66

"Find out that for yourselves," said Thorgrim; "but this I am sure of, that his bill is at home."

And with that he fell down dead.'-(vol. i. p. 242.)

The foes attacked the house, and at last pulled off the roof of the hall with ropes. Gunnar wounded eight men and killed two, and got himself two wounds; and all men said that he never once winced either at wounds or death.' His life might yet have been saved but for the malice of the wicked Hallgerda. His bowstring had been cut in two by Thorbrand, who in return had been cleft asunder by the famous bill :

'Then Gunnar said to Hallgerda, "Give me two locks of thy hair, and ye two, my mother and thou, twist them together into a bowstring

for me."

"Does aught lie on it?" she says. "My life lies on it," he said; for they will never come to close quarters with me if I can help them off with my

66

bow."

666 Well," she says, now I will call to mind that slap on the face which thou gavest me; and I care never a whit whether thou holdest out a long while or a short."-(vol. i. p. 245.)

In spite of Hallgerda's refusal, Gunnar kept his foes all off until he fell worn out with toil:

Then they wounded him with many great wounds, but still he got away out of their hands, and held his own against them a while longer, but at last it came about that they slew him.

'Then Gizur spoke and said, "We have now laid low on earth a mighty chief, and hard work it has been, and the fame of this defence of his shall last as long as men live in this land."

After that he went to see Rannveig (Gunnar's mother), and said, "Wilt thou grant us earth here for two of our men who are dead, that they may lie in cairn here?"

"All the more willingly for two," she says, "because I wish with all my heart I had to grant it all of you."

"It must be forgiven thee," he says, "to speak thus, for thou hast had a great loss."

Then he gave orders that no man should spoil or rob anything there.

After that they went away.'-(vol. i. pp. 246, 247.)

Will not Mr. Maclise, who some time since showed us so admirably the deeds of Gunnar's brethren at Hastings, trace the line a little higher up, and show us the death of Gunnar himselt at Lithend.*

* Mr. Metcalfe, who gives ('Oxonian in Iceland,' p. 364) a very interesting account of the present state of Lithend, tells us that the cairn in which the hero was buried sitting upright, and in which he was heard singing after his burial (Saga, ch. 77), is still pointed out, near the traditional site of his

Jan.

Gunnar fell in the year 990. There is no indication in the Saga of his having been brought more directly under Christian influence than appears in his noble character; yet, nearly ten years before his death, the first definite attempt at the conversion of the island had been made. We must return to Thorwald Kodranson, the far-farer,' whom we have already encountered as one of the best of heathen Vikings. In one of his many wanderings Thorwald visited the country of the Saxons, and was there converted and baptized by a priest named FreNeither country nor priest can be derick. distinctly recognised from the brief notice of the Saga; but, although we should gladly believe that the 'country of the Saxons' was England, and that Frederick was an Englishman, it is more probable that the Saxon country is to be sought on the borders of the Elbe, and that the priest belonged to the Archiepiscopal Church of Hamburgh-the outpost which Charlemagne had founded, and which had long served as a great missionary station for the conversion of the North. A bull of Pope Gregory IV. appointed the first Archbishop, St. Anschar, and his succesand it was sors, 'legates and missionaries over the whole of Northern Europe; possibly with the permission of Adeldag, then Archbishop of Hamburgh, that Frederick, after consecration as "chorepiscopus,' set out with his new convert Thorwald for Iceland in the spring of the year 981.

Thorwald's home was at Gilia in Vatnsdal, in the northern division of the island; and although from the bishop's ignorance of Norse, Thorwald was obliged to act as interpreter, a considerable effect was at once produced throughout the district. Three of the most wealthy landowners were baptized; another consented to receive the primsignaz; and during the following winter, Kodran, the father of Thorwald, who had been a Viking of no small reputation, changed his faith and was baptized with all his household, one son, Orm, alone excepted. According to the Sagas, the conversion of the old Viking was the result of a struggle be tween the Christian bishop and a household spirit (fylgia?) especially honoured by Kodran. The home of the spirit, who protected the household and the flocks of Kodran, and who predicted future events for him, was a great block of stone in the Vatnsdal. Frederick, wearing his episcopal robes, went to it in solemn procession, and, after chanting over the stone, sprinkled it with holy water. On the following night the spirit, who seems skáli, or hall. To the right of the path which leads thither, a little mound marks the restingplace of the faithful Sam, his big Irish hound.'

Bishop

to have been a true Northern elf, presented | Hvamm, was heard loudly invoking the anhimself to Kodran, all sad and trembling, cient deities, whilst the Saxon bishop was and reproached him with the wrong he had preaching close without.* permitted. The men thou hast brought here,' he complained, have poured hot water on my house, and my children have been scalded by the drops which fell through the roof. It has not hurt me much; but it is hard to bear the crying of the bairns.' Twice again the bishop sprinkled the stone; and twice again the spirit appeared to Kodran, each time with sadder looks, and with dress more stained and tattered. This Christian bishop,' he said, 'has spoilt my house and my clothes, and has scalded me and my children, so that we can never be cured. Now we must go far into the mountains.' The stone itself split into fragments; and Kodran, who recognised the superior power of the bishop, was immediately baptized.

For four succeeding winters the headquarters of Thorwald and Bishop Frederick were at Lækiamot in Vididal. During the summers they passed far and wide throughout the island; but the results of their teaching were most evident in the Northern quarter, where it had commenced. Many idols had been destroyed, and the temple offerings were beginning to fail, and Thorwald Spakbodvarson had built the first Christian church at As, on the bank of the Hialtadal river, where its site is still pointed out. It was served by one of the priests of Bishop Frederick's following. This church, built, like their own temples, of drift wood, and roofed with turf, was a perpetual eyesore to the heathens of the district; and Klaufi, one of the chief men of the quarter, made two attempts to destroy it, both of which were, according to the Saga, miraculously averted. The church had probably been watched by Thorwald; and, with the exception of a few fresh sods now and then added to the roof, this first rude resting-place of the faith in Iceland remained as Thorwald had built it for some centuries after the conversion of the whole country. A relic of Bishop Frederick's time may still be seen at Hvamm, the settlement of Aud the wealthy. On the church-door is fastened a ring, which is said to have belonged to the old heathen temple, in which Fridgerda, wife of the then lord of

* Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, ch. 131.

Kristni-Saga, ch. 2. The story is remarkable for its close resemblance to later folk-lore.

Thorwalk Spakbodvarson, the builder of this church, is generally said to have been converted by Bishop Frederick. Others, however (and apparently with reason), assert that he was converted in England, and that he brought from this country the materials for the first Christian church in Iceland (Olaf's Saga, ch. 226).

It was after their success in the northern quarter that Bishop Frederick and Thorwald appeared at the Althing, and that Thorwald, with the bishop at his side, addressed the people from that famous 'Logberg'-the hill of the law-which still rises, in the midst of its lava rifts, at the head of the lake of Thingvalla. As before, Thorwald acted as interpreter; and the heathen party, with a certain Hedinn as their chief, assailed him so bitterly with mocking rhymes-a favourite Icelandic weapon-that the old Viking spirit was roused once more in the breast of the Christian Thorwald, who killed two men before the close of the Althing. Little seems to have been effected by the bishop's appearance on the Law-Mount. The heathens were as yet in full strength; and although a certain fear of the Christians-probably from an idea of their skill as magiciansseems to have prevailed, they were unable to appear again at the Althing. Thorwald and the bishop were declared legally guilty of the two deaths; and at the next year's Althing a company of the chief men set out for Lækiamot to burn the bishop, which they would have done had they not been thrown into confusion' by the way. Bishop Frederick, however, seems to have perceived that his further labours at this time would be in vain. After passing four years in Iceland, he crossed to Norway with Thorwald. There, as their ship was still in the haven, Thorwald was told that Hedinn, the Icelander who had taunted him at the Althing, was on shore and close at hand. The spirit of revenge leaped again to life; and, accompanied by a single thrall, Thorwald laid wait for Hedinn and killed him. Seeing him so greedy of revenge,' the bishop broke up the brotherhood and returned south to Saxland,' where he died, says the Saga, truly a saint-like man.' The end of Thorwald the far-farer,' the best of Vikings, if but an imperfect Christian, is not so certain. The Kristni-Saga asserts that, after long wanderings in the Holy Land and elsewhere, he received Christ's quiet' in Russia, and was buried in a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist on the top of a mountain, near which he had built a monastery. There he was himself reckoned among the saints. Others assert that he served for some time in the Varangian Guard at Byzan

*Kristni-Saga; Metcalfe, 'Oxonian in Iceland,' p. 279.

Kristni-Saga, ch. 12. 'He was honoured by all bishops and abbots throughout the Greek empire, and throughout Syria.' Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, ch. 138.

tium, and that he built there a monastery, in which he became a monk.*

.

Up to this time the heathen party was by far the most powerful. In the old religion of the Northmen there was a certain recognition of its own imperfection;* but there was a strong feeling that the teaching of the White Christ" would weaken the arm of those who listened to it; and it has been suggested that the systematic descents of the Northmen on the coasts of Western Europe were undertaken, not from love of plunder only, but from a strong feeling of the opposition of the Christian faith to the fierce, deathdespising spirit of the true son of Odin.t Besides this general hatred of Christianity, there was in Iceland a distrust of any change introduced from Norway; and the threatened loss of the temple-offerings no doubt influenced the 'hofmen' or priests, always the chief personages of the district.

Ten years passed away after the departure of Bishop Frederick, before a second attempt was made to convert the island. In the mean time Olaf Tryggvason, the royal 'Apostle' of Norway, had been converted and baptized in one of the Scilly Islands (A.D. 993). Two years later (995) Olaf became King of Norway, and commenced at once the introduction of Christianity throughout his dominions at the point of the sword. Before his return Olaf had received among his followers an Icelander named Stefner, who had been converted in Denmark, where he had fallen in with Thorwald the 'far-farer,' after his separation from Bishop Frederick. With him Stefner had made a pilgrimage to the East, and to the holy places.' At Olaf's request he now proceeded to Iceland as a In spite of all this, however, the year after Christian missionary. But Stefner's Christi- Stefner had been driven from Iceland, Olaf anity was scarcely more advanced than that despatched thither a second missionary, whose of the royal Viking; and after a bad recep- Christianity was at least as fiercely muscular tion from the inhabitants, and after preaching as that of his predecessor. This was a priest in vain along the northern and southern named Thangbrand, son of Wilibald Count of coasts, he attempted stronger measures, and Bremen, and a clerk' of Adalbert, Bishop of proceeded to burn the temples and to destroy Aros in Jutland. Bishop Adalbert, attended the images of the gods. This violent argu- by a large 'following,' in which Thangbrand. ment, which Olaf managed with tolerable was included, once, it is said, visited his brosuccess in Norway, was not duly appreciated ther Hubert, Bishop of Kantaraborg,' or in Iceland. Stefner was set upon by the Canterbury. Hubert distributed rich gifts fierce worshippers of Odin and of Thor, and to his guests on their departure; and when escaped with difficulty to Kialarnes, where he came to Thangbrand, he said, 'Thou folhe lay hid for some time among his own lowest the fashions of a knight, although thou kinsmen. During the winter his ship, which art a clerk; therefore I give thee this shield, had been laid up at the mouth of the Gufa on which is marked the holy cross, with the river, was driven out to sea. The god Freyr likeness of Our Lord Christ. It will remind -all-rikr Freyr'-Freyr the all rich' or thee of thine office.' It afterwards fell out all-powerful-thus avenged himself, according that Olaf Tryggvason, during one of his forays to the verse-makers, for the insult which had in 'Saxland, encountered Thangbrand, bearbeen offered his dominions. The ship, how-ing this very shield. Struck with its device, ever, was thrown back on the coast, shat- he asked Who it was that Christian men tered, but capable of repair; and in the fol- thus reverenced?' 'Our Lord Jesus Christ,' lowing summer Stefner, from her deck, answered Thangbrand. 'And what had he looked for the last time on the snowy peaks done,' asked Olaf, 'that he was thus torof the Icelandic Jökulls. At the previous mented? Then Thangbrand, says the Saga, Althing a law had been passed forbidding explained to him with great care the passion 'fire and water' to all those who should of Our Lord, and all the marvels of the preach or embrace the new faith, and order- Cross; and Olaf, before leaving him, bought ing the kinsmen of the offender to take up his shield for a great heap of silver, bidding the action against him at the Law-Mount. In Thangbrand come to him if he were ever in this manner Stefner had been accused and need of a protector. Afterwards Olaf was exiled. baptized in Scilly; and Thangbrand, whose priesthood sat but lightly on him, bought

4

*F. Johannæus, His. Eccles. Islandiæ, i. p. 47. + Olaf's Saga, ch. 78, 79. According to the Saga, Olaf was persuaded to embrace Christianity by a hermit on another of the islands, who was also a spaeman,' and foretold much of his future life. He was baptized by the abbot of a rich monastery. The only monastic establishment in Scilly of which any record survives was a cell of Tavistock Abbey, that certainly existed on the island of Iniscaw before the Conquest.

* Dasent, Burnt Njal,' i. p. xvi.

+ See Mr. Dasent's Norsemen in Iceland,' in the Oxford Essays for 1858, p. 166.

The name is so given in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and in the Kristni-Saga. Hubert can. not be identified with any Archbishop of Canterbury, nor can he have been a suffragan bishop of St. Martin's, as the editor of the Kristni Saga suggests.

with the Viking's silver a goodly Irish dam- | fared upon Arnstacks-Heath, and there made a sel, whom he took to his home. For a man- great sacrifice when Thangbrand was riding slaughter committed on account of this fair from the east. Then the earth burst asunder mey,' Thangbrand was obliged to leave under his horse, but he sprang off his horse, and Denmark. He sought and found Olaf Trygg- earth swallowed up the horse and all his harness, saved himself on the brink of the gulf; but the vason, then on the English coast, and, re- and they never saw him more. turning with him to Norway, was made priest of a little church on the island of Mostr, on the north coast-the first Christian church in Norway.*

The following spring Thangbrand set out-An allusion, it has been suggested, to some to preach Christianity, accompanied by Hall::

dently of the rudest, and his mode of pro- | sent off to the ship, Flosi learnt the cause of ceeding by no means conciliatory, he seems its arrival, as well as all that had passed in to have advanced the cause of the new faith Norway. One of the hostages retained by more than a step, and his name still figures Olaf was his own brother Kolbein; and in Icelandic folk-lore. Flosi, who had received the 'primsignaz' from Thangbrand, but had not yet declared himself a Christian, rode on to the Thing and spread the news.