2 - The Failed Saint: Oddr Snorrason's Óláfr Tryggvason

Summary

Introduction

Oddr Snorrason's saga of the Norwegian king Óláfr Tryggvason has a strong claim to the status of the ‘first Icelandic saga’. Written in c. 1190 in Latin and translated into Old Icelandic shortly afterwards, it tells the story of Óláfr's kingship and missions in Norway, ending with his disappearance at the battle of Svõlðr in the year 999/1000. As the first text with ‘full saga dimensions’, it draws on an eclectic mix of genres, which have been variously identified as saint's life, secular biography, romance, heroic epic and folktale. Paradigms from the Bible and from popular saints’ lives jostle with traditional heroic tales of vengeance and sportsmanship, and clash with some sadistic scenes of trickery and torture. Óláfr's birth and childhood, for example, are based on Christ's Nativity and the Flight to Egypt; he is sold as a slave in Russia, where he rises quickly to pre-eminence, like Joseph; and he is transfigured like Christ and seen talking with angels. But he also avenges his foster-father at the age of nine, striking off the head of his killer in one blow; he is fond of women and has multiple marriages; and he makes a glorious last stand at the Battle of Svõlðr, surrounded by his loyal thanes. He finally disappears in a blinding flash of light and is rumoured to have become a monk in the East. The result is a composition that Andersson describes as ‘bipolar’ and Bagge characterises more politely as ‘fairly chaotic’: Oddr was a talented storyteller, but he struggled with the extended narrative form. Whether he actually intended to promote Óláfr as a saint has been disputed, but either way, the saint's life is the main literary model for his work. He depicts Óláfr as a great Christian missionary king: at the very least, his account can be described as ‘semi-hagiographic’. The most recent editor of his work, Ólafur Halldórsson, suggests that Oddr set out to make Óláfr a saint, but had to give up in the face of the oral stories in circulation; he could find no way to evade the ‘gruesome’ killings that dominate the second half of Óláfr's life.