Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Page 22

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is developed much more fully and in much greater detail
than the symbohsm in the biblical dream. Every aspect of
the dream figure is analysed and some symbol extracted
from it. This sort of symbolism is in many ways similar to
that found in Icelandic religious writings of the twelfth
century, and it is probable that the author of the þáttr was
familiar with such writings and was influenced by them.
The tone of the þáttr as a whole is clerkly: the author sees
Óláfr more as a saint and martyr, as did the authors of the
older sagas of the king, rather than as a viking king, as
Snorri Sturluson tended to do.
Maríu saga was probably written in the early thirteenth
century, although it has its roots in the religious writings
of the twelfth century. The author of this saga (reputed to
be Kygri-Bjprn, who died about 1237) was fond of elaborate
symbolism. In one passage he develops the idea of the sun’s
influence on the world of nature being similar to the in-
fluence of heavenly love in the kingdom of heaven:
The sun warms and heats the whole world, and its
heat symbolises the eternal warmth of love which good
men have towards God and for each other in the other
world. The sun also lights up the whole world, and its
light symbolises that everyone can see other people’s
pleasure as clearly as his own in the eternal joy. The
sun cheers and gladdens all those that inhabit the earth,
for from it the heavenly bodies and the world, the sky
and the earth, derive their light. As a result of its heat
trees and grass sprout and grow with the moisture with
which God is pleased to temper the heat of the sun so
that it does not get too hot, for nature cannot be fruitful
unless there is a combination of warmth and moisture.
And thus the power of the sun gladdens and brings joy
to the whole world. And this joy of the world symbolises
the joy with which the spirit rejoices in the other world