Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Blaðsíða 25

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of the tongue, as the psalmist said: set a watch on my
mouth, lord, and a door to guard my lips. A door may
also symbolise discernment, which can distinguish good
from evil.
The bells symbolise the clergy who make a beautiful
sound for God and men in their prayers and preaching
(compare the symbolism of the reign of Sveinn Álfífu-
son, ÓH 674/6 ff.) ... the bells symbolise the teachings
which awalce us to good works.
The four corner posts of the church symbolise the
four gospels ... the corner posts symbolise the four car-
dinal virtues.
Although it cannot be shown that the author of RauSúlfs
þáttr has borrowed directly from any particular one of these
writings, it is clear that he was familiar with the sort of sym-
bolism found in them, and that he was at home in the type
of homiletic literature cultivated in Iceland in the twelfth
century.
One kind of symbolism of which the author of RaúSúlfs
þáttr is particularly fond is word-play symbolism. This
kind of symbolism is uncommon in homiletic writings (ex-
cept in the case of the traditional interpretations of biblical
names1), since these are mostly based on foreign sources,
and such symbolism by its very nature can rarely survive
translation. But it has always been popular in Icelandic
dream interpretations, not only with dreams in literature
but also with actual dreams, and there are numerous ex-
amples from hoth medieval and modern dream-stories.2 The
following are the cases where word-play is certainly in-
tended by the author of RaúSúlfs þáttr. In some cases the
1 E.g. Bethlehem, which means “the house of bread”, and is Christ’s
birthplace, is said to symbolise that Christ is the spiritual food of holy
souls and the angels (Homiliu-bók, p. 48).
2 See Wilhelm Henzen, Vber diie Traume in der altnordischen Saga-
litteratur (Leipzig 1890), pp. 44—49; G. Turville-Petre, op. cit. (p. 19,
note 1 above), pp. 96 ff.