Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1977, Blaðsíða 19
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Bjarni Grimolfsson would probably not have had Cicero or Am-
brose on his side. Cicero continues his De contentione Honesti et
Utilis by immediately following Hekaton’s cases of conscience with
discussion of promises and obligations. In certain circumstances an
undertaking may be neglected but a main conclusion is, in Hol-
den’s summary11, “that nothing can be expedient which is contrary
to the virtue of Fortitude”. Ulysses, Regulus and others are cited
as examples. St Ambrose follows Cicero but considers the problems
more diseursively and draws his examples from Biblical history.
He fully agrees that what is utile must not be put before what is
honestum, though if what is promised is inhonestum, it is better to
break the promise than to act wickedly12. Still, there seems small
doubt but that in both the Roman and the Christian view a “gent-
leman” would be bound by his word in such a case as Bjarni’s.
In his story Bjarni is at first reluctant to see that any issue is
left unresolved once the lottery is over. Most of us will find that
attitude natural. But his challenger persists and Bjarni reverses
the lottery decision, though not without a grumbling reproach.
This touch, in its way typical of early Icelandic story-telling (it
might even be true), keeps us well this side of the abstract heroic
- Bjarni Grimolfsson, breidfirzkr madr13, is our sort of human being,
not an unfaltering patrician of ancient Rome. But Cicero and Am-
brose would have approved; all things being equal, Ambrose would
doubtless have thought well of his chances in the next world too.
Is Bjarni’s response an act of duty or an act of grace? As it is
presented, it appears to be the promise which governs his action
and which finally not so much resolves as removes the dilemma:
he has no choice, he is forced to recognise that an obligation exist-
ed. What of the man who extorted the performance of his promise
from him and took his place in the life-boat? The story would of
course have small ethical interest if it were not for this one-for-one
exchange, and an example of how to behave well is often necessari-
ly paralleled by an example of how to behave badly. The story is
11 op.cit., p. 130.
12 III, 37, 52-56, 76 (ed. cit., pp. 435, 449-53, 473).
13 Jansson, op.cit., p. 57; Storm, op.cit., p. 28; cf. Islenzk fornrit IV (1935),
p. 219.
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