Gripla - 2022, Side 69

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summoned by Ásta – his wife and Olaf’s mother – to come home quickly as she
has been informed that her son will be arriving soon. Sigurður puts on his royal
outfit, including a scarlet robe, spurs of gold and a golden helmet, and goes home
with thirty men. Meanwhile, Ásta and twenty others prepare a welcoming feast.
She sends envoys to the neighborhood with an invitation to the banquet while the
hall is prepared. Everything is just ready when Olaf arrives at his homestead with
a retinue of a hundred men. He is greeted by Sigurdur, Ásta and the local crowd,
and is led to the throne by his mother.
The potential hagiographic nature of St. Olaf’s Saga, combined with the
detailed narrative containing many potential symbols in the form of numbers,
colours, artefacts and action, give a strong impression of allegory. There is a likely
allusion to Mark 6:7 when Ásta assigns twelve people in six pairs to prepare the
hall, and again when she sends four people in four directions to invite magnates to the
event, echoing the angels in Mark 13:27 who were sent to bring the chosen ones
from the four winds.
The arrival of Olaf with his hundred men would seem to be a key event.
The number 100 (or 120 if a long hundred is meant) is interpreted by Bede, for
example, as a symbol of happiness of the elect in eternal life and directly associated
with the biblical parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, which in Christian
patristic tradition alludes to the Redemption, the restoration of humanity as the
tenth celestial order, a key feature in the history of salvation. This number, one
hundred, here associated with a saint, is flanked by many other potential symbols.
One is that the combined flocks of Olaf (100+1), Sigurdur (30+1) and Ásta (20+1)
make 153 people, a biblical number that has been associated with the elect in the
heavenly land, i.a. by Gregory the Great.
An examination of how other potential symbols group with Sigurdur and Ásta,
reveals a consistent pattern. Sigurdur’s symbols associate him with heaven, the
Trinity and the eternal word of God. Typological allusions associate Sigurdur and
his staff with Moses and Judah, whose antitype is Christ, while the staff and the
ring represent the Cross and the Church, respectively. Sigurdur also reflects the
pilgrims in Emmaus, an iconographic motif based on Luke 24:13–53 that involves
the resurrected Christ. On the arrival of Olaf, Sigurdur’s colours turn from blue,
silver and grey to red and gold. This appears to indicate God’s word with full wisdom
(gold), God’s love and the Holy spirit (red, which also signifies martyrdom). The
transformation would signify the changes brought about by the advent of Christ
(and his parallel, Olaf).
Ásta is firmly linked to the four directions and the numbers two and four,
which usually signify motherhood and earthly, missionary aspects of the Church,
the Gospels and the evangelists.
The home-coming episode was most likely understood as an allegory in
ecclesiastical circles in medieval times. It uses symbols and images that relate to
multiple iconographical features, focusing on escatological aspects of the history of
salvation. The episode permits a coherent allegorical interpretation which equates
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