[1] giptu ‘luck’: As the ‘luck’ here is God’s, the sense is presumably Christian: grace or blessing from God, which brings Sveinn victory. This has been compared with crusader literature (Ejerfeldt 1971, 142; see also Lange 1958a, 50-3). Sveinn was almost certainly a Christian (Sawyer and Sawyer 2003, 151), but judging by his þáttr Þorleifr had no opportunity to come into contact with the new faith, other than this visit to Denmark.
References
- Bibliography
- Lange, Wolfgang. 1958a. Studien zur christlichen Dichtung der Nordgermanen 1000-1200. Palaestra 222. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- Ejerfeldt, Lennart. 1971. Helighet, ‘karisma’ och kungadöme i forngermansk religion. Skrifter utgivna av Religionshistoriska Institutionen i Uppsala (Hum. Fak.) 7. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.
- Sawyer, Birgit and Michael Sawyer. 2003. ‘Scandinavia Enters Christian Europe’. In Helle 2003, 147-59.