly, the Flateyjarbók version of Fóstbræðra saga contrasts
Þormóðr Kolbrúnarskáld’s treatment at the hands of the miserly King Knútr
21 For a more detailed readings of these texts, see Rowe (1998).