Studia Islandica - 01.07.1966, Page 50

48
In some stories oath-making is accompanied by other
kinds of ritual. In some cases the oath is sworn with one
hand laid on a sacred hoar (hoars were sacred to the god
Freyr),* 1 or with one foot on one of the beams or planks of
the hall (stokkr),2 and in one account with one foot on a
stone.3 Oath-making seems to have been traditionally as-
sociated with yule-feasts,4 wedding feasts,5 and memorial
feasts.6 In time the heathen associations of the ceremony
were forgotten and heitstrenging took on more of the charac-
ter of Christian vows, although it continued to be thought of
as a Christmas pastime.7 Its modem counterpart is perhaps
the custom of making new-year resolutions.
It is inherent in such practices, carried out in such circum-
stances (i.e. when drinking was taking place), that men
might become too excited and boast unwarily: when the
effects of the drink had worn off they might regret having
taken part in the ritual and wish they had not committed
themselves to a course of action that might prove embarrass-
ing or worse. In Le Voyage de Charlemagne this aspect of
the ritual is used as a source of comedy, to make Charle-
JCXVI 274. The toast is not mentioned in the version of the story in
Jómsvíkinga saga itself. See Rudolf Meissner, “Minnetrinken in Island
und in der Auvergne,” Deutsche Islandforschung 1930 I (Breslau 1930),
pp. 232—245.
1 HelgakviSa HjQvardssonar, prose before verse 31; Hervarar saga
ok HeiSreks, ed. G. Turville-Petre and Christopher Tolkien (London
1956), p. 36.
2 HarSar saga, ed. Sture Hast (Kobenhavn 1960), p. 142; Qrvar-
Odds saga, ed. R. C. Boer (Leiden 1888), p. 186; Hrólfs saga kraka, ed.
Desmond Slay (Copenhagen 1960), p. 99.
3 Hœnsa-Þóris saga, lF III 34.
4 HarSar saga, loc. cit.; Eiríks saga víSfQrla, Fas III 661; Sturlaugs
saga, Fas III 633; Ketils saga hœngs, Fas II 125; Þáttr Sveins ok Finns,
Flb I 388.
5 Svarfdœla saga, ÍF IX 165—166; Hœnsa-Þóris saga, tF III 34.
6 Ynglinga saga (see p. 47, note 3 above); Jómsvíkinga saga, ed. N.
F. Blake (London 1962), p. 28.
7 Sturlunga saga, ed. Jón Jóhannesson et. al. (Reykjavík 1946), II
40. Further references in M. Schlauch, Romance in Jceland (Princeton
1934), pp. 102—103.