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36 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
(b. 974 according to Borgfirbinga sogur 1938, lxxxvii), father of
Arnorr jarlaskald, is not - to judge from his surviving corpus of
230 lines - among the skalds who quickly registered the coming
of Christianity in his verse. Indeed, the few intrusions of the
supernatural into his poetry, although vague, are of a polytheistic
cast. The most explicit is a petition for a bloody victory against his
rival Bjorn Hitdeelakappi which is addressed to all the powerful
beings who created the sun and the moon and their course (altar
rammar vettir, pan sk6pu hlyrn ok skeia beira, :PKolb Lv 9,
ordered as prose). There is also a reference to plural fates iskop,
:PKolb 1, 2) and to fate in the impersonal (skapat vas mer, :PKolb
Lv 2).
The skalds' inclusion of Christian references no doubt gained
impetus from the fall of OIMr Haraldsson at Stiklastaoir in 1030,
which so rapidly acquired an aura of martyrdom. It was probably
no more than two years after the battle that :Porarinn loftunga
referred in his Glelognskvioa, a kviouhaur poem addressed to
Sveinn Knutsson (alias Alfifuson), to miracles at OIMr's shrine in
Nioaross: the incorrupt body, the healings, the spontaneous ringing
of bells and the flaring of candles (vv. 5-8). That OIMr has the ear
of the Almighty is suggested as Porarinn advises Sveinn to enlist
the support of OIMr, goos mabr, for his rule in Norway (v. 9).
Similarly, Sigvatr :Poroarson's Erfidrapa for OIMr imbues Stiklastaoir
with a spirit of crusade (v. 22) and reports miracles at OIMr's
shrine (vv. 23-4).
Nevertheless, the evidence does not suggest that pious declarations
were an obligatory component of poetry composed during
OIMr's lifetime and within his orbit. There are none in the extant
verses by his devoted liegeman Porrnodr Kolbninarskald, whilst by
contrast many pagan mythical names are embedded in Porrnoor's
kennings; there is only one scrap of overt piety in the Head­
Ransom (HQfuOlausn) with which Ottarr svarti appeased the king
(jJik remmir goo miklu ... gagni "God strengthens you with a
mighty victory", Ott 2, 18); and there are none in the verses
credited to OIMr himself.
In the generation after Sigvatr and Hallfreor, with Christianity,
at least in name, well established in Norway and Iceland.> one
might expect to find a more intensive use of Christian reference
coupled with one of two tendencies: either a still more complete
rejection of the verbal trappings of heathendom, or else some
restoration of these, now emptied of whatever sacral meaning they
formerly possessed. Of the skalds patronised by OIMr helgi's