Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 27

S I Ð R , RELIGION AND MORALITY 25
use siðr (foregrounded in e.g. Harmsól, st. 3). Was the same intermingling
of senses true for Viking Age worshippers of Old Norse gods? Was Old
Norse religion based in (potentially moral) social norms, and, as a result,
were those norms less flexible?
A long-standing view is that religion permeated Old Norse culture and
society (see further Nordberg 2012). Few scholars expressly extend this
into the area of morality, unless honour and masculinity are concerned
(for exceptions, see Sundqvist 2005, 276; Lindow 2020, 479). Law and the
land’s administration, however, have received particular attention, above
all a judgement preserved in the twelfth-century Íslendingabók, supposedly
from the mouth of the lawspeaker overseeing the Conversion: “hǫfum allir
ein lǫg ok einn sið” (let us all have one law and one siðr) (2018, 135–36;
cf. Íslendingabók, 17; Sundqvist 2005, 275; Nygaard 2021, 156–57). In the
texts examined above, there are hints of blending of another type of siðr
with law as well; according to Hallfreðr’s lausavísa 10, it is the siðr of Óláfr
Tryggvason “at blót eru kviðjuð” (that sacrifices are forbidden), kviðja “ban,
forbid, banish” being a word with legal force (Bjarni Einarsson 1961, 193,
notes a close echo in the Gulaþingslǫg; cf. Gulaþingslǫg, 18, and, further,
e.g. Frostaþingslǫg, 245; Gulaþingslǫg, 16; Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar, st. 16).
Óláfr’s siðr is to modify the law, thereby altering the siðr of others.
Sundqvist (2005, 275) points out that, in a text like Östgötalagen
(Schlyter 1830), siðr and lǫg may be close to synonymous yet in another
clearly distinct; Íslendingabók’s “ein lǫg ok einn sið,” for instance, separates
the concepts rather than joining them. Simon Nygaard’s suggestion (2021,
156) of conceptualizing one as built on the other seems to capture this rela-
tionship. They are related but not the same. As Nygaard goes on to say, “a
change in religion means a new law built on this new religion” (2021, 156),
and that is surely the impression that Íslendingabók wants to give. Even
whilst siðr excludes the law, it is shown to encompass much of the founda-
tional (potentially religious) ideology of society. Siðaskipti “shift in siðr,” a
term first recorded in thirteenth-century texts (ONP, s.v. “siðaskifti;” cf.
Nordberg 2018, 132), signifies a change in religion but also in perceived
norms, behaviour, and rationales for norms and behaviour.16 Change in siðr
16 Perceived is worth emphasizing here. Actual behaviours and norms themselves may not
change, even though they are thought to have done so by religious proponents, and iden-
tity is not the only religious factor that can influence the prevalence of acts like sharing and
altruism (see e.g. Preston, Salomon and Ritter 2014; Stamatoulakis 2013).