Studia Islandica - 01.06.1993, Page 281

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that of establishing a historical place for them through his
work but to use them to propagate an idea. The writer’s chief
sources were taken from contemporary ideas and oral or lite-
rary tradition, such as myths and heroic narratives, and some
even from incidents in the history of the Israelites. The saga,
therefore, is not a historical account of events from earlier
times but an epic novel with a message.
Heiðarvígasaga takes place during a paradigm shift at the
meeting of two religions. The author perceives the fighting
and bloodshed of his age as the struggle between two opposite
sets of ideologies:
Heathendom—Christianity
Revenge —Forgiveness
Hostilities—Peace
Although the author does not mention God by name in his
story except in the griðamál, God still acts in the text. God
metes out reward and punishment. The author senses his own
time as characterized by the struggle between opposite sets of
values. The mythical embodiments of these two sets are the
two divinities Þórr and Christ, and the struggle of the author’s
age is conceived in terms of the grand metaphor of this duel.
Indeed, Christ has already conquered Pórr, but people still do
not follow God’s commands in their words and actions. Peace
will not be restored unless Gods law is adopted in full. This is
the author’s moral message and the meaning (sensus spiritual-
is) of the saga.
Similar ideas are expressed in the missionary sagas written
by the monks of Pingeyrar around 1200, where heathen gods
are often made participants in stories about the shift to the
new religion, appearing as mischievous scoundrels. This idea
is also present in Porgils saga og Hafliða, a saga from the mid
13th-century already established as a tale of peace, where
opposite values are in all likelihood presented in the persons
of Pórir dritloki, a character who represents the god Þór and
incites people against one another, and Guðmundr Gríms-
son, whose name may probably be understood as the “hidden