Dauði Hákonar Jarls

Abstract

This paper discusses the death of Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson in a pigsty. The sources maintain that he was once baptised, but that he did not carry out the missionary work he was expected to do in Norway; in fact, he turned away from the Christian belief and became a notorious supporter of paganism. This paper argues that the two main accounts of his death — the Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason by Oddr Snorrason and Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla — treat Jarl Hákon as an apostate and interpret his death in the light of the Second Letter of St Peter, where he condemns converts who turn away from the true belief: ‘The dog is turned back to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire’ (2:22).