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eciprocal connection between a pair of people, one of whom is more powerful than
the other. The frequency of good rune-stone fathers points to the family as a forum
for this kind of goodness.
The link between generosity and the hall strengthens this interpretation. It means
that the concept existed within the family and that it was developed in the hall as a
social room. From here it was taken out into society as a model for the right social
conduct.
This led to the birth of a good human being who acts as an individual on the basis
of the ideology of the hall in the public interest. When Pagan society meets Christian
society, hall goodness can of course survive, but hardly dominate, society as such,
since it is difficult to deny anybody a good disposition, in spite of the fact that they are
not employing their disposition in a contract of goodness. Sabas’ pacifistic and
steadfast goodness is obviously inspired by the antagonism between a Pagan and a
Christian goodness. Even the ritual aspect of the quality of being good with food may
cause ideological problems in a Christian society where it is difficult to give the communal
meal sponsored by the rich, i.e., those good with food, the status of an official
ritual, once the communion of the Church has been established.
It must have been easy for the Pagan aristocrat to follow God as the supreme
leader, but also difficult to grasp that God nonetheless considered everybody to be
equal, an attitude which enabled him to bestow his ultimate reward, ‘light and Paradise’,
upon anybody. It would therefore seem reasonable for the upper classes first
to connect the word good with appellatives and later to drop it, while keeping the
conduct in connection with worldly affairs. This means that it disappears except in
very special cases, e.g., a good soldier, i.e., a man who in his career continues to be
good due to his willingness to die for what his king or generals believe to be the right
cause, i.e., the actions of the inferior partner in the contract. Eventually he may of
course become a general himself.
In the transition from Pagan to Christian ideology we may in other words expect
new concepts to raise and play a prominent moral role in society. Recent analysis of
the Sagas of the Icelanders and the history of Iceland in the Middle Ages point to
honour and friendship as two such concepts, and in the case of friendship we meet
an institution that harbours many of the ingredients of the goodness-contract.
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Goodness and Honour
In his analysis of the concept of honour in the Sagas of the Icelanders Preben
Meulengracht Sørensen (1993) has argued that our understanding of the concept
benefits from our seeing it as one concept differently emphasised in different social
situations and among different social groups, rather than two, chronologically, separated
concepts. His analysis is opposed to that of Lindow (1976) or Andersson
(1970), who accept two ideals of honour, one connected with the glory of the war-