SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

62 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
the chronological sequence, and little internal development.
This accounts for the pervading sense of anticlimax
in the latter section. The story of Aron's relations
with Sturla is neatly rounded off, however, and it cannot
be denied that the Norwegian episodes are partially
related to former events by a theme of contrast between
ease and privation.
This, coupled with rather slight treatment of Arori's
gradual conversion to more active Christian behaviour,
is about the nearest substitute for a dominant and
purposeful theme in the saga of Aron's life. His years in
Iceland had been stamped by adversity, suffering, and
alienation from a common life among family and friends,
but in Norway he finds security, honour and reward.
Likewise, his character undergoes a more gradual change,
from that of a self-willed and impetuous youth to that of a
determined pilgrim and unswerving loyalist. The
brusqueness slowly disappears from his nature, to be
replaced by something akin to the Christian ideal of
forgiveness which is seen in his treatment of P6ri5r kakali
in Norway.
This theme of conversion seems to constitute the
author's main interest in Aron's character as such. For
the rest he pays only rather unconvincing lip-service to
his heroic stature. None the less, the old ideal of
drengskapr is very much to the fore, though surprisingly
it is better seen in the actions of lesser characters than in
the central figure. Eyjolfr's final defence in the boathouse
on Grimsey is firmly in the classic heroic tradition of
unwavering defiance in the face of overwhelming odds,
and in essence matches up to the sense of aesthetic
conduct fully as well as the last stands of Gunnarr and
Gisli, though of course there is no particular feeling that
his death is the outcome of an inevitable chain of
preceding events.
None of Aron's actions can be compared with the
behaviour of Eyj6lfr, or of I>6rarinn J6nsson who protects