THE SCENE: Thorstein and Spes were a famously devout husband and wife. But they lived with shame knowing that their relationship had started in sin – they had come together when Spes was married to her first husband. When old age reaches them, they decide that it is time to atone. The punishment they allot themselves is extreme, but aligns with the Anchorite tradition in Christianity.
THE TEXT: Then Spes said, “At last I think that all our affairs have been well handled and concluded. Now we have not shared only misfortune. Since foolish men may follow the example we set earlier in our lives, we will end them in a way that good men may emulate. Let us hire men who are gifted at working stone, to make a stone cell for each of us so that we may atone for our transgressions against God.”
Thorstein paid to have a stone cell built for each of them and provided whatever else they needed to live. When the stone cells had been built, at an appropriate time and when everything was completed, they gave up their secular lives together of their own free will, in order to enjoy instead eternal life together in the world to come. They went to separate cells and lived as long as God allotted them, and thus they ended their lives.
– The Saga of Grettir the Strong, 14th Century AD
