Hallr of the Síða

Hallr of the Síða is the gentle face of the new faith. A chieftain of the Icelandic eastfirths, he is the missionary Þangbrandr's first and most willing convert — won not by threat but by an idea that drew him. When the priest sang a splendid mass and Hallr asked in whose memory he kept the day, and heard that the archangel Michael weighs all the good a man does and is so merciful he tips the scale for any who please him, Hallr said he would like such a one for a friend, and was baptised with all his household on the priest's promise that Michael would be his guardian angel. He becomes the Christians' anchor in the east and, later, their chosen Speaker at the Althing in the great crisis of the conversion. Hallr is the Norse picture of how a faith truly spreads — through one attractive promise, taken up by one well-placed man who carries his whole house and quarter with him.