Gripla - 01.01.1998, Side 166

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GRIPLA
with his reception by St Óláfr, who judges that the poet will not turn out to be
an „ógæfumaðr“ after all (Óláfs saga hins helga, ch. 150). Even the Flat-
eyjarbók characterization of Haraldr Fairhair at the beginning of Óláfs saga
Haraldssonar as a generous king of great good luck, in contrast to the
overbearing tyrant that he is at the beginning of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, is
meant to be seen as prefiguring the charity and grace of his descendant St
Óláfr.22
This reinterpretation’s political value for the monarchy is two-fold. On one
hand, this depiction of the Norwegian king serves as „evidence“ that the
power of the monarchy is independent of that of the church, for the signs of
God’s favor appear to be inherent in the king and not conferred by conse-
cration. On the other hand, the ability of the king to confer good luck on his
men suggests that salvation is found through political loyalty, not through
spiritual devotion. If Gautreks saga was indeed written during the late-thir-
teenth century staðamál, the conflict between the Icelandic bishops and the
lay chieftains over the ownership of the private churches, I for one would not
be surprised if its hint of „salvation outside the church“ not only served the
monarchist ideology, but also had a special appeal to those chieftains who
had been impoverished by the loss of their churches or who had been excom-
municated for resisting their seizure by the bishops.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson. 1961. The Types of the Folktale. 2d rev. ed.
Folklore Fellows Communications 184. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki.
Boberg, Inger M. 1966. Motif-Index of Early Icelandic Literature. BA XXVII.
Copenhagen.
Boyer, Régis. 1979. To Make a Good Fornaldarsaga: A Recipe (About Gautreks
Saga). Fourth lnternational Saga Conference. Munich 1979. Photocopies of papers
distributed to participants; separately paginated.
Chatman, Seymour. 1978. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and
Film. Comell University Press, Ithaca.
22 Compare chs. 1-12 and 450-469 of Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, cf. Sigurður Nordal (1944),
my own analysis of Flateyjarbók has Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ending with ch. 449 and Óláfs
saga Haraldssonar beginning with ch. 450, which retums to the beginning of the Norwegian
royal dynasty with Hálfdanar þáttr svarta and looks forward to the reign of St. Óláfr, not Óláfr
Tryggvason.