It is curious to see how Christian ideas were transformed. The poet Eilif Gudrúnarson says of Christ, that he is “strong against the Jötnar”; he was possibly thinking of Thor. Halfred says the Christian dogmas are not more poetical than the old belief.
In a fragment of a song on Christ, the poet Eilif Gudrúnarson says that Christ sits at the well of Urd (Later Edda, Skáldskaparmál, 52)—
“Men say he (Christ) sits on a rock
South at the well of Urd.
Thus the mighty lord of the gods
Has strengthened himself with the lands of Rome.”
It appears that the eating of horseflesh was forbidden by the early Christians. The Emperor Otto having consulted his chiefs as to what steps should be taken to provide provisions for the army, when fighting against the Danes south of Danavirki, was advised by them either to withdraw from the country, or slay some of the horses for food. To this the Emperor replied:—
“To this advice there is a great drawback, for it is the greatest sacrilege for baptized men who can in any other manner prolong their lives to eat horseflesh” (Olaf Tryggvason, Fornmanna Sögur, c. 1).
The Halfred’s Saga, which relates how Halfred, who had been baptized, was for some time with the King, Olaf Tryggvason, and asked him to hear a song, which at first the king declined to hear, as too heathen for him, shows how hard was the struggle with some men to entirely give up the old faith.
“Of yore I worshipped well