Reconstructing the past in medieval Iceland

Early Medieval Europe

Volumn 14, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 297-324

  Callow, Chris ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANTHROPOLOGY; GENEALOGY;

ARCTIC; ICELAND;

EID: 33746017934     PISSN: 09639462     EISSN: 14680254     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0254.2006.00184.x     Document Type: Review

References (52)

1. Bogi Th. Melsted, Íslendinga saga, 3 vols (Copenhagen, 1903-30).
2. For critiques in English see generally, T.M. Andersson, The Problem of Icelandic Saga Origins: A Historical Survey (New Haven, 1964); J. Byock, 'Saga-Form, Oral Prehistory and the Icelandic Social Context', New Literary History 16 (1984), pp. 153-73.
3. W.I. Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law and Society in Saga Iceland (Chicago, 1990), pp. 49-51.
4. M.C. van den Toorn, Ethics and Morals in Icelandic Saga Literature (Assen, 1955).
5. J.L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power (Berkeley, 1988) and Viking Age Iceland (New York and London, 2001); W.I. Miller, 'Justifying Skarphedinn: Of Pretext and Politics in the Icelandic Bloodfeud', Scandinavian Studies 55 (1983), pp. 316-44 and Bloodtaking and Peacemaking.
6. T.M. Andersson and W.I. Miller, Law and Literature in Medieval Iceland: Ljósvetninga saga and Valla-Ljóts saga (Stanford, 1989), p. 84.
7. H. Magerøy, 'Ljósvetninga saga', in P. Pulsiano and K. Wolf (eds), Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York, 1993), pp. 393-4, at p. 394.
8. Bjarni Gudnason, Túlkun Heidarvigasögu, Studia Islandica 50 (Reykjavík, 1993).
9. P. Schach, 'Heidarvíga saga', in P. Pulsiano and K. Wolf (eds), Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York, 1993), pp. 275-6, at p. 275.
10. J. Fentress and C. Wickham, Social Memory (Oxford, 1992).
11. In terms of general approach I think this is not too dissimilar to the statement on methodology by Walter Pöhl in 'History in Fragments: Montecassion's Politics of Memory', EME 10 (2001), pp. 343-74, at pp. 343-54.
12. For the sake of comprehensibility for readers unfamiliar with Icelandic characters, the Icelandic character 'p' has been replaced by 'Th' in all Icelandic names in this article except for those in the titles of primary or secondary works.
13. Íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, Íslenzk Fornrit, I (Reykjavík, 1968), Íslendingabók at p. 27; A. Faulkes, 'Descent from the Gods', Mediaeval Scandinavia 11 (1978-9, publ. 1982), pp. 92-125.
14. Adolf Fridriksson and Orri Vésteinsson, 'Creating a Past: A Historiography of the Settlement of Iceland', in J.H. Barrett (ed.), Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 5 (Turnhout, 2003), pp. 139-61.
15. Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking, esp. pp. 139-78.
16. M. Clunies Ross, 'The Development of Old Norse Textual Worlds: Genealogical Structure as a Principle of Literary Organisation in Early Iceland', Journal of English and Germanic Philology 92 (1993), pp. 372-85.
17. L. Bohannan, 'A Genealogical Charter', Africa 22 (1952), pp. 301-15. See also E. Peters, 'The Proliferation of Segments in the Lineage of the Bedouin in Cyrenaica', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 90 (1960), pp. 29-53.
18. Bohannan, 'A Genealogical Charter', p. 314.
19. C. Clover, 'The Long Prose Form', Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 101 (1986), pp. 10-39.
20. See Fig. 2.
21. 'Formáli', Laxdæla saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson (Reykjavík, 1934), p. xxiii. All subsequent citations of this standard edition which use Roman numerals as page references are to Sveinsson's introduction.
22. See Fig. 3.
23. For the authorship debates see P. Hallberg, Óláfr pórdarson hvítaskáld, Knýtlinga saga och Laxdæla saga. Ett forso̊k till språklig författarbestämning, Studia Islandica 22 (Reykjavk, 1963) and, after. fteen years of debate between Hallberg and Rolf Heller across more than one journal, a later response of Hallberg's, 'Ja, Knýtlinga saga und Laxdæla sind Schöpfungen eines Mannes', Mediaeval Scandinavia 11 (1978-9, publ. 1982), pp. 179-92. Heller's contributions, contra Hallberg, included 'Laxdæla saga und Knytlinga saga. Studien über die Beziehungen zwischen den beiden Sagas', Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 80 (1965), pp. 95-122; 'Knýtlinga saga und Laxdæla saga: Schöpfung eines Mannes?', Mediaeval Scandinavia 11 (1978-9, publ. 1982), pp. 163-78. M. Mundt, Sturla pórdarson und die Laxdæla saga (Bergen, 1969) and H. Magerøy, 'Har Sturla pórdarson skrivi Laxdæla saga?', Maal og Minne (1971), pp. 4-33 discussed another potential author. For full references to the debates up to the mid-1980s see C. Clover, 'Icelandic Family Sagas (Íslendingasögur)', in C. J. Clover and John Lindow (eds), Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, Islandica 45 (Ithaca, NY, 1985), pp. 239-315, esp. pp. 245-6, 289-90. Despite Heller's criticisms of Hallberg's data, some intriguing similarities exist between Laxdæla saga and Knytlinga saga with which Óláfr Thórdarson has also been associated but their real significance is unclear. M. Madelung, The Laxdæla saga: Its Structural Patterns (Chapel Hill, NC, 1972) took Laxdæla saga's depiction of Snorri godi's wiles to imply that Snorri Sturluson was playing some kind of game with his readers and in fact complimenting himself. The comments on Snorri godi's political sleight of hand are, however, ambiguous. Using the evidence which Einarr Ól. Sveinsson used in his introduction to the Íslenzk Fornrit edition of the saga, Madelung also narrowed down the dates within which the saga might have been written. By a tendentious line of argument based around the supposed symbolic repetition in the saga of the numbers twelve, three and two, she deduced that Laxdæla saga was written in 1232.
24. Helga Kress, 'Meget samstavet må det tykkes deg: Om kvinneopprör og genretvang i Sagaen om Laksdölene', Historiskt Tidskrift 3 (1980), pp. 266-80; R. Cook, 'Women and Men in Laxdæla saga', Skáldskaparmál 2 (1992), pp. 34-59; A. Finlay, 'Betrothal and Women's Autonomy in Laxdæla saga and the Poets' sagas', Skáldskaparmál 4 (1997), pp. 107-28.
25. B.M. Ólsen, 'Landnáma og Laxdæla saga', Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1908, pp. 151-232; Laxdæla saga, pp. xxxix-xl; Jón Jóhannesson, Gerdir Landnámabókar (Reykjavík, 1941), pp. 213-16; Björn Sigfússon, Um Íslendingabök (Reykjavík, 1944), pp. 66-71.
26. Rolf Heller was the most vigorous espouser of Laxdæla saga's dependence on other written sources, see especially, 'Laxdæla saga und Knytlinga saga' and Die Laxdæla saga: Die literarische Schöpfung eines Isländers des 13. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1976) and more recently 'Laxdæla saga und Færeyinga saga', Alvíssmál 11 (1998), pp. 85-92. For other links see P. Conroy, 'Laxdæla saga and Eiríks saga rauda: Narrative Structure', Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 95 (1980), pp. 116-25; P. Conroy and T. Langen, 'Laxdæla saga: Theme and Structure', Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 103 (1988), pp. 118-41. For literary structure see, for example, H. Beck, 'Laxdæla saga 'A Structural Approach', Saga-Book of the Viking Society 19 (1977), pp. 383-402.
27. A. Hamer, 'Laxdæla Saga: Shipwreck and Salvation', unpublished paper; idem, 'Laxdæla Saga: Kjartan Ólafsson's Baptism and Death', Paper given at the International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds, 14 July 1999. I am very grateful to Andrew Hamer for allowing me to see his work in advance of publication.
28. Laxdæla saga, pp. lxxvi, lxxx.
29. Laxdæla saga, pp. 83, 226.
30. Sturlunga Saga, eds Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason and Kristján Eldjárn, 2 vols (Reykjav́k, 1946), I, pp. 250-1.
31. Hannes porsteinsson, 'Nokkrar athuganir um íslenzkar bókmenntir á 12. og 13. öld', Skírnir 86 (1912), pp. 126-48.
32. In these instances it is not clear that this represents the intervention of anyone connected with Abbot Ketill's family or from Helgafell, the monastery over which Abbot Ketill presided. Both genealogies are 'simple' in that they are single lines of descent traced through the male line only (Icelandic langfedgatal) and they each end with a relatively wealthy and influential western Icelandic secular leader who flourished in the late twelfth century and early thirteenth century respectively: Ari inn sterki Thorgilsson, who had lived at Stadarstadur on Snæfellsnes (d. 1190s), and Thorvaldr Snorrason (d. 1228) from Vatnsfjördur (Laxdæla saga, pp. 83, 228; Lúdvk Ingvarsson, Godord og godordsmenn, I-III (Egilsstadir, 1986-7), III, pp. 26-33.
33. See Fig. 4. Within this genealogy there is a bishop, an abbot of Helgafell, the man who set up the church farm at Húsafell (Orri V́steinsson, The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, Power and Social Change (Oxford, 2000), pp. 102, 107) and a priest. The saga identifies Úlfheidr, the wife of Hermundr Konrádsson, as the granddaughter of Bishop Ketill of Hólar (1122-45) and Ketill Hermundarson as abbot of Helgafell. Ketill Hermundarson was the abbot of Helgafell for four years, 1217-20 and probably died in 1220 (Islandske Annaler indtil 1578, ed. G. Storm (Christiania, 1888), pp. 185, 187). The addition of the genealogy here and the occurrence of Bolla páttr, the short story about Bolli Bollason's adventures, at the end of Laxdæla saga in Mö∂ruvallabók would seem to be part of the same attempt to tailor the original text and manuscript for this family.
34. Sturlu saga tells us that Hermundr Konrádsson (see Fig. 4) lived at almanstunga in Borgarfjördur, and had probably controlled the chieftaincy of the Jöklamenn (Jöklamannagodord; Ingvarsson, Godord og godordsmenn, III, pp. 26-33). In the late 1150s he joined Einarr Thorgilsson against Sturla Thóŕarson, eponymous founder of the so-called Sturlungar clan. But Hermundr and his sons Ketill and Kodrán also probably supported Bödvarr Thórdarson (Sturla's father-in-law) (Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 74, 107, 111). Ketill Hermundarson, however, seems to have taken up an ecclesiastical career before about 1210 as he was the servant of Bishop Páll of Skálholt (Byskupa sögur, ed. J. Helgason, 2 vols (Copenhagen, 1938-78), I, p. 140). His niece, Gudrún Hreinsdóttir, became the partner/mistress of Snorri Sturluson. Gudrún's daughter by Snorri was briefly married to the powerful Gizurr Thorvaldsson (Sturlunga saga, I, p. 242). These were connections with the most influential men in Iceland. It is possible that Abbot Ketill had inherited a godord (chieftaincy) but his general absence from the contemporary sagas suggests that he was either not interested in secular politics or else not able to make his mark (Sturlunga saga, I, p. 107; Godord og godordsmenn, III, p. 29). His son, Kári, however, is named as a supporter of Klængr Bjarnarson, a member of the powerful Haukdælir family, in events in Borgarfjördur in 1231. Borgarfjördur was the area in which the chieftain holding the Jöklamannagodord traditionally resided, which implies that Ketill's family still had some influence there. By 1253, however, Thorgils skarvi Bödvarsson, one of the Sturlungar, seems to have held the Jöklamannagodord and been able to appoint someone else to take control of it while he was away in Norway (Sturlunga saga, II, p. 149; Jón Vidar Sigurdsson, Chieftains and Power in the Icelandic Commonwealth, trans. Jean Lundskaer-Nielsen (Odense, 1999), p. 174).
35. Laxdæla saga, pp. lxii, 230-48.
36. Cf. Laxdæla saga, p. 45, n.1.
37. The full list of relevant texts within the Sturlunga compilation of sagas is: Porgils saga ok Haflida, Sturlu saga, Íslendinga saga, Pórdar saga kakala and Porgils saga skarda.
38. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 68, 73.
39. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 82, 83, 96.
40. Sturlunga saga, I, p. 232.
41. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 234-6; Helgi porláksson, 'Saudafell. Um leidir of völd í Dölum vid lok pjódveldis', Yfir Íslandsála (1991), pp. 95-109.
42. Sturlunga saga, I, p. 264.
43. E.g. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 311-14, 419, 423, 447, 455; II, pp. 24, 185, 191, 195.
44. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 312-13.
45. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 315, 316, 352, 353, 355, 413, 435, 438; II, p. 287.
46. Sturlunga saga, I, p. 348.
47. Sturlunga saga, I, pp. 350-52. Men from Höskuldsstadir and Laugar are named here as well. This is also the only sequence of events in which Hundadalur, the home of Thorsteinn svarti in Laxdæla saga, is mentioned.
48. Islandske Annaler, pp. 118, 180; Diplomatarium Islandicum, Íslenskt Fornbréfasafn 834-1600, 16 vols (Copenhagen and Reykjavík, 1857-1976), I, p. 282.
49. Sturlunga saga, II, pp. 237, 264-5.
50. Sturlunga saga, II, pp. 51-2.
51. E.g. P. Magdalino (ed.), The Perception of the Past in Twelfth-Century Europe (London, 1992).
52. A message pushed most forcefully by Úlfar Bragason. See, for example, 'Frásagnarmynstur í porgils sögu skördu', Skírnir 155 (1981), pp. 161-70; 'The Art of Dying', Scandinavian Studies 63 (1991), pp. 453-63; 'Um samsetningu pórdar sa∂gu kakala', in Gísli Sigurdsson, Gudrún Kvaran and Sigurgeir Steingrímsson (eds), Sagna ing helgad Jónasi Kristjánssyni sjötugum 10. apríl 1994 (Reykjavík 1994), pp. 815-22.