Approaching The Viking Age (Scandinavistica Vilnensis, 2)

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Viking epochos
tyrinjimai
Vilniaus universitetas
Skandinavistikos centras
Vilniaus universiteto leidykla 2009
Tarptautins konferencijos Dialogai su viking epocha,
vykusios 2007 m. spalio 1113 d. Vilniuje, mediaga
Sudar Erika Sausverd ir Ieva Steponaviit
Approaching
the Viking Age
Centre of Scandinavian Studies
Vilnius University
Vilnius University Publishing House 2009
Proceedings of the international conference on Old Norse
literature, mythology, culture, social life and language
1113 October 2007, Vilnius, Lithuania
Edited by rika Sausverde and Ieva Steponaviit
UDK / UDC 839.6.09(06)
Ol-15
Konferencij parm / Conference sponsored by
iaurs ministr tarybos kultros fondas / Nordic Culture Fund
Lietuvos valstybinis mokslo ir studij fondas / Lithuanian State Science
and Studies Foundation
Knygos leidim parm / Publication sponsored by
iaurs ministr tarybos kultros fondas / Nordic Culture Fund
Serijos Scandinavistica Vilnensis redakcin kolegija / Editorial board for
Scandinavistica Vilnensis series
Dr. habil. Jurij K. Kusmenko (Rusijos moksl akademijos Kalbotyros institutas,
Sankt Peterburgas, ir Humboldt universitetas, Vokietija / Institute of Linguistic
Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, and Humboldt
University, Germany)
Dr. phil. Anatoly Liberman (Minesotos universitetas, JAV / University of Minnesota, USA)
Dr. rika Sausverde (Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University)
Dr. Ieva Steponaviit (Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University)
Dr. Aurelijus Vijnas (Valstybinis Gaoiongo universitetas, Taivanas /
National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan)
Recenzentai / Reviewed by
Dr. Rasa Ruseckien (Mokslo ir enciklopedij leidybos institutas /
Lithuanian Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute)
Dr. Aurelijus Vijnas (Valstybinis Gaoiongo universitetas, Taivanas /
National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan)
Apsvarst ir rekomendavo spaudai Filologijos fakulteto taryba (2008 11 07,
protokolas Nr. 41) / Approved for publishing by the Council of the Faculty
of Philology (07 11 2008, record No. 41)
Knygos dailininkas / Designer Tomas Mrazauskas
Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University, 2009
ISSN 2029-2112
ISBN 978-9955-33-492-7
Vilniaus universiteto leidykla / Vilnius University Publishing House
Universiteto g. 1, LT-01122 Vilnius
Tel. +370 5 268 7260 www.leidykla.eu
Vilniaus universitetas Skandinavistikos centras
Centre of Scandinavian Studies Vilnius University
Universiteto g. 5, LT-01513 Vilnius
Tel. +370 5 268 7235 www.skandinavistika.ff.vu.lt
Contents
Te Editors Note / 7
Evaldas Grigonis, rika Sausverde. Joachim Lelewel, Edda,
and Lithuania / 9
Rasa Baranauskienu. Refections of Celtic Infuence
in Hildinavisen / 15
Jan Ragnar Hagland. On Translating Icelandic Sagas into
Modern Norwegian the Case of Brennu Njls Saga / 41
Jon Gunnar Jrgensen. Norse Kings Sagas Spread
to the World / 55
Jurij K. Kusmenko. Smi and Scandinavians in
the Viking Age / 65
Anatoly Liberman. jalf / 95
Ugnius Mikuionis. Norwegian Modal Verbs and
Atitudinal Modality / 117
Else Mundal. Te View of Blood Vengeance in Medieval
Norwegian Sources / 139
Agneta Ney. Far och son-motiv i nordisk hjltediktning
och saga / 153
Ieva Steponaviitu. Saga Refections in Karen Blixens
Texts (with Focus On Grjotgard lvesn og Aud) / 163
Vsteinn lason. Scenes from Daily Life in the Sagas
of Icelanders: Narrative Function / 179
Kristel Zilmer. On Some Pragmatic and Symbolic Features
of Island Representation in Old Norse Literature / 197
In autumn 2007, the Centre of Scandinavian Studies at Vilnius University
hosted an international conference on Old Norse literature, mythology,
culture, social life and language, held on the occasion of the 200th anni-
versary of the publication in Vilnius of Edda Skandinawska by Joachim
Lelewel. Te title of the conference Dialogues with the Viking Age was
borrowed from the book by Vsteinn lason, with the authors kind con-
sent. Te conference became a momentous event in the history of the
Centre, as it gathered together many of our good friends from through-
out the years: Professors Tomas Bredsdorf (Denmark), Jan Ragnar
Hagland and Jon Gunnar Jrgensen (Norway), Jurij K. Kusmenko
(Russia and Germany), Vsteinn lason (Iceland), Dr. Kristel Zilmer
(Estonia) and Dr. Aurelijus Vijnas (Taiwan).
Although, for obvious reasons titled diferently, the present book
consists of the proceedings of that conference almost in their entirety,
as well as a couple of extra articles by those authors who were not able
to come to Lithuania at that time. We are grateful to all contributors,
reviewers and sponsors who made it possible for the conference to
take place and for the book to appear. Special thanks go to Ugnius
Mikuionis and Dr. Aurelijus Vijnas for their generous help in, respec-
tively, organising the conference and editing the book.
rika Sausverde
Ieva Steponaviit
Te Editors Note
Joachim Lelewel, Edda, and Lithuania
Evaldas Grigonis,
rika Sausverde
Vilnius University
What is the connection between these three topics? 200 years ago,
in 1807, Joachim Lelewel published a small book known as Edda
Skandinawska in Vilnius. Te book was writen in Polish, and it was
the frst retold variant of Edda published in Lithuania. It is a signif-
cant event, since we have not been spoiled by numerous editions on
or of Old Norse literature in Lithuania. Actually, only a few works
of Old Norse literature have been translated into Lithuanian so far.
Among them, there is Egils saga,1 Te Saga of Knytlings,2 an anthology
on Old Norse literature, which contains several excerpts of Te Book of
Icelanders, Te Book of Setlement, Te First Grammatical Treatise, several
fragments from the Poetic and the Prose Edda, as well as excerpts from
several other sagas.3 Terefore, every atempt to present this marvellous
literature to the reader the modern or the old days one is worthy of
atention and discussion.
Te precise name of Lelewels book is Edda czyli ksiga religii
dawnych Skandynawii miszkacw (Edda or the book on religion of
the Old Scandinavian inhabitants). It contains a chapter on the Old
Germanic, Celtic and other tribes, a short presentation of both Eddas
and fnally a short paraphrase of the Eddas, frst of all of the Younger
Edda (only Vlusp and Hvaml from the Elder Edda are briefy dis-
cussed), supplied by an index of proper names.
1 Egilio saga. I senosios island kalbos vert Svetlana Steponaviien. Vilnius,
Vaga, 1975.
2 Kniutling saga. I senosios island kalbos vert Ugnius Mikuionis. Vilnius,
Vaga, 2002.
3 Mimiro altinis. Senj island tekst antologija. Sudarytoja ir vertja Rasa
Ruseckien. Vilnius, Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2003. See also Skald poezija.
Pareng Rasa Ruseckien, Ugnius Mikuionis. Vilniaus universitetas, 2002.
One should keep in mind that Joachim Lelewel was 21 years old at
the time of the publication of this book, and it appeared 11 years before
his contemporary Rasmus Rask published the frst complete edition of
both Eddas in Stockholm in 1818, the later event having evoked enor-
mous interest in the Old Norse literary heritage in Europe.
Tough Lelewels personality has been widely studied and is well-
known, we would like to mention several details from his biography,
which may be of interest in the context of our conference. First of all, he
was a well-known, probably the greatest Polish historian of the frst part
of the 19th century, a scientist-erudite, bibliophile and polyglot. From
his paternal side, he is of Austrian or Swedish ancestry,4 descended from
early immigrants to Poland via Prussia and France, where Lelewels grand-
father fnally setled down in 1732.5 Wherever Lelewels ancestors came
from, Lelewel showed himself as a very active Polish public character and
4 See Polski sownik biografczny. Wrocaw [etc.], 1972, t. 17/1, z. 72, s. 25.
5 See Pirokinas, A.; idlauskas, A. Mokslas senajame Vilniaus universitete. Vilnius,
1984, p. 270; cf. liwiski A. Joachim Lelewel: Zarys biografczny. Lata 17861831.
Warszawa, 1932, s. 34.
Joachim Lelewel
(17861861), the
author of Edda
Skandinawska.
11 Joachim Lelewel, Edda, and Lithuania
politician all his life he fought and defended democratic and republican
ideals. He was elected deputy of the Polish Parliament in 1829. He enthu-
siastically joined the uprising of 18301831, and was one of its most active
participants. He was even a member of the rebel government, responsible
for faith afairs and education. Appealing to Russian soldiers, he created
the slogan Za wolno nasz i wasz (For our and your freedom).
Nevertheless, it was not only his political activities which made him a
prominent fgure in the Polish history. In his time, he amazed the aca-
demic society with his innovative conceptions and incredible diligence.
Lelewel studied at Vilnius University (18041808, mostly classi-
cal philology under the guidance of Gotfied Ernest Groddeck), where
later he started to teach history (18151818), and eventually became a
professor (18221824). He must have been a brilliant lecturer, and his
lectures on Polish history were enthusiastically accepted not only by
academic youth, but also by a broader audience. His frst lecture had
to be postponed because of an overcrowded auditorium around
1500 listeners came to listen to him! His further lectures used to draw
crowds of about 400 people.6 His courses fted a romantic world-view
and had a big infuence on students, especially Adam Mickiewicz and
the Philomath Society (a conspiratorial student organization at Vilnius
University in 18171823).7 In 1824, afer the arrest and trial of the most
active members of the society, Lelewel was expelled from University as
a persona non grata for the Russian Tsarist regime. Aferwards he lived
in Warsaw, and later in emigration in Paris and Brussels.
As mentioned, his scientifc productivity was imposing up to 1830,
he published about 150 research works. Te scope of his interests was
immense from history and historical geography to numismatics, cartog-
raphy and bibliography. From Edda Skandinawska, which is of special inter-
est to us, to, for example, Gographie des Arabes (1851). Many of Lelewels
books remain as classics in their felds. Edda was actually the frst published
treatise of the young Lelewel. Tis book, along with several other books
authored by Lelewel is kept at the Rare Books Department of Vilnius
University library. We would like to mention at least some of them.
6 liwiski, A., op. cit., s. 116120.
7 See, e. g., Venclova, T. Vilniaus vardai. Vilnius, 2006, p. 122.
Historyka tudzie o atwem i pozytecznem nauczaniu historyi, Wilno,
1815. In this work Lelewel raises a new viewpoint on the historical method,
considering the problem of the importance of historical sources. Lelewels
capital work on historical geography is Badania staroytnoci we wzgldzie
geografi, Wilno, Warszawa, 1818, widely accepted by leading European geog-
raphers of the 19th century, such as Alexander von Humboldt, Karl Riter
and others.8 Dzieje staroytne Indji, Warszawa, 1820 was the frst and for
a long time the only work on Indian culture in Polish. Historiczna parallela
Hiszpanii z Polsk w wieku XVI, XVII, XVIII, Warszawa, 1831 was an innovative
work, applying the comparative method in history. Numismatique du moy-
en-ge, Paris, 1835. Tis is the most signifcant of Lelewels work in numis-
matics, where he discusses and classifes Belgian, French, German, Czech,
Swedish, Polish and other early medieval coins. Presumably, the publica-
tion laid the foundations of the medieval numismatics. Finally, one should
mention the 5 volumes of La Gographie du moyen-ge, Bruxelles, 18491857.
8 Vilnius University professor Gotfried Ernest Groddeck commented on
the publication, that even if Lelewel had not writen anything else this work
would have been enough. (liwiski, A., op. cit., s. 90).
A facsimile of Edda
Skandinawska, 1807
Tis is the largest Lelewels work in historical geography and cartography,
which remains classical up to now. Te work was complemented by atlases
with 177 maps, the plates entirely engraved by Lelewel himself (some of
the maps even tinted in watercolors).
Lelewel died in Paris in 1861. He was buried in Montmartre, but in
1929, his remains were moved to the Ras cemetery in Vilnius. In his
will, Lelewel lef his library to Vilnius University. Te will was imple-
mented in 1926. Te University got about 4800 books and 397 atlases
and maps.9 Tanks to Lelewel, Vilnius University is proud to have one
of the best atlas collections in Europe.
Joachim Lelewel wrote in Edda, that if somebody would like to get
to know more about this, let him read the Edda itself.10
With these Lelewels words, let us proceed to the Eddas and sagas
themselves.
9 Brazinien, A. Senosios kartografjos rinkiniai Lietuvoje. Knygotyra, t. 36, 2000,
p. 3637. A part of the collection can be seen in the room named in Lelewelss
honor at Vilnius University library.
10 Lelewel, J. Edda czyli ksiga religii dawnych Skandynawii miszkacw. Wilno,
1807, s. 54.
Refections of Celtic Infuence in Hildinavisen
Rasa Baranauskienu
Vilnius University
Te Orkneys seem to have been of particular importance in transmiting
certain Celtic material. Gsli Sigursson argues, however, that it is more
likely that cultural contacts and exchanges which took place in the Orkneys
between Icelandic and Gaelic-speaking people were limited to single motifs,
tales or poems. Tis does not mean that the single features are limited in
number, only that they are found as single items in a tradition which had
to be built up in Iceland from the cultural elements available in the coun-
try itself (Gsli Sigursson 1988: 42). Tough the Orkneys were an ideal
meeting place where Scandinavian and Celtic cultures could exchange
traditions, the Gaelic custom in question existed in Iceland as well, having
been brought there by the Gaelic setlers. It is another mater that these
traditions could be reinforced because of the contacts in the Orkneys (Gsli
Sigursson 1988: 44). Among the most important elements identifed as
transmited through the contacts via the Orkneys are stories including
Hjaningavg Te Batle of Hjadnings. Einar lafur Sveinsson assumes
that Celtic tales played an important part in forming Icelandic ideas about
the everlasting fght a motif which becomes extremely common in Iceland,
relevant right down to the 19th century, but is rare in the Scandinavian tra-
dition (Einar lafur Sveinsson 1959: 1718). Htalykill, Clavis metrica or
Key to Metres composed in the Orkneys in the 1140 by an Icelander and
the Orkney Earl Rognvaldr kali, contains what is believed to be the earliest
reference to the Everlasting fght motif in Old Norse / Icelandic literature,
the motif being taken over from the Irish 9th century tale Cath Maige Tuired
Te Batle of Mag Tuired (Chesnut 1968: 132).
Te literary works which are likely to have emerged from the cul-
tural mixture in the Orkneys and the Scotish Isles are poems such as
Darraarlj and Krkuml (Holtsmark 1939: 82). Konungs Skuggsj
contains a passage on Ireland which shows similarities to Topographia
16 Rasa Baranauskien
Hibernica of Giraldus Cambrensis (Holtsmark 1964: 667). Te source may
have been a writen one. Michael Chesnut goes further and claims that
Latin may have been the medium of communication (Chesnut 1968: 135).
Considering the transmission of various motifs, it seems that Orkney was
a channel through which motifs could travel from Scandinavian to Celtic
areas and vice versa. Celtic material, such as single motifs, tales or poems
could also reach the surrounding areas, above all Shetland Islands.
Te Shetland material has never been discussed before in this
particular aspect, though the Shetland Islands were clearly on the route
for the transmission of the Celtic material. Ideas from the Orkneys
could be easily transmited to Shetland (the distance between the clus-
ters of Orkney and Shetland Islands is not so long). Te Norn ballad
Hildinavisen to be discussed in this chapter, which seems to contain
Celtic elements, has clearly been infuenced by the Orkney tradition,
because its main protagonist is Jarlin dOrkneyjar Earl of Orkney.
However, we should not imagine that the Orkney Earldom was always
an intermediary in the exchange of such tales. Tere was also direct
Gaelic infuence on the Western Scandinavian, especially Icelandic
and Faroese, folk tradition, since some of the Scandinavian setlers on
these islands came via Ireland and Scotland and had sometimes lived
there and absorbed Gaelic culture (Almqvist 1981: 89).
Language of the Setlers
Te variety of Scandinavian language in Orkney and Shetland came to
be called Norn. Norn is a contracted form of the feminine adjective
norr n (from Old Norse norr nn, meaning coming from the north),
which in the 13th century came into use in order to diferentiate between
the western and eastern variety of Norse. Until then, all Scandinavian
languages were called Donsk tunga, a term which has survived in
Orkney dialect till now (Rendboe 1987: 1). Te term Norn, meaning
(Western) Norse language, Norwegian language, (Western) Norse or
Norwegian was frst recorded in an endorsement in Scots appended
to a Norwegian document from 1485 dealing with Shetland maters.
Although it was also occasionally applied to Norse speech elsewhere in
Scotland (Barnes 1996: 21), Norn is in most contexts used exclusively of
the Northern-Isles variety (Barnes 2000: 179). Norn was not a dialect,
17 Refections of Celtic Infuence in Hildinavisen
since its speakers appear to have considered that they have formed their
own speech community in the same way as the speakers of Faroese
(Barnes 1996: 13). Tese islands retained their Scandinavian character
for a long time, even afer they had been pledged to King James III of
Scotland in 14689 (Barnes 2000: 173).
Te Sources in Norn
Te setlers and their descendants have not lef so many writen sources,
either in runes or the Roman alphabet, and the few texts that exist tend to
mirror faithfully the contemporary idiom of Norway (Barnes 2000: 179).
Tere exist a few runic inscriptions from the 11th century, some old
diplomas the oldest one is from 1299 writen in Old Norse, and some
of them are writen in Old Danish. Another coherent text is James
Wallaces Orkney version of the Lords Prayer (source unknown) pub-
lished in the second edition of An Account of the Islands of Orkney, writ-
ten in 1700 (Wallace 1700). Probably the most interesting sources have
been registered by George Low from Edzell in Angus, but resident in
Orkney more an amateur student of natural history than a linguist.
He recorded samples of Norn from the Shetland island of Foula during
a visit there in 1774 from the 19th of June until the end of August and
included them in his book A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and
Shetland, frst published in 1879. Low has also recorded a Shetlandic ver-
sion of the Lords Prayer (source unknown), and a list of thirty English
words translated into Norn, presumably by diferent informants.
Another text is a 35-stanza ballad obtained from an old man
William Henry, a farmer in Gutorm, in Foula. Tis old folk song, never
registered before, is now popularly called Foulavisen or Hildinavisen,
afer the heroine. It has been assumed that the language of this song is
much older and represents the language from the 1660 (Flom 1925: 127).
I would argue that its language could be even older, because of its
poetic form, which usually conserves the grammatical form and con-
tent. Other material comes from the period when Norn was no longer
a living language. Here the most important are Jakob Jakobsens col-
lections. Tis scholar from the Faroe Islands called Jkup doktari con-
tributed signifcantly to the understanding of individual Scandinavian
words (Barnes 1996: 1). His dictionary contains ca. 10 000 items. Hugh
Marwicks glossary of Norn contains ca. 3000 items. Te scantiness of
sources is frustrating, especially when it comes to coherent texts.
Te Norn Ballad
Tough the ballad Hildinavisen is recorded in Foula, it does not mean
that it was composed there. Tere were plague epidemics in 1700,
1720 (when just six inhabitants out of ten survived), 1740, 1760 and 1769.
So Hildinavisen could have been brought from the mainland of Shetland,
because people were moving to the islands, especially to the islands fur-
ther North. Hildinavisen was sung by William Henry, a farmer in Gutorm
in Foula. Low writes about the old man who recited Hildinavisen in a
leter from 1776, saying that he could neither read nor write, but had
the most retentive memory I ever heard of (Low 1879: 107). In his book
Low claims that the following song is the most entire I could fnd, but
the disorder of some of the stanzas will show that it is not wholly so
Here it is worthy to be observed that most of the fragments they have
are old historical Ballads and Romances, this kind of poetry being more
greedily swallowed and retentively preserved by memory than any oth-
ers. Low continues that he [William Henry] spoke of three kinds of
poetry used in Norn, and repeated or sung by the old men; the Ballad (or
Romance, I suppose); the Vysie or Vyse, now commonly sung to danc-
ers; and the simple Song. By the account he gave of the mater, the frst
seems to have been valued here chiefy for its subject, and was commonly
repeated in winter by the freside; the second seems to have been used
in public meetings, now only sung to the dance; and the third at both
(Low 1879: 107). He also notes that William Henry repeated and sung
the whole day (Hgstad 1900: 11). Te most peculiar moment of record-
ing is that Low did not know any Scandinavian language, i. e. he did not
understand a word of what he was writing down. He writes: In this
Ballad I cannot answer for the orthography. I wrote it as an old man
pronounced it; nor could he assist me in this particular (Low 1879: 107).
Having in mind the words of William Henry, one can call this ballad a
difuse continuum of an earlier epic tradition.
Te analysis of a ballad is a complicated mater, because the recording
is fault. Te late date of the recording is one factor. But at least we can be sure
that when this ballad was recorded, Norn still was a living language. Tis is
indicated not just by Low, but also by other sources, such as Te Description
of the Isles of Orkney and Zetland, published in Edinburgh in 1771 by Sir
Robert Sibbald. He describes conditions in Shetland around 1680 as such:
All the Natives can speak the Gothick or Norwegian Language, and
seldom speak other among themselves (Sibbald 1771: 4849). It seems
though that this situation soon changed, and, according to Laurits Rendboe,
Norn sang its swansong i. e. lived its last days (Rendboe 1987: 6). Tis ballad
is the only complete ballad in Norn (there are no other complete ballads
either from Orkney or from Shetland). Moreover, it was transmited orally
and Low presented what he heard through the medium of English, and to
a limited extent French orthography.
Tus we have some issues that complicate the analysis of the ballad:
the lack of other similar texts in Norn, the incomplete information on
which projections are made, as well as the paucity of texts.
Te fact that Low did not understand what he was writing may
indicate that the text, as we have it, refects its pronunciation. Besides,
the bound form of the ballad ensures its longevity in an unchanged form.
However, stylistically, one would not expect a (medieval?) ballad
to refect everyday speech (Hammersheib 1981: 181). At the same time,
it is to be expected that the language of this ballad was preserved by
its bound form, and since the ballad was sung, the melody must have
preserved the form and contents unchanged.1 Tis type of conservation
allows us to think that the language of the ballad is more or less archaic
and its content has been preserved without drastic changes.
Te Sources of Scandinavian Material
Tere is a voluminous tradition related to the names of the two protagonists
of the Shetlandic ballad Hiluge and Hildina in Scandina vian sources.
1) First of all, it goes back to Illuga saga Grarfstra Te Saga of
Illugi, Grids Foster Son which belongs to the bulk of Fornaldarsgur
Norurlanda Sagas of Ancient Times. However, Illuga saga Grarfstra
is not preserved in any of the collections of Fornaldarsgur from
the Middle Ages. Te oldest manuscript of this saga is AM 123 8vo, which
1 Te fact that it was sung at the time when it was recorded is known from
the leter of Low mentioned above.
is on parchment, but hardly much older than 1600 (Dav Erlingsson
1975: 11). With regard to Illuga saga Grarfstra, Knut Liestl supports
the traditional opinion that it dates back to about 1300 (Liestl 1958: 125).
Te writing of Fornaldarsgur is generally believed to have started at
the end of the Golden Age of Icelandic literature in the late 13th century.
It became increasingly popular in the 14th century, when most of these
sagas are thought to have been writen down (Sigursson 1988: 48).
Secondly, there are quite a few ballads containing names similar
to the protagonists of Hildinavisen:
2) Two versions of the ballad (A and B) found in the Faroe Islands
are called Kappin Illugi. Te second protagonist is Hilda (in the version A)
or Hildur (in the version B). Both versions of the Faroese ballad were
published by Venceslaus Ulricus Hammersheib in F riske kv der, 2.
3) A version of a ballad which has a similar story is found in Norway
and is called Kappen Illhugin and was published by Magnus Brostrup
Landstad in Norske Folkeviser, nr. 2.
4) In Denmark, the ballad is called Herr Hylleland henter sin jomfu.
It was published by Sven Grundtvig in Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, nr. 44.
Te diference is that here the male protagonist is called Hylleland
instead of Illugi.
5) Finally, there is the Shetlandic ballad called Foulavisen or Hildi-
na vi sen which contains protagonists with the same names. However,
the content of the Shetland ballad difers greatly from the Faroe,
Norwegian and Danish ballads, as well as from the Icelandic saga.
It is of great importance that Hildinavisen contains completely
diferent features and even a diferent story which accommodates
the so-called Celtic love triangle and where the new character Jarlin
dOrkneyar is introduced. Other major aspects that make it specifc are
Hiluges negative character and the female protagonists name Hildina.
Te etymology of the name Hiluge (illr ill + hugr mind) might indicate
that it was atached to an evil personage or a troublemaker from the very
beginning, similar to Bricriu and Efnisien in Celtic medieval literature.
Celtic Motifs in Hildinavisen
Comparative literature studies enable us to discover various types of
connection between the literature of diferent countries. Motifs and
tales ofen have a wide distribution and it is ofen unsafe to suggest
an intimate connection between various tales merely because each
is a complex of similar motifs. A motif can be defned as the simplest
form of a basic situation (Carney 1979: 48). Motifs or elements usually
undergo adaptation. Roland Barthes states that narrative on the level
of the story is translatable into diferent media and diferent cultural
setings without fundamental damage. It is the last layer, the discourse,
which resists transference (Barthes 1977: 121). I do not claim that
the elements I am going to discuss below derive directly from certain
Irish or Welsh stories, but I would like to emphasize that these elements
are unique in Scandinavian balladry and it is not unlikely that they have
sources other than Scandinavian. I discovered a number of parallels to
the motifs in Shetlandic ballad in Celtic medieval literature.
Speaking about the transference of literary motifs, or elements, it is
necessary to touch upon another important issue, namely the change
of literary medium, i. e. the diference of genre. Celtic sagas are prose
with some poetic interpolations, whereas Scandinavian ballads are in
verse. It is possible that stories were transmited orally and the ballads
were created from their motifs. Be that as it may, the sagas are not con-
temporaneous with the composition of the ballads. Prose texts usually
provide space for countless details, while the poetic form of the ballad
demands compactness and details tend to be obliterated. As Liestl puts
it, instead of somewhat complicated content arrangement which is
customary in fornaldarsgur, simpler and more popular fairytale motifs
dominate in the ballads with the same subject (Liestl 1910: 272).
Besides, in prose there is much less repetition and formula. Compared
with the verse, dialogue in prose is natural and free in its movement, and
is ofen conducted with swif-moving economy and terseness.
Hurling of the Head
As indicated, there is some evidence of strong links between Celtic
sources and Scandinavian balladry in general. I would like to note some
motifs that are especially prominent in Celtic literature and that also
appear (certainly transformed) in this only ballad found in Shetland.
Te frst one is the episode in Hildinavisen where, according to
the summary of the ballad given by Low the Earl is killed by Hiluge,
who cut of his head and threw it at his lady, which, she says, vexed (!)
her even more than his death, that he should add cruelty to revenge
(Low 1879: 113). Te translation given by Low can be compared with
the same lines from the ballad Hildinavisen:
Hildinavisen 22
Nu fac an Iarlin dahuge
Dar min de an engin gro
An cast ans huge ei
Fong ednar u vaxhedne mere mo.
Now the Earl got a deathblow nobody could help / save him.
He (Hilu ge) cast his head into her (Hildinas) lap (embrace, chest)
and she was angered (Hgstad 1900: 6).
Two Irish sagas have episodes connected with beheading. One
of them is Fled Bricrenn Bricrius Feast, the other is Scla Muicce Meic
Da T Te Story of Mac D Ts Pig which are reminiscent of
the beheading episode in our ballad. Both these sagas have the con-
stellation of concepts that may be conveyed by headings such as con-
tention at the Celtic feast, the Celtic cult of the head, and others of
this type (Koch 2000: 2325). Tis feature was earlier described by
Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson as the head hunting and the beheading
game (Jackson 1964: 1920, 3537). Te beheading motif can be called
a stock motif and it is counted among the ones that belong to the earli-
est Celtic tradition.
Te earliest version of Fledd Bricrenn is found in the oldest Irish
manuscript Leabhar na h-Uidre Te Book of the Dun Cow, writ-
ten at Clonmacnoise about 1100 yet containing interpolations from
12501300. As it was proved in 1912 by the Irish palaeographer R. I. Best,
the manuscript had been writen by three diferent scribes.2 Te story
was frst commited to writing in the 8th century to judge by the lan-
guage (OBrien 1968: 6869). Fledd Bricrenn contains the so called
beheading game episode, where C Roi is beheaded three times, only
2 One of them was Maelmuire murdered in 1106 by a marauder, probably a Viking.
to recover instantly. Concerning the sources of the beheading game
episode in the Icelandic Sveins rmur Mkssonar, Einar lafur Sveinsson
rejects the idea that the motif in the Icelandic version could have been
taken over from English or French sources (Sveinsson 1975: 134).
Te Irish story is closest to the Icelandic one, but the infuence from
Arthurian works indicates that the rmur could not have derived directly
from the Irish tradition. A now lost source, possibly writen in England,
might therefore have served as an intermediary (Sveinsson 1975: 134).
Orgain Mic Da T Mac D Ts Slaughter is included in the list
of prm-scla (primary stories) even before the period of our earliest
manuscript text in the Book of Leinster. Te list itself probably dates
from the 10th century; but the tale is also mentioned in a poem by
Flannacn Mac Cellaich who is said to have been slain by Norsemen
in 896 (Chadwick 1968: 90). Scla Muicce Meic Da T is also a very early
story, probably composed in its present form about 800 AD. Te seting
of the story, and its link to Kildare, suggest that the author belonged to
Leinster, and had inherited its fne heroic tradition.
Scla Muicce Meic Da T is highly sophisticated story which
belongs to the early period of the Viking regime, and this may have
done something to substitute laconic humour and a spirit of ripe bur-
lesque for dignity and poetical beauty. Te story is preserved in at least
six manuscripts. Te Book of Leinster, writen about 1160 is the earliest.
Te text of the story is also found in Harley 5280, a manuscript writen
in the frst half of the 16th century and now kept at the British Museum.
Tese texts of the story are independent. Tey seem to be derived from
a common source, which was a transcript of a previous version, believed
from its language to date from about 800.
Nora Chadwick assumed that Scla Muicce Meic Da T also shows
certain parallels with the Icelandic Bandamanna saga Te Story of
the Banded Men (Chadwick 1957: 172), but these parallels are consid-
ered dubious by other scholars (Gsli Sigursson 1988: 93). Another
episode from the same Irish story is paralleled in Njls saga. Njls saga
has a description (Chapter 70) of an Irish dog Smr, brought from
Ireland as a gif by lafr P to Gunnar Hmundarson. Te descrip-
tions of legendary dogs in Irish stories are frequent, as for example
the description of a dog brought from Spain in the opening lines of
the above mentioned Scla Muicce Meic Da T. If these two episodes
in diferent family sagas are really connected with Scla Muicce Meic Da
T, then it seems that material of this Irish saga in one or other form
was well known not just in Shetland, but also in Iceland. If Chadwicks
suggestion about these motifs is correct then it proves that the material
of this particular Irish saga was well known in the area.
Scla Muicce Meic Da T refers to the so-called curadmr
Heros Portion. Diodorus Siculus, who already wrote about the Celts
c. 6030 BC, describing the behaviour of the Celts during feasts, men-
tions the choicest portion: Tey honour the brave warriors with
the choicest portion, just as Homer says that the chiefains honoured
Ajax when he returned having defeated Hector in single combat. Tey
also invite strangers to their feasts, inquiring of their identity and busi-
ness only afer the meal. During feasts it is their custom to be provoked
by idle comments into heated disputes, followed by challenges and
single combat to death (Koch 1997: 11).
Te story Scla Muicce Meic Da T tells about the rivalry of two
heroes Cet Mac Mgach of Connacht and Conall Cernach of Ulster.
Conall and Cet argue about the champions portion at the feast. At
the end of the dialogue, Cet reluctantly acknowledges Conall to be a
greater hero, regretfully adding that if a certain Anlan were present,
he would have challenged Conall:
He is present though, cries Conall, who at this point takes the head of
Anlan which is hanging at his belt, and fings it at the opponent.
It is true, Cet said, you are even a beter warrior than I. If Anlan
mac Mgach were in the house, said Cet, he would match you contest,
and it is a shame that he is not in the house tonight. But he is, said
Conall, taking Anlans head out of his belt and throwing it at Cets
chest, so that a gush of blood broke over his lips (Koch 1997: 62).
Chadwick claims that terse and humorous, with laconic brevity,
it (the story) reminds us of the Icelandic sagas at their best. Te dia-
logue in particular is masterly in its understatement and crisp repartee
(Chadwick 1968: 87).
Te element with the head in the story was certainly capturing
and probably used to make an indelible impression on the listeners
of the story. Te narrative aims at arousing and riveting atention and
exciting interest, not at stimulating thought. Te story-teller makes
use of the element of surprise, of quick developments and dramatic
moments. He seeks to impress by rapid crescendo to a startling climax,
and a shock, when Cet reluctantly gives precedence to Conall Cernach
in the absence of Anlan. Tere is more than a touch of humorous
hyperbole in Conalls throwing the head of Anlan at Cet (Chadwick
1968: 8788).
Te story was evidently much liked in later times also, for it forms
the subject of a number of independent poems. None of these seem to be
based directly on the text of our saga. Chadwick suspects that the poems
were inspired by a diferent version of the story (Chadwick 1968: 90).
Te motif is reused in Hildinavisen, but it is transformed and
employed in a completely diferent context. Te head of the dead hus-
band is thrown at his wife. Te motif occurs in a very dramatic and
crucial moment of the story and perfectly serves its function to surprise
and awaken interest and horror.
Tis element is so particular that it is used twice the second time
at the very end of the ballad when Hiluge asks Hildina for mercy but
she reminds him of having thrown the earls head at her and how much
it had vexed her:
Hildinavisen 34
Du tuchtada lide undocht yach
Swo et sa ans bugin bleo
Dogh casta ans huge
I mit fung u vexmir mire mo
You thought I sufered not yet enough to see his body bleed, still you
threw his head to my lap and I was vexed (Hgstad 1900: 9).
It is impossible to know how this motif penetrated into Hildinavisen,
but it might have come through the Viking contacts with the aboriginal
population in Shetland and Orkney, to whom the contents of the Irish
sagas were known, because the story Scla Muicce Meic Da T was com-
ing into shape at the period of Viking invasions. It is clear that this motif
in Hildinavisen is of Celtic origin, because in the Scandinavian balladry,
except for Hildinavisen, it is used only in one more instance and is once
more transformed and used in yet another diferent context.
Te severed head at the feast has a strong emotional efect (and
the position of the episodes within the respective tales confrms that
medieval authors felt the power of the device, much as we do now).
Its currency may, therefore, be purely literary. Storytellers and writers
knew an efective episode when they encountered it and simply reused
the devise (Koch 2000: 35).
As Marius Hgstad was the frst to notice, we fnd fundamentally
the same incident in the Faroese ballad Frgvin Margareta (Hgstad
1900: 11). But in this ballad, it is not a full-grown mans head, but a lit-
tle childs. Decapitation and throwing of the head are present just in
Shetlandic Hildinavisen and Faroese Frgvin Margareta (Hammersheib
1981: 93120). Te motif is Celtic, but the context is diferent. Tis ele-
ment in the Faroese ballad might have been infuenced by the Shetlandic
ballad and reused in Frgvin Margareta later this time related to
the killing of a child. Te Faroese ballad is very likely to be much later,
because it is clearly dominated by the Christian element.
Tis motif was certainly very impressive and it does not appear
in other Scandinavian ballads. As a result, an interesting amalgam of
two cultures that merge together is achieved, since the Irish Sea zone
is hardly a culturally sterile environment (Koch 2000: 27). Te motif
of the severed heads is well known in Iceland. When Gsli Sigursson
deals with the nature of contacts on the Orkneys between Iceland and
the Gaelic world afer the age of setlement, he claims that the motif
of the severed head comes into Icelandic from the Celtic world (Gsli
Sigursson 1988: 12). Tere are numerous references in Icelandic sources
about a head-cult of some sort and related folk beliefs. Many of these are
believed to be due to the Gaelic infuence and some are so well estab-
lished that they are most likely to have developed within Iceland.
Tus, in the Norse context, there is a group of motifs, atypical
as they are of the Norse tradition and familiar from Celtic sources.
Decapitation, the preservation of the severed head, its association with
a well, its powers of prophecy as well as otherworldly knowledge are
all features which recur in the Celtic tradition and belief. All the evi-
dence suggests that this episode in Norse mythology, if not a direct
borrowing from a Celtic source, at least owes its presence in the Norse
tradition to detailed knowledge on the part of the story-teller of such
beliefs amongst the Celts (Ross 1962: 41). Severed talking heads at feasts
appear in many Irish stories, particularly in the Finn Cycle. Bruiden
tha Te Quarrel at the Ford of the Yew Tree (Meyer 1893: 24),
Aided Find Te Death of Finn mac Cumaill (Meyer 1897: 4645) and
Sanas Cormaic Cormacs glossary (the glossary of Bishop Cormac mac
Cuillenin, year 908) (Meyer 1912: xixxx) contain episodes where a
severed head demands its share of food.
Severed talking heads in Old Icelandic material are to be found
in Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 43 and orsteins tr b jarmagns, ch. 9. Severed
heads of enemies appear in Gretis saga, ch. 82., Bjarnar saga Htd laka-
ppa, ch. 32, Fstbr ra saga, ch. 18, and Ljsvetinga saga, (rarins
tr). Supernatural qualities are also atached to heads in lafs saga
Tryggvasonar, ch. 28/19, Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 27, and Njls saga, ch. 157
(i. e. the head of King Brjnn) (Gsli Sigursson 1988: 81).
It is important to point out that a similar tradition of severed heads
is also found in Orkney, but here it is slightly diferent, though there are
certain parallels even with Scla Muicce Meic Da T. In Orkneyinga saga
(chapter 5), Sigurr, the frst Earl of Orkney, defeats the Scotish Earl
Melbrikta nicknamed tnn tooth in a batle, cuts his and his followers
heads of, ataches them to the saddle and gallops triumphantly away.
Unfortunately for Sigurr, Melbriktas tooth, sticking out of the severed
heads mouth, wounds Sigurrs calf, causing a deadly infection. Note
that both the Shetlandic ballad and Orkneyinga saga involve the Earl
of Orkney. Besides, Melbrikta is an Irish name, meaning devotee to
St. Brigit.
Te very custom of using heads as a token of triumph and even
hanging them on horses was common enough among the Celts, exam-
ples of which can be found in numerous sources (Chadwick 1970: 4950;
Coch and Carey 1997: 12). One of the most famous Irish sagas Tin B
Cailnge Te Catle-Raid of Cooley contains numerous episodes about
C Chulainn galloping away with a bunch of heads tied to his horse.
Te distinctive element in Orkneyinga saga, however, is that the head-
episode is connected with revenge. An Old Irish parallel to this com-
bination of motifs can be found in Aided Chonchobuir Te Death of
Conchobhar (Jackson 1971: 5356), dated in the 9th century. Aided
Chonchobuir also describes a feast with disputes and contentions
among the Ulstermen. In this story, a ball made out of the Leinster
King Mesgegras brain and used by the Ulstermen to boast about the vic-
tory, is stolen by a Connachtman, Cet: He snatched the brain from
the hand of one of them [bufoons] and carried it of with him, for Cet
knew that it was foretold that Meis-Geghra would avenge himself afer
his death (Jackson 1971: 54). Eventually, this particular brain is thrown
at the Ulster King, Conchobhar Mac Nessa: Cet fted Meis-Geghras
brain into the sling, and slung it so that it struck Conchobhar on the top
of his skull, so that two-thirds of it were in his head, and he fell headlong
on the ground (Jackson 1971: 54). Te ball enters his head but does
not cause his death until several years later, when Conchobhar receives
the news of Christs crucifxion. Ten the ball falls out of his head, leav-
ing a hole for the blood to gush forth, whereupon Conchobhar dies, is
baptized in his own blood and becomes the frst Irishman to go straight
to Heaven.
Te patern of revenge is quite complicated in the Irish story and not
as straightforward as in Orkneyinga saga where the full-sized head kills
the actual killer, soon afer having been separated from the body (Gsli
Sigursson 1988: 4546). Te similarities nevertheless lead Bo Almqvist
to conclude: One need not assume that the tale about Mesgegras brain is
the direct source of the Melbrikta episode in Orkneyinga saga, but some
such Gaelic story, perhaps in a more primitive form and without hagi-
ographic ingredients, seems likely to lie behind it (Almqvist 1981: 99).
In the above mentioned Irish saga Aided Chonchobuir we also have a
hurling episode, but it is not a whole head that is thrown, but a ball made
out of the brain. However the similarity of the motifs and the motivation
of this action, i. e. revenge, are obvious. It is also worth mentioning that
the very same Cet plays a crucial role in causing the King Conchobhars
death, i. e. he is the thrower. In Scla Muicce Meic Da T, the head is
thrown at him. It is also very important that Cets rival, Conall, men-
tioned in Scla Muicce Meic Da T acts as one of Cets rivals also in
Aided Chonchobuir. It might happen that some Old Irish stories about
the rivalry between the Ulstermen and Connachtmen and Cets destiny,
where severed heads (alternatively balls made of brain) appear and are
being hurled forth in order to cause the rivals death or in revenge, were
well known in Orkney and Shetland and thus were paralleled in various
Scandinavian texts.
King and Goddess Teme in Hildinavisen
Te narrative of Hildinavisen is particular and divergent compared to
other heroic Scandinavian ballads. Te story evolves around a woman,
who takes revenge for her husband in a very particular way.
Tis Shetlandic ballad, or rather its framework, is reminiscent of an
adaptation of the Celtic King and goddess theme. Te Celtic world
shared with many other ancient cultures the mythic model of the royal
rule hieros gamos, or sacred marriage. According to this model, suc-
cessful and prosperous government of society was the outcome of
the union between female and male elements, between the goddess
of the land and its sovereign (Herbert 1992: 264). In the universe of
early Irish mythology, the female deity was the embodiment both of
the physical land and of its dominion (Herbert 1992: 56). Te feminisa-
tion of the land is amply in evidence in the sovereignty myth (Herbert
1992: 57).
In its Celtic seting, the myth is represented primarily in sources from
both Gaul and Ireland. Te abundance of the stories containing the King
and goddess theme in both Irish and Welsh medieval literature is a well-
known fact and sacred marriage imagery has been a constantly recurring
theme in Irish literature throughout the ages (Breatnach 1953: 32136).
Te durability of the theme as a literary topos is surprising. Every
time the motif appears, the story is diferent, but we still can notice an
on-going continuity which inevitably implies the transformation of
each and every story.
Te Gaulish epigraphic and iconographic evidence belongs to
the period between ca. 500 BC and 400 AD. Writen sources referring
to the Gaulish society were produced by Greek and Roman observ-
ers (Mac Cana 1970: 1617). In Ireland literary evidence belongs to
the period from about the 7th century AD onward. In the case of early
Irish narrative, the hypothesis is that we are dealing with mythology
refracted through literature ( Cathasaigh 1993: 128). What is remark-
able, however, is the persistence and vigour of these concepts in the tra-
dition of the only Celtic society which remained relatively untouched
by the Roman civilization (Mac Cana 1970: 121).
Te iconographic imagery of a foreign consort of the goddess of
the land fnds a literary refex in the story of the foundation of Massilia
(Marseilles). It relates that the Gaulish kings daughter, in the act of
profering a symbolic marriage libation to her intended spouse, bestows
the drink on the newly-arrived foreigner (Herbert 1971: 265).
We fnd very similar stories in early Ireland where a goddess vali-
dates the ruler through the act of marriage. In medieval Irish literature,
we have narratives relating to two Medbs Medb of Cruachu and
Medb Lethderg of Leinster both of them select and validate their
royal spouses through marriage.
Te theme persisted in Celtic territories almost unchanged in
its lineament and in its infuence. Te concept of a female bestowing
the right to rule on male sovereigns remained as a rather stable and yet
shifing phenomenon, so the preservation of the myth in the literary
sources of the early Christian period seem to trace the survival of its
narrative realization.
Te most famous text Baile in Scil, Phantoms frenzy, dated from
the early 11th century AD (Gerard Murphy holds that there is an earlier
stratum in the text, possibly from the ninth century [Murphy 1937: 143])
portrays a vision of the pan-Celtic god-king Lug enthroned in icon-
ic fashion beside his female consort. She is instructed to bestow
the drink of sovereignty on a succession of rulers destined to be kings.
Te imagery is strongly reminiscent of the Gaulish representations
(Herbert 1971: 267). Here the signifcance of the drink is prominent.
Tere are many other Irish equivalents where the goddess destroys
the unrighteous and confrms the right one as a king. Te underlying
patern of the stories is the same.
Tere are special elements constitutive of the account, i. e. broth-
ers claiming kingship, a hunt in the wilderness, a disguised queen
and an apparently repugnant sexual union, which have been noted by
J. de Vries. According to J. Carey, there are some recurring elements
like hunt and / or wandering, woman dispensing a drink, woman
who appears in diferent forms. Tese elements (not necessarily all
of them) recur in the famous legends told of Niall Nogiallach and
Lugaid Lagde (De Vries 1961: 120). Another similar story is the leg-
end of Macha Mongruad. In the legends of Niall and Lugaid, the true
claimant is united with the goddess and in the case of Mongruad she
subjugates the unworthy (Carey 1983: 69). Mongruad is an example of
the terrible aspect of the Sovereignty goddess (Carey 1983: 26375).
Not all encounters with the Sovereignty goddess are equally benev-
olent. A notable feature of the system was the dual aspect of the goddess.
Te fgure of the sovereignty could appear repulsive or beautiful. Death
and slaughter were the reverse sides of the personifcations of growth
and fertility (Carey 1983: 268).
Tere is a wide range of Gaulish and Irish narratives, where instead
of being confrmed as a king by the female divinity, the unsuitable ruler
is destroyed. In some occasions Sovereignty goddess displays her two-
fold character: sinister and aggressive on the one hand, beautiful and
prosperous on the other (Carey 1983: 268).
Te tale which is of great importance to the investigation of
Hildinavisen is one of the earliest Celtic tales containing the King and
goddess theme with a negative outcome where the goddess acts as
terrifying and malevolent. Te seting of the story is similar to that of
the above-mentioned foundation story of Masillia. But almost the same
scenario can lead to two diferent consequences. One version of the sto-
ry comes from Asia Minor (around modern Ankara, Turkey). Te story
is registered by Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch c. 46127) in section XX
of his Moralia in the chapter De Mulierum Virtutibus, On the Bravery
of Women, 2578, called Te Poisoned libation: the Love Triangle of
Sinatus, Sinorx, and the High Priestess Camma. Tis work of Plutarch
appears in pp. 471581 of Vol. III of the Loeb Classical Librarys edi-
tion of the Moralia, frst published in 1931. Polyaenus (the middle of
the 2nd century AD) drew freely from Plutarchs Moralia to embellish
his Strategemata. Sinorx means old king, Camma probably means evil
woman and Sintus means the one with good ancestry. Galatia here
means the Celtic domain founded in Hellenistic times in central Asia
Minor. Features of the narrative including a queen closely connected
with a goddess, a honey drink that proves poisonous, an unnatural death
instead of a wedding feast, a chiefain set in a chariot as his relatives
prepare his tomb, a love triangle terminating in a fateful chariot ride
and kinslaying as the prelude to the downfall of the king, a woman who
brings great evil to those close to her through no fault of her own reso-
nate widely through the Celtic literary traditions and may be viewed as
elements in its inherited preliterary substance (Koch 1997: 34).
In order to compare the story about Camma and Hildina I give
here the Plutarchs story in full. Translation is made by John Carey in
Te Celtic Heroic Age.
XX. Camma
Sintus and Sinorx, distant kinsmen, were the most powerful of
the tetrarchs of Galatia. Sintus had a young wife named Camm,
much admired for her youth and beauty, but still more remarkable
for her virtues. For she was not only modest and afectionate, but
also shrewd and courageous, and fervently beloved by her servants
on account of her compassion and her kindness. She was further dis-
tinguished by her ofce as priestess of Artemis, the goddess whom
the Galatae most revere, and was always to be seen at the solemn pro-
cessions and sacrifces, magnifcently atired.
Sinorx fell in love with her. Unable to possess her either by persua-
sion or by force while her husband lived, he did a dreadful deed:
he killed Sintus treacherously. Not long thereafer he proposed to
Camm, who was now living in the temple. She was biding her time,
and bore Sinorxs crime not with pathetic weakness but with a keen
and foreseeing spirit.
He was importunate in his entreaties, and profered arguments not
entirely implausible: he claimed that he was a beter man than Sintus
and had killed him for no reason except his love for Camm. Even at
frst, her refusals were not too harsh, and in a litle while she seemed
to sofen. (Her relatives and friends were also pressuring and seek-
ing to force her to accept him, hoping themselves for the favour of
the mighty Sinorx.)
At last she yielded, and sent for him so that the compact and the vows
might be made in the presence of the goddess. When he arrived she
received him afectionately. She led him to the altar, poured a liba-
tion from a drinking-bowl, drank some herself, and told him to drink
the rest. It was a drink of milk and honey [melikraton], with poison
in it. When she saw that he had drunk, she cried aloud and fell down
before the goddess. I bear witness to you, most glorious spirit, she
said, that it is for the sake of this day that I have lived since Sintuss
murder, in all that time taking pleasure in none of the good things of
life, but only in the hope of justice. Having atained this, I go down to
my husband. As for you, most impious of men, your relatives can pre-
pare your tomb, instead of your wedding and bridal chamber.
When the Galatians heard this, and felt the poison at work in him
and penetrating his body, he mounted his chariot as if the tossing and
shaking might do him good; but forthwith he desisted, got into a liter,
and died in the evening. Camm survived through the night: learning
of his death, she passed away cheerfully and gladly.
Te scenario is almost the same as in the Shetlandic ballad. However,
it is clear that Celtic motifs reused in the ballad have nothing to do with
their mythological aspect, it is not rationalisation of the myth. In case of
Hildinavisen, it is just a borrowing of the narrative. In the story Camma
is depicted as a mortal female, though she is connected with the god-
dess Artemis, goddess of hunting, (whom the Galatae most revere)
being her priestess.
In Hildinavisen and in the story of Camma we have a typical Celtic
love triangle, where the heroines husband is killed by a jealous rival
who discloses his intentions to marry the widow straightaway. Compare
to Hildinavisen:
Hildinavisen 23
Di lava mir gugna
Yif bal yagh fur o landi
Gipt mir nu fuan Hildina
Vath godle u fasta bande.
You let me get married if she will follow me from the country, give me
now lady Hildina with gold and betrothal (Hgstad 1900: 6).
With regard to marriage, women in both stories seem to act on their
own free will. In Hildinavisen, Hildinas father asks Hilugi to wait until
the child is a bit older and then leaves to Hildina the right to decide.
In the story of Camma though Camma seems to be urged to marry
Sinorx by her relatives, she can fnally decide herself.
Hiluge as Sinorx is clearly a wrongful king, not destined for king-
ship. Te scenario of the story is the same as in the stories with the King
and Goddess theme that have a positive outcome, but the drink turns
out to be poisoned. Te symbolism of the sacred drink is absolutely
transparent in the story of Camma. An emphasis on the drink is also
very lucid in the Shetlandic ballad.
Hildina concedes to marry Hiluge, but asks to be allowed to serve
the wine. Her father allows her on condition that she will not think
about the Earl. Hildina answers that even if she thought about the Earl,
she would not serve any harmful drink to her father:
Hildinavisen 26, 27, 28
Nu Hildina on askar feyrin
Sien di gava mier live
Ou skinka vin
Ou guida vin.
Duska skinka vin, u guida vin
Tinka dogh eke wo
Iarlin an gougha here din.
Watha skilde tinka
Wo Iarlin gouga her min
Hien mindi yagh inga forlskona
Bera fare kera fyrin min.
Now Hildina asks her father Give me permission to dispense
the wine, to pour the wine.
You shall dispense the wine and pour the wine, though do not think
about the earl, your good lord.
Tough I will think about the earl, my good lord, for that I would
not serve any harmful drink to my dear father (Hgstad 1900: 7).
Hgstad takes the word forlskona as a compound in genitive case
*frskonnu, composed of the word fr, meaning harm and kanna, ves-
sel. Later on, Hildina serves a drink to her father and everybody else.
In this case, the drink is called mien. It corresponds to the Old Norse
word mjor a drink made out of milk and honey. In the Celtic story,
the drink is called melicatron and is made of milk and honey. It is clear
from the text that Hildina infuses a drug, but it is not clear what kind
of drug it is:
Hildinavisen 25
Hildina liger wo chaldona
U o dukrar u groth
Min du buga till bridleusin
Bonlothir u duka dogha.
Hildina lies in the tent, her eyes are dark of crying, and before she is
called to the wedding ceremony, she infuses poison into the drink
(Hgstad 1900: 7).
Here the ending of the story is diferent in the Celtic tradition,
the man dies, but in this story the main hero is burned alive as in so
many diferent Icelandic sagas. In general, the serving of ale and mead
in Scandinavian ballads is traditional, but here the tradition is modi-
fed with poisoned libation and combined with a typical Celtic trian-
gle. Te burning, on the contrary, seems to be in itself a particularly
Scandinavian motif, which ofen appears in various Icelandic sagas.
In the end, when Hiluge asks Hildina to pity him, she again reminds him
of the throwing of the earls head at her. Again, this seemingly Celtic
motif is exploited here with a new strength.
Te motif of a king receiving a drink from a beautiful woman in
Scandinavian literature is not unique to Hildinavisen. Generally stories
with this motif are held to be closely connected with the Irish tradition
like for example stories about the Norwegian King Haraldr hrfagri,
found in Hlfdanar saga svarta (chapter 8) (Aalbjarnarson 1941: 8493)
and Flateyjarbk (Flateyjarbk, 18601862, 56466). Te King as a
young man follows Finn or Dofri into a supernatural fosterage where
he receives a cup of mead from his fosterers beautiful daughter and
is promised a sovereignty on his departure. Chadwick also maintains
that the appearance of a Finn, a famous Irish hero, in the Icelandic ver-
sion is signifcant (Chadwick 1957: 192) and demonstrates Celtic and
Scandinavian contacts. Close relationship of Haralds supernatural expe-
riences to those of the Irish High-King Conn Ctchathach, and still more
to those of Conns descendant, Niall Nogiallach, as well as their relations
with the maiden calling herself the faithiusa h-Erenn the Sovereignty
of Ireland are already well established (Chadwick 1957: 192).
Conclusions
Te presence of Celtic elements in the only surviving ballad in Norn
language Hildinavisen, which have been created in continually chang-
ing linguistic, social and cultural conditions, indicates a certain
degree of contact with the Celtic population. Te marine societies of
Shetland and Orkney Islands generated various stories, where motifs
and elements travelled in various directions. Hildinavisen is certainly
of Western Scandinavian origin, but it contains or rather is adorned
with Celtic motifs. Te meeting of these two traditions Celtic and
Scandinavian gave a peculiar and productive treatment of certain
narratives. Te analysis of the text of Hildinavisen indicates that on
the level of the story Hildinavisen borrows substantially from the Celtic
narrative tradition. Various motifs are externally imposed and later on
adapted in Scandinavian material. Especially prominent is the appeal of
the King and Goddess theme. But if it is a borrowing, it is by no means
direct, because Celtic motifs and elements are adapted, transformed
and melted in the text of the Scandinavian ballad. Te presence of some
Celtic motifs, such as throwing of the head, which is one of the favourite
devices in the Irish sagas, or the King and goddess theme have wide
ramifcations in Celtic literature and were probably particularly promi-
nent in the oral tradition.
It is possible that there was some kind of Orkney version of the sto-
ry later on transmited to Shetland, since the main hero is the Earl
of Orkney. Tis story might have served as an intermediary between
Hildinavisen and the Celtic tradition, since Orkney have been one of
the important channels for the transmission of the Celtic elements
and Shetland must have been on the route of these contacts. Bearing
in mind the historical modes of habitation, as the sea was worn deep
with boats, the favourite pastimes and working activities were con-
nected with sailing and rowing, usually accompanied by ballads. Tus
the ballad was preserved in the bound language for a long time. Tis
rowing and singing together catalysed the appearance of new motifs,
which were designated to address issues specifc to the unique condi-
tions of this region.
Appendix I. Contents of Hildinavisen afer Low
Low wrote about the content of the ballad (Anders. page 113): A literal
translation of the above (the ballad) I could not procure, but the sub-
stance is this:
An Earl of Orkney, in some of his rambles on the coast of Norway,3
saw and fell in love with the Kings daughter of the country. As their
passion happened to be reciprocal, he carried her of in her fathers
absence, who was engaged in war with some of his distant neigh-
bours (v. 13). On his return, he followed the fugitives to Orkney,
accompanied by his army, to revenge on the Earl the rape of his daugh-
ter (v. 7). On his arrival there, Hildina (which was her name), frst (!)
spied him, and advised her now husband to go an atempt to pacify
the King (v. 9). He did so, and by his appearance and promises brought
the King so over as to be satisfed with the match (v. 12). Tis, however,
was of no long standing, for as soon as the Earls back was turned (!)
a courtier, called Hiluge, took great pains to change the Kings mind,
for it seems Hiluge had formerly hoped to succeed with the daugh-
ter himself (v. 1516). His project took, and the mater came to
3 Te mark for something that Low says, but which is actually not found in
the ballad.
blows (v. 1618); the Earl is killed by Hiluge, who cut of his head and
threw it at his lady, which, she says, vexed (!) her even more than his
death, that he should add cruelty to revenge (v. 22). Upon the Earls
death, Hildina is forced to follow her father to Norway, and in a litle
time Hiluge makes his demand to have her in marriage of her father; he
consents, and takes every method to persuade Hildina, who with great
reluctance, agrees upon condition that she is allowed to fll the wine at
her wedding (v. 26). Tis is easily permited (v. 27), and Hildina infuses
a drug (v. 25) which soon throws the company into a dead sleep, and
afer ordering her father to be removed, set the house on fre (v. 2930).
Te fame soon rouses Hiluge, who piteously cries for mercy, but
the taunts he had bestowed at the death of the Earl of Orkney are now
biterly returned, and he is lef to perish in the fames (v. 3134).
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On Translating Icelandic Sagas into Modern Norwegian
the Case of Brennu Njls Saga
Jan Ragnar Hagland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Gathered as we are here in Vilnius, on the splendid occasion of the 200th
anniversary for the publication of professor Joachim Lelewels Edda
Skandinawska, it might be pertinent to look at parallel instances of medi-
ating Old Icelandic literature by way of translation elsewhere. It is, as
we all know, a fact that the speaker of any language modern Icelandic
excepted who is not specializing in Old Norse, has to resort to trans-
lations in order to appreciate the literature handed down to us in that
particular language. As this literature contains some of the masterpieces
of medieval European literature, translations are, of course, important.
Tis is so, needless to say, also when translations into a quite closely
related language such as modern Norwegian are concerned.
I shall, then, try to look at some aspects of Norwegian saga transla-
tions. In order not to exceed all reasonable time limits, I shall confne
the present exposition and discussion to the translation history of one
of the major works in Old Icelandic literature the Brennu Njls Saga.
Te translation history of a text such as this, is of course, closely related
to its historical reception, as is, no doubt, the edition we are celebrat-
ing in the present seminar. Te Njls Saga has a fairly long translation
history in Norway a history which each individual translated version
unveils, I think it is fair to say, aspects of the historical reception of
the saga, as well as aspects of the state of the art where saga research
in general is concerned. We will return to the former of these two
points the later shall be lef at that here, even if this is something
which may be argued.
Te frst to make a point of having made a translation into
Norwegian rather than into Danish the common writen language used
in Denmark and Norway at the time was Karl L[inn]. Sommerfelt,
who made a translation into Dano-Norwegian, which he published as
42 Jan Ragnar Hagland
an appendix to a periodical for the enlightenment of the people called
Folkevennen in 1871. As a translation into Danish had been re-published
only nine years earlier (Petersen 1862), the reasons given by Sommerfelt
for publishing a new version are interesting both ideologically and
linguistically. Sommerfelt seems compelled to excuse himself for pub-
lishing a new translation so soon afer Petersen he had done so, he
says, because professor Petersens translation, in spite of its indisput-
able qualities, could not really satisfy the tastes of a Norwegian reading
public. Tis was no fault of the translator it had to do with the Danish
language. Danish and Norwegian, Sommerfelt says, are, even if close,
two diferent languages representing two diferent nationalities. In con-
sequence, he goes on to say, I do not think that a Norwegian reader
in general will be satisfed if he has to make the acquaintance of this
particular literature through the medium of the Danish language. Even if
he does not know the original language, the reader will easily be struck
by the impression that the Danish language is too weak to mediate
the force and vigour, the exuberance of expression, the magnifcence
and boldness of characters and scenes typical for the saga.1
A modern reader would most certainly experience difculties in
fnding support in the translated text for this programmatic statement
of linguistic diference between Dano-Norwegian and Danish, even if
diferences may, of course, be observed on closer investigation. What is
more important in this context is, in my opinion, Sommerfelts obvious
intention to associate the sagas the literature of the Golden Medieval
Age with the Norwegian language rather than Danish. Tis is indeed
an expression of a growing awareness of a specifc Norwegian identity,
1 Professor Petersens Overstelse vil, hvilke Fortjenester den end uimod-
sigelig besidder, neppe ret kunne tilfredsstille en norsk Lser. Dete er ikke
Oversterens Feil, men det danske Sprogs. Dansk og Norsk vise sig, hvor nr
de end staa hinanden, dog i visse Henseender at vre to forskjellige Sprog,
ligesom de representerer forskjellige Nationaliteter [] Jeg tror derfor, at
en norsk Lser i Almindelighed ikke vil fle sig tilfredsstillet ved at gjre
Bekjendtskab med denne Literatur gjennem det danske Sprog. Selv om han
ikke kjender Originalen, vil det let paatrnge sig ham, at det danske Sprog
er for vegt til at gjengive den Kraf, Fynd og Kjernefylde i Udtrykket, den
Storslagenhed og Djrvhed i Karakterer og Scener, som er Sagaen egen
(Sommerfelt 1871, IIIV.).
43 On Translating Icelandic Sagas into Modern Norwegian
nourished no doubt by the ideas of romanticism an ideological basis
also, and perhaps even more so, for the activity of translating sagas into
the alternative writen language in Norway the then newly coined
Landsmaal. We will return to this later on. It is sufce here just to
point out the fact that the frst saga to be translated into Ivar Aasens
Landsmaal (by himself ) the Fridtjovs Saga was published on
the initiative of Folkevennen, the very same periodical that published
Sommerfelts translation of the Njls saga.
Afer Sommerfelts translation, a quarter of a century passed before
the next translation of Njls Saga appeared in Norway. As vaguely
indicated above, a project of translating sagas into Ivar Aasens then
recently established Landsmaal, can be observed through the later
half of the 19th century. Ideologically this was, it appears, part of a
larger process of language planning in which the translating of sagas
constituted, it seems fair to say, a retrospective dimension in the mak-
ing of a new literary language (cf. Hagland 2003, 4445). Afer Ivar
Aasens translation of Fridtjovs Saga in 1858, some others had tried to
forge translated saga texts into the new writen idiom. Te translations
of saga texts into this new writen standard should be looked upon, in
my opinion, as a conscious search for linguistic and literary models, or
paterns perhaps, in the process of making it a literary language. As such,
the translations of sagas and biblical texts for that mater represented
an archaizing element on which we shall not elaborate in the present
context (cf. though Hagland 2003, 4547). Anyway in this process of
making a literary language, a certain number of atempts at translating
sagas had already been undertaken when Olav Torsson Aasmundsstad
in the mid 1890s ventured the difcult task of translating Njls saga into
the new Landsmaal: Njaala eller Soga um Njaal Torgeirsson og snerne
hans published in 189697.
Since then a parallel course of translations and re-editions of
this particular saga has been a distinct feature in the history of liter-
ary translations into Norwegian one into Dano-Norwegian, later
Riksml and Bokml the other into Landsmaal, later Nynorsk.
It should be added here that Jn Karl Helgason in his interesting
study Te Rewriting of Njls saga seems to overlook the importance of
the translations into Landsmaal in his discussion of Njls Saga and
Norwegian liberation language and nationality (Jn Karl Helgason
1999, 101116).
Before proceeding any further we shall briefy recapitulate the main
stages in the subsequent history of Njls Saga translations into the two
Norwegian writen standards: Sommerfelts translation into Dano-
Norwegian was replaced if we may use an expression like that in
this context by Fredrik Paasches translation into Riksml in 1922
(cf. bibliography), an infuential version of the text which was reissued
in 1986 and again in 19992. Te next step along this line was Hallvard
Lies translation of 1941. Tis is the most complete version of the existing
translations into modern Norwegian only very minor omissions can
be observed in the genealogies. Tis translation was, however, reedited
and reworked into a much abbreviated version (see below) in 1951,
published in the popular series of Hjemmenes boksamling. A some-
what more comprehensive version was published in 1954, in the series
Islandske tesagaer edited by Hallvard Lie. Te former of the two
is probably the most widely distributed version of Njls Saga among
the reading public in Norway ever (exact numbers of printed copies
are, however, not available).
Aasmundstads translation appears to have been out of print and
seems, for linguistic reasons, to have been somewhat out of date by
the mid 1920s. To cover up for this Knut Liestl, the famous saga scholar,
published a linguistically revised version in 1928. Even if this revised
version was based upon an edition of the saga in the source language
more updated than the one Aasmundsstad had at his disposal, no
major changes in the text as a whole were made.3 A third revision or
retranslation rather was made by Knut Liestls son Aslak in 1961,
a version that as far as the extent of the text is concerned deviates
somewhat from the 1928 version. It was reprinted in 1975, in the series
Norrne bokverk. As we shall see in more detail below, none of these
2 Published by Den norske Bokklubben together with Gisla Saga Srssonar and
Laxdla Saga in one volume under the common title Saga: norrne sagaer i
utvalg.
3 Aasmundsstad had used Konrur Gislason and Eirkur Jnssons edition
from 187589 whereas Liestl could use Finnur Jnssons edition in the series
Altnordische Sagabibliothek from 1908 (cf. bibliography).
versions in Landsml / Nynorsk were complete. For this reason
a new edition with the missing parts flled in was commissioned and
published in 1996 and again in 2003. Even if these versions claim to
be translations of the entire text4 they are not. Due to editorial inac-
curacy, the publishers (Det Norske Samlaget) have, incredibly enough,
failed to fll in missing genealogical information in seven chapters of
the saga.5 Te later version was republished this year, in 2007, by Den
Norske Bokklubben. Tis publication and the one from 1999 (Paasches
translation) are, it seems, versions of Njls saga widely distributed in
present-day Norway (an impression of about 4000 copies each accord-
ing to the publisher).
Translations of Icelandic sagas in general should rely on the best
editions published in the source language available at any moment.
Tis is so, we must assume, when the translations of Brennu Njls saga
into Norwegian are concerned. I say we must assume because some
of them do not make this point explicit. Te textual variation that can
be observed between the various translated versions cannot, however,
be accounted for, just by assuming that diferent editions of the source
language text have been used. Here is not the time to go into detail
about philological problems concerning the editing of a reliable text of
the saga in its original language. As the editions upon which the various
translations are based do not vary dramatically, we will just for the sake
of convenience use the edition in the series slenzk fornrit (1954) as
a point of reference in the following when comparing the translated
texts, the overall impression of which displays textual variation between
the diferent versions to a degree that may, somehow, remind us of
the medieval manuscript transmission of saga texts.
4 Ny og fullstendig utgve ved Jan Ragnar Hagland (New and complete edi-
tion by JRH).
5 Chapters 20, 25 (two sequences), 26, 46, 95, 114, and 138. Tis is more than
unfortunate as the preface to this version underscores the importance of com-
pleteness on this particular point in the narrative: Utelating av slike delar av
forteljinga kan difor bde ta bort kulturhistorisk informasjon (jf. note 6 til
kapitel 19 i soga) og ferna literre verkemiddel som skulle vera med og gje
samanheng i teksten (2003, s. 21). It is, for instance, not just a trivial detail to
omit Ragnar Lodbrok from the genealogy of Snorri goi in ch. 114 and so on.
It seems fair to say, then, that the Brennu Njls saga ofered to
the Norwegian reading public in modern and post-modern times var-
ies to the extent that it is, in a certain sense, possible to see them as a
number of diferent Njls sagas. We will in the following try to look
closer at the nature of textual diferences that can be observed between
the translated versions sketched above.
Te most important point of diference, it seems fair to say, is caused
by abbreviation or excision in Grard Genetes terms6 the leaving
out of various parts of the text in the source language, whatever edition
has been used as basis for the translation. Tis, more than anything else,
should in my opinion, be traced back to the translators ideas about trans-
lation and what a saga such as this should look like. As from Sommerfelt
onwards all translations for a long time to some extent abbreviated
the text on various points. Apart from Hallvard Lies 1941 version this
is the case when all the translations into Riksml / Bokml are con-
cerned and, unfortunately, also the ones into Landsml / Nynorsk,
the 19962007 versions included even if the omissions there are
due to editorial inaccuracy rather than deliberate choices made by
the translator.
Te most important points of diference between the versions
translated into Norwegian relate to the following aspects of the text:
a. skaldic verse. b. introductory genealogical information. c. legal pro-
cedure. d. supernatural phenomena. We will take a quick look at each
of these features in order to see how they are treated in the existing
versions of Brennu Njls Saga translated into Norwegian.
Te difculties involved when trying to translate skaldic verse
into any language are, to say the least, considerable. Brennu Njls saga
represents no exception in this respect. Te translated versions of this
saga into modern Norwegian have, as a whole, solved these problems
in a variety of ways so as to create considerable variation between them.
Again the most striking point of variation is created by the various
omissions. As for the translation itself of the stanzas quoted in the saga,
there is also much to be said. Tis is, however, a huge and general
problem, that might fll a conference of its own, so we shall leave it at
6 See Genete 1997, 229f.
that for the moment. For the present purpose we shall just ask to what
extent the translators have chosen to include the stanzas in the dif-
ferent translated versions. A total of 23 stanzas or parts of stanzas are
quoted in the source language text in the F and other editions of
the saga in addition to the 11 stanzas of Darraarlj.7 Paasches 1922
version, Hallvard Lies 1941 version and Haglands 1996-2007 versions
ofer translations of all the stanzas. Paasches 1922 version, however,
turns the verses in ch.12 into a prose line in direct speech. As can be
expected the actual translations ofered in the diferent versions vary a
great deal, but that is a topic for another day.
In all the remaining versions of the saga translated into modern
Norwegian stanzas are, to a varying degree, omited most extensively
so in Sommerfelt 1871, who omits 20 of the stanzas. Aasmundsstad was
an autodidact in the Old Norse language and obviously reluctant to
take responsibility for the difcult task of making sense of the stanzas.
Terefore the linguist Rasmus Flo was commissioned to take care of
that particular aspect of the saga text (Kleiven 1926, 25). Compared to
Finnur Jnsons 1908-edition and the F edition of the source language
text Aasmundstads 1896/97 version leaves out 12 stanzas and parts of
stanzas. Tis version, however, in accordance with the 1875 edition used
as the basis for the translation adds one stanza to ch. 7 and two to ch. 23
not extant in the reference texts mentioned.
In Knut Liestls 1928 version the stanzas included in the narrative
follow Rasmus Flos selection in the 1896/97 version closely except for
the three extra stanzas in ch. 7 and 23 which are omited. A total of
12 stanzas or parts of stanzas are in consequence lef out. Te translation
of each stanza is kept identical with or very close to the 1896/97 version.
As in Paasches 1922 version the part of the stanza in ch. 12 is given in
prose in these two early translations into Landsml.
In Aslak Liestls 1961 version some of the stanzas are complete-
ly retranslated, some only slightly revised linguistically. By omiting
7 Tese are the stanzas common to all complete manuscripts of the saga.
In the earliest complete manuscripts (e. g. Reykjabk, AM 468, 4to and
Klfkjarbk, AM 133 fol.) thirty so-called additional stanzas are included,
stanzas that are included in some of the earlier editions (cf. Nordal 2007, 221
and 231f with references).
one stanza in ch. 132 and including three new ones in ch. 77, 145
and 157 the total number of stanzas omited in this revised version
amounts to 10.
Te versions published by Hallvard Lie in 1951 and 1954 are interest-
ing in the sense that the translator himself abbreviates by omiting several
of the stanzas from his own complete version of 1941 most extensively
so in the 1951 version in which 11 stanzas are omited. In the 1954 version
four stanzas are lef out. Hallvard Lie does not make a specifc point
of these changes in the preface to these versions (almost identical in
the two). As Njls Saga is the longest of all the Icelandic family sagas, he
says in the prefaces, abbreviations have been made abbreviations of
which he makes specifc reference only to those concerning genealogy
and legal procedure (point b and c above). Te omission of skaldic verse
has, however, wider consequences for the translations than the text
constituted by the omited stanzas as such. Tis is so because even
sequences of narrative prose surrounding the stanzas have frequently
been suppressed in order to conceal the abbreviation. It is worth
noticing, I think, that the 1961 version in Nynorsk except for one
single stanza omits the very same ones as does the version in Bokml
of 1951. Even if it cannot easily be proved there is no reason to believe
that this is just due to chance.
It seems fair to say, then, that the translators atitudes concerning
the importance of skaldic verse in the saga alone have created a variety
of Njls Sagas ofered to the reading public in Norway over the years.
Tis variety has been deepened further by similar atitudes towards
the importance of genealogical information and the depiction of legal
procedure in the text.
For the present purpose I shall, in order to illustrate the two later
points, just quote from Hallvard Lies preface to the 1954 version along
with a footnote made by Fredrik Paasche to the 1922 version in order
to justify a major omission in ch. 142 of the saga. Hallvard Lie justifes
his abbreviations as follows: It is particularly the long and for mod-
ern readers tedious pleadings of the Allthing scenes that have been
afected. Also the genealogies have been shortened, as these for a
saga reader of to day are totally dead mater; for the old Icelanders,
however, these were exquisite literary delicacies. Otherwise minor
abbreviations have been made here and there where possible without
weakening the general artistic efect in any way.8 Paasche in his foot-
note to the omited sequence of ch. 142 states that Here for the frst
time some of the text has been omited. Te omited piece deals with
Mrdrs conduct of the case, which is quite prolix. What Mrdr does
can be deduced from his own ensuing words.9
Tese quotes unveil, I think it is fair to say, a readers digest kind
of atitude, very noticeable in the mediating of Brennu Njls Saga by
way of translation into modern Norwegian over the years. We shall not
expand on that here, sufce it so say that Norwegian speaking students
if dependant on translations should, in consequence, be very careful
when choosing a translated version of this particular saga.
A fnal point about abbreviations to be made here relates to what
could be termed supernatural phenomena in the text point d above.
Towards the end of the saga, in chapters 156 and 157, three sequences,
two of them quite long, have been omited in some of the translated
versions. Tey all tell about miracles jarteikn of the kind ofen found
in legendary texts. Sommerfelt 1871, Paasche 1922, and Lie 1941 do not
make these omissions.10 Hallvard Lies 1951 version leaves them all out,
whereas only one of the two sequences in ch.157 is lef out in the 1954
version, so as to make a rather strange patern. Among the translations
into Landsml / Nynorsk these abbreviations exist in the 1961 ver-
sion only. Probably this version just copies Hallvard Lies abbreviation
8 Det er isr de lange og for moderne lesere noks tretende pros-
essinnleggene i tingscenene det er gt ut over. Slektsregistrene er ogs blit
beskret, da de for en norsk sagaleser i dag er totalt ddt stof; for de gamle
islendinger var de derimot en utskt literr lekkerbisken. Her og der ellers
er ogs mindre forkortninger foretat, hvor det kunne skje uten at sagaens
kunstneriske helhetsvirkning p noen mte ble svekket (Lie 1954, 10).
9 Her er det for frste gang noe av teksten blir utelat. Stykket handler om
Mrds saksfremlegg og er meget vidlfig. Hva Mrd foretar seg, fremgr av
hans egne ord i det flgende (1986 reprint p. 258).
10 Te parts lef out are a long sequence telling about the raining of blood, swords
fghting by themselves, and an atack by ravens with iron claws in ch. 156 and
two shorter sequences in ch. 157, one about the healing of the boy Takr and
one about various supernatural events happening in the Faroe islands, in
Iceland and in the Orkneys (cf. Hagland 1987, 47f.).
from 1951 on this point. It is worth noticing that no reasons for omiting
these parts of the narrative are given in the versions that do so. We might
suspect that narrative elements such as these did not satisfy Hallvard Lie
and Aslak Liestls ideas of what a realistic saga like this ought to look
like that these supernatural events did not belong there. Hallvard Lies
inconsistency on this point in his versions, however, makes it difcult
to understand the textual variation he creates on this point.
As far as the historical reception in general of Brennu Njls Saga
in Norway is concerned, then, it seems fair to say that one translated
version or other of the saga has been available to the reading public
more or less continuously from the 1870s onwards. In statistical terms
it seems as if the most abbreviated version the 1951 version had
the widest distribution. It is not irrelevant, then, as we have seen, to
ask what Njls saga we are referring to when speaking about its his-
torical reception in Norway. Te quantitative aspects of this do not,
however, lead us very far. On the qualitative level we have unique and
interesting information about the importance of Njls Saga even for
the Norwegian history of literature. Well known are Sigrid Undsets own
words about the importance of her frst encounter with this particular
saga. In an essay called A book that was a turning point in my life11 she
refects upon this encounter, of which she had given details already in
her strongly autobiographical novel Eleven years (Undset 1934). In our
context it is relevant and interesting to note that it was Sommerfelts
version from 1871 that made such a decisive and lasting impression on
the 11 years old girl who was later to become Nobel Prize laureate in
literature. We do not, to my knowledge, have information that can stand
up to this when it comes to the reception of other translated versions
of this saga into Norwegian.
Sometimes the history of translation concerning a text such as
Brennu Njls Saga may even refect changes of atitudes in the soci-
ety at large surrounding the texts transferred into the target language.
Te famous episode in ch. 7 of the saga where Unnr reveals to her
father, Mrr, her reasons for wanting a divorce may serve as a nice
11 Printed posthumously in 1952, translated from the English En bok som blev
et vendepunkt i mit liv (Undset 1951, 2734).
litle example of this. Te editions of the saga in the original language
as from the 1772 edition onwards quote the reasons she gives for this
quite straightforwardly without evasion. For the 19th century transla-
tors this obviously was a difculty that had to be solved by paraphrase
in more or less euphemistic terms. We see this clearly in Sommerfelts
version. His translation, it seems, copies N. M. Petersens rather bashful
solution in his version from 1841 and 1862 on this particular point, it is
at least very close. Tis is also the case with Sir George Webbe Dasents
translation into English from 1861 a tradition that was continued in
the Norwegian versions of 1896/97 and 1928. Fredrik Paasche in his 1922
version was the frst to translate this part of the text into Norwegian
without paraphrasing it. Sir George Webbe Dasents somewhat timid
translation into English may well represent the bashfulness that also
Norwegian translators of the 19th and early 20th centuries experienced
when trying to mediate this particular point in the text: when Mord
pressed her to speak out, she told him how she and Hrut could not
live together, because he was spell-bound, and that she wished to leave
him.12 Why give the indelicate details of the source language text
when they can be avoided so elegantly we may well ask! Or perhaps
prudishness ought to be included among the causes for variation in
translation?
12 Cf. e. g. the 1772 edition of the saga on this point: Hversv m sv vera? segir
Morr. ok seg enn giorr. hon svarar. egar hann kemr vi mik er horvnd hans
sv mikit at hann m ekki eptir lti hafa vi mik. en hofvm vi bi breytni til
ess alla vega at vi mtim nitaz. en at verr ekki. en ar vi skilim snir
hann at af ser at hann er i snu ret sem arir menn.
Bibliography
Editions:
[lafur Olavius ed.] 1772, Sagann af Nili orgeirssyni ok Sonvm hans &c. t gefn
efer gavmlum Skinnbkvm med Konvnglegu Leyf. Kaupmannahafn.
[Konrur Gslason & Eirkur Jnsson (eds.)] 187589, Njla. Udgivet efer gamle
hndskrifer af det Nordiske Oldskrif-Selskab. Kbenhavn.
Finnur Jnsson (ed.) 1908, Brennu-Njlssaga (Njla) = Altnordische Sagabibliothet 13.
Halle: Verlag von Max Niemeyer.
Einar l. Sveinsson (ed.) 1954, Brennu-Njls Saga = slenzk fornrit, vol. XII. Reyk-
javk: Hi slenzka fornritaflag.
Translated versions (listed in order of chronology):
1861 = Te story of burnt Njal, or Life in Iceland at the end of the tenth century. From
the Icelandic of the Njals saga by George Webbe Dasent. Edinburgh: Edmonston
and Douglas.
1862 = Njals saga: eller fort lling om Njal og hans snner. Efer de islandske grund-
skrifer ved N. M. Petersen. Anden udgave. Kbenhavn 1962. [1st ed. 1841 =
Historiske Fort llinger om Isl ndernes F rd hjemme og ude Udg. af det Kongelige
Nordiske Oldskrif-selskab ved N. M. Petersen. Vol 3.]
1871 = Njaals Saga oversat af Karl L[inn]. Sommerfelt. Kristiania: Selskabet for
Folkeoplysningens Fremme.
189697 = Njaala elder Soga um Njaal Torgeirsson og snerne hans. Umset fraa
gamalnorsk av Olav Aasmundstad. Kristiania: Det Norske Samlaget.
1922 = Njaals saga. Oversat av Fredrik Paasche. Kristiania: H. Aschehoug. Reprints
1986, 1997. Torleif Dahls Kulturbibliotek. Oslo: H. Aschehoug. 1999 In: Saga:
Norrne sagaer i utvalg. Oslo: Den norske Bokklubben.
1928 = Njla umset av Olav Aasmundsstad. Ny utg. ved Knut Liestl = Norrne
Bokverk 23. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget.
1941 = Njls Saga. Oversat av Hallvard Lie. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.
1951 = Njls Saga. Oversat av Hallvard Lie = Hjemmenes boksamling. Oslo:
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.
1954 = Njls Saga. Oversat av Hallvard Lie. In: Islandske tesagaer. Under redaksjon
av Hallvard Lie, vol. IV, pp. 7252. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co.
1961 = Njla. Til nynorsk ved Aslak Liestl. In: Den norrne literaturen, bd. 2.
tesoger. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. Reprinted in the series Norrne
bokverk, No 23. Oslo 1975: Det Norske Samlaget.
1996 = Njlssoga. Omset av Aslak Liestl. Ny og fullstendig utgve ved Jan Ragnar
Hagland. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget.
2003 = Njlssoga. Innleiing ved Roy Jacobsen. Omset av Aslak Liestl. Ny og full-
stendig utgve ved Jan Ragnar Hagland. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget.
2007 = Njlssoga. Oversat av Aslak Liestl. Ny og fullstendig utgave ved Jan Ragnar
Hagland. Innledende essay av Roy Jacobsen. Oslo: Den norske Bokklubben.
Other references
Genete, Grard 1997 [1982], Palimpsests. Literature in the Second Degree. Lincoln
and London: Nebraska University Press. Original title 1982: Palimpsests: La lit-
erature au second degree. Paris: Seuil.
Gurn Nordal 2007, Te Art of Poetry and the Sagas of Icelanders. In: Quinn, Judy &
al (eds.) Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World. Essays in Honour of
Margaret Clunies Ross, pp. 219237. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publisers n. v.
Hagland, Jan Ragnar 1987, Njls saga i 1970- og 1980-ra. Eit oversyn over nyare
forskning. Scripta Islandica. Islndska sllskapets rsbok 38, pp. 3650.
Hagland, Jan Ragnar 1996, Fager er lidi. Eit hundrersminne for Olav Aasmundstads
Njlssoge p landsmlet. Motskrif No 2 1996, pp. 157169.
Hagland, Jan Ragnar 2003, meisla ut eit literatursprk. Kring literre omsetjingar
til Landsmaalet fram til om lag 1900. Motskrif No 1 2003, pp. 4355.
Jn Karl Helgason 1999, Te Rewriting of Njls Saga. Translation, Ideology and
Icelandic Sagas = Topics in Translation 16. ClevedonBufaloToronto-Sydney:
Multilingual Maters Ltd.
Kleiven, Ivar 1926. Olav Aasmundstad. Bygd og Bonde. Tidsskrif for historie og
folkeminne. 8. rg., pp. 1927
Undset, Sigrid 1934, Elleve aar. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co.
Undset, Sigrid 1952, Artikler og taler fa krigstiden. Utg. av A. H. Winsnes. Oslo:
H. Aschehoug & Co.
Norse Kings Sagas Spread to the World
Jon Gunnar Jrgensen
Te University of Oslo
1. Te writing of Kings sagas
Te Kings sagas are regarded as a separate genre of Icelandic saga litera-
ture. Tey have been, and still are of extraordinary value as sources of
Scandinavian history, but also from an aesthetic point of view as litera-
ture. Te Kings sagas were also the frst part of the Icelandic saga treas-
ure to awaken the atention abroad in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Te main subject of these sagas is the lives and political career
of Scandinavian, mainly Norwegian, kings from the Viking Age and
through the life of King Hakon Hakonsson (d. 1263). It is a mystery
how and why this literature developed in the periphery area of Iceland,
at a time Icelanders did not even have a king of their own. It is hard to
believe that pure historical interest could have been sufcient motiva-
tion. Perhaps it was a way to discuss the problematic lack of a Head of
State which was prescribed by the medieval models of government. Tis
could be actualised by the serious internal conficts of the Sturlunga era.
Te writing of sagas could also be motivated by a request for a cultural
capital, as some Icelandic scholars have argued recently, with the refer-
ence to the ideas of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (See e. g. Torf
H. Tulinius 2004). Saga manuscripts have also been pointed out as a
valuable article of export (see Stefn Karlsson 1979). Te Icelandic Saga-
codices have no doubt been of great value to the Norwegian aristocracy
and the kings of Norway. However, this cannot explain the developing
of the art in Iceland, only that several saga codices found their way to
Norway in the late Middle Ages. Whatever the explanation can be, it is
a fact that a literature of outstanding value about Scandinavian espe-
cially Norwegian history was produced in Iceland in the 13th century.
In the following centuries, these sagas caught the atention of scholars
and readers in all Europe and the whole world.
56 Jon Gunnar Jrgensen
Te golden age of the Kings sagas was contemporary with
the developing of the medieval kingdom of Norway, beginning with
king Sverrir and reaching its zenith under Hakon Hakonsson. Snorri
Sturluson was an older contemporary of Hakon, and also closely con-
nected to him. He visited Norway twice during Hakons rule. Afer
the decay of the Norwegian Realm the composing of Kings sagas also
diminished. It seems to have been some activity of reproducing sagas
in great codices through the frst decades of the 14th century, but then
this interest also seems to have decreased. Te Flatey-book was writ-
ten at the end of the 14th century, and can be seen as a grand fnale for
the genre in Iceland. In the 15th century, the romantic sagas take over
the scene.
In the 14th century the Norwegian Realm fell apart. As the court
moved east to Sweden with Magnus Eiriksson in the frst half of the cen-
tury, the Norwegian aristocracy disbanded, and so did the interest for
the sagas. Seen from the 15th century viewpoint, the writing and reading
of Kings sagas belonged to the past. Te beautiful vellums still were
on Norwegian shelves, but nobody paid any atention to them. And
why should the Icelanders bother? Why should they read and rewrite
these sagas? Tey did not. Te Kings sagas now belonged to the past.
Tey had in double meaning become history they were no longer
relevant to the present.
But at one point, the sagas were somehow brought back to the stage.
I will look into how this re-introduction of the Kings sagas happened,
and present the frst three printed editions. Te frst two introduced
the material to Scandinavians readers and historians. I will here, how-
ever, emphasize the third one, from 1697 that made the sagas available
to the whole of learned Europe. Te three editions are:
Norske Kongers Krnicke oc bedrif. Copenhagen 1594 (Jens Mortensens
Chronicle)
Norske Kongers Chronica. Kbenhavn. Copenhagen 1633 (Peder Claussn
Friis Saga Translations)
Snorre Sturlusons Nordlndske Konunga Sagor. Stockholm 1697 [1700]
(Johan Peringskilds Edition)
57 Norse Kings Sagas Spread to the World
2. Te revival of the sagas
In the 16th century, a new interest for historiography developed in
Europe, and one turned again to the medieval sagas. Tis new atitude
was introduced in the continent by the renaissance humanists. History
could not only quench learned peoples thirst for knowledge, it could
also be a chessman in the game of power. Along with the rivalry between
royal authorities and the church, the historical chronicles could be used
to strengthen the kings power and to legitimate his rule, in a similar
way to how the church used literature in its propaganda.
Te academic renaissance for the classic profane literature, writ-
ten in Latin, had grown strong in Europe in the 15th century, and at
the beginning of the 16th, it also reached Scandinavia. A new quest for
historical literature followed. I consider it probable that the publishing
of Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum, the Latin chronicle of the Danes,
in 1514, may have been the trigger for the new reading of the Norse
sagas. Tis edition was widely spread and became a most prestigious
work. Te reading of Gesta Danorum most ofen just called Saxo also
inspired small learned circles in Norway, frst of all in Bergen. Afer
having published Saxo, the editor, Christiern Pedersen, caught inter-
est in the historical material hidden in old, half-forgoten manuscripts
in Norway. Somehow, he must have been informed of their existence,
and at a time, probably in the 1530s, he requested some excerpts of
the sagas to be translated into Danish. We are not certain who wrote
these excerpts, but there are indications that it might have been the later
magistrate (Norw.: lagmann) of Bergen, Jon Simonssn (15121575)
(Jrgensen, Jon Gunnar 1993/2, esp. pp. 169171 and 182186). Te so-
called Christiern Pedersens Excerpts are the frst signs of the revived
interest in Kings sagas afer the Middle Ages.
Members of the learned circles of Bergen did several approaches
to the Saga literature in the 16th century. In addition to Christiern
Pedersens Excerpts at least two other translations or, more cor-
rectly, paraphrases of Kings sagas in Danish were made and sent to
Copenhagen. One of them, that goes by the name Laurents Hanssns
Saga-translation was made for a defnite purpose; namely, for the educa-
tion of the Danish crown prince Frederik. Te text is only found in one
single manuscript, which still exists in the Arnamagnan Collection in
Copenhagen (AM 93 fol.). Te other translation, made by the magistrate
of Bergen, Matis Strssn, must have been spread among interested
colleagues, because it is known from several manuscripts. One of these
fell into the hands of the historian Christopher Huitfeldt in Copenhagen,
who engaged Rev. Jens Mortensen to have it published.
Norske Kongers Krnicke oc bedrif was printed in 1594. It was a
small book, the text was both corrupted and shortened, but it was very
important. Te translator, Matis Strssn, is not mentioned at all;
probably he was not even known by the editor. Neither can we fnd one
word about Snorri Sturluson nor the Icelandic origin of the text. Tat
kind of information we could not either expect, since it was unknown
at the time. Te publishing of this book is remarkable, because it is
the frst printing of Old Norse saga material at all. Now the door to
the saga literature was opened for readers and scholars outside the nar-
row circles in Bergen and Copenhagen.
Tough the text of this frst edition was short and paraphras-
ing, Ynglinga saga was reproduced in a fuller shape. Ynglinga saga
1. Te portrait of
Peder Claussn
Fries in Valle
Church, near
Lindesnes on
the southern edge
of Norway. Some
biographical key-
notes are writen in
the lef upper cor-
ner, but the year of
his death is writen
later on the oppo-
site side.
is the frst part of Heimskringla, containing the mythic pre-history
of the Norwegian kings kin. Tis material was a special treasure to
the Swedes. I will soon return to the enthusiastic reception of the sagas
in Sweden.
Te 1594 chronicle was the pioneer edition of Kings Sagas, and it
was printed in a very limited number of copies. Nobody could predict
the formidable demand for saga literature in the future. Tat explains
why the edition is so rare today; it is only to be found in very few aca-
demic libraries and in a few private collections, in all probably not more
than ten copies.1 Te 1594 edition was important as a frst introduction
to the material. Besides its great importance to the Swedes, it probably
also inspired and motivated the next edition, published in 1633 (also
in Copenhagen).
3. Te Scandinavian break-through for Kings sagas
Shortly afer the 1594 edition was published, Peder Claussn Friis
(15451616) started to prepare a far more extensive one. Peder Claussn
was a vicar in Audnedal, on the southern edge of Norway. Te key
information of his biography is painted on his portrait, situated in Valle
Church, where he practised. He may have looked like this. Te portrait
is probably painted while he was still alive, since the year of his death
was added later.
Fifeen years afer Peders death, the famous Danish scholar Ole
Worm became acquainted with the translation. He obtained a manu-
script and published it in 1633. Tis was the frst holistic printed repro-
duction of the sagas. Tis edition was certainly printed in a larger number
of copies, since it still is rather easy to fnd, both in libraries, private
collections and at antiquarian booksellers, and it had tremendous infu-
ence. Due to this very edition Heimskringla was established as a monu-
ment in the Scandinavian history of literature. Today the Icelandic
Snorre (i. e. Heimskringla) is considered at the top of the canon of
literature in Norway, above the works of Norwegian authors. Te posi-
tion of Heimskringla in Scandinavia and later especially in Norway was
1 According to unverifed information from Deichmanske bibliotek, the Munici-
pal Library of Oslo, there are six in public libraries. Two are known in private
collections. Not all of the copies are complete.
established by the 1633-edition, and also, by this edition, the author
Snorri Sturluson was connected to the work. Tat was news in the 17th
century Scandinavia, and also in Iceland.
Peder Claussns Norske Kongers Chronica (NKC) became impor-
tant in all the Scandinavian countries, including Iceland. I have already
mentioned that the atribution to Snorri was unknown also in Iceland till
the book was published, even by the most learned specialist, Arngrmur
Jnsson (15681648). Te acquaintance with the book also led to a
revival of interest in the Kings sagas in Iceland. Now Icelandic scribes
began to reproduce Kings sagas anew. Trough lack of old Icelandic
manuscript exemplars, some scribes took the text from Peder Claussn
and translated parts of it back into Icelandic.
In Sweden, the edition became an important source for Swedish
historians and antiquarians. Gothicists believed that Goths were
the ancestors of Swedes, and that the Old Norse language was Gothic.
2. Te title page of
Peder Claussns
saga transla-
tion, published
in Copenhagen
1633 by Ole Worm.
It tells us that
Snorre Sturlason
is the author
of the work.
Te vignete shows
the Norwegian
Coat of Arms,
Te Norwegian
Lion.
Terefore, the Old Icelandic literature in their eyes also had its roots in
Sweden. Te NKC 1633 served as inspiration, source and editorial model
for the frst Swedish edition (1697), which I will soon present.
In Denmark, NKC found its place besides Saxo. It is evident that
the two works were soon regarded as a couple the twin-chronicles
of the twin-states. If you look at the vignete on the title page, you see
the Norwegian Lion, the national coat of arms. Further the book is dedi-
cated to Christopher Urne, who was the governor of Norway in 1633. Afer
1633 and till the end of the 19th century, new translations of Saxo were
always planned together with new or revised translations of Snorre. In 1757
a revised version was published in Copenhagen. Te text had been com-
pletely rewriten, but the editor was not even mentioned on the title page.
All tribute went to the great Peder Claussn, and when the monumental
scholarly edition of Kings sagas was being prepared in Copenhagen start-
ing in 1770s and under the leadership of Gerhard Schnning, the editors
were instructed to keep Peder Claussns style in the new translation.
It was doubtless the 1633 edition that established the position of
the Kings sagas also in the Norwegian, National canon. But it did
not happen until the 19th century, when the new independent nation
developed, that Snorre really grew big in Norway. Now the thread
was taken up from Peder Clausson and new translations made. Tese
have found their way literally into every home.
4. Peringskild 1697. From Scandinavia to the wide world
We have now followed the Kings sagas on their journey from Iceland
to Norway, and further to Denmark. Trough the two frst printed
editions, the sagas spread in the Nordic countries. But still, because
of the language, they were not introduced to the learned European
community. Te discovery of Ynglinga saga was especially celebrated
with enthusiasm in Sweden. Swedes had ever since 1514 envied their
Danish neighbours and rivals their Saxo. In the following decades,
Swedish authors made several atempts to write a similar proper his-
tory of Swedes. Best known is the one by Johannes Magnus, Historia de
omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus (History of all Kings of Goths
and Swedes), printed in 1554. But the Swedish historians had a serious
problem the lack of writen sources. In Ynglinga saga they could read
that Odin and his companions, the diar setled in Uppsala, and made
Sweden the home of the Ynglings, the ancestors of the Norwegian kings.
Tat was really a fat bite for the Gothicists.
In the middle of the 17th century a strong historical academy was
founded in Uppsala, Collegium Antiquitatum (College of Antiquities).
A large community of scholars and assistants did historical studies and
published historical sources and writings. In 1679 the Icelandic student
Gumundur lafsson was engaged as the successor of his countryman
Jonas Rugman. Now a prestigious edition of Heimskringla received high
priority. It was Johan Peringskild (the elder) who became the leading
editor and person-in-charge of the project and Gumundur lafsson,
who had been recruited at the University of Copenhagen, became his
indispensable assistant, helping his superior to understand the Icelandic
text and translating it into Swedish. Another Icelander, Jn Eggertsson,
occasionally staying in Copenhagen, transcribed for them the most
important Heimskringla manuscript Kringla. He also made a jour-
ney to Iceland in order to collect and buy manuscripts for the Swedes,
3. Te frst edition of the Icelandic text of Heimskringla was published in
Stockholm, 1697, edited by Johan Peringskild. Te edition was provided with
translations both to Swedish (in the right column) and Latin (at the botom).
a task he accomplished with great success, though it was against the law.
Te Danish king had forbidden Icelanders to transmit manuscripts to
any other than his own representatives. One of the manuscripts that Jn
bought for his Swedish employers was the so-called Hsafellsbk, a 17th
century manuscript containing Kings sagas, compiled with NKC 1633
as a template. Large parts of the text were translated from the Danish
printed text and back to Icelandic (see lafur Halldrsson 1976).
As copy-text for his edition Peringskild used the Kringla tran-
scription by Jn Eggertsson. But in addition he used every other avail-
able source. Te whole Kringla text was collated against NKC and
Hsafellsbk, and if a passage or some information should be missing in
Kringla, it was carefully supplied by the other sources. Te additional
text from Hsafellsbk followed Heimskringla through later editions
for more than a century.
Peringskilds edition was a great step forwards as a source publica-
tion. It reproduced the text from the manuscripts far more confdently
than the older Danish editions, and for the frst time the Heimskringla
text was printed in the original language. But the edition ofered more
it was trilingual. In addition to Icelandic, the text was translated both
into Swedish and Latin. Te concept with a synoptic presentation of
the Icelandic text with a Swedish translation had been used in several
editions from the Collegium Antiquitatum before Heimskringla, and
this was also the intention now. Te Swedish translation was done by
Gumundur lafsson and revised by Peringskild. But as the work took
form, Peringskild applied to the chancellery for time and funding to
provide the edition also with a Latin translation, so that the whole world
of learned could share this treasure, and be acquainted with the ances-
tors of the Goths. Te authorities were favourable, and the Latin transla-
tion was produced by Peringskild himself.
Te result, especially the Latin translation, was naturally heavily criti-
cised by Danish scholars they were certainly envious. Nevertheless, the
work was really impressive as a whole. Te text covers the whole Heimskringla,
from Ynglings to Magnus Erlingsson in two volumes. Te frst volume was
published in 1697, the second a couple of years later, probably 1700. Te title
Heimskringla was in this edition related to the work. Earlier it had been used
with reference to the manuscript Kringla, the copy-text for the edition.
64 Jon Gunnar Jrgensen
My frst thought when I examined Peringskilds edition, was that
the prior purpose of the Latin text was to give the volumes an academic
impression and prestige. I questioned whether the book really had a
market outside the Nordic countries. It might, of course, be a mater
of importance that Saxo was in Latin, and therefore desirable also to
have Heimskringla available in Latin. It might be that Latin primarily
simply signalized that the content was of scholarly signifcance. It seems,
however, that the edition really found its way to the learned Europe and
that there defnitely was an international interest. It was reviewed in
foreign magazines and referred to by learned writers. As early as in 1698,
Lorentz Hertel refers to the edition in a leter to Gotfried W. Leibniz
(Leibniz 1998, pp. 4849). Ten later in the 18th century we see that
the French and English really became interested in Old Norse culture,
especially afer Paul-Henry Mallets history of the Danes2 and other
writings about Scandinavia.
Not the least due to Mallet, Icelandic sagas were introduced to
the French during the age of Enlightenment. In the following century of
Romanticism saga literature really rooted in the European literary recep-
tion. Te three editions presented here were important steps to clear
the way for the treasure of Icelandic sagas into the European canon.
References
Torf H. Tulinius. Kapital, felt, illusio. Maal og Minne 2004, pp. 120.
Stefn Karlsson. Islandsk bogeksport til Norge i middelalderen. Maal og Minne
1979, pp. 117.
Jrgensen, Jon Gunnar. Sagaoversetelser i Norge p 1500-tallet. Collegium Medie-
vale 1993/2, pp. 169198.
lafur Halldrsson. Um Hsafellsbk. Minjar og menntir: Afm lisrit helga
Kristjni Eldjrn 6. desember 1976. Reykjavk 1976, pp. 391406. (Reprinted in
Gretisf rsla. Reykjavk 1990).
Leibniz, Gotfried Wilhelm. Smtliche Schrifen und Briefe. Erste Reihe: Allgemeiner
politischer und historischer Briefwechsel. Berlin 1998.
2 Introduction lHistoire de Dannemarc (Introduction to the History of Den-
mark). 1 vol. frst published 1755.
Smi and Scandinavians in the Viking Age
Jurij K. Kusmenko
Institute of Linguistic Studies, St.-Petersburg, Russian Academy of Sciences
Introduction
Tough we do not know exactly when Scandinavian and Smi contact
started, it is clear that in the time of the formation of the Scandinavian
heathen culture and of the Scandinavian languages, the Scandinavians
and the Smi were neighbors. Archaeologists and historians continue
to argue about the location of the original southern border of the Smi
on the Scandinavian peninsula and the location of the most narrow
cultural contact, but nobody doubts, that the cultural contact between
the Smi and the Scandinavians before and during the Viking Age
was very close. Such close contact could not but have lef traces in
the Smi culture and in the Smi languages. Tis infuence concerned
not only material culture but even folklore and religion, especially
in the area of the Southern Smi. We fnd here even names of gods
borrowed from the Scandinavian tradition. Swedish and Norwegian
missionaries mentioned such Southern Smi gods as Radien (cf. norw.,
sw. r, rdare), Veralden Olmai (< Veraldar go, Freyr), Ruona (Rana)
(< Rn), Horagalles (< rkarl), Ruota (Rota). In Lule Smi we fnd no
Scandinavian gods but Scandinavian names of gods such as Storjunkare
(big ruler) and Lilljunkare (small ruler). In the Smi languages, we fnd
about three thousand loanwords from the Scandinavian languages
and many of them were borrowed in the common Scandinavian peri-
od (5501050), that is before and during the Viking Age (Qvigstad 1893;
Sammallahti 1998, 128129). Te famous Swedish lappologist Karl
Bernhard Wiklund said in 1898 [] Lapska innehller nmligen en
mycket stor mngd lneord fn de nordiska sprken, av vilka lneord de
ldsta ovillkorligen mste vara lnade redan i urnordisk tid, dvs under
tiden fre ca 700 r efer Kristus. Dessa urnordiska lneords mngd visar,
at lapparna redan vid denna tid mste ha stt i en mycket intim berring
med skandinavierna, s intim, at de bda folken br ha bot i hvarandras
omedelbara nrhet och icke endast kommit i berring med hvarandra under
66 Jurij K. Kusmenko
ngra sllsyntare handelsresor e dyl. (unpublished oral presentation in
1898, quoted afer Fjellstrm 1985, 118).
Nobody denies the fact of great Scandinavian infuence on the Smi
in the Viking Age. But if we ask whether this Smi-Scandinavian contact
is refected in Scandinavian culture, we get as a rule a negative answer.
Scandinavian historians and linguists are, with very rare exceptions,
unanimous in this case. Te Scandinavian infuence on the Smi lan-
guages and on the Smi culture on the one hand and stigmatization
of the Smi in the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, which
has been extrapolated to the whole period of the Smi-Scandinavian
contacts on the other, has made an assumption about Smi infuence
on the Scandinavians impossible. Te proposed low social prestige of
the Smi and even their stigmatization determined the assumption about
the infuence only in one direction1. Te traditional opinion at the end
of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century was that
everything in the Smi religion was borrowed from the Scandinavians.2
Respectively, Smi infuence on the Scandinavian languages has been
rejected.3 In the new very thick compendium on historical Scandinavian
linguistics, where a special chapter is devoted to Scandinavian language
contact, we shall look in vain for something about the Finnic-Ugric
infuence on the Scandinavian languages. Te only information about
the mater are the words of Koivulehto that such an infuence does not
seem very probable (Koivulehto 2002, 590591). Tus the possibility of
a Smi infuence on the Scandinavian culture and on the Scandinavian
languages was rejected from the very beginning. But was it really so that
the relation between the Smi and the Scandinavians in the Viking Age
was the same as it was at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th
century and excluded every Smi cultural and language infuence on
1 cf. Te cultural way was usually a one-way street from the Germanic people
to the Finns or the Lapps (Einarsson 1986, 43).
2 cf. Det vil vre rkeslst at regne med en hjemmefdt lappisk kultur (Olrik
1905, 44).
3 cf. Only few Finnish or Smi loanwords concerning special Smi and
Finnish maters and some marginal features in the outmost northern Swedish
and Norwegian dialects are the only possible Smi or Finish infuence on
the Scandinavian languages (Jahr 1997, 943; cf. also Skld 1961, 64).
67 Smi and Scandinavians in the Viking Age
the Scandinavians? In this paper I try to show that the cultural infuence
in the Viking Age was not one-sided. Te cultural impulses went not
only from the Scandinavians to the Smi but even to a very strong degree
from the Smi to the Scandinavians. My sources will be archaeology,
onomastics, Old Norse literature and Scandinavian languages.
Archaeology
Te present Smi territory stretches from Idre Parish in the Swedish prov-
ince of Dalarna to the Kola Peninsula. However, during the Viking Age,
the Smi territory reached much further south than has been assumed
up to now. Te traditional point of view that the southern Smi did
not appear in central Norway and central Sweden until the 16th17th
centuries (cf. Sandnes 1973, Haarstad 1992) has been revised recently.
Te latest archaeological and historical studies give evidence of a Smi
population that possibly reached as far south as the Mlardal region in
present central Sweden and eastern Norway, see the maps in Zachrisson
1997; 2004; 2006.4 Zachrisson assumes a large zone of Smi-Scandinavian
cultural contacts during the Viking Age in central Scandinavia including
in Trndelag, Oppland, Hedmark, Jmtland, Hrjedalen, ngermanland,
Vrmland, Dalarna, Medelpad, Hlsingland and parts of Buskerud,
Telemark, Akerhus, Vstmanland and Uppland. For this contact zone
she proposes en viss kulturell simbios (Zachrisson 1997, 218). Hansen
and Olsen write about en ikke ubetydlig grad av kulturell kreolisering
in this area (Hansen, Olsen 2004, 107).
But the connection between archaeological culture and ethnic
identity and language is very problematic. Tat people wear jeans
does not mean that they are Americans and speak English. We do not
4 cf. Samene har vrt i srsamisk omrde langt tilbake i frkristen tid (Salvesen,
1980, 147); Te authors of the latest Smi history Hansen and Olsen afrm: der
er lite grunnlag for se den historisk kjente srsamiske tilstedevrelsen som et
resultat av innvandring fra nord. Det er tvert om grunn till anta at det samiske
bosetningsomrdet i sr var langt strre enn hva dagens situasjon og nyere his-
toriske kilder antar (Hansen, Olsen, 2004, 109). Cf. Also Sammallahti 1990, 441.
Zachrissons map has not been accepted with unanimous approval of archaeologists,
cf. Baudou 2002, 31. But even Baudou in his early book has drawn the movable
border between two cultures in Gstrikland and along the Dalalven (Baudou, 1995,
53), which is not so far from the southern border of Zachrissons contact area.
know what language was spoken by the representatives of the mixed
Smi-Scandinavian culture, or what folklore they had. Was it so that
the Scandinavians adopted Smi features or the Smi took on Scandinavian
cultural features and language? Moreover there is a tendency in the latest
archaeology to deny a connection between archaeological culture and
ethnic identity at all.5 Indeed, in some cases we cannot fnd a connection
between material culture and ethnic identity as, for example, in the case
of the Smi, who identify themselves as Smi, but do not speak the lan-
guage, are not involved in reindeer herding and live in Stockholm. Many
other cases show us the lack of an obligatory connection between mate-
rial culture and ethnic identity. In many cases, however, this connection
is obvious. Tat means that the archaeological data could be used only in
connection with the data of spiritual culture and with the linguistic data.
Fortunately, we have at our disposal not only archaeological sources but
also other sources, particularly Old Norse literature and onomastics.
Te Smi in Old Norse literature
A very important source helping us to understand the role of the Smi
in the Scandinavian society is Old Norse literature6. Te usual clich
features of Smi are that they were good hunters, archers, skiers, fsh-
ers, sorcerers, magicians and healers.7 We can read about the quality
5 Cf. Etnicitet eller kulturell identitet lmnar sllan spr i den materiella kul-
turen (Werbart 1999, 341) or even stronger: Det fnns ingen relation mellan
etnisk grupp och arkeologisk kultur (Werbart 2002, 29, 102).
6 Both in the classical (from Tacitus, 1 AD) and in mediaeval Latin sources as
well as in Old Norse literature, the Smi were called fnns (fenni in Tacitus,
fnnar in Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian writen sources). Tis name for
the Smi has been used until now in some Norwegian dialects. Te traditional
etymology connects the name fnnar with the Germanic root *fn- (cf. Engl.
fnd). According to this etymology the name fnnar designated wanderers,
gatherers and hunters (fnders). Literature in Svennung 1974, 136139.
7 Even in Scandinavian medieval and later writen monuments in Latin, we can
see a lot of information about the Smi, cf. Historia Norvegiae (12th century,
cf. Barhielm, Zachrisson 1994), Saxos Gesta Danorum (13th century, Saxo
1886) and an especially large amount in Olaus Magnus (16th century), who
himself visited the Smi areas in Sweden. Te characteristics of the Smi in
these sources correspond to their characteristics in the Old Norse sources.
of Smi archers in Icelandic sagas and very ofen these archers are
called Finnr. In this connection the name Finnbogi (Finn + bow) is very
interesting. Te element -bogi (bow) in personal names is possible only
with two nations Smi and Hunns (Hunbogi and Finnbogi). Tere are
no *Danbogi or *Gautbogi or *Gotbogi among Scandinavian personal
names. Te component -bogi was possible only with people who were
known for their archery skills. Te bow was a typical Smi weapon. In
a Faroese ballad even Odin appears with a Smi bow cf.
Hr kom maur vllin fam
engin hann kendi,
eyga hevi hann eit heysi
fnskan boga hendi. (Hammershaimb, 1851, 11).
Te Smi bow in the hand of Odin points not only to the quality of
the bow but also to the capacity of Odin to perform magic. Te connec-
tion of Odin as magician with the Smi shamans is clear not only for stu-
dents of the Scandinavian religion, but even for Loki, who accuses Odin
of striking on a drum on Smsey island as a prophetess, cf. Lokasenna
24: Enn ik sa ko Smseyo , / ok draptu vt sem vo lor.
Te usual interpretation of Samsey as the Danish Island Sams
is hardly correct. In this case we are not dealing with a place name
Sams but with an appellative a Smi island. Te Smi word for self-
designation smi / spmi was known in the Scandinavian tradition.
In an Icelandic saga the Smi sorcerers called themselves semsvein-
ar. Te son of the Scandinavian goddess Skadi is called S ming and
the Old Icelandic adjective for swarthy, blackish smr is considered
to have been borrowed from the Smi self designation smi. Smsey in
Lokasenna can be interpreted as a later reinterpretation of an appel-
lative a Smi island, which must have originally had the form samey
(without -s-, cf. Finney). In this case the original version could look
like (You are known to prophesy on a Smi island and you stroke on
a drum as prophetesses). But even if the form Smsey in Lokasenna 24
is original, it is hardly a coincidence that Loki mentioned its name in
connection with a typical Smi procedure striking the drum during
prophesying (Olsen 1960, 1920).
Te Smi capability to prophesy was a very important feature of
the Smi that was atractive to the Scandinavians. Te Smi appear as
advisers to prominent Scandinavian personalities, both mythological
and historical. Saxo tells us that when Othinus (Odin) asks fortune-
tellers and priests to give him advice how to avenge the death of his son
Baldrus (Baldr), the Finn Rostiophus (Rostiophus Phinnicus) gives
him advice how to do it (Saxo 1886, cap. 3, 78). Old Norse sources tell
us that even historical Norwegian kings had Smi as friends and advi-
sors, such as e. g. a Smi from Hadaland with whom Harald Fairhair
fees from his father. Even the frst Christian Norwegian King Olaf
Tryggvason (d. 1000) visited a Smi to hear prophecies about his future
afer his arrival in Norway (Flateyarbk 1, 231). Te practice of learning
magic and asking for the prophecies of the Smi was preserved until
the 13th century. In two church laws for Eastern Norway (Eidsivaingslag
and Borgaringslag) one can read that it was forbidden to go to Smi
(fara till fnna, gera fnnfarar), to believe in Smi, (tra fnna), to go
to Finnmark to ask for a prophesy (at fara Finnmerkr at spyrja sp)8,
which indicates that in the 13th century this custom was widespread
in eastern Norway.
Te usual adjectives characterizing the Smi in the Old Icelandic
sagas margfr, fo lkunnigr, mean not only much knowing but also
knowing how to perform magic. To perform magic and to prophesy
was not a negative capability before Christianization. On the contrary,
it played a very important role in the heathen life of the Scandinavians.
Te prosaic preface to the Vo lundarkvia indicates that even the ability
to be a wonderful smith could be connected with Smi magic power.
Te preface in prose informs us that the father of the wonderful smith
Volundr was a Finnish (that is Smi) king (fnnakonungr). Te name
of one of Vlundrs brothers was Slagfnnr. All the brothers had a typical
Smi occupation: they skied and hunted for animals.
Te Smi performance of magic infuenced the Scandinavians to a
very large degree. In 1935 Strmbck assumed that sejd, the special kind
of Nordic shamanism, as it was described in the saga of Erik the Red,
had been borrowed from the Smi (Strmbck 1935). It is possible that
8 For the texts of these laws see e. g. in Meiner 1942.
even the word seid could have been borrowed from Finno-Ugric into
the Scandinavian languages.9
Te tradition of Smi magic can be found even in an Icelandic
(possibly Norwegian) rune inscription from the 12th century, where
the word boatiat in the inscription on a spade shaf boatiat mik inki-
altr k ri was interpreted as an infnitive with imperative meaning
from the Smi verb with the meaning to come (North Smi boahtit).
Te inscription was interpreted as a spell come back (when stolen or
lost) (Olsen, Bergsland 1943: 57). To use a Smi magic formula in a
spell was quite natural because the Smi were regarded as the foremost
authority in this feld.
Archaeology shows that representatives of both cultures could
marry each other (Zachrisson 1997). Old Norse writen sources confrm
archaeological fndings. Te name Halfnnr Smi by half (formed
afer the same patern as a much more known name Halfdan) indicates
the Smi origin of a person, as a rule it was someone who was fnnskr at
murkyni (Smi afer mother) (Plsson 1999, 31). Old Icelandic sagas
tell us that the Smi women could be wives of legendary and even of
historical Swedish and Norwegian kings. A very interesting example is
the marriage of the Norwegian King Harald Fairhair to a Smi woman.
Heimskringla of Snorri (13th century) tells us that Harald (d. 933) mar-
ried a Smi woman Snfrid. Tey had four sons, to whom Harald gave
the provinces of Ringariki, Totn and Hadaland (Snorri Sturluson 1941,
Ch. 25, 33). Tere is also a drpa (a verse), which is considered to have
been writen by Harald afer the death of Snfrid.
Te motif of marriage of Scandinavian kings to Smi women can
also be found in Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus. Te Danish
King Gram declared a war on the Finnish King Sumblus (Sumblus
Phinnorum rex), but when he saw his daughter he turned from an enemy
into a suitor (Saxo 1886, cap. 1, 1819). In another story the King of
9 Te word sei(r) had many Finno-Ugrian parallels, cf. Smi sieidi site cf. Finn.
soida sound, ring, soita play on a musical instrument, Hanty sui, Mansi sei
voice, Ung. zaj noise; Nenets sjadai wooden Idols. It is possible that in this
case we are even dealing with a much older Finno-Ugrian borrowing into
the northern Indo-European languages, cf. Lithuanian saitas sorcery, saisti
(1. Pers. saiu) to read (and interpret) signs, Welsh hud (< *soito) magic.
Halogies (Halogie rex) seeks to marry Tora, daughter of the King of
Finns and Biarms Cuso (Finnorum Byarmorumque princes) and with
the help of his friend Htherus (Hd) succeeds in marrying her (ibid.,
cap. 3, 72). It is not important whether these stories refect historical
truth or are fction10. It is much more important that for a Scandinavian
in the 13th century, when Heimskringla and Gesta Danorum was writen,
it was still possible to imagine that a Scandinavian king could have a
Smi wife. It was quite possible even in the 13th century to acknowledge
that one of the wives of Harald Fairhair was a Smi woman. However, to
imagine in the 16th century King Gustav Vasa marrying a Smi woman
was already absolutely impossible.
Te whole story of Haralds marriage is interesting in two aspects.
On the one hand we have the information about his marriage to a Smi
woman, on the other hand it is interesting how this event is interpreted
by Snorri as a Christian author. Te Christian Snorri explains this mar-
riage solely as a result of Smi magic. Snfrid cast a spell on Harald
Fairhair when he drank a jar of mead poured by Snfrid. Te spell was so
strong that the King married the Smi woman and he loved her so mad-
ly that he neglected his might. Te spell had an efect on him even afer
her death. Te King sat at her corpse and sorrowed her death for three
winters but all the people in the country sorrowed over his madness.
Only when Torleif the Wise restrained the madness could Snfrids
corpse be burned in a fre. And when snakes and lizards, frogs and
toads and all kind of evil came out of her corpse the King regained his
consciousness and came out of his madness (Sturluson 1941, chap. 25).
Te story of Snfrid is full of literary motifs. Even the name Snfrid
(Snow-peace) has a fairy tale character, in contrast to the name of
her father Svasi which in grip is called fnnakonungr. In the Snfrid
episode, we fnd two motifs which were characteristic of mediaeval
literature: great sorrow over the death of the wife so that the king (or
the prince) could not be separated from her corpse (cf. Fritzner 1877, 162,
note 3) and a clear Christian motif with all kinds of evil coming out of
Snfrids corpse, reminiscent of the representatives of the same fauna
10 In grip (c. 1190) only one son of Harald and Snfrid is mentioned. Historia
Norwegiae tells us about a son of Harald who was born to a Smi woman, but
it does not mention her name.
coming out of the thrown heathen idols at the victory of the new faith
over the old one, a theme that we can also see in Snorris Heimskringla
(cf. Sturluson 1941, kap. 58). For Snorri, who lived in the 13th century
and was a Christian, both the marriage of a Norwegian king to the Smi
woman and his great sorrow at her death could be explained only by
her Smi spell. Tough Snorri knew that Harald was a heathen himself,
the Smi woman Snfrid was for him a personifcation of paganism
(cf. the motif of snakes and all kinds of evil). Te atitude of Snorri to
Snfrid shows us a clear change in the atitude of the Scandinavians to
the Smi, who to a greater extent remained heathen in the 13th century.
Tis change is refected in the change of the name of the Smi people.
Te Smi, who earlier were called fnnar, a name with absolutely no
negative connotations (see below), acquired another name in the 13th
century lappar Lapps11, with a clear negative connotation. Even if
the earlier etymologies of this word did not prove true (lappar < lapp
rag or < Middle Low German lappe fool), it is obvious that in folk
etymology the connection with the Scandinavian word lapp rag and
its negative connotation were present.
Old West Scandinavian literature shows that the relation between
the Smi and Scandinavians in heathen Scandinavia during the Viking
Age and even later in the frst centuries afer Christianization difered
strongly from the situation in later times. Te scholars in the 19th and
20th centuries could not but see the discrepancy between the positive
description of the Smi in the Old Norse sources on the one hand and
the stigmatization of the Smi in their contemporary Scandinavia on
the other hand. But their conclusion was very typical of the atitude
towards the Smi in the 19th and the frst part of the 20th centuries.
It was assumed that the positive description of the fnnar in OI literature
was not connected with the positive atitude of the Scandinavians to
the Smi, but was due to the fact that the word fnnar in OI literature
did not designate Smi but another people, an unknown Germanic tribe,
whose name was later transferred to the Smi (cf. Hellquist, 1993, 211;
Svennung 1974, 139). Te Norwegian historian Hansen wrote in 1907
11 Te frst time the name Lappia (Lappland) was mentioned was in Gesta
Danorum, writen at the beginning of the 13th century (Saxo 1886, cap. 5).
that since the Old Scandinavians described the Finns with respect it is
impossible to identify the Finns with the Lapps because lapperne []
ma ha stt som nu som bare en gienstand for nordmndenes foragt
(Hansen 1907, 134). Another atempt to explain the discrepancy between
the positive description of the fnnar in the Old Scandinavian sourc-
es and the stigmatization of the Smi in Scandinavian society was to
declare that the word fnnar originally meant sorcerers and not the Smis
because it was litle honourable to have a name which reminded of
despised (vanvyrde) people which was not of noble birth ( tsmaa).
(Koht 1923, 162). Both assumptions have their supporters even now. But
there is no evidence that since the frst mention of the Smi in Tacitus
in the 1st century AD until now the word fenni, phinnoi or fnnar meant
anything diferent than Smi and later (Suomi) Finns.
Te discrepancy between the positive description of the fnnar in
Old Scand. Literature and the later stigmatization of the Smi can be
explained in a much more natural way. Te atitude of the Scandinavians
to their northern neighbors during the Viking Age and in the early
Middle Ages was absolutely of another character than later and was
characterized by respect and acceptance12.
Onomastics
Te absence of the stigmatization of the Smi people in heathen
Scandinavia is testifed by the spread of the personal name Finnr and
of a large number of compound personal names with fnn- as the frst
or the second component. Te form of the name Finnr corresponds to
the usual Old Scandinavian patern: Plural indicates a tribal name gautar,
danir, r ndir, fnnar Singular = Personal name, Gautr, Danr, r ndr,
Finnr. Te name Finnr takes in this patern the same place as the names
Gautr, Danr and r ndr. Te name Finnr was not only etymologically
related with the people name fnnar, but the association Finnr fnnar
was alive in the Old Icelandic sagas. We can fnd a very typical case
in Heimskringla where Snorri tells us about an archer (!) in the army
of Einar the Belly-shaker who either was a fnnr (Smi) or was called
Finnr (Sturluson, 1941, cap. 57). In Old Norse literature and in younger
12 Cf. especially Mundal 1996; 2004.
runic inscriptions we fnd very many names with the component fnn-
(cf. Finnbogi, Finnulf, Finnbjo rn, rfnnr, rfnna, Gfnnr, Hrfnnr,
Finnbjo rg etc.). Te name Finn and the compound name with fnn- can
be found even in the West Germanic tradition, though much more sel-
dom (cf. the name Finn of a Frisian ruler in the Old English Finnsburg-
fragment, Old English name Merefn and Old Frankish name Fingast).
Te frst record of the personal name Finna occurs in the older
runic inscription from Berga (stergtland) from the beginning of
the 6th century. Te inscription consists of two personal names sali-
gastiR fno. Te name saligastiR is a mans name, while the name fno
(nom. sg. fem.) is interpreted as a female name corresponding to OI
Finna, which is originally a feminine motivation to the personal name
OI Finnr Finn, Lapp (Krause 1966, 193).
Tis inscription as well as the use of the name Finn and compound
names with the component fnn among West Germanic people before
the Anglo-Saxons lef the continent (cf. Old English Finnsburg-
fragment) show a long tradition of use. It is obvious that PN Finnr or
Finna did not mean that the person called so was of Smi origin, though
in some cases the Smi origin of persons with this name in Heimskringla
was obvious. It does however mean that there was absolutely no stig-
matization of fnnar. It is impossible to imagine that the Scandinavians
could give names to their children which were connected with the name
of stigmatized people and that such a name could be borrowed even
by the West Germanic people. During the beginning stigmatization
(13th14th centuries), when the Smi had obtained a new name lappar
(lapps), with a clear negative connotation, we cannot fnd examples for
Scandinavian personal names corresponding to the name lappar.
Naturally, the spread of personal names and place names with
fnn- proves nothing about the spread of the Smi. However, it can
testify to the atitude of the Scandinavians towards the Smi before
Christianization, which difered strongly from the atitude in the time
afer Christianization.
Te Smi element in Scandinavian mythology
Tough neither Northern nor Eastern Smi had names of Scandinavian
gods, the traditional opinion at the end of the nineteenth and beginning
of the twentieth century was that everything in the Smi religion was
borrowed from the Scandinavians (see above). Studies at the end of
the 20th century have shown however that the Scandinavian infuence
on the Smi religion was not as big as it had previously been consid-
ered and much in the Smi culture was connected with the culture of
the people of Northern Eurasia. However, the Scandinavian infuence
on the Smi religion and mythology cannot be denied. But the possibil-
ity of a Smi infuence on the Scandinavian world of gods and giants
was, with few exceptions, rejected as a rule. However, the acceptance
of the Smi in Scandinavian heathen society lets us assume that a Smi
infuence on Scandinavian culture is not unexpected. Te traces of
Smi infuence on heathen Scandinavian culture can be found frst of
all in those felds where Smi had good knowledge and were respected
by the Scandinavians, that is, in winter hunting, fshing and sorcery.
I have already mentioned the possible Scandinavian borrowing of
the Smi shamanistic rite (seid). Now we shall look at three fgures in
Scandinavian mythology who can be connected with the Smi gods of
winter hunting and fshery; they are Tjazi, Skadi and Ull.
We shall start with the giant Tjazi, father of the giantess Skadi.
Te best-known myth about Tjazi tells us that he, in the shape of an
eagle, steals the goddess Idun with her apples of rejuvenation from
the Asgard. Loki succeeds in taking Idun back to the gods. Tjazi, in
shape of an eagle, chased afer Loki with Idun but the gods killed him
when he was approaching Asgard. Te daughter of Tjazi Skadi comes to
Asgard and marries Njrd as a compensation for the loss of her father.
Te connection of the Scandinavian giant Tjazi with the Smi
tradition was at frst assumed by Rasmus Rask, who connected the name
Tjazi with the Smi word for water, cf. Southern Smi tjaehtsi (Rask
19321933, 305306). But though there is no beter etymology for this
word, the etymology of Rask is not mentioned in modern etymological
dictionaries. Te word is considered to have no certain etymology and is
indicated as an etymologically difcult word (de Vries 1962, 612; Blndal
1989, 1182). Te obvious reason for the ignorance of the etymology of
Rask is the proposed impossibility of Smi infuence on the Scandinavian
culture. However, the etymology of Rask was supported by Lindroth,
who proposed a connection of the Scandinavian giant Tjazi not only
with the Smi word for water, but also with the Smi god Tjatsiolmai
water man (Lindroth 1918). Tough Lindroth himself rejected his own
idea because of the very negative atitude toward his idea by the promi-
nent Finno-Ugrist Wiklund (ibid.), this idea seems to me very instruc-
tive. Tere is clear evidence showing that the Scandinavian giant Tjazi
could be a reminiscence of the Smi god for fshing Tjatsiolmai.
At the sites of the Smi fshing god, where sacrifces were made,
idols of this god ofen look like great stones in the form of a man or of
a bird. Hallstrm describes a site on the Kola peninsula in following
way: I kvllsbelysning tycker man sig d se en jte, som strvar framt
mot blst och det vita ansiktet under luvan suggererar ovillkorligt fram
en bestmd mening, et slags obeveklig vilja (Hallstrm 1921, 186).
Tese sites were considered to be alive and to go de lever och kann g
(Reuterskild 1912, 49). A good example of a site for the fshing god is
a site in the district of Kitil (Northern Finland). It is a seven meter
high stone standing on the shore of a lake (Itkonen 1946, 33, 35 fg.).
Te lake is called Taatsi-jrvi in Finnish, which corresponds to a Smi
name Tjaatsijauri (Tjatsi lake or Water lake). It is clear that the word
tjaatsi does not mean water in this case. It is hardly possible to imagine
a lake without water. In this case, as in several other place names such
as Tjatsisoulo (Water island), the word tjaatsi does not mean water
but the personifcation of water, the god of water Tjatsiolmai.
By the transformation of the Smi god of fshery Tjatsiolmai into
the Scandinavian mountain giant Tjazi, we can assume the follow-
ing development: Te Smi site (idol) of Tjatsi in the form of a stone
man or stone bird or even in the form of a big stone was reinterpret-
ed by the Scandinavians as a mountain giant named Tjazi. But in
the Scandinavian tradition this giant preserves some features of the Smi
Tjatsiolmai. Tey are: a possible connection of the Scandinavian giant
Tjazi with water: when Loki came to Tjazi to bring back Idun, Tjazi
was not at home, he had rowed out on the sea. Te Younger Edda
gives us one more sign which confrms the connection between Tjazi
und Tjatsiolmai: they both can accept sacrifces. As to Tjaziolmai
this fact does not need to be proved, this is his main function. But
even the Scandinavian giant Tjazi appeared to accept sacrifces.
In the Younger Edda in Skldskaparml we can fnd the following story.
Oden, Loki and Honir wandered over mountains and wastelands and
they had no food. Tey saw a fock of oxen, took one of them, tried to
cook the meat, but could not. Ten they saw an eagle in the tree who
said that if they gave him a bite of their booty, then their meat would
be ready. Tey did so and had their meat cooked. Tis eagle was Tjazi.
Gro Steinsland interprets this story as a reminiscence of the sacrifce
to the giants (Steinsland 1986, 219). And really in that way that Tjazi
takes a bite of the booty from Odin, Honir and Loki, he reminds us of
Tjatsiolmai, who ofen in the shape of a bird accepts sacrifces at his
site. Te god of fshing and water bird hunting was ofen represented
as a bird or as a man with bird feet.
It is possible that even the theme of the robbery of apples of reju-
venation by an eagle was not a direct continuation of an Indo-European
motif, but it could have come to Scandinavia from Indo-Arians through
the Siberian people. In the Indo-Arian tradition the eagle Garuda
steals the drink of immortality from the gods. In the mythology of
many northern Asiatic people from Mongols to Samoyeds, we fnd a
bird which corresponds to Garuda (and even the name of this bird in
the languages of Siberian people has been borrowed from Indo-Arians,
cf. Mong. Khangarid, Buryat Khardig, Altai Kerede, Tuvan Khereti, Yakut
Khardai, Samoyed Kr). If we take into consideration the big Indo-
Arian infuence on Uralic mythology and on the Uralic languages (Katz
2003), we cannot exclude the following way of this motif spreading
Indo-Arian > Turkic and Tunguso-Manchurian people > Uralic people
(in particular Samoyeds) > Smi > Scandinavians). In this connection,
it is important to stress that the Smi word bassi (holy) as e. g. in Stoura
Bassi Sieidi the great holy god (a god of hunt and fshing in one of
the Smi areas) is an Indo-Arian loan word in Finno-Ugric languages
(cf. Avest. Baga- luck, fate, OInd. bhga- luck).13
Te connection of the Scandinavian giant Tjazi with the Smi god
of fshing and water bird hunting Tjatsiolmai becomes even clearer if
we remember Tjazis daughter Skadi. Skadi has evident features which
correspond to the clich features of the Smi in Old Icelandic literature.
13 For more detail about the connection between the Scandinavian giant Tjazi
and the Southern Smi god for fshing Tjatsiolmai see Kusmenko 2006.
She goes skiing, hunts with a bow and shoots game. In skaldic poetry,
she is called o ndurds, o ndurgo ski goddess. She is a giantess but she
belongs to the gods. She was one of Njrds wives, but according to
the Norwegian skald Eyvind Finnson (!), she did not want to live with
Njrd and did beter by marrying Odin. She had many children with
him. One of them, who was the ancestor of a very well-known person
in Norwegian history Hakon Jarl, was called S mingr.
Skadis traditional occupations and the name of her son with
Odin Sming have given the idea to the known German philologist
Karl Mllenhof that both Skadi and Sming remind one of the repre-
sentatives of the original Scandinavian population Smi in Northern
mythology (Mllenhof 1906, 55), cf. also jetedateren Skade, som
ferdedes p ski, kann godt oprinnelig stamme fra lappenes, fnnenes
saguverden (Itkonen 1928, 79). Even the name Sming is considered
to contain the self-designation of Smi (Smi / Spmi).
Te question is what type of connection is characteristic of the rela-
tion between Skadi and the Smi. Was it a pure coincidence that the fea-
tures of Skadi coincided with the clich features of Smi? Or are we
in this case dealing with the personifcation and mythologization of
the northern neighbors of Scandinavians? Such mythologization of
the neighbors is a usual thing. Te Smi for instance have also per-
sonifed and mythologized Scandinavians in the shape of the giant
Stallo. Or was Skadi borrowed from the Smi tale world, as Itkonen
assumed? We would then have to look for a correspondence for Skadi
in the Smi tradition.
Unlike Tjazi, Skadi does not have any formal correspondence
among the Smi gods. But she has a functional correspondence. Among
the Smi akkas female gods we fnd Juxakka, one of Maderakkas daugh-
ters. Te name Juxakka can be translated as Bow Woman. Her atributes
are a ski (or a ski pole) and a bow (she is always represented on the sha-
man drums with a bow and a ski pole). Her function in the 18th century
was to be responsible for male children, i. e. for the future hunters.
She could even transform a girl into a boy in the mothers belly. Afer
his birth, she gives the boy to the god of hunting Leibolmai who has
the same atributes as Juxakka: a bow and a ski. Leibolmai (alder man)
is a male correspondence to Juxakka.
Skadi has also a male correspondence: Ull, a god who was called
in the skaldic poetry rvarss arrow-ass, bogass bow-god, veiiss
hunt-god, skf rr skier. Even in this case the connection of the occu-
pations of Ull with the traditional Smi occupations could not but have
caught ones eye. Te German historian Golther stressed that Ull in his
armament and his way of life as a hunter with a bow, who goes skiing on
snow felds and snow mountains, reminds us of the Finns and the Smi
(Golther 2003 (1895) 13, 312). But it is assumed that the winter features
of Ull were not original. In the Scandinavian tradition, Ull is a son of
Sif, the wife of Tor, the woman with a golden hair. Tough Icelandic
mythological tradition does not give us much information about Ull,
there are some places in the Elder Edda that show that before the Viking
Age he was an important god in Scandinavia, cf. Grm. 42. Ullar hylli
hef oc allra goa / hverr er tekr fyrstr funa Who at frst extinguishes
the fre has the favor of Ull and of all the gods and Atlkv. 30, where an
oath must be sworn at the southern sun, at the bourg of Sigtyr (Odin),
at the horse of the bed of rest and at the ring of Ull at sl inni surh llo
oc at Sigts bergi / hlqvi hvlbeiar ok at hringi Ullar. Vries indicates Ull
as die helle Seite des Himmelsgotes whose cult was spread among
the Germanic people at the time of the roman emperors (Vries 1957,
159). Ohlmarks dates Ull to even more ancient time. He indicates he
was the main god of the sky at the Bronze Age in Middle Sweden and
Eastern Norway (Ohlmarks 1975, 181). Te OE and OHG personal
names with Ull (> Wuld-), cf. OE Wuldwine, OHG Wuldberth indicate
his earlier importance in the Germanic world. Te runic inscription
from Torsbjrg (around 200) owluewaR is especially interesting.
Tis can be interpreted as the servant (i. e. the priest) of Ull (Vries 1957,
158159). However, the northern features of Ull as a god of winter hunt-
ing form a contrast to his original function as a god of light.
Te most popular etymology connects the name Ull with Goth.
wulus glory, shine (Blndal 1989, 1084). Te original meaning of this
word is assumed to be light. Not only etymology but also some places
in the Elder Edda (see above) have given rise to the assumption that
Ull was originally a god of light and probably one of the most popular
gods before the Viking age. Ull was not only connected with Skadi
as a god of winter hunting, but this connection can be traced even to
the time when he was the god of light. Two circumstances can testify
to this. Te etymology of the name Skadi, which is connected with
Goth. skadus shadow and the etymology of the name Ull which is
connected with the word for light. Tat the gods of light and shad-
ow formed a pair seems very likely. Te second reason for an earlier
connection between Skadi and Ull is the geographical distribution of
theophoric place names with Skadi (Skadevi, Skdvi, Skdharg etc.),
which coincides with the distribution of the theophoric place names
with Ull (Ullevi, Ulleraker etc.), (Lindroth 1919, 48; Kraf 2000, 14, 170,
208). Te place names with Ull and Skadi are spread in middle Sweden
and eastern Norway where hunting was one of the main occupations.
Cults of two Smi gods of winter hunt Juxakka and Leibolmai were
spread in the same regions. Tus we have a clear parallel between two
Scandinavian gods of winter hunting, a male and a female, Ull and Skadi,
and two Smi gods of winter hunting, a male and a female, Leibolmai
and Juxakka. What was the reason for this parallel?
We can assume the following development. Before the Viking
Age, the North Germanic people had a pair of gods for light (Ull) and
shadow (Skadi) or probably for day and night or for sun and moon. It is
now impossible to reconstruct the exact meaning of the pair, but it is
clear that they formed a pair. Te shadow features of Skadi have led
to her identifcation with the Smi goddess of winter hunting Juxakka,
cf. the semantic chain shadow > coldness > winter. Trough the identi-
fcation with Juxakka, Skadi was reinterpreted as a goddess of winter
hunting (cf. her atributes of a bow and a ski). Accordingly her pendant
Ull also obtained the atributes of winter hunting (bow and ski) and also
became a god of winter hunting. Te transformation of the original god
of light Ull into the god of winter hunting is connected not only with
the parallelism with Skadi but also with the comparison of the Smi pair
Juxakka Lieibolmai with the Scandinavian pair Skadi Ull. In this way
Ull received features which were characteristic for Leibolmai.
Today it is hardly possible to say how Skadi (a goddess of winter
hunting) became a daughter of the giant Tjazi (who originated from
the Smi god of fshing), but it is possible that the functional connec-
tion of their Smi prototypes (Juxakka and Tjatsiolmai) determined
this development.
Te infuence of the Smi on the Scandinavian sphere of fshing and
winter hunting (hunting with skis and bows) must not be a surprise for
us. As we have seen above, Smi had a high authority in these occupa-
tions in Scandinavian society. And we must not forget that skiing came
to Scandinavians from their northern neighbours (Manker 1971).
Language
In the period which in linguistic terminology is usually called Common
Scandinavian (5501050) and which in Swedish historical tradition cor-
responds to the two historical periods Vendel period and the Viking Age,
the Scandinavian languages underwent a radical change. At this time
they developed several features which distinguish the Scandinavian
language from the other Germanic languages but which typologically
correspond to the features of the Finno-Ugric languages14. Tese fea-
tures include the development of agglutination (sufxed article, suf-
fxed negation, sufxed passive), the loss of the original Germanic
prefxes and probably pre-aspiration and nasal assimilation15. Tese
features have always been considered to be the result of an autochthon
Scandinavian development. Even Kylstra, who wrote about a typologi-
cal rapprochement of the Germanic and Finno-Ugric languages did not
dare to admit that the typological afnity between the Scandinavian and
14 Te increasing morphological afnity of the Scandinavian languages with
the Finno-Ugric languages has already been atested to. Kylstra was the frst
to discover certain important Smi-Scandinavian parallels. He wrote about
eine deutliche Annherung des Germanischen an den fnnisch-ugrischen
Sprachtypus (Kylstra 1967, 113). He names the following features, which
erinnern an den Finnisch-Lappischen Typus: 1. frst position of the verb,
2. narrative tense changes, 3. loss of the object, 4. disappearance of prefxes
5. sufxation of the defnite article, 6. sufxation of the refexives, 7. postposi-
tion of the possessive pronouns. (ibid, 121). Tough some of these features
can hardly be connected with Finno-Ugric infuence (N 13) and others have
been named without mentioning possible Finno-Ugric sources of the corre-
sponding Scandinavian developments (N 56), this article has made a very
important contribution to the study of similar developments in the Smi and
in the Scandinavian languages, though Kylstra himself sees a possible Finno-
Ugric infuence only in the loss of prefxes (Kylstra, 1967, 121).
15 Te age of preaspiration can not be established with defniteness because it
was never marked in writing.
the Smi languages could be the result of Smi interference in Common
Scandinavian. But if we take into consideration the usual principles of
investigation of possible interference features (comparison with related
languages, chronology, direction of spreading, degree of incorporation
in the language system, typology of interference) we can say that all
innovative Scandinavian features mentioned above could be interpreted
as the result of Smi interference in Common Scandinavian.
Te loss of the original Germanic prefxes was one of the frst
changes in this direction. Te developed system of prefxes was charac-
teristic of the Gothic (cf. prefxes ga-, un, dis-, fair-, twis-) and of the Old
West Germanic languages. A very rich system of prefxes is still char-
acteristic of Modern German. Even in English, which has undergone
the most radical changes since the Old English period, we fnd some
original Germanic prefxes (cf. become, begin). Common Scandinavian
appeared however to be et praktisk talt prefxlst sprk (Christiansen
1960, 342343)16. Te comparison of the West Germanic languages with
Old Norse testifes to this development very clearly; cf. Got. haitan
to be called, gahaitan to promise, OI heita to be called, to prom-
ise. In some cases, verbs with prefxes in the West and East Germanic
languages correspond to verbs with another root, cf. OHG biqueman
come up to, get at, become, OE becuman to reach, to become OI f
to get. In the position before sonorants, unstressed prefxes have not
been completely dropped, they have only lost their vowels as the initial
consonant has been incorporated into the root, as in OI granni neigh-
bour, Got. garazna; OI gngr enough, Got. ganohs (vgl. German genug).
Te loss of the unstressed prefxes can be dated back to the 7th century,
cf. the form with the unstressed prefx un- (unnam) in the inscription
on the stone from Reistad, 6th century (Krause 1971, 136).
If we compare Common Scandinavian with the other Old Ger-
manic languages having unstressed prefxes and Smi with the other
Uralic languages having no prefxes and if we take into consideration
that the lack of prefxes (and lack of unstressed initial syllables in gen-
eral) in Smi is much older than the Common Scandinavian loss of
16 Te new unstressed prefxes of the Modern Scandinavian languages (such as
be- and an-) have been borrowed from Middle Low German during the Hansa
period.
unstressed prefxes, only one direction of borrowing can be assumed,
namely from Smi to Common Scandinavian. Te loss of prefxes was
originally characteristic of the Scandinavian language of the Smi but it
spread later into the areas without Smi population. Tis development
in Common Scandinavian corresponded to the main stress patern of
the greatest part of Germanic words which had initial stress.
Tree other changes in Common Scandinavian (sufxation of -inn,
-s(k), -a(t) and -gi / -ki) have also increased the number of iambic words
in Common Scandinavian. Te traditional hypotheses about the devel-
opment of the sufxed defnite article in Scandinavian languages con-
nects sufxation only with the postposition of the original demonstrative
pronoun (mar + inn gi > marinn gi (Grimm 1989 (1898), 447), or
mar inn > marinn (Nygaard 1905). Te inn-sufxation is tradition-
ally dated to the Viking Age (Noreen 1913). But the postposition of
the original demonstrative pronoun is a necessary but in itself insufcient
condition for sufxation. It cannot explain the development of sufxa-
tion in the Scandinavian languages because in the Old West Germanic
languages the postposition of the pronouns was also possible. It seems
that there is reason to look for other sources of article sufxation.
All the Uralic languages have possessive sufxes which have the
same function as possessive pronouns in the Indo-European languages.
Tese possessive sufxes can have not only possessive but also emphatic
semantics and semantics that correspond to the semantics of a defnite
article. On the other hand a defnite article very ofen has possessive
semantics, cf. Germ. Ich stecke die Hand in die Tasche vs Engl. I put
my hand in my pocket. If we compare languages with possessive suf-
fxes with languages with defnite article we can see a clear parallelism
between these categories, vgl. Germ. er hat das Bein gebrochen, Sw. han
har brutit benet but Finn. hn on murtanut jalkansa, N.Smi son lea
doadjan juolggis. In the Finnish and Smi sentences the noun for leg
has a possessive sufx (jalkansa, juolgis), cf. Engl. He has broken his
leg. If we compare the semantics of the frst cases of inn-sufxation in
the Old Scandinavian languages, when the defnite article was not yet
grammaticalized and the semantics of the sufxed -inn was frst of all
emphatic and possessive, then the afnity between the Smi possessive
sufxes and the Scandinavian sufxation becomes even clearer.
Te development of Scandinavian sufxation can thus be recon-
structed as follows. Proto-Scandinavian and the start of Common
Scandinavian were characterized by free word order in the noun
group. Te original Scandinavian demonstrative pronoun (h)inn in
postposition was interpreted in the Scandinavian language of the Smi
as a sufx corresponding to the Smi possessive sufxes which had
the same (possessive, determinative and emphatic) semantics. Tus
the pronoun (h)it in the Common Scandinavian sentence hann hef
brotit bein (h)it or hann hef bein (h)it brotit (he has broken leg the)
was interpreted as a sufx corresponding to the Smi possessive suf-
fx -s (cf. son lea doadjan juolggis). It was not the borrowing of a sufx
but the reinterpretation of a Scandinavian word as a sufx accordingly
to the semantics of the Smi possessive sufxes. Te inn-sufxation,
which originally was a characteristic of the Scandinavian language of
the Smi, was later spread to the areas of the original Scandinavian pop-
ulation. Inn-sufxation developed in central Scandinavia, in the main
zone of the Smi-Scandinavian contact, and from there it expanded
into the southern Scandinavian area, but sufxation did not reach
the southern and western Danish dialects, where the defnite article
is prepositive.17
Te following evidence testifes to the Smi origin of inn-sufxation:
(comparison with related languages) the presence of the possessive
sufxes in all Uralic languages and the absence of article sufxation
in the West Germanic languages; (age) a much younger develop-
ment of the inn-sufxation in Common Scandinavian compared with
the development of the possessive sufxes in the Uralic languages;
the spreading of the inn-sufxation from the north to the south (south-
west Denmark was not afected by this development). Te grammati-
calization of the inn-form as a defnite article took place later, when
the usage of this form with defnite semantics became regular.
Another case of reinterpretation of Scandinavian postpositive pro-
nouns as sufxes in the Scandinavian language of the Smi which spread
over the whole Scandinavian area is the sufxation of the original refexive
17 For a detailed study of the rise of the Scandinavian sufxed article and about
the article sufxation in other Indo-European languages, see Kusmenko 2001a,
2005).
pronouns. Te Scandinavian languages, in contrast to the other Germanic
languages, have a synthetic passive or middle voice form with the
sufx -s(k). In the Old Scandinavian languages and in Modern Icelandic,
which has best preserved the original status, there is a semantic diference
between the middle voice and the analytical passive as in OI opnaisk
opened (by itself) var opnar was opened (by someone) on the one
hand, and a semantic diference between the refexive and the middle
voice (cf. Mod. Icelandic vo sr (ref.) to wash (oneself) vost (med.)
to wash; baa sig (ref.) to wash (oneself to become clean) baast (med.)
to bathe (e. g. in the sun)(Kress 1982, 198) on the other hand.
Te grammaticalization of the sk-form indicates that the semantic
diference expressed earlier by the same form has acquired morphologi-
cal signifcance. Te full and the syncopated forms were originally free
variants meia sik meiask to get hurt (the state that in some cases is
preserved in Modern Icelandic setja sig setjast), but afer the grammati-
calization of the middle voice, they began to indicate two grammatical
categories. Te full form began to indicate refexivity, while the sufxed
reduced form was used for middle voice. Scandinavian sufxation can
be connected with the reinterpretation of the reduced form of the post-
positive Scandinavian refexive pronoun s(k) < sik, sr as a sufx in
accordance with the semantics of the sufx -s in the Smi languages.
Te Smi sufx -s indicates that the action happened by itself (without
an agent), cf. Northern Smi dahpat dahpasit, (Sw. stnga stngas),
rahpat rahpasit (Sw. ppna ppnas), (Nickel, 1990, 228229). Such
a reinterpretation was conditioned not only structurally as in the case
of Scandinavian inn-sufxation, but also formally (cf. the phonetic
afnity of the Scandinavian -s(k) with the Smi -s). Te Smi sufx -s
is considered to be an autochthon Finno-Ugric sufx (Itkonen 1980, 25)
which has correspondences in many Finno-Ugric languages (Estonian
and Karelian dialects, Veps, Livonian, Votic, Komi-Permiak Ariste
1968, 7475; Aime 1978, 268; Lytkin 1962, 262266).
Te Smi origin of the Common Scandinavian -s(k) sufxation can
be testifed by:- the structural afnity of the Smi and Scandinavian voice
system (refexive, middle voice and passive in Common Scandinavian
and refexive, medial and passive verbs in Smi), the semantics of
the -s(k) forms which correspond to the semantics of Smi medial
verbs (especially verbs with the sufx -s), comparison with the related
languages (no synthetic voice forms in the West Germanic languages
but corresponding forms in other Finno-Ugric languages) and fnally
the date of the development of the s(k)-form in Common Scandinavian
(8th century AD), which is much earlier than the development of the cor-
responding sufxes in the Finno-Ugric languages. Even in this case we
can assume that the appearance of the s(k)-sufxation was initially in
the Scandinavian languages of the Smi in central Scandinavia and later
this feature spread to the South.18
Another possible Smi interference feature in Common Scandina-
vian is the development of sufxed negation, which is dated to the 8th
century. Te sentence (verbal) negation sufx was -a(t), the sentence
constituents negation was -ki / -gi (cf. forms of the Norwegian ska-
lds from the 9th century l trat does not let, or younger runic munat
shall not from the 10th century or forms aldrigi (< aldri-gi) never,
eigi (< ei-gi) not, originally never from the same time. Sufxed nega-
tion distinguishes Common Scandinavian not only from the other
Germanic languages but even from the other Indo-European languages.
Te traditional explanation of this sufxation connects the sufxation
with the postposition of the reduced reinforcement elements and with
the loss of the original prepositive negation particle ne (e. g. *ne verR
ainata, aina, aiw does not become anything, ever > the reduced forms
*ne + verR + a, at > ne verrat > verrat does not become. We have
to understand why this development was possible only in Common
Scandinavian. Te sufxation of the reinforcement elements in
Common Scandinavian could have been caused by the reinterpretation
of the Common Scandinavian negation construction *ne (negative par-
ticle) etR (verb) at (reinforcement) does not eat as a construction with
a sufx (ne etR a(t) > ne etRa(t)) in correspondence with the Smi nega-
tive construction consisting of a negative auxiliary verb and of a special
indefnite (negative) form of the main verb with the original sufx *k >
t > 0 (*ej porek > ej borat > ij bora does not eat). Tus the Common
Scandinavian reinforcements -a (< *aiw ever) and -(a)t (< *einata ein)
18 For more detail about the development of the s(k)-form in Common Scandi-
navian see usmenko 2001b; 2005.
were reinterpreted in the Common Scandinavian of the Smi speakers
as sufxes corresponding to the Smi sufxes of the indefnite nega-
tive form of the main verb (cf. borat and later bora). Te phonological
afnity of the Scandinavian reinforcement elements with the sufxes
of the Smi indefnite (negative) form (-at, a) contributed to such a
reinterpretation (cf. the development of the middle voice sufx above).
Later the negative particle ne was dropped and the former reinforce-
ment elements became the only markers of negation.
Te development of Common Scandinavian constituent negation
can be also treated as a reinterpretation of the Common Scandinavian
reinforcement particle ki / gi in postposition as a sufx corresponding
to the Smi particle -gi, which ofen appears as a sufx in construc-
tions with the negative verb (cf. Northern Smi: auxiliary negative
verb + goassege never; + guhtege nobody, + mihkkege nothing). If we
compare these forms with the semantically corresponding Common
Scandinavian forms we fnd that they have also -gi / -ki sufxation
cf. OI aldrigi < *ne aldr-gi never; OI engi(nn) < *ne ainaR-gi nobody,
OI ekki etki < *ne einata gi nothing.19
Two phonological features can be interpreted as Smi interfer-
ence in Scandinavian: pre-aspiration and assimilation of the nasals.
Pre-aspiration is now spread not only in the West Scandinavian area,
where it is the well known and well described (cf. Modern Icelandic
drekka /drehka/) but everywhere in Scandinavia20, except Denmark,
where we have possible traces of pre-aspiration in the form of a short
vocalic std in some Danish dialects. Tough the age of the pre-aspira-
tion is a mater of debate, it is quite possible that it developed before
the colonization of Iceland during the Common Scandinavian time
(Hansson 2001, 197). Pre-aspiration is lacking in the other Germanic lan-
guages but occurs in some Uralic languages21 and it plays a very impor-
tant role in Smi stadium gradation. A Smi origin of Scandinavian
19 For more detail about the development of sufxed negation see Kusmenko
2002.
20 Cf. Non-normative preaspiration does occur in the speech of many speakers
across Scandinavia (Helgason 2002, 94).
21 As e. g. in Mansi (Kannisto 1919, xiixiv) and Forest Nenets (Sammallahti
1974, 44, 118, 133).
pre-aspiration is therefore very plausible (Kuzmenko, Rieler 2000,
219; Rieler 2004).
It is possible that even Scandinavian nasal assimilation (nk > kk,
nt > t, np > pp, as e. g. in drikka < *drinkan) which occurred in the 7th
8th centuries (Moberg 1944) and which difered the Scandinavian
languages from West Germanic languages could also be connected
with a corresponding Smi development (cf. nG > GG, nD > DD, nB >
BB22) which corresponds to the development in some Uralic languages
(cf. in Enets Mikola 2004, 6566).23
We can see that before and during the Viking Age, Common
Scandinavian was strongly infuenced by Smi. Te obvious connec-
tion between the Scandinavian developments and the Smi features
has always been neglected with the simple reason that the spread of
Smi interference features was not possible due to the low prestige
of the Smi. But we have seen above that relations between the Smi
and the Scandinavians before and during the Viking Age was character-
ized by mutual respect and acceptance, and did not prevent the spread
of Smi interference features in Common Scandinavian.
Conclusion
When we look at the relation between the Smi and Scandinavians in
the Viking Age without being prejudiced, we can conclude that the tra-
ditional opinion that Smi cultural infuence on the Sandinavians was
impossible or minor is false. On the contrary there are many elements
in Scandinavian heathen culture and in Scandinavian languages which
were borrowed by the Scandinavians from their northern neighbors
before and during the Viking Age. We can even suppose that the for-
mation of the Scandinavian culture and of the Common Scandinavian
language in the period between the 6th and the 11th centuries was
conditioned by Smi-Scandinavian contacts to a very high degree.
22 Majusculae indicate voiceless lenes plosives.
23 Kylstra, who indicated these parallels between the Smi and the Scandinavian
languages, did not make conclusions about Smi interference in Scandinavian
(Kylstra 1983).
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jalf
Anatoly Liberman
University of Minnesota
Litle is known about Tors (rrs) servant Tialf (jalf or jlf), and
this is why the origin of his name, the central subject of this paper, also
remains a mater of dispute. An etymologist ignorant of a words exact
meaning wanders in the dark. Te name of an ancient tool (to give a
random example) can be explained only when sufcient information
exists about the uses to which the tool was put. Likewise, a mythologi-
cal name (except for such as Freyr lord and rr thunder), if treated
only as a linguistic sign, is open to all kinds of interpretation. To choose
the most persuasive of them, we have to ascertain the characters place
in the system of beliefs.
Finn Magnusen 1828: 60809 compared the name jlf (with )
and the Mod. Icel.1 verb jlfa to work, but laid no particular stress
on this comparison. Uhland 1868: 33 (frst published in 1836) glossed
jlf as Arbeiter, without referring to Magnusen, and is believed to
have been the originator of this etymology. Many distinguished scholars
repeated it (see, for example, Hermann 1893: 338, Much 1898: 46, Deter
1901: 117, Deter-Heinzel 1903: 221/405, and R. Meyer 1910: 291). Since
Uhlands time several more etymologies of Tialfs name have been
proposed, and with the exception of one older and one later one, all of
them had circulated by 1938 (see a brief survey in Schrder 1938: 214,
note 1). Jan de Vries 19772 examines the works of the same authors.
Lorenz 1984: 511/14, sec. 2 ofers an even shorter survey.
Te Elder Edda mentions Tialf only once. In Hrbarzli 3739,
Tor tells Othin (inn) that he had fought berserks brides, who
atacked him with iron cudgels and elto jlfa chased away Tialf. Berserks
brides must have been giantesses. No description of this batle has come
down to us, but giantesses as Tors adversaries fgure in Snorris Edda, and
the theme Tor batles giantesses and is later mocked for vanquishing
women was popular, as evidenced by several echoes of it in the sagas.
Tialf turns up here as Tors companion and, uncharacteristically, fees.
96 Anatoly Liberman
Te Lexicon Poeticum (LP) cites two occurrences of the word jalf
in skaldic poetry. Kormkr used the kennings eyja jalf and angs
jalf. Both mean sea (eyja of islands, angs of the sea weed tang).
Gubrandur Vigfsson (Cl.V.) was uncertain about how to gloss jalf;
at present, the kennings are usually translated as islands / sea weeds
encircler, confner. Te noun jalmi, the basis of a similar kenning,
may be a phonetic variant of jalf (see the end of the paper on this
word). De Vries 1977 has separate entries for jalf and jalmi. Although
he distinguishes between jalmi rope, noose and jalmi encircler
(in poetry), he admits that they may belong together. For jalmi as a
prose word Gubrandur Vigfsson suggested the gloss caltrop (that
is, snare) or pitfall. jlmi three loops on a rope and jlmur snare
have continued into Modern Icelandic. Bugge 1889: 12 also understood
jlmi (with ) as trap, snare. It follows that Kormkrs verses do not
provide any new information on jalf, for, to interpret the kennings,
we have to decide whether they refer to a character called jalf or to
the common name homonymous with it.
From the skald Eilfr Gurnarsons rsdrpa we learn that Tialf
assisted Tor manfully and that neither of them trembled with fear
during their encounter with the giant Geirrr (strophes 9 and 10).
Olrik 1905: 130 believed that the same poet composed rsdrpa and
Hrbarzli, but no evidence supports this conjecture. According to
Snorri, who depended on jlfr hinn hvinerski (Tiotholf of Hvin),
Tialf did not accompany Tor on his expedition to Geirrargarar
but took part in his masters duel with Hrungnir. Tialfs association
with Tor must have given rise to numerous versions of their encounters
with the giants. He was a good servant, and this is why the line from
Hrbarzli comes as a surprise, unless it implies that Tors opponents
were so dangerous that even the faithful Tialf fed. Simek 1993 remarks
that in Hrbarzli and rsdrpa Tialf may be another god, rather
than Tors servant. Tis is probably going too far.
Snorris version contains a puzzling moment. It is unclear why
the giants produced Mokkurklf, a clay giant of enormous size. Tey
made him stand near Hrungnir, and Tors appearance flled him with
great fear. Tialf atacked, and Mokkurklf fell with litle renown.
Te situation in which a duel by a minor character precedes or duplicates
97 jalf
the main one is known from both heroic literature and myth. Compare
Hotrs mock fght with a dead dragon afer Bovarr Bjarki killed it
(Hrlfs kraka saga). Even in real fghts the moment of triumph resembles
an anticlimax. Sigurr wounded Fafnir from a pit, and Bovarrs encoun-
ter with a terrible beast lasted a short time. Only Beowulf and Wiglaf
(another pair) struggled in good earnest, and the same holds for the great
saga heroes when they defend themselves from mortal enemies.
jlf and klf ~ klf rhyme, but despite the consensus that klf
means calf (that is, a young bull), Mokkurklf need not have been
a calf. Tere was a proper name Klf, from *K-ulf (De Vries 1977).
Terefore, Tialf may have had a worthy foe to combat rather than a
dummy made of clay. Mo kkur- in Mo kkurklfs name probably meant
mist. Te giants (so Snorri) could not fnd a heart big enough for their
creature and put a mares heart into him. Unlike Mokkurklf, Hrungnir
had a sharp-edged three-cornered heart of stone. Te duplication of
the heart motif has no justifcation, and it is usually nonfunctional
details that provide a clue to the origin of myths. Here we see two of
them: a parallel non-heroic duel and a mention of a mares heart in
Mokkurklfs body. In medieval Scandinavian literature, horses are
never denigrated. Tere is nothing wrong with a mares heart, except
that it became part of a male (and this is, of course, the whole point).
I will venture the hypothesis that in an earlier myth Mokkurklf,
far from being a huge coward made of clay, was a mighty giant with a
stout heart of a stallion (K-ulfr) from the land of the mist, perhaps
Hrungnirs servant. Both had famous hearts, and the batle between
Tor and Hrungnir was preceded by a duel between jalf (? jlf) and
Klf. Tialf overpowered the servant, and Tor, though not unscarred
(a piece of Hrungnirs hone got stuck in his head and remained there
forever) got the beter of an almost invincible giant. With time, the sto-
ry was forgoten and turned into a farce like the gods adventure in
the kingdom of tgaraloki or Hotrs atack on a dead beast. E. Meyers
idea that -klf means calf of the leg (1891: 147), though repeated by
von der Leyen 1938: 223, strikes me as fanciful.
Our only authority for the beginning of Tialfs career is Snorri.
According to his tale, Tor set out to visit tgaraloki and stopped
at a farmers house (a typical checkpoint separating peoples habitat
98 Anatoly Liberman
from the Other World; see my discussion in Liberman 1994: 18589).
Te farmer, his wife, and their two children Tialf and Roskva invited
Tor to a meal. Tor slaughtered his goats and the company partook
of them, but Tialf violated the order not to touch the bones and split
the thigh of one of the goats, so that when Tor resuscitated the animals,
that goat was lame. He was furious, but, on seeing everybodys fear,
calmed down and did not punish the family. He only took both children
with him as servants. All three and Loki show up in tgaralokis king-
dom. Roskva is never heard of again, but Tialf participates in the con-
tests at tgaralokis. He claims to be a swif runner, and, although he
acquits himself well (he is indeed the swifest runner on earth), he loses
to Hugi (Tought) in all three heats.
Te lameness of Tors goats and the defective handle of Mjollnir
belong with Othins sacrifce of an eye, Oedipuss bad foot, Jasons
loss of a sandal, Hephaistoss lameness, and many other cases of ritual
mutilation (they are marks of special destiny) in the myths of the world.
In my work on tgaraloki, I pointed out an odd detail: the farmer and
his wife have no names. In myths everybody and everything (dwarves,
giants, swords, ketles, etc.) has a name. Consequently, when we are
told that, for instance, Baldrs nameless horse was buried with him or
that Tor dined with an anonymous farmer, we may suspect that Baldr
did not have a horse and that such a farmer never existed. Rydberg 1886:
642 (and seemingly, no one else) commented on the farmers anonym-
ity, but he had a penchant for imaginative cross-references and did not
realize that we are dealing with multiple versions of a fuid tale rather
than fragments of a fxed text. It is said in Hymisqvia, stanza 7, that
when Tor decided to visit Hymir, the giant Egill took care of the goats.
Rydberg concluded that the maiming of the goats happened during
Tors absence and that Tialf was Egills son. Snorri, in his opinion,
did not know the name of Tialfs father (he says that in the Younger
Edda the name was forgoten). Tis reconstruction is groundless. Tor
would not have sought a servant among the giants sons. But in one
respect Rydberg was right. Snorris account does contain a faw: Tialf
could not be some farmers son either.
An additional source used in unraveling the Tialf myth is the Old
Swedish Guta saga. It begins with a legendary description of Gotland,
99 jalf
an enchanted (eluist, that is, elvist / elfst) island that sank into the ocean
at night and came to the surface during the day. Te power of elves was
broken and the sinking stopped when a man called Tielvar (ieluar,
that is, ielvar) came to Gotland with fre (quameldi). Nothing
is known about his wife; however, he had a son Hafi who married
Huitastierna (that is, Hvitastierna); she appears in the legend from
nowhere. On their frst night, she had a prophetic dream, and so on.
Te inhabitants of Gotland are the ofspring of that frst couple. Since
only one personage in Scandinavian myths is called Tialf, researchers
identify him with Tielvar. I will look at this tradition in some detail, but
its shaky foundation should be pointed out at once. Compare Lfers
reservations (1908: 171) and Finnur Jnssons cautious remark: Some
people think that Tialf is identical with Tielvar (1913: 59). Peel 1999:
xviii is also noncommital.
Since Tialf was Tors servant, and Tor, as his name indicates,
was originally a thunder god, an atempt has been made to treat Tialf
as lightning. It seems to have been E. Meyers idea (1891: 204; 1903: 277),
but Much developed it like no one else (1898: 46 = p. 55 of the book
edition). Te episode in Guta saga allowed him to compare Tialf /
Tielvar with Prometheus. However, the comparison is weak. Tielvar
did not steal fre from the gods or bring it to people (Gotland was
uninhabited). His action had a diferent purpose: to take possession
of land, one had to carry fre over it (hence the phrases koma eldi and
fara me eldi um landnm). Tis is what happened to Gotland: once
Tielvar performed the ritual, the elves lost their power over the island
and the area became his property (cf. Rydberg 1887: 103, who held
this opinion). Deter 1893: 116, in a review of E. Meyer 1891, asked:
Why should Tors servant Tialf be lightning? Te reason is clear
but wrong.
Some mythologists treated Loki as an ancient fre demon or fre
god, stressed the proximity of Tialfs and Lokis roles (both ofen
accompany Tor), and thus justifed their treatment of Tialf / Tielvar,
the alleged Scandinavian counterpart of Prometheus. One of them was
Schrder 1924: 117. Later we will see that Loki and Tialf have nothing
in common, but Schrders views deserve more than a passing mention,
for he gave the problem of Tialf his serious consideration. Regretably,
100 Anatoly Liberman
when he returned to it (1938: 21215; 220; 221, note 2; 222), he ofered an
eccentric hypothesis. He repeated his old idea that Tielvar was a fre
demon but now added that he was the son and husband of Gotlands
mother goddess. A long passage follows to the efect that such a situa-
tion is common in mythology. Huitastierna, Tielvars daughter-in-law,
turned out to be his wife, identical with Tacituss Nerthus. Her name
(White Star), so Schrder, may mean die blondgelbe (Acker)fche,
approximately blond-yellow (plowland) but, most probably, means
a cow with a white star on the forehead; she was, he proposes, a cow
goddess (this is an old conjecture). In other cases Schrder also recon-
structs theriomorphic deities. For example, from Tors association
with goats he concludes that at one time Tor was a god in the shape of a
goat. Beyond any doubt, the Gotland creation tale is based on the idea
that the god of fre and fertility forms a union with the earth goddess.
Tis is the frst couple, and all people are their ofspring (215).
Now that, according to Schrder, not a single dark corner has
remained with respect to Tialfs nature, the origin of his name, as he
believes, also becomes clear. Presumably, Gmc. *elfn goes back to
PIE *telp- or *telbh-, whose root is (s)tel- drip, urinate, as in Gk
drop, drip, G stallen urinate (said about horses), and others. More cog-
nates can be found in WP 64246, especially on p. 646. Te connection
between G stallen and Gk is questionable, but the Greek
verb and Gmc *elf (whatever its meaning) may be related. However,
the similarity between ejaculation of semen expected from a fertility
god (or urination) and dripping ~ dropping is distant, to put it mildly.
jalf is a weak noun (an n-stem), while ielvar is not. Schrder could not
account for the diference and referred to the possibility of an ancient
alternation in the sufx (n ~ r).
Schrder was not fully confdent of his etymology and dismissed
the question with the statement that the origin of mythic names plays
a subsidiary role in understanding the origin of myths. As to the myth,
he thought he had found support for his reconstruction in the fact that
Tialf was Tors servant. Another long passage is devoted to Indra and
Vishnu and Indra as an ithyphallic god (god with an erect phallus) and
to other gods, mainly Greek, having the same characteristics. Te excur-
sus led him to the conclusion that when a great god is accompanied by a
101 jalf
small servant (Schrder emphasizes the servants size), the god embod-
ies the force of procreation, whereas the servant (as far as his origin is
concerned) is the gods worshipped anthropomorphic phallus. By way
of aferthought (221, note 2), Schrder mentions the Hitite vegetation
god Telepinu ~ Telebinu, whose name looks like a perfect congener of
Gmc *elf-, but adds that more research is needed to make this com-
parison valid and promises to return to the ties between Germanic and
the languages of Asia Minor. In his later works, Tialf does not seem
to have surfaced again.
Te frst to represent Tialf as small was probably Olrik (1905).
He objected to the understanding of Tialf as a worker, because Tialf
was a short, weak, even though nimble companion of the thunder
god (138). Olrik mentioned two circumstances relevant to his interpre-
tation: in myths, strong gods are seldom smart (he could have referred
to the usual folklore juxtaposition of brawn versus brain, especially
prominent in animal tales) and need small resourceful servants; besides,
loud thunder peals are usually preceded by weaker, more distant
ones (13839). Considering that in the extant corpus of Scandinavian
myths even Tor has nothing to do with thunder (only his name means
thunder, and his hammer, especially if Mjo llnir is related to Russ. mol-
niia lightning, resembles a thunder gods weapon) and that, as we
will see later, according to Olriks untenable proposition, Loki, rather
than Tialf, was Tors original servant, his hypothesis holds out no
promise. Nor did he connect Tialfs name with thunder. He thought
that jalf was perhaps a variant of ialfar and decomposed the later
name into ial, the Old Swedish form with breaking corresponding to
OI el ground; strength, and far-, as in the verb fara. Te whole yielded
precipitous runner (138).
In Scandinavian myths, unlike what one encounters in later
romances and the eddic verses based on them, in which monsters with
900 heads threaten the protagonist, the giants, dwarves, and gods are
anthropomorphic, and their stature depends on their status: the giants
are dangerous (and this eventually made them look big in peoples eyes),
the dwarves are the gods servants (this factor contributed to their
becoming diminutive), while Tor is a giant slayer (and hence towering
over everyone else). Other than that, they interact as physically equal
beings. Te dwarf Alvss woos Tors daughter, Freya sleeps with four
dwarves, dwarves overpower a giant, Tor experiences no discomfort
while staying in a farmers house, and so forth (cf. Liberman 2008:
4749; the beginning of the entry dwarf). Pictorial representations of
Tor as big and Tialf as small refect the dichotomy master / servant,
not tall / short. To boost the idea of Tors litle servant, Schrder (1938:
219, end of note 4 from the previous page) glossed Lytir, the name of an
obscure Swedish divinity (he wrote Ltir), as der Kleine; Dumling.
Neither Lytir nor Ltir (a less probable variant) is related to OI ltill litle
(see Liberman 2008: 144, the end of the entry lad). Von der Leyen 1938:
223 called ialf one of the most delicate (zierlichsten!) gods. Te pas-
sage in his book devoted to Tialf is unfortunate. He followed E. Meyer
and considered Mo kkurklf to be a misty calf of the leg and Tialf a
quick sunray piercing the mist. Not a single source calls Tialf small,
weak, nimble, or delicate. Tose are fancies. Te epithets applied to him
are sjlfopti self-soaring (Eilfr) and fthvatari swifer of foot (than
anyone else; Snorri).
Comparative mythology reaches its lowest point when it allows
itself to be carried away by wide-ranging convergences. Te topic at
hand tends to be lost in a display of erudition. We only know that
Tielvar brought fre to Gotland, broke the spell the elves had laid on it,
and had a son Hafi by an unknown mother, who in turn married a
woman called Huitastierna. Tat couple populated the entire island.
In Guta saga, Tor does not appear. In Old Icelandic poetry (skaldic and
eddic) and prose (Snorri), Tialf is Tors servant. Where are the fre
demon, the mother goddess, the ithyphallic Tor, his anthropomor-
phic phallus, and a son sleeping with his mother? Some of them occur
in other religions, and that is where they should stay. I prefer to treat
with equal disbelief Lemkes dream-symbolic explanation of Tielevars
activities (1986: 1316).
As already mentioned, Olrik believed that Tialf ousted Loki
from the place of Tors servant. In an Estonian tale (he noted)
it is the trickster who is inseparable from the thunder god: he gets
him into trouble (cf. the stealth of Iunns apples) and rescues him
(cf. rymsqvia). Also, since, according to Olriks theory, a strong god of
limited intelligence needs a smarter helper, Loki appears to be qualifed
103 jalf
for the resourceful servants role, whereas Tialf does not (the ruse
that secured Tors victory over Hrungnir was suggested by the gods,
not by him). In rymsqvia, Loki fies to Trymrs kingdom with Tor,
and in the adventure at tgaralokis Tor, uncharacteristically, has
two companions: Loki and Tialf, in addition to Roskva (Olrik 1905:
138, 14046). Olrik was consistent and called Tialfs participation in
the Hrungnir myth a late detail (130).
Tis reconstruction disregards several moments. To begin with, no
single role fts Loki, and he is too important to be a mere companion
of another god (see Liberman 1994 for a full discussion of Lokis char-
acter and his development from a chthonian deity). It may be true that
someone like Tor needs a smart servant to ofset his simple-minded
brutality, but he also needs someone who will help him win batles
(a Wiglaf at the side of a Beowulf ), and Loki despite his participation in
the Ragnarok, an all-out confrontation between order and chaos, is not
a fghter. Secondly, the eddic gods regularly travel in groups. Alongside
Odin and Tor, we sometimes see obscure fgures like Hnir and Lurr
(for instance, in Vo losp 18). Occasionally Loki bears them company.
Olriks idea appeals to those who treat Loki as a primordial fre demon
(compare what has been said above about Tialf / Tielvar lightning).
Few scholars were ready to substitute Loki for Tialf in the laters
capacity as Tors servant. (See Celander 1911: 9092; De Vries 1937, II:
45, and Strm 1956: 51; Lorenz 1984: 510/11, sec. 3 mentions the contro-
versy but does not discuss it. Neither does De Vries, who only registers
his disagreement with Olrik.) Philippson 1953: 4849 suggested that
Loki as Tors companion supplanted the colorless Tialf, though
rsdrpa gives Tialf his due. In reality, two independent lines Tor /
Loki and Tor / Tialf must have crossed at the earliest time. Tor
had many companions but only one known servant (Tialf). Roskva
may have been another, but her mythology is lost.
Lindow 2001: 286 writes: Following Georges Dumzil, many
observers, especially those who, like Dumzil, approach the material
from the Indo-European side, see here [in Tjlfs failed atempt to
lif Hrungnirs lifeless leg of Tor] a refection of warrior initiation:
Under the tutelage of an elder warrior, the initiant slays a made mon-
ster. I fnd the theory atractive even though there is nothing in Snorris
text to indicate that Tjlfs status changes afer the encounter with
Mkkurklf, which we would expect in an initiatory context. Made
monsters turn up in all sorts of cultures, not always in initiatory con-
texts (e. g. golems). Indeed, the farce, mentioned above in connection
with Hotr, looks like a parody of initiation, while the episode involving
Mokkurklf does not.
Te loss of the Roskva myth deprived us of valuable material,
for some conclusions regarding Tialf could have been drawn from
the character of his sister. Roskva does not participate in the games
at tgaralokis, and in Old Icelandic poetry her name appears only
twice as part of kennings, in which it functions as a trivial synonym
for woman (LP). Etymologists have interpreted Ro skva as a cog-
nate of OI ro skr brave (this connection is beyond dispute) and pos-
sibly of OI roskinn ripe, mature (related to Go. gawrisqan bear fruit).
Ro skr may have begun with *h- (though an h-less variant has also been
recorded), while roskinn began with *w-; for this reason, they cannot be
related, unless we resort to the formulation that they were variants of
the same root. rsdrpa (stanza 21) has Vro sku, not improbably, a delib-
erate archaicization of the name on analogy with roskinn rather than a
decisive argument for the Ro skva-gawrisqan connection. In the older
scholarly literature, in which Ro skva was most ofen understood as a
cognate of gawrisqan, her name led to recognizing an ancient goddess
of growth and fertility.
Since a thundergod controls clouds and rain, protecting crops
also falls within his jurisdiction. But nothing testifes to the role some
nineteenth-century researchers ascribed to Roskva. Her name, despite
Eilfrs Vro sku, is, more likely, related only to ro skr. Te distant ori-
gin of ro skr is of no importance in the present context, for even in
Eilfrs days roskin had no v- and ro skr had no h- and speakers could
not distinguish between the two roots. OE r scan quiver, fash and
the development of ro skr (rask means quick in all the modern conti-
nental Scandinavian languages) show that the semantic kernel of *raskur
was impetuous, energetic (this is the meaning of Mod. Icel. rskur);
Engl. rash (from Scandinavian) and G rasch have made the same way
as rask in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. It seems more natural to
assume that Ro skva meant an energetic, impetuous, brisk one (such
105 jalf
is also the opinion of nearly all later scholars) and that she could run
as well as her brother Tialf. (Is this the reason she has nothing to do
at tgaralokis?)
One of the oldest interpretations of Tialfs function and name
appears in Cl.V. Here is the relevant part of the entry: jalf the name
of the servant and follower of Tor. Edda; and also as a pr[oper] name;
the word prop[erly] means delver, digger, Germ. delber, delben, = to delve,
dig; the names jlf and Rskva indicate that Tor was the friend of
farmers and the god of agriculture. For completeness sake, I will also
reproduce the entry about Roskva: Rskva, rhymed Vrskva, [rs]
d[rpa]; the name of the maiden follower of Tor; she is a personifca-
tion of the felds of harvest (the next entry is rskvask to grow up, to
ripen). jalf and delve (from OE delfan) cannot be related, for an Old
English cognate of jalf would also have had initial , as Deter 1893: 117
observed, but he made his point so quickly that to notice it is hard.
Gubrandur Vigfsson, the author of the jlf-delve etymolo-
gy, found an enthusiastic supporter in Rydberg, who spun one of his
imaginative reconstructions around it. As we remember, according
to Rydberg, Tialf was the son of the giant Egill and the spliting of
the goats thigh allegedly happened in his house. Rydberg recalls a
fornaldrasaga in which Gra fnds a litle boy in a f arml and brings
him up (a f arml is the space between low and high water), cites
several other episodes of the same type, and concludes that the name
jalf suggests a similar idea. He identifes jalf, the name, with jalf
sea encircler and calls Tialf a discoverer of lands and a circumnaviga-
tor of islands. Unexpectedly, he interpreted the verse in Hrbarzli,
in which berserks brides are said to have chased away Tialf, as
meaning that Tialf conquered giants, to make the land inhabitable.
Tis, naturally, brought him to Guta saga. Tialf emerged as a delver,
ready to work the ground with a spade (Rydberg 1886: 70810). Tialf
did not delve anything, but as will be shown, one of Rydbergs ideas
can be salvaged.
I am aware of fve more comments on Tjalf. Loewenthal,
the author of numerous mechanical etymologies, connected jalf with
Russ. dialectal tolpega lout (stress on the second syllable; the pejorative
meaning comes from the sufx). Since, according to Olrik, the concept
of the Germanic fre demon (Feuergeist) developed from he who brings
fre, in Loewenthals view (1921: 26162), ielvar may be understood
as someone who forces his way [with fre]. Te root of tolpega is tolp-
(cf. Russ. tolpa crowd, stress also on the second syllable; the older
meaning of the root must have been to have enough room). No tie
can be detected between tolpega and jalf, and all the important ques-
tions, such as the relationship between Tialf and Tielvar, remain
unanswered in this etymology.
Gordon 1927: 178, note to line 116, says that jlf (sic) is probably
identical with ieluar, who took fre to Gotland and so disenchanted
it. Te name means one who seizes and holds, and is etymologically
identical with jlmi receptacle, noose (the same in the second
edition by A. R. Taylor, 1957, and in the 1962 reprint from corrected
sheets, p. 199). Te equation jlf = jlmi is old, but the gloss one
who seizes and holds that Gordon gives must have justifed, in his
opinion, Tielvars seizing and holding of Gotland. No one seems to
have shared Gordons idea.
Gutenbrunner 1936: 15960 suggested that jalf is an abbreviated
form of jelvar (from *elba-harja-). He assumed their identity with
jalf ~ jalmi snare; feter and referred to the custom of some warri-
ors among the Chati of wearing rings; hence his gloss ielvar fetered
fghter (Fesselkmpfer). It remains unclear whether the common name
jalf is also an abbreviation of some longer word, for if it is not, then
the argument falls to the ground. Besides, neither Tialf nor Tielvar
was fetered or wore a ring as a mark of belonging to a religious union,
and neither deserves the name of a Weihkrieger (? an initiated warrior).
Terefore, this interpretation can also be dismissed as unrealistic.
Mogk traced jalf to *jalf (a strong form alternating with a weak
one), which allowed him to combine the Icelandic name with ielvar,
and etymologized it as *ewa-alfaR. In his additions to the commen-
tary on the Elder Edda, Gering 1927, II: xviii mentioned this etymology
without discussion, and Sturtevant 1952: 1147 found it the best there
was. (Did Mogk suggest *ewa-alfar to Gering in a leter? In the frst,
1891, edition of Pauls Grundri, p. 1093, Mogk wrote jlf, d. h. der
Grber, that is, delver, probably lightning going into the ground
[der in die Erde fahrende Blitz], and referred to a popular Germanic
107 jalf
myth, according to which fre is lightning coming out of the ground.
He glossed Mo kkurklf as a heavy cloud and Ro skva as a quick one.
Te text in the 1908 edition, p. 358, is the same. Mogks 1898 book
is an ofprint of his chapter from the Grundri: see p. 132 on Tialf.
In Hoopss Reallexikon [Mogk 1918-19: 323], jlf again appears with ,
but no gloss follows his name. Ro skva is a quick one, and Mo kkurklf
is not mentioned. Sturtevant gives no reference either.)
Sturtevant saw no difculties in the derivation *ewa-alfaR >
*-alf > *jalf but realized that jalf was not an elf (jalf and Ro skva
were of peasant origin). His explanation runs as follows: from
the standpoint of the relation between Tor and jalf as master and
servant, it does not seem inappropriate to call the servant an elf , inas-
much as the elves, like the dwarfs, were subservient to the godsnote
that Freyr became king of the elves and resided in Alf-heimr, an abode
which the gods had already bestowed upon him. Te name ewa-alfaR
might then be equated with the name r-alf as an elf who was
in the service of Tor. Mogks derivation ofers no more serious dif-
fculties than do the other derivations discussed by Gering (I: 250).
Although this derivation may be beter than the others, the ancient
metaphor (a servant called an elf ) does not inspire confdence. Our
sources say litle about the elves in Scandinavian myths. Teir status has
been examined many times, most recently by rman Jakobsson 2006:
22938. No revelations came to light, and, however broadly we may
wish to interpret the material, the statement that the elves, along with
the dwarves, were subservient to the gods would be hard to confrm.
Halls 2007 book should also be consulted. His theme is Anglo-Saxon
and later beliefs, but he cast his net broadly.
Finally, Gust Johansson 1969 discussed all the names in Guta
saga and said that ielvar might perhaps be understood as Tjll-vard
hut guardian (18; the Modern Swedish form of the name is Tjlvar).
Te element -var is irreconcilable with vard (for what happened to -d?),
and in what sense was Tielvar, let alone Tialf, the keeper of a house?
Surveys of scholarship can be found in three works: Gering 192327, I:
250; Schrder 1938: 215, note 1, and De Vries 1977 (jalf). De Vries
missed Olrik and mistakenly presented E. Meyer as the originator of
the jalf-delve etymology (the reference should have been to Cl.-V.);
besides, the comparison jalf Mod. Icel. jlfa goes back to Magnusen,
not Uhland. With respect to jlfa, Schrder made the same mistake.
Te other etymological dictionaries of Icelandic ofer nothing new.
Holthausen 1948 and Alexander Jhannesson 1956: 447 compare jalf
and jlfa and derive both from the root *telp-. BM follows their
example but mentions some of the older conjectures.
It should be added that the style of some etymological works
deserves litle praise. Hypotheses are ofen rejected with one word
(improbable, erroneous, and the like). Schrder called Olriks deriva-
tion a Verlegenheitserklrung, that is, an explanation ofered when there
is nothing to say, an explanation born of despair, a face saving device
to avoid embarrassment. Gutenbrunner suggested his gloss fetered
warrior without examining the opinions of his predecessors, as though
they did not merit even a passing negative remark. By contrast, ones
own view is usually promoted most forcefully and all difculties are
treated as relatively insignifcant.
I also have a proposal, but, before launching it, I will give a short
summing up. Old Icelandic poets and Snorri remembered Tialf only as
Tors servant. Someone ofen dupes and helps the thunder god (it may
be the same person), but, in dealing with Tialf, I will disregard the evi-
dence of comparative religion, rely on the meager information at our
disposal, and proceed on the assumption that Tialf had always been
Tors servant and did not supplant Loki or anyone else in that role. Like
Freyr, who had a male and a female servant (Byggvir and Beyla), Tor
had Tialf and Roskva in his service (brother and sister), but no tales
of Roskva seem to have circulated in the North even in the 10th century.
While accompanying Tor, Tialf killed Mo kkurklf, a giant. Tialf
enjoyed enough popularity in Sweden, for his name to be used among
mortals. ielvar may be a variant of the same name. Te likelihood of
their identity is great. Yet the two mythic characters share no obvious
common features, unless we identify Tialf with lightning (which is
inadmissible). Tielvar did not serve Tor (or any other god) and did
not fght giants. He was the culture hero of Gotland: he took possession
of the island, cleansed it of evil spirits, married Huitastierna (a woman
of unknown antecedents), and became the progenitor of Gotlands
population. Huitastierna is indeed a typical cow name, but the distance
109 jalf
between the fgure in Guta saga and a cow goddess is too great for us to
span. (Likewise, no path leads from Tor, as he appears in the extant
Scandinavian myths, to an ancient goat god.)
Some time afer I formulated my proposal concerning the origin of
Tialfs name, I noticed a reference to Jacob Grimm in E. Meyer 1891:
204 (hardly the same as Tjolf, Donarulf ) and learned that Grimm
had not missed Tialf. (In Deutsche Mythologie, he is not mentioned.)
It turned out that I had partly reinvented his etymology (a common
case in etymological studies). In a footnote to an article on the names
of thunder (Grimm 1865: 409, note, continued on p. 410; frst pub-
lished in 1853), he asked whether Tialf could not be understood as
Donnerwulf thunder wolf , for he assisted Tor in carrying his cudgel
(Grimm took kyll bag for a cognate of G Keule club, cudgel, a weapon
of a thunder god) and his sister also made a lot of noise (he connected
Ro skva with OI raska displace, that is, cause disorder). Grimm, quite
naturally, was aware of Magnusens works but may not have consulted
his entry jlf, for he found jlf work not in Magnusens Lexicon
but in Bjrn Haldorsens 1814. He thought of Go. ei o thunder and
ulf wolf . It is a brilliant etymology: perfect with respect to meaning
and fawless from a phonetic point of view (cf. Go. lei an lend and
OI lj < li). *eih-ulf would have yielded jlf. Tis idea must have
occurred to Grimm too late to be incorporated into the 1854 edition
of his Deutsche Mythologie.
My starting point was such Old Icelandic names as Hrlf, Bjlf,
Jlf, jlf (see them in De Vries 1977, under ulf), and So kklf
(Noreen 1923: sec. 130). All of them have -lf from ulf. (Tis, how-
ever, does not hold for Gylf, in which lf belong to the root; its likeliest
cognate is OI gjalf sea. See Olrik 1910: 12, Finnur Jnsson 193435: 294,
Bjrn Sigfsson 1933: 131, and Sturtevant 194041: 22324.) I assume
that the original form of the name was *jalf, with jalf considered
to be more familiar and more appropriate for a servant. Strong and
weak forms of the same name ofen existed side by side: cf. Yngvar and
Yngvi (an extreme case). So many ingenious etymologies of jalf have
led nowhere because everybody, except Jacob Grimm, tried to explain
jal-f instead of ja-lf. However, Grimms *eih-ulf was not the best
choice, because Go. ei o has no cognates in Germanic; consequently,
such a Scandinavian word for thunder (to the best of our knowledge)
did not exist. Here I think Mogk guessed well: the frst element was
*ewa-, as in OI j serve (< *ewan). Tus, jalf came into being as
*ewa-ulf (serve + wolf ), an ideal name for a servant.
Te only hitch is the vowel length. It seems that *ewaulf should
have become jlf. Tis form exists but is believed to be secondary,
due to vowel lengthening before certain consonant groups, one of
which was lf- (Noreen 1923: sec. 124.3 and 237.2). Sturtevant, famous
for his atention to phonetic detail, reconstructed, as noted, the string
*ewa-alfaR > *-alf > *jalf (he also assumed the primacy of the strong
form) and said nothing about why jalf had short a. *ewaulf must
have yielded *iulf ~ *julf, with contraction in hiatus producing
a long vowel. Is it possible that jlf was an original form and that
the skalds used the variant jalf to ft the meter and that in this
name did not emerge as did in lf wolf (< ulf), thanks to lengthen-
ing? Considering the fact that lf functioned as a lengthening group, we
should expect some vacillation. In my opinion, the development of a in
jalf, though problematic, need not derail the protoform *ewaulf.
Once upon a time *ewa-ulf encountered *Mo kkur-ulf and van-
quished him. He deserved to enter into Tors service. It becomes clear
why the young mans greatest virtue was great speed. A servant is
frst and foremost a messenger and is expected to be everywhere in no
time. His sister was also quick, rather than a fertility goddess. Compare
the etymology of OI r ll slave, servant. Usually the forms OE r gan
and Go. ragjan run are given as the most secure cognates of r ll
(a good semantic parallel in Greek, frst suggested by Brugmann, can be
found in Feist 1939, ragjan). Russ. sluga servant (stress on the second
syllable) has no accepted etymology, but, according to one of the pro-
posals, it may be related to the words with the root *sel- move, fow
(see the end of the entry sluga in the Russian translation of Vasmers
dictionary: III, 676).
Te question about the relation between Tialf and Tielvar defes
a defnitive answer. With the fre lightning motif discredited, only their
names remain a connecting element between them. Yet a certain detail
may rescue their afnity in myth and legend. One was allowed to take
as much land as one could carry fre over or plow from sunrise to
111 jalf
sunset (see Olriks discussion of this ritual in various cultures in Olrik
1910: 48). If Tielvar had not run all the way around Gotland in one
day, afer sunset it would again have sunk into the ocean. To perform
such a task, he had to be a very swif runner, for the island is large.
Perhaps this is the reason Tialf was chosen as Gotlands culture hero,
but the link is admitedly weak. Te identity of Tialf and Tielvar
should be neither denied nor made too much of; see also what is said
below on OI jalf.
Mod. Icel. jlfa to work hard; train was recorded only in the 17th
century, and jlf training was derived from it (BM). A verb with
such a meaning would probably have surfaced in Old Icelandic if it had
existed in it. Most likely, both jlfa and jlf are late formations, so that
it would be wrong to trace jalf to them. If jalf refects the mythic
characters nature (as *ewaulf is supposed to do), the common name
jalf encirler, confner is not related to it. Its etymology constitutes a
problem of its own, but the coexistence of the homonyms jalf Tors
servant, the best runner in the world and jalf encircler inevitably
afected the meaning of both or at least of the proper name. If jalf
came to mean encircler (in addition to servant; runner), the kenning
eyja jalf would have merged with eyja jalf an encircler, or Tjalf
of islands. Tis is where Rydbergs circumnavigator of islands may
come in. In the kenning, an encircler, confner of islands was the sea, but,
if applied to a human being, it would have ft the activities of someone
like Tielvar, who encircled Gotland from within, rather than from
without. Tis is one more argument for identifying Tialf and Tielvar.
Te whole, of necessity, remains guesswork.
Te skalds used jalmi rope; snare as a doublet (variant) of jalf.
Te correspondence OI jalf ~ OIr tailm snare cannot be fortuitous.
Bugge 1889: 12, ever on the lookout for the Celtic infuence on Old
Icelandic, cited OIr tailm ~ teilm (genitive telma) and Welsh telm
(the same meaning) and explained the name jlf (sic) as a borrow-
ing from Old Irish. He did not distinguish between jlf and jlf
and equated jlf with jlmi. His idea of borrowing has nothing
to recommend it; note only that he gives a in all those forms length
(Mogk and Neckel-Kuhn, as we have seen, also wrote jlf). Noreen
1923: sec. 237.2 was not sure whether the variation jalf ~ jlmi went
back to phonetic reasons: the Celtic forms lend jalmi an independent
existence and make the picture unclear. OI jalf, whatever its origin
and whatever its relation with OIr tailm, seems to be a diferent word
from jalf ~ jlf, but, once their paths crossed, they could not help
beginning to interact.
Notes
1. Te following abbreviations are used in the text of this paper: Engl. English,
G German, Gk classical Greek, Gmc Germanic, Go. Gothic, Mod. Icel.
Modern Icelandic, OE Old English, OI Old Icelandic, OIr Old Irish,
PIE Proto-Indo-European, Russ. Russian.
2. When a word occurs in a dictionary, page numbers are not given.
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Norwegian Modal Verbs and Atitudinal Modality
Ugnius Mikuionis
Vilnius University
Fregna ok segja Den som gjerne
skal frra hverr, vil gjelde for klok,
s er vill heitinn horskr skal utveksle nyt med andre
Hvaml Hvaml
In this article, I present a semantic model of modality, where the start-
ing point is the assumption that modality is a semantic category which
deals with peoples atitude towards the trustworthiness of propositions
and / or the desirability of states of afairs.
Terminology
In the following, I will simply use the term atitude rather than repeat-
ing atitude towards the trustworthiness of propositions and / or
the desirability of states of afairs, since these are the only areas I treat
as modal. In my understanding, modality is not concerned with peo-
ples atitude towards other properties, such as good / bad, clever /
stupid, easy / difcult, big / small, important / insignifcant, cheap /
expensive, and so on. Only trustworthy / untrustworthy (of proposi-
tions) and desirable / undesirable (of states of afairs) are truly modal.
As a general term, I will use OK-ness, covering both trustworthiness
and desirability.
As technical terms, I will use epistemic atitude when talking about
the evaluation of the trustworthiness of a proposition, and non-epistemic
atitude when talking about the evaluation of the desirability of a state
of afairs.
118 Ugnius Mikuionis
Te word epistemic derives from Ancient Greek meaning
knowledge, science. However, the epistemic kind of modality deals
with what is believed to be true rather than what is known to be true.
Tis follows from my defnition of modality as an atitudinal category,
and also harmonizes with most other current defnitions of epistemic.
In this respect, then, the term is somewhat unfortunate. However, it is
so conventional in the linguistic literature that I do not see any point
in trying to replace it with a new term.
Te speaker may refer to her own or to someone elses atitude,
and I will use the term participant which also has become conventional
in modern linguistic literature on modality. As several authors have
pointed out (e. g. van der Auwera & Plungian 1998: 83; Andersson 2007:
13f.), it is to be preferred to the alternative term, agent (used by, e. g.,
Bybee et al. 1994), since the person referred to does not necessarily
have the agent role in an actual uterance it may also be the patient,
benefactive or have some other role.
I shall treat atitude as a notion with two values, neutral and posi-
tive. Tese can be combined with negation to form negative atitude.
Negative atitude is thus seen as a composite category.
Negation may be treated as a separate feature or factor, which may
be added to modal expressions in uterances, so that this combination
expresses the participants negative atitude. Tis is obviously correct
with respect to the use of modal verbs, such as must, shall, can or will, all
of which can be combined with the negative particle not. Although there
exist lexical items, such as scarcely, hardly, prohibited which represent
the participants negative atitude, I choose to analyze the negative ati-
tude as a complex value, resulting from a combination of (non-neutral)
atitude and negation. Terefore, I will only operate with two types or
degrees of atitude positive (non-neutral) and neutral, which partly
correspond to the traditional terms necessity and possibility, used in most
literature on modality. However, there are some important diferences
between what is called neutral atitude and possibility, and to an even
greater extent between positive atitude and necessity, as I will try to
demonstrate in the following paragraphs.
Neutral atitude means that the speaker has no objections to accept
a proposition as correct or a state of afairs as worth to occur. However,
119 Norwegian Modal Verbs and Atitudinal Modality
she may equally accept that the same proposition may turn out to be
incorrect, or the same state of afairs may turn out not to be worth to
occur. In either case, no problems (no confict) will arise for the speaker
with respect to her beliefs or expectations.
Positive atitude means that the speaker is willing to accept a propo-
sition as correct or a state of afairs as worth to occur. If the proposi-
tion turns out to be incorrect, or the state of afairs turns out not to be
worth to occur, a confict arises between the speakers beliefs and / or
expectations and the reality, i. e. there is a problem.
However, the speaker may indicate in the uterance that she admits
that other atitudes are possible. To put it in other words, the speaker
may signal that other participants may have diferent atitudes than
her own, but this does not mean that the speaker is unsure about her
own atitude (if this were the case, one would have to do with neutral
atitude, cf. above).
As technical terms, I will use simple and complex atitude to dis-
tinguish between cases where the speaker in her uterance expresses
only her own positive (non-neutral) atitude without approving of any
alternative atitudes, and cases where she expresses her own positive
atitude at the same time as she signals in the same uterance that other
participants may have a diferent atitude towards the status of the ati-
tude target, i. e., the proposition or the state of afairs in question.
Te distinction between simple and complex atitude is only rele-
vant in connection to non-neutral atitude. Neutral atitude is automati-
cally simple since the speaker does not and cannot invite anyone to a
discussion or to negotiations about the trustworthiness of a proposition
or about the desirability of a state of afairs. Such discussion or negotia-
tions are only possible when the speaker has a non-neutral atitude and
is willing to listen to alternative atitude(s).
In practice, the complex atitude may be perceived as a lower
degree of commitment on the part of the speaker toward the atitude
target, as compared with the simple atitude which sounds more cat-
egorical and uncompromising. Tus, the complex atitude can easily be
interpreted as containing a certain element of doubt or non-assuredness
and consequently as representing lesser confdence from the side of
the speaker. However, the speaker does not actually need to be unsure
about her own atitude in order to be able / willing to allow the other
participant(s) to express their (alternative) atitude.1
As to terminology, traditional terms in the literature on modality
are necessity and possibility. However, there are reasons to avoid using
them in the description of my model of modality. It would not be logi-
cal to distinguish between simple (non-negotiable) vs. complex (negoti-
able) necessity, as the term necessity refers to something absolute and
undisputable. Te distinction between something the speaker agrees
to dispute and something she does not, is an essential part of my model
of the semantics of modality. Terefore I stick to the use of the terms
neutral and positive atitude in preference to possibility and necessity.
Actually, many authors have operated with terms like strong vs.
weak obligation and tentative vs. confdent conclusion, which point in
the direction that modality is treated as a gradable domain or even as a
continuum (van der Auwera & Plungian 1998: 82; van der Auwera et al.
2005: 251252). But since it is not logical to talk about strong (confdent)
necessity / possibility as opposed to weak (tentative) necessity / pos-
sibility, the terminology gets unnecessarily complicated. To my mind,
the cleaner the terminology is, the more adequate the analysis one
can achieve. I choose therefore to abandon the traditional distinction
between necessity and possibility, in favour of talking about diferent
types of atitude and complexity, which are represented in fgure 1
below.
1 As an alternative set of terms for the description of this distinction between
the diferent types of non-neutral atitudes, I have considered negotiable vs.
non-negotiable atitude. Tese terms also represent the idea of the speakers
willingness (or unwillingness) to accept alternative atitudes. Tere is however
some risk that the reader will misinterpret these terms as necessarily invoking
some actual negotiations between the speaker and the other participant(s) in
a concrete communication situation. Te idea here is actually that the speak-
er may signal her readiness or willingness to accept alternative atitudes in
the very same uterance where she expresses her own atitude. Nothing is said
about whether any actual negotiations between two or several participants
will ever take place. Terefore, I have fnally chosen to use the terms simple vs.
complex atitude throughout the article; of course, the adjective simple has
here nothing to do with simple-minded, simplistic or nave (atitude).
atitude neutral positive
complexity simple complex
Figure 1. Types of atitude and complexity.
As already mentioned above, the term atitude is used in connection
with the speakers evaluation of the trustworthiness of propositions
(epistemic atitude) and her evaluation of the desirability of a state of
afairs to occur (non-epistemic atitude). When there is no need to
specify whether epistemic or non-epistemic atitude is meant, I use
the term OK-ness which covers both trustworthiness and desirability.
Tis leads to the preliminary representation of modal domains given
in fgure 2.
Non-epistemic atitudes
(evaluation of desirability of states
of afairs)
Epistemic atitudes
(evaluation of trustworthiness
of propositions)
Complex positive atitude
(in the speakers view it is OK
only if the state of afairs occurs,
but the speaker signals in the same
uterance that there is room for
alternative atitudes)
Complex positive atitude
(in the speakers view it is OK only
if the proposition turns out to be
correct, but the speaker signals in
the same uterance that there is
room for alternative atitudes)
Simple positive atitude
(only OK if the state of afairs occurs)
Simple positive atitude
(only OK if the proposition turns
out to be correct)
Neutral atitude
(OK if the state of afairs occurs,
but also OK if it does not)
Neutral atitude
(OK if the proposition turns out to
be correct, but also OK if it does not)
Figure 2. A preliminary representation of modal domains.
In the following sections I will discuss the diferent types of ati-
tude in the epistemic and non-epistemic domain in greater detail and
provide examples that may serve as empirical evidence that my model
of modality is not only based on theoretical considerations, but also
represents linguistic reality well.
Finally, I would like to mention that I have chosen to use the pro-
noun she when referring to the speaker, and he when referring to
the hearer or other participant(s) in a communication situation.
Non-epistemic modality
Strictly speaking, modality refers to the atitude in both epistemic and
non-epistemic modality. In the case of non-epistemic modality, the ati-
tude is pragmatically connected with expectations about the participants
actions and therefore with certain speech acts. Tis is, in principle, a sec-
ondary efect. Tese speech acts are determined not only by modality
itself, but also by the communication situation, which in its turn is
primarily determined by the (number of ) participants involved. Non-
epistemic modality difers from epistemic modality in that it is connect-
ed with reactions and / or actions, besides describing the participants
atitude. Epistemic modality is only connected with the participants
atitude towards the OK-ness of a proposition or a state of afairs.
In the traditional literature on non-epistemic (specifcally deontic)
modality, one usually speaks about permission and diferent types
of so-called mands (commands, demands, encouragements, requests,
entreaties), which are called non-epistemic (deontic) possibility and
non-epistemic (deontic) necessity, respectively. In my view, permis-
sion, encouragement or command are not diferent (sub)types of non-
epistemic modality, but rather diferent types of speech acts, the use of
which depend both on the speakers (or some other persons) atitude
and on the communication situation.
Te neutral atitude in connection with non-epistemic modality
(non-epistemic atitude) carries the meaning that, in the participants
view, there are no obstacles for the state of afairs to occur it is OK
that the state of afairs occurs, but it is also OK if it does not occur.
Te reason for why it is OK that a state of afairs occurs does not need
to be expressed in an uterance. Tus, the reason is actually not relevant
for the identifcation of the atitude as neutral. Tis is not to say that
the reason is of no relevance for the choice of lexemes in concrete
uterances, as we will see in the examples below.
Te non-neutral atitude in connection with non-epistemic modal-
ity means that, in the participants view, maters are OK only if the state
of afairs occurs. If the state of afairs fails to occur, there is a confict
between the participants expectations or interests and reality.
An uterance may, of course, contain certain information about
the obstacles for a state of afairs to occur. Likewise, one can state that
no obstacles are present in a given situation. Te speaker may for exam-
ple indicate that there is no prohibition (either by the speaker herself
or by law) or that there are no physical, material obstacles for the state
of afairs to occur. An uterance may also contain information about
reasons for why it is important to ensure that a state of afairs does not
fail to occur. Such information may be explicitly expressed by lexical
means, but may also be indicated by the speakers choice of modal verb.
A typical example from Modern Norwegian is the use of the modal verb
fr in uterances expressing permission.
Du fr g n (= you may go now, you are permited to go now)
difers from Du kan g n (= you can go now) in terms of explicitness
regarding the obstacles. Te later uterance simply indicates that there
are no obstacles for the participant to leave (without indicating what
kind of obstacles could prevent him from being able to do so), while
the former indicates that there is no prohibition (= the obstacle) to
leave. By using the verb fr, the speaker thus grants her own permission
or refers to someone elses permission for the participant to leave.
Another typical example is the use of the modal verb skal in uter-
ances expressing command, with 2nd person subject. Du skal g n
(= you are obliged to go now, you are commanded to go now) difers
from Du m g n (= you must go now) in that the later uterance
more neutrally indicates that the participant is forced to leave (one
does not indicate what kind of circumstances force him to do so), while
the former indicates that it is someones will (= the obstacle) which
requires that the participant leaves.
A similar diference may be observed between uterances contain-
ing the modal verb br as compared to uterances containing the modal
verbs skal or m. Du br g n (= you ought to go now) means that, in
the speakers view, it is in the other participants own interests that he
goes now. By such an uterance, the speaker sends a signal that other
people may have diferent atitudes towards whether the maters really
only are OK provided that the person in question goes now. In practice,
such an uterance may be interpreted as expressing a lower degree of
confdence on the part of the speaker regarding what her own atitude
actually is. Both Du skal g n (= you are obliged to go now, you are
commanded to go now) and Du m g n (= you must go now) disal-
low any other points of view towards the OK-ness of the maters and
consequently can be interpreted as expressing a higher degree of con-
fdence on behalf of the speaker.
As already mentioned, in the traditional literature on modality one
usually speaks about diferent (sub)types of non-epistemic modality,
depending on the nature of the obstacles. Te most established notions
are participant-external vs. participant-internal modality, and dynamic,
deontic and boulomaic (boulethic) modality. In my view all of these
notions refer to diferent communication situations, rather than con-
stituting diferent types of modality. By communication situation, I
mean frst of all the number of participants involved in a conversation.
Tis determines the nature of the speech (monologue or dialogue), and
allows for variation regarding the source of atitude, that is, the person
whose atitude is being reported. Te speaker does not necessarily
report her own atitude.
By separating modality, which deals with the atitude, from infor-
mation about the kinds of obstacles or reasons behind the atitude, we
are able to avoid the major problem with the traditional interpretation
of modality, namely, the difculty of proving that all the diferent sub-
types are actually parts of the same linguistic category. In other words,
we avoid the difculties by formulating a defnition of modality which
is equally well suited for all the subtypes of modality, and at the same
time excludes other categories, such as tense or aspect.
Te neutral atitude in connection with non-epistemic modality,
as has already been pointed out, may be paraphrased as no obstacle for
a state of afairs to occur, or it is OK if a state of afairs occurs (but also
OK if it does not).
Te positive (non-neutral) atitude in connection with non-epis-
temic modality may be paraphrased as the maters are OK if and only if
a state of afairs occurs, but the speaker may signal that it is allowed for
other people to have diferent atitudes towards the same state of afairs.
Such a democratic atitude may be expressed explicitly by lexical
means or by the choice of modal auxiliary in a concrete uterance.
Let us now take a look at diferent types of atitude in connec-
tion to non-epistemic modality. If the speaker holds that there are no
obstacles for a state of afairs to occur, she may say a sentence like one
of the following.
1. Neutral atitude in connection to non-epistemic modality
a) Du kan reise til Paris.
You can go to Paris.
b) Du fr reise til Paris.
You may (are allowed to) go to Paris.
c) Du m gjerne reise til Paris.
It is fne with me if you go to Paris.
d) Bare reis til Paris, du!
Just go to Paris!
All these uterances may be paraphrased as It is OK if you go to Paris
(but also OK if you dont). Te uterance in (1a) is the most unspecifed
one in the sense that it simply states the absence of obstacles for the state
of afairs to occur, saying nothing about the nature of the obstacles. (1b)
expresses permission, that is, absence of prohibition, which constitutes
information about the obstacle. (1c) and (1d) sound most natural in
situations where the speaker reacts to the other participants atitude,
that is, where the other participant has shown his own non-neutral
atitude towards the state of afairs (in this case, willingness to go to
Paris) and the speaker is now giving her approval.
If the speaker considers that maters are OK only if the state of
afairs occurs, she may use an uterance like one of these.
2. Positive (non-neutral) atitude in connection to non-epistemic modality
simple atitude
a) Du m reise til Paris.
You must go to Paris.
b) Du skal reise til Paris.
You shall go to Paris.
c) Du vil reise til Paris, alts.
So, you will (= want, wish) to go to Paris.
d) Reis til Paris!
Go to Paris!
complex atitude
e) Du br / burde / skulle reise til Paris.
You ought to / should go to Paris. = It is desirable with respect to
your own interests that you go to Paris (it is not OK for yourself
unless you go to Paris).
All these uterances may be paraphrased as It is OK if, and only if,
you go to Paris = It is not OK unless you go to Paris.
Te uterance in (2a) is the most unspecifed one in the sense
that it only shows the speakers atitude towards the state of afairs,
namely, that the participant must leave for Paris in order for maters
to be (become / stay) OK. Nothing is said about the reasons for why
it has to be so.
Te uterance in (2b) means that someone has planned the partici-
pants journey to Paris. Tis uterance thus contains information about
the nature of the obstacle.
Te uterance in (2c) means that the reason for why it is necessary
to go to Paris, is the participants own will.
Te uterance in (2d) is a command and will typically be used in
situations where the speaker has authority to decide what is desirable
and what is not.
Te uterance in (2e) difers from the uterances in (2ad) in that
it signals that the speaker dissociates herself from being the only licit
source of norm: the decision to go to Paris or not rests with the other
participant himself. Tus, the speaker expresses her point of view quite
unambiguously, but at the same time (and in the same uterance) she
indicates that the other participant(s) can have diferent atitudes. In
the traditional literature on modality such uterances are said to express
weak obligation, but in my view it is more precise to analyze them as
representing the speakers complex atitude towards the state of afairs.
To put it in other words, the speaker does not express that, in her view,
it is less necessary for the other participant to go Paris by choosing
the auxiliary br (ought to) instead of m (must) or skal (shall). What
the speaker does say, is that she is not expressing the only possible
atitude towards the necessity of the journey to Paris.
Tus, the choice of a modal verb in a concrete uterance may refect
considerations which are primarily related to the identity of the source
of atitude and the complexity of the atitude (simple or complex).
Te consequence of the pragmatic interpretation of these considera-
tions is assigning the uterances in (2ae) diferent degrees of OK-ness
of the state of afairs.
Te source of modality need not be expressed in an uterance.
If we only have an uterance like Du m reise til Paris, and no additional
information, we can say that the atitude is non-neutral and simple, but
the source of atitude is unspecifed.
Optative is another example where the source of atitude remains
unspecifed.
3. Unspecifed source of modality, optative
a) Leve kongen!
Long live the king!
b) M kongen leve lenge!
May the king live long!
Te atitude represented by such uterances is non-neutral and simple.
In my model, then, non-epistemic modality partly overlaps with
what has traditionally been called boulomaic (boulethic) modality,
deontic modality and dynamic modality, or, in terms elaborated by van
der Auwera and Plungian (1998), participant-external and participant-
internal modality. Te non-epistemic modality also covers wishes and
fears, which are treated as partly deontic and partly epistemic by Palmer
(2001: 13).
Epistemic modality
As mentioned, epistemic modality is pure atitude, in my view. Unlike
non-epistemic modality, it does not require any reaction and does not
involve any actions from the side of the participants of the communi-
cation situation. Te speaker expresses (her own or someone elses)
atitude towards the trustworthiness (likelihood) of a proposition. As
in the case with non-epistemic modality, one can speak of the source
of atitude here, as well. Te speaker is identical with the source of
modality when she expresses her own atitude, and not identical with
the source of modality when she refers to someone elses atitude.2
Te source of modality can also remain unspecifed.
Te neutral atitude in connection with epistemic modality simply
means that the participant has no reason to believe that the proposi-
tion is wrong or false; there is no obstacle to accept the proposition as
potentially true. It does not say anything about whether the participant
expects the proposition to be true or not; it says only that it may well
be true (but may also be false).
Te most typical means of expressing the neutral atitude in
English are uterances containing modal verbs can and may, while in
Norwegian it is uterances with the modal verb kan. Such uterances
can usually be paraphrased by It is possible that, It is possibly the case
that, or, to include the notion of obstacle, by Tere is no obstacle
to assuming that the following proposition is true (although it may also
be false).
4. Neutral atitude in connection with epistemic modality
Han kan ha reist til Paris.
He can have lef for Paris. = It is possible that he has lef for Paris.
= Tere is no obstacle to assuming that he has lef for Paris.
Te positive (non-neutral) atitude in connection with epistemic
modality means that the participant has essential willingness (not rea-
son although willingness may be invoked by some reason, it may also
remain unmotivated) to believe that the proposition is correct; or, to
2 Reporting someone elses words is usually considered a kind of evidentiality.
employ the notion of obstacle, the participant will encounter obstacles
to accepting any other conclusion than the proposition being correct.
Te nature of the obstacle does not need to be expressed in the proposi-
tion, but if it is expressed, it may be related to knowledge, information,
reasonable thinking or simply the participants belief.
5. Positive (non-neutral) atitude in connection with epistemic modality
a) Han m ha reist til Paris.
He must have lef for Paris. = It is not OK for me to believe anything
else than that he has lef for Paris.
b) Han vil ha reist til Paris.
He will have lef for Paris. = It is not OK for me to believe anything
else than that he has lef for Paris.
Te uterance in (5a, b) represents simple atitude, which is to
say that the speaker is not accepting any other atitude besides that
the proposition Han er reist til Paris He has lef for Paris is correct.
Te diference between (5a) and (5b) is not related to the atitude
as such. Te uterance in (5a) may be characterized as a deduction,
while (5b) may be characterized as a prediction. In other words, by
choosing the modal verb m the speaker signals that she has some kind
of evidence to base her conclusion on. By contrast, the modal verb vil
is chosen when the speaker predicts something without necessarily
having any evidence (or when she refers to something that is known
commonly). Tus, the choice of the modal verb provides more infor-
mation than barely the speakers atitude sensu stricto.
As in the domain of non-epistemic modality, the speaker may also
possess a complex atitude, as is demonstrated by the uterances in (6).
6. Complex atitude in connection with epistemic modality
De br ha reist til Paris.
Tey ought to have lef for Paris.
Complex atitude means that the speaker considers the proposi-
tions in (6) to be correct, but at the same time she signals that diferent
points of view may be accepted as well. In practice such uterances as
in (6) may be interpreted as representing a lower degree of confdence
(certainty) compared to the uterance in (5a, b).
Te use of modal verbs such as kan, br, vil, m does not in itself
contain information about the reasons to believe that the proposition
is true (or the nature of obstacles to reject it), other than what has
been said about the diference between deduction (expressed by m)
and prediction (expressed by vil). Te situation is somewhat diferent
when the modal verb skal is used, as discussed below in the subsection
on evidentiality.
Dynamic modality and evidentiality modal or just
modality-related domains?
In this section, I will briefy discuss the status of dynamic modality and
evidentiality in relation to my model of the semantics of modality.
Dynamic modality
Dynamic modality is usually defned as dealing with a participants
ability and, according to some authors, willingness to perform actions
or get involved in states of afairs.
Examples of these subtypes of dynamic modality would be uter-
ances like (7) and (8).
7. Ability
Han kan spille piano.
He can (is able to, knows how to) play the piano.
8. Willingness
Han vil spille piano.
He will (wants to, is willing to) play the piano.
Some authors extend the notion to also cover enabling condi-
tions that are external to the participant(s). Tis type of modality is
sometimes called circumstantial modality or circumstantial possibility.
It may be exemplifed by the uterance in (9).
9. Circumstantial possibility
Man kan spille piano der (det fns nemlig et piano der borte).
One can play piano there (there is in fact a piano available over there).
As already mentioned, I have chosen to defne modality as an ati-
tudinal category, and by atitude I mean peoples evaluation of the trust-
worthiness of propositions or the desirability of states of afairs to occur.
So the question is how dynamic and circumstantial modality fts into
my model of modality.
Te status of willingness seems to cause no problems. Willingness
is a kind of positive atitude, and therefore uterances expressing will-
ingness are treated as modal. In my model, willingness is a kind of
non-epistemic modality.
Te status of ability and circumstantial possibility is less clear. If abil-
ity is taken to mean nothing else but a persons mental or physical powers,
it falls outside the range of what can be called modal (= atitudinal) mean-
ings. However, the Norwegian verb KUNNE ofen is used to signal that it
is OK if a state of afairs occurs or if a proposition turns out to be true with-
out specifying why it is OK. Or, to put it in other words, the verb KUNNE
is ofen used to express that there is no obstacle for a state of afairs to
occur or for a proposition to be true. Since there is no obstacle, the speaker
does not need to say anything about the nature of the obstacle(s) which
might potentially prevent the state of afairs from occurring or rule out
the chances that the proposition could be true. Te uterance in (7)
Han kan spille piano He can play the piano may be interpreted as mean-
ing He agrees (is not unwilling, has nothing against) playing the piano, as
well as He is able, knows how to play the piano and He may be playing
the piano. It is impossible to tell which of the interpretations was intended
by the speaker unless additional information is provided. Tis is not to
say that there is no diference between the three interpretations, or that it
is impossible to tell them apart in principle. Te speaker may make clear
which of the interpretations she intends by lexical means, but she also
may fail to provide any additional information and in so doing leave it for
the hearer to choose which one of the interpretations he prefers. Te fact
that a person knows how to play a piano does neither require him to be
agreeable nor prevent him from being agreeable to play a piano. Tere
is no automatism in the relationship between ability and agreeability
(positive atitude). So, it is clear that the two interpretations are distinct
in principle. Te one of them (ability) is not related to atitude sensu
stricto, while the other one (agreeability) clearly is. Ability and agree-
ability may, but do not need to, coincide. Terefore it seems reasonable
to claim that the ability-reading and the agreeability-reading of the verb
KUNNE belong to diferent squares on a fgure representing the seman-
tics of the Norwegian modal verbs rather than to the same square. But
those squares must be adjacent to each other, since the speaker can fail
to indicate the boundary between them. Te same goes, mutatis mutandis,
for the relationship between epistemic and dynamic modality.
Te relationship between circumstantial modality and non-epistemic
modality (atitude) is of the same kind. Te uterance in (9) above, Man
kan spille piano der (det fns nemlig et piano der borte) One can play piano
there (there is in fact a piano available over there), will unambiguously be
interpreted by the hearer as an example of circumstantial modality only
if the remark about availability of a piano is included. Tis interpretation
involves no atitude. Without additional information the uterance Man
kan spille piano der One can play piano there may also be interpreted as
expressing someones permission, i. e. atitude. Availability of a piano and
someones permission may, but do not need to, coincide. Te speaker
may say explicitly whether she speaks about the availability of necessary
resources or about authorities permission. But she may choose just to
say that there is no obstacle for playing a piano, leaving it for the hearer
to decide which one or both of the interpretations he chooses.
Tus, it may be argued that the diference between neutral ati-
tude on the one hand, and absence of (physical, material or any type
of ) obstacles on the other hand, is linguistically irrelevant, at least in
the standard bokml variety of the Norwegian language. By linguisti-
cally irrelevant I mean that the speaker does not necessarily need to
express her choice vis--vis the mentioned diference.
Returning to the question about the position of dynamic (and circum-
stantial) modality in my model, it seems reasonable to claim that dynamic
(and circumstantial) modality is connected to epistemic and non-epistemic
modality via underspecifcation. Te atitudinal and non-atitudinal mean-
ings of the verb KUNNE are clearly distinct, and the speaker may express
explicitly which of the meanings she intends. But the speaker may choose
to fail to draw the boundary between atitudinal and non-atitudinal mean-
ings, leaving it to the hearer to choose between interpretations.
Evidentiality
Te modal verb skal is not only used to express the participants atitude.
It is also frequently used in uterances where the speaker refers to some-
one elses words. Tat usage represents one of the so-called evidential
meanings. Tus, by utering Han skal ha reist til Paris He shall have
lef for Paris, the speaker indicates that it is someone else that claims
that the proposition Han har reist til Paris He has lef for Paris is true.
Te degree of the speakers own commitment to the proposition is not
unambiguously shown by the modal verb in this case. Of course, it may
also be shown by some other means of expression. Te speaker who
refers to someone elses words may also want to express to what degree
she herself is commited to the trustworthiness of the proposition, but
in such a case she must choose some other means of expression. It seems
that it would be too much work for an auxiliary verb to indicate both
the source of information and the degree of trustworthiness.
In a sentence which contains both the information that the speaker
is reporting someone elses words and information about the degree of
trustworthiness, one has to employ two means of expression.
10. Reported proposition and degree of trustworthiness
a) Indirect knowledge is indicated by a lexical expression (Hun sier),
and atitude towards the trustworthiness of the proposition is indi-
cated by the choice of the modal verb.
Hun sier at han kan / br / vil / m ha reist til Paris.
She says that he may / ought to / will / must have lef for Paris.
b) Indirect knowledge is indicated by means of the evidential verb skal,
while atitude towards the trustworthiness of the proposition is indi-
cated by a lexical expression.
Han skal ha reist til Paris, men det tror jeg ikke noe p.
He is said to have lef for Paris, but I dont believe this is correct.
Han skal ha reist til Paris, og det kan godt stemme.
He is said to have lef for Paris, and this may well be the case.
Evidential skal is thus not related not directly, at least, to
the speakers own atitude towards the trustworthiness of the propo-
sition. However, the preterite form skulle may be used to indicate a
lower degree of the speakers commitment to the trustworthiness of
the proposition than the present tense form skal. Consider the two
sentences in (11).
11. Evidentiality and degree of trustworthiness
a) Han skal ha reist til Paris.
He is said to have lef for Paris (and I say nothing about the level of
trustworthiness)
b) Han skulle ha reist til Paris.
He is said to have lef for Paris (and I see this information as less
trustworthy)
Te diference between skal and skulle can most probably be
accounted for from a diachronic point of view, treating the form skulle
as subjunctive of the verb SKULLE. In Modern Norwegian, however,
there seem to be no grammaticalised means to express both the fact that
information is reported and the degree of the speakers commitment
to the trustworthiness of this information.
In the traditional literature on modality, reported information is
treated as a type of evidentiality, but there is no consensus as to whether
evidentiality is to be included into the domain of epistemic modality or
if it should be considered as a separate, though adjacent, domain.
Since modality is defned as an atitudinal category, that is, a cate-
gory dealing with the peoples atitudes towards propositions or states
of afairs, the question about the source of information is irrelevant,
so to speak, for the decision whether a category is modal or not. A cru-
cial question, however, is whether the category in question describes
some participants atitude towards the validity of a proposition, or not.
In such a perspective, evidentiality should only be treated as a modal
category to the extent that it involves an evaluation of the OK-ness of
a proposition.
Tese considerations point in the direction of evidentiality being a
non-modal domain, in principle. Tis interpretation is also supported
by the fact that a feature reported may, but does not need to, be com-
bined with information about the obstacles to accept a proposition as
true / false it follows from there that evidentiality and modality are
two diferent categories.
Conclusion
To sum up the proposal above, we can represent the diferent types of
modality as in fgure 3.
A rough overview of the uses of modern Norwegian modal verbs
in terms of the proposed model is given in fgure 4 (see page 136).
Te real picture is further complicated by pragmatic considerations,
such as the use of kan / kunne in imperative uterances with a certain
amount of politeness or, on the contrary, irony and impatience. Such
uterances deserve a more detailed discussion (cf. Mikuionis 2009).
Another important aspect of the use of the Norwegian modal verbs is
preterite (past tense) forms, used non-temporally. Tey have not been
covered in the current article.
Non-epistemic
modality
Epistemic modality
Positive
atitude
Complex
atitude
not OK unless a state
of afairs occurs (but
there is room for
not OK unless a
proposition is true
(but there is room for
Simple
atitude
not OK unless a state
of afairs occurs
not OK unless a
proposition is true
Neutral
atitude
OK if a state of afairs
occurs (but also OK
if it does not occur)
OK if a proposition
is true (but also OK
if it is false)
Figure 3. Overview of the types of modality.
Bibliography
Andersson, Peter 2007. Modalitet och frndring. En studie av m och kunna i forns-
venska. Gteborg: Gteborgs universitet.
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca 1994. Te evolution of grammar.
Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago / London:
Te University of Chicago Press.
Mikuionis, Ugnius 2009. Modality and the Norwegian verb. Unpublished manuscript,
Vilnius University.
Palmer, Frank 2001. Mood and modality. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Non-epistemic
modality
Epistemic modality
Positive
atitude
Complex
atitude
br, burde, skulle, ville br, burde, skulle
Simple
atitude
m (unspecifed
source of atitude),
skal (personal or
institutional source of
atitude), fr (approx.
have no choice),
vil (willingness)
m, vil
Neutral
atitude
kan, kunne
(unspecifed
source of atitude),
fr (is allowed),
m (in connection
with gjerne / bare)
kan, kunne
kan (dynamic / circumstantial meanings)
Figure 4. Uses of modern Norwegian modal verbs.
van der Auwera, Johan & Vladimir A. Plungian 1998. Modalitys semantic map.
Linguistic Typology 2, pp. 79124.
van der Auwera, Johan, Andreas Ammann & Saskia Kindt 2005. Modal polyfunc-
tionality and Standard Average European, in: Klinge, Alex & Henrik H. Mller
(eds.): Modality: Studies in Form and Function. Oakville, pp. 247268.
Te View of Blood Vengeance in Medieval
Norwegian Sources1
Else Mundal
University of Bergen
Te picture we have of Old Norse society as a feuding society where
blood vengeance fourished is essentially based on the Icelandic sagas.
Te sagas of Icelanders (slendingaso gur) describe a feuding society in
the period before Christianization. Blood vengeance is also a theme
in the contemporary sagas which describe events in the twelfh and
thirteenth century even though the violence described in this litera-
ture is normally more closely connected to the political struggle for
power than to ordinary family feuds. Te Icelandic sources leave no
doubt, however, that blood vengeance continued to be practiced in
Iceland during the Free State period and later, but the sagas of Icelanders,
which idealize the pre-Christian period and the hero who defends his
honour, most likely give an exaggerated picture of how common blood
vengeance was.
Te Norwegian sources are less rich. In some cases the blood venge-
ance described in the sagas of Icelanders takes place in Norway, and
the kings sagas normally describe the Norwegian condition whether
the author is an Icelander, an Icelander living in Norway or a Norwegian.
In the cases where the author is an Icelander, it would be reasonable to
assume that he was infuenced by Icelandic conditions and described
blood vengeance in accordance with the Icelandic practice. It is, how-
ever, very difcult to point out diferences between the two countries
in the descriptions of blood vengeance in literary sources. Tis may be
because blood vengeance was still practiced similarly in the two coun-
tries at the time the saga literature was writen. At least some authors may
also have been aware that the conditions under which blood vengeance
1 Tis article is based on a paper read at Leeds International Medieval Congress,
1215 July, 2004.
140 Else Mundal
was practiced were even more similar in the time described in most of
the sagas than in the period in which they were writen.
Blood vengeance was closely connected to honour to the neces-
sity of re-establishing the honour of a man or a family if it had been
damaged. Blood vengeance was also closely connected to a certain
kind of society, one where the central power or authority of the state
was weak and the families had to rely on themselves to protect their
lives and property.
Christianization, which took place in Norway and Iceland at about
the same time, would, over time, change ideologies with roots in the hea-
then culture. Te opinion that all injustice should be avenged to pro-
tect ones honour, and if necessary by killing, would come in confict
with Christian ideas such as forgiveness, humility and the command-
ment Tou shalt not kill. We must assume that from the very begin-
ning the Church worked against blood vengeance, but with what vigour
we do not know. While both Norway and Iceland were Christianized
around the year 1000, and the Church was established in both countries
with bishoprics in the eleventh century, only Norway was a kingdom at
the time of Christianization. Iceland continued to be a Free State without
an executive power until the union with Norway in 1262/64. Te fact
that blood vengeance continued to fourish in Iceland though probably
more in literature than in reality has ofen been seen in connection
with the absence of an executive power. Whether there was less blood
vengeance in Norway than in Iceland in the frst centuries of the Christian
period cannot in fact be determined. However, as time went on the kings
of Norway probably began to see the institution of blood vengeance as
inconsistent with the kings role as lawmaker and protector of law and
order in his country. Terefore, if the joint forces of the Church and
the king in Norway were both working against blood vengeance, we would
expect a slightly diferent development in the two societies regarding
the use and view of blood vengeance. It is therefore of interest to look
for the impact of the kings work against blood vengeance in Norwegian
sources. Te laws are the most valuable sources for this as it is here that we
can expect to fnd refections of the kings policy as a lawmaker. Peoples
view of blood vengeance may also be refected in the laws, although per-
haps more indirectly. Atitudes towards blood vengeance fnd expression
141 Te View of Blood Vengeance in Medieval Norwegian Sources
in literature of diferent kinds. Te author of Konungs skuggsj (Te Kings
Mirror), from the middle of the thirteenth century, comments on the phe-
nomenon, and blood vengeance is a theme in many Norwegian ballads
which probably refect atitudes in the late Middle Ages and later.
Te Old Norse language does not have a word for blood vengeance.
Tere is only a word for vengeance, hefnd (f.), and the corresponding
verb is hefna. Tese words are used both when a person beats someone
who has beaten him frst, when a person calls someone names who has
abused him frst, and when a person kills someone to avenge a killing
of a kinsmen or an earlier serious insult. Hefnd is, however, also used
as a word for punishment. Tus, in some cases it may be difcult to
decide whether the laws describe the old institution of blood vengeance
which was carried out in the familys own interest to protect the fam-
ily honour, or whether hefnd was sometimes in reality a death penalty
which people were instructed or encouraged to execute on the kings
behalf. I will return to this question later.
In the oldest layers of the Norwegian laws there are rather many cases
in which a man can legally avenge himself by killing. If we take our point
of departure in Te Older Gulathingslaw,2 the law of the district of Western
Norway which probably refects the oldest stage found in the preserved
laws, it is stated that a man is allowed to kill someone immediately, with-
out frst bringing the case to court, in the following circumstances:
if he fnds a man in bed with his wife, sister, daughter, mother,
stepmother, his brothers wife or his sons wife (ch. 160);
if he catches a thief stealing food from his storehouse or an animal
from his catlehouse or fold (ch. 160);
if he, or the people he is with, are atacked, he can kill in defense,
and if the people he is with are killed, he can go afer the killer and take
revenge by killing him (see, for example, chs. 152, 167, 171, 189, 195).3
2 In Norges Gamle Love 1. Parallels to Te Older Gulathingslaw in other Norwegian
laws can be found under the entry words hefna and hefnd in Norges Gamle
Love 5. Parallels in the laws of the Icelandic Free State can be found under
the entry word vgt in Grgs 1883.
3 Jrn yrehagen Sunde has discussed blood vengeance in the cases mentioned
above (Sunde 2005: 5663). He points out that blood vengeance as described
here has many parallels in laws outside Scandinavia. See also Sunde 2006.
142 Else Mundal
Tese may be regarded as examples of the right to defend ones own
life and property, the lives of people a man was expected to defend, and
the lives and honour of the kinswomen. Tese cases are, in principle, dif-
ferent from blood vengeance as practiced in a feud. Te examples above
describe immediate and spontaneous reactions to a killing. In cases
where men had to run afer the killer, it is obvious that revenge did not
take place at the location of the crime, and occurred only afer some
time. Te Norwegian laws do not say how much time the avenger had
to carry out the act of revenge, but if we look at the parallels in Icelandic
laws, in most cases revenge had to be carried out within the same day.
Only in the most serious cases killing and rape could the ofended
part in some special cases wait longer, but he had to take revenge before
the next Ting. In these cases the avenger had time to prepare himself
and plan the revenge. Tis is typical of blood vengeance as practiced
in a feud. However, as the feud is described in saga literature, there
was no time limit for revenge. Blood vengeance could take place many
years afer the killing or insult that caused the act of revenge. Tere is
another even more fundamental diference between the cases of legal
blood vengeance mentioned above and those in a feud. In the cases
above, blood vengeance was directed towards the criminal himself. In a
feud, revenge would not necessarily be directed against the ofender,
but could be directed against anyone of his kinsmen, preferably the best
men of the family.
Tere was also a case, other than those mentioned above, where a
man, according to the older layers of the laws, could legally defend him-
self with blood vengeance. Te Older Gulathingslaw (ch. 196) gave a man
the right to avenge himself with blood vengeance if he was accused of
having given birth to children, of having been the sexual partner of anoth-
er man (in which he played the sexual role of the female), or had been
compared to a female animal of any kind or to a whore (ch. 196).4
Insulting words were normally not reason enough for blood
vengeance: skal or ors hefna, [insulting] words shall be avenged
4 Parallels to Te Old Gulathingslaw in other Norwegian laws can be found under
the entry word fullrtisor in Norges Gamle Love 5. Parallels in the laws of
the Icelandic Free State can be found under the entry word vgt in Grgs 1883.
by [ insulting] words, as it is writen in Te Older Frostathingslaw5
(X, ch. 35). However, serious insults did result in a fne, and only espe-
cially libellous words gave a man the right to avenge himself with blood
vengeance. Nor do the Norwegian laws in this case say how soon
the ofended man must react to the insulting words in order to ensure
that the killing would be legal, but according to Icelandic laws he had
to react before the next Ting. As in the other cases where a man could
legally defend life and honour by killing in revenge, blood vengeance
had to be directed against the man who was guilty of the crime, not
against members of his family.
Blood vengeance, as it was practiced in a feud, is in fact not directly
addressed in Norwegian laws nor in Icelandic laws either for that mat-
ter before the middle of the thirteenth century. Of course any killing,
even those looked upon as blood vengeance, but not legal vengeance
of the type mentioned above, could be handled according to the law:
the case was brought to court by the ofended party, the killer and his
family were sentenced to pay fnes, and the killer, and perhaps some
of his helpers, could be outlawed. Ten the case would be setled, but
only for awhile; the next revenge would start the same procedure over
again, only with the two families in opposite positions. As time went
on, illegal revenge could be difcult to handle according to the law
since some or even many of the men involved in the feud would be
outlawed, which meant that they could not bring a case to court and
they would not be entitled to compensation if atacked.
Judging from the sagas of Icelanders, which best describe how feuds
developed, we get the impression that sometimes blood vengeance was
handled according to the law but that sometimes the case was not
brought to court. To bring a case to court was not an option if the person
who had been killed in revenge was already outlawed. Te ofended fam-
ily had nothing to gain by following legal procedure, and if they wanted
to continue the feud they had to do so outside the law. Te situation
must have been very much the same in Norway as in Iceland, but as
time went on and the power of the king grew stronger, it may have been
more difcult to get away with illegal revenge in Norway.
5 In Norges Gamle Love 1.
144 Else Mundal
An atempt to limit blood vengeance can be observed in the Nor-
wegian laws from the middle of the thirteenth century onwards. In the
younger layers of Te Older Frostatingslaw, probably from the last years
of King Hkon Hkonarsons reign, the king appears as a legislator.
Te new preface to the law takes the form of a leter from the king
to all Norwegians, and here, as in ch. 8 of the frst section, we see for
the frst time a prohibition against taking revenge on someone other
than the killer. Te king says that killing the best men from a family
in revenge instead of the killer himself has been a bad custom for a
long time in this country, and it is now prohibited. Te same prohibi-
tion in more or less the same wording is also found in the so-called
Hkonarbk,6 ch. 20. Tis law was meant for Iceland, but some chapters
mention that the provision in question had already been made law in
Norway. Te law is therefore primarily a source for new ideas concern-
ing law and justice in circles around the Norwegian court. One innova-
tion in this law is that only the man who commited the crime had to
pay fnes, not his kinsmen (ch. 42). Tis legal principle is also repeated
in the new law for the whole country, Te Landslaw7 (Landslo g), given
by King Magns lagabtir, the lawmaker, in the 1270s.8 While this
innovation was a relief for the kinsmen it led to fnancial problems for
the criminal.
Finally, the right of kinsmen to seek revenge by killing was consider-
ably restricted in this period. In the laws from King Hkon Hkonarsons
time, kinsmen still had the right to take revenge if a killer or rapist
refused to pay his fnes (Te Older Frostathingslaw I, chs. 5 and 6), and
Hkonarbk, ch. 20, states that if a man kills without reason he is utl gr
oc ugildr b i konungi oc f ndom, outlawed and has no legal rights
as regards both the king and the family [of the dead], which means that
not only the king but also the kinsmen of the dead man had the right
to kill him. To kidnap or run away with a mans wife was another crime
for which kinsmen retained the right to kill; according to the law it
was more serious to steal a mans wife than a mans cow. Such men are
obota menn b i fre konungi oc karle dr pir oc deyddir hvar sem ir
8 Te provisions are found in section X at the end of the law.
vera stadder, men for whom no compensation shall be paid as regards
both the king and [other] men, they can be killed and put to death
wherever they are (Hkonarbk, ch. 20). Te phrase b i fre konungi
oc karle indicates that not only the king and his men were allowed to
kill the criminal in such cases, but other men as well. Te phrase that
a man is dr pr b i fre konungi oc karle, that a man can be killed both
by the king and other men, is also found in Te Landslaw (IV chs. 3
and 4). Here it is stated that a man has the right to kill to defend his
property and his kinswomen, but in this law punishment by the king
has, in principle, replaced blood vengeance (IV, ch. 16).
It is obvious that King Hkon Hkonarson and King Magns laga-
btir played a very active role in reducing the practice of blood venge-
ance in Norway. Te question is whether the earlier kings did not try or
simply did not succeed in bringing blood vengeance under their royal
control. At frst glance it may seem as if the people of Norway were even
more eager for revenge than Icelanders were. Te Older Gulathingslaw
(ch. 186) states that a man cannot receive compensation more than
three times if he does not avenge himself in between. If the king wanted
to reduce the use of revenge and the number of killings which was
the kings explicit policy in the thirteenth century one would think
that revenge as a prerequisite for receiving compensation would have
given the freeholders ideas. On the other hand, the free farmers were
normally more interested in the right to avenge themselves than in
a duty to avenge themselves; and seen from the kings point of view,
vengeance could have a deterrent efect on negative elements in society.
If we compare the laws from the Free State of Iceland and the kingdom
of Norway in the period before the middle of the thirteenth century,
which give men the right to protect themselves and their interests
by killing in more or less the same cases, there is one interesting dif-
ference. In the Norwegian laws men are not only granted the right
to take revenge, they are in some cases strongly encouraged or even
instructed by the law to pursue a man and kill him. If a man is killed on
a ship, then it is good if he is avenged or thrown over board, Te Older
Gulathingslaw (ch. 171) states. Te same law also states that if a man kills
someone in a group and runs away to the forest, the rest of the group has
to run afer him; and it is implied that they should kill him. Te Older
146 Else Mundal
Frostathingslaw IV, ch. 9, commands that if a man is killed (ho ggvinn) at
the Ting, all men should run afer him to the forest. Te next chapter
states that if a man is wounded at the Ting, all free men ought to run
afer the criminal. Chapter 13 in the same section of the law stipulates
that if a man is wounded, wherever he is, all free men should run afer
the evil-doer. In all these cases it is implied that everyone should run
afer him to kill him.
Another interesting request for the family of a man who has been
killed to pay back with blood vengeance is found in Te Older Fros-
tathingslaw IV, ch. 33, and in Hkonarbk, ch. 22. According to these
laws the kinsmen of the dead are allowed to kill a woman who has killed
her own husband or caused his death. In Old Norse culture, women
were normally not the target of blood vengeance. To kill women and
children would have been shameful. If a woman was guilty of killing,
revenge would most likely have been directed against one or more male
members of her family. Te provision could be seen as a request to kill
the evil-doer instead of an innocent man from the womans family.
Tere is, however, one law in particular which indicates that earlier
kings at least tried and had limited success in taking over the families
old right to setle their own afairs. In all Norwegian laws a serious crime
against a person was not only a crime against the person in question
and his or her family, but was also a crime against the king, and the king
was entitled to compensation. In Te Older Bjarkeyrtr,9 the law for
the towns, kinsmen and their right to receive compensation when a
relative has been killed are mentioned only a few times. According to
this law, income from fnes was normally divided between the king
and the men of the town who had more or less replaced the family. In
this law we also fnd a very interesting example of how execution on
the kings behalf could develop out of blood vengeance. In Te Older
Bjarkeyrtr (II, ch. 13) the kinsmen of a man who has been killed are
instructed to kill the murderer, but if the kinsmen were not present,
one of the kings civil servants had to do the job. Te cases in Te Older
Gulathingslaw and Te Older Frostathingslaw in which the law instructs
or encourages men to kill an evil-doer, could also be seen as examples
of how kings used the old custom of blood vengeance to promote their
own interests.10 When a man killed a criminal who had ofended him
or members of his family in revenge he was acting in his own interest,
but in many cases it was also in the interest of the society to eliminate
criminals. Te step from blood vengeance to punishment was a short
one in these cases.
At least in some cases the laws of the towns can be seen as sup-
plementary to the laws of the surrounding districts. Te diferences
between the two laws may therefore be smaller than a comparison of
the texts seems to indicate. Nevertheless, these diferences seem to
imply that the king had greater power in the towns than in the rural
districts. Te lack of control in the districts is in fact clearly refected
in the younger part of Te Older Frostatingslaw, given by King Hkon
Hkonarson. In section I, ch. 12, of this law the king complains about
outlawed men living in the countryside, even protected by the kings
own civil servants. Te towns, which according to later writen sources
were established by the kings and were their main residences, may also
have been bridgeheads for the kings power and new ideas promoted
by the king and the Church. Te absence of kinsmen and extended
families combined with the presence of the king in the new towns
made this possible.
If the diferences between Norwegian and Icelandic laws men-
tioned above developed as a result of the kings interference, this could
point to the kings struggle for control as the cause, rather than new ideas.
Tis is what we would expect in the frst centuries afer Christianization.
Te instructions or encouragements to kill the evil-doer which are found
in the older layers of the laws are, however, in accordance with ideas
expressed in the new laws from the middle of the thirteenth century.
10 Tere are, however, a few provisions in Te Older Frostathingslaw (IV, chs. 50, 51,
52) which cannot have resulted from the kings policy. Tese provisions state
that if the king, the earl or the lendr mar kills a man without reason, the farm-
ers should kill him. It is very difcult to say when these provisions found their
way into the writen law and what the background for them might have been.
One possible explanation could be that the king had to accept this so that
the farmers would accept the duty of killing criminals in cases where they had
no personal interest. For a discussion of these provisions, see Bagge 2005.
148 Else Mundal
In the middle of the thirteenth century a literary work appeared
which makes an interesting source for a study on the views of blood
vengeance. Te anonymous work Konungs skuggsj (Te Kings Mirror)
was writen in circles closely connected to the Norwegian king.
Te author regards vengeance as a duty a man has to undertake when
necessary, but recommends moderation in the execution of revenge
(Holm-Olsen 1983: 66). He does not question the morality of venge-
ance; what he fnds objectionable is that the fnes and the vengeance
are the same whether the man who has been killed was a good and wise
man or an evil and stupid man (Holm-Olsen 1983: 54).11
Te ban on taking revenge on anyone other than the killer him-
self and the command that the criminal should pay his fnes alone
are innovations that could be seen, at least partly, as consequences
of the Christian religion. According to Christian beliefs sin was an
individual problem. When the Norwegian king argued that it was a
bad custom to kill a man who had done nothing wrong, many people
probably agreed with him in principle. Whether it really had been more
common in Norway than elsewhere to take revenge on the best man
in a family, as King Hkon Hkonarson claims, cannot be determined
from the sources, and whether the new provisions actually made a dif-
ference is also very hard to say.
According to King Hkon Hkonarsons new preface to Te Older
Frostathingslaw, the main reason for restricting the use of blood venge-
ance was to reduce the number of killings. Whether the number of
killings was actually reduced or not we cannot say, but we do know
of approximately three hundred cases of manslaughter or murder in
Norway in the two last centuries before the Reformation, and this is
probably only the tip of the iceberg.
Criminals are to be found among all classes of society, the men
of the Church make no exception.12 It is ofen difcult to see from
the sources whether a killing was regarded as revenge or not. However,
there are some typical examples of blood vengeance, and a few of them
11 On the view of punishment and revenge in Konungs skuggsj see Bagge 1987,
especially chapter II, Te King as Judge; Bagge forthcoming, especially
the chapter Justice, Law and Power.
12 See Jrgensen & Saletnich 2004.
clearly illustrate how the Christian culture and the old demand of
blood vengeance lived side by side. A diploma from Skien (Telemark)
from 133813 tells how a man had been fatally wounded by an enemy.
Te brothers of the dying man ran to fnd a priest, but on their way to
the priest they met the man who had wounded their brother and they
stopped to kill him in revenge. Saving their brothers soul and protect-
ing their honour were seen as equally important.
An interesting regulation which also concerns blood vengeance
was made by the bishop of Oslo in the year 1395.14 Te regulation is in
the form of a diploma to the people from the district of Telemark, and
the bishop accuses the people of this district of commiting more kill-
ings than any other district in Norway. In relation to blood vengeance,
it is interesting that the bishop accuses the people of this district of
taking revenge afer having accepted compensation, and he threatens
them with heluitis pinu medh di finum si luum, torment in Hell
together with the Devil himself .15 Tis indicates that blood venge-
ance continued to fourish, at least in this particular district, and that
the pressure from the authorities to setle a case afer having received
compensation was greater than the farmers willingness to abstain from
vengeance, which some people might still have considered the most
honourable resolution.
Killing as a reaction to insulting words is typical in many of the mur-
der cases described in Norwegian diplomas.16 In some cases the insults
might share some traits with the type of insults found in the oldest layers
of the laws which gave a man the right to avenge himself by killing. But
if the killings in reaction to insults described in Norwegian diplomas
can be regarded as examples of blood vengeance, in most cases they are
examples of extreme proportions. Even so, in many cases minor insults
seem to have led to killings.
Blood vengeance is also the theme of many ballads. Te atitude
towards blood vengeance in this literature, which probably refects
13 Diplomatarium Norwegicum 1: 196f.
14 Te regulation is preserved in a younger copy and is printed in Taranger (ed.)
1912: 328334.
15 Taranger (ed.) 1912: 329.
16 See Solberg 2003a, especially chapters 7 and 8.
150 Else Mundal
the ideology of the late Middle Ages both in Norway and in the rest of
Scandinavia, is interesting in that it demonstrates that there was not
only one view of blood vengeance, but many. Te tragedy of blood
vengeance is the theme of a ballad like Hemnarsverdet17 (Te Sword of
Vengeance). In this ballad the sword takes control and kills everyone,
refecting an atitude towards blood vengeance that is highly negative.
A similar plot is found in the ballad Mindre Alf.18 Here the avenger man-
ages to stop the sword by mentioning the name of God. In other ballads,
however, blood vengeance is more or less idealized. In the ballad Ivar
Elisson,19 the mother who is afraid that her son will be killed when tak-
ing revenge says that it is beter to live with shame than to lose ones life.
Nevertheless she is very pleased when vengeance is carried out. Here
the atitude towards blood vengeance is ambiguous. Te most common
plot in these ballads is of a son who takes revenge by killing the man
who murdered his father, as, for instance, in the ballad Tiarmann i
Stokkholmen.20 In such cases blood vengeance is seen as a necessary and
honourable thing to do. In some ballads it is the daughters who carry
out revenge, as in the ballad Sigrid and Astrid. 21 Here blood vengeance
is highly idealized. Te fact that daughters take revenge on the man who
has killed their father emphasizes the necessity of vengeance. However,
the tragedy of blood vengeance is ofen focused upon, even in ballads
that describe revenge as a necessity. In some ballads a woman is in
the unfortunate position of having lover or husband who has been killed
by her father or brother and she turns against her own family and kills
a close relative in revenge, as in the ballads Herr Hjelmen22 and Far og
doter23 (Father and Daughter).
Finally, we have ballads which look at blood vengeance from a
humorous point of view. Te ballad Kjerringa vil skrife24 (Te Old
17 Printed in Olav B & Svale Solheim (eds.) 1958.
18 Printed in M. B. Landstad (ed.) [1853] 1968.
24 Printed in Solberg (ed.) 2003b.
Woman Wants to Confess) tells about an old woman who takes revenge
by killing a nobleman who has stolen her porridge. She goes frst to
the bishop to confess her sin, but he sends her to Rome to confess
to the pope who seems to approve of her deeds. One of the themes
of this ballad is vengeance that is extreme in its proportion, and this
ballad can be read as a humorous comment on killings as reactions to
minor insults.25
Te essentially diferent atitudes towards blood vengeance in
sources from the late Middle Ages indicate that the views among com-
mon people were changing in this period. Te tragedy of blood venge-
ance, especially for women, may also be a theme in Eddic poetry and
saga literature. However, the ballads express this tragedy more clearly;
honour can be bought at a too high price. It is also worth noting that
the kind of blood vengeance which King Hkon Hkonarson looked
upon as absolutely reprehensible that which had someone other than
the killer as a target is no longer a theme in the ballads, and probably
was without defenders in the late Middle Ages.
25 Ballads of this type are normally late, but this ballad must be medieval and
was writen down in Denmark as early as in the 16th century.
Bibliography
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1. Christiania.
Far och son-motiv i nordisk hjltediktning och saga
Agneta Ney
Hgskolan i Gvle
Vad innebar det at vara man under vikingatid och medeltid? Hur for-
mades den manliga identiteten? I den nordiska hjltediktningen med
fera andra skrifliga kllor gestaltas Sigurd Fafnesbane som en idealman
under vikingatid och medeltid. Mest omtalad r Sigurd i egenskap av
drakddare, och at dma av kllorna var han gynnad av gudarna, lskad
av kvinnorna och beundrad av mnnen. Det kan drfr vara av intresse
at studera den literra tradition som gestaltar Sigurd, i synnerhet vilka
homosociala band som frefaller ha haf stor genomslagskraf under
vikingatid och medeltid. I freliggande studie skall far och son-motiv
inom Sigurdstraditionen studeras, bland annat Sigurds relationer till sin
far respektive hans egen roll som far, men ven far och son-relationer i
tidigare generationer av vlsungaten.
Frestllningar om tens betydelse, patriarkalism, slktlojalitet
respektive slktkonfikter ges stort utrymme eller till och med utgr
centrala teman i hjltediktning och saga. Generellt set hade ten en
viktig uppgif i at fra ryktet och namnet vidare, helst genom sner.
Den genealogiska betydelsen av vikten av at ha en son belyses bland
annat av fljande strof ur Hvaml. Den anger at ven om en son lt
vnta p sig var denne viktig fr at fadern skulle kunna f en minnessten
efer sig:1
Sonur er betri
t s s of alinn
1 Hvaml, i Eddukv i, ed. Gsli Sigursson, Reykjavk 1998 (Eddukv i), strof
72, s. 33, (Havaml, i Den poetiska Eddan, verstning av Bjrn Collinder, 2.
uppl. Stockholm 1964, s. 60). Nir, m. kan verstas med slkting och avser
nrmaste manlig sdan, jfr Fritzner, Johan, Ordbog over Det gamle norske Sprog
IIII, Kristiania 18861896, s. 820.
154 Agneta Ney
efir genginn guma.
Sjaldan bautarsteinar
Standa brautu nr
nema reisi niur a ni.
En son r btre fast sent han blev fdd,
nr mannen ej lngre levde;
sllan str dr vid stigen en bautasten,
om ej frnde har rest den ver frnde.
At betydelsen av en son var stor, i synnerhet inom hgtade famil-
jer, mrks ven i eddadikten Rgsula. I de strofer som handlar om den
hgtade familjen r vrt at notera at dikten endast anger at det fds
sner. Nr slktskap, arv och egendom framhlls hnvisas enbart till
en manlig sida.2 Framhllandet av betydelsen av en son r dock inte
entydig i eddadiktningen. Som kontrast citeras hr at en ung son inte
alltid var s plitlig:3
akri rsnum
tri engi maur
n til snemma syni,
veur rur akri
en vit syni,
ht er eirra hvort.
tidigt sdd ker m ingen man tro
ej heller fr snart sin son:
2 Rgsula, i Eddukv i, strof 39, s. 392 (Sngen om Rig, strof 42, s. 152),
Breisch, Agneta (numera Ney), Frid och fedlshet. Sociala band och utanfrskap
p Island under ldre medeltid, Acta Univ. Ups., Stud. Hist. Ups. 174, Uppsala
1994, s. 73 f.
3 Hvaml, i Eddukv i, strof 88, s. 36 (Havaml, s. 62). I eddadiktningen
relateras ofast till den manliga slktlinjen, med hnvisning till fadersten.
Et st at gra deta r at nmna faderns namn, exempelvis: Sigurur eg
heiti, Sigmundur ht minn fair [] (Sigurd heter jag, son av Sigmund []),
se Ffnisml, i Eddukv i, strof 4, s. 232 (Fafnesml, s. 209).
155 Far och son-motiv i nordisk hjltediktning och saga
fr kern rder vdret, men vetet fr sonen,
bgge tv ro farofyllda.
Vlsungatens anfader, Vlsung, fr tio sner och en doter. Den
ldste av snerna r Sigurds far Sigmund. Vlsung och snerna skildras
som et kollektiv och omnmns ofa tillsammans, exempelvis kung
Vlsung och hans sner eller kungen och hans sner. Sigmund hr
till de hjltar som Vlsunga saga uppehller sig vid. Han skildras som en
verlevare med ofantlig styrka, mod och list. Bland annat undkommer
han med livet i behll efer at ha bundits fast i en stock i skogen tillsam-
mans med sina nio brder. En varghona kommer nio nter i fljd och
ddar alla utom Sigmund. Infr den tionde naten fr Sigmund hjlp av
sin tvillingsyster Signy. Sigmund har genom systerns frsorg ft honung
som han smrjer in sit ansikte med. Nr varghonan kommer fram till
honom p naten knner hon honungsdofen och brjar slicka honom
i ansiktet. Sigmund biter d varghonan i tungan och hller emot s hrt
at nr vilddjuret frsker slita sig loss dr det.4
Sigmund hller sig drefer gmd i skogen fr at bida sin tid fr
at kunna hmnas p sin faders baneman, kung Siggeir, som r Signys
make. Signy, som ocks vill hmnas sin fars dd, byter en dag skepnad
med en trollkvinna och sker upp Sigmund i skogen. Han atraheras
av henne och sagan bertar at hon stannar hos honom i tre nter.
Drefer fds deras gemensamme son Sinftle. Sagan ger inte besked
om huruvida Sigmundr ngonsin inset at det var systern Signy som
beskte honom i hans grota. Sinftle omtalas som stor, stark, vacker
och at han pminde mycket om vlsungarna. Signy prvar Sinftles
karaktr genom at sy ihop hans rmlinningar med hans hud. Det hade
hon gjort med sina ldre sner. Dessa hade klagat hgljut, men det gr
inte Sinftle. Nr han inte ens r tio r fyllda snder hon honom till
faderns gmstlle i skogen. D r det fadern som prvar sonens karaktr
4 Vlsunga saga, i Fornaldar sgur Norurlanda, fyrsta bindi, ed. Guni Jnsson,
(Vlsunga saga). Till den svenska verstningen, Vlsungasagan, vers. Inge
Knutsson. Inledning Stafan Bergsten, Lund 1991, hnvisas inom parentes:
(Vlsunga saga, kap. 5, s. 116 (s. 35), kap. 5, s. 117 (s. 36), kap. 5, s. 119 (s. 38),
Ney, Agneta, Drotningar och skldmr. Grnsverskridande kvinnor i medeltida
myt och verklighet ca 4001400, Mklinta 2007 (Ney 2007), s. 100 f.
156 Agneta Ney
genom at lta honom baka en deg. Sigmund frgar drvidlag om det
inte var ngot speciellt med mjlet. Sinftle sger at det kan funnits
ngot djur i det, men at det hade han i s fall bakat in. D skratar
Sigmund och avsljar at det fanns en mycket gifig orm i mjlet.5
Sigmund och Sinftle gestaltas i en nra relation; et tydligt far och
son-motiv. Fadern prvar sonen om han duger ngot till, och Sinftle
visar sig vara frslagen, munter och ordd. De lever ven som vargar i
skogen. Ylande ddar de mn som de mter, och en dag nr de r i varg-
skepnad rkar Sigurd bita sin son i strupen. Han ber d enligt Vlsunga
saga trollen om hjlp fr at lsa dem ur vargskepnaden. Omsorgen
om sonen mrks ven d Sigmund lgger et srlkande blad p sin
sons hals.6
Sigmund gifer sig med Borghild och fr med henne tv sner,
Helge Hundingsbane och Hamund Sigmundsson. Helge skildras som
en krigare i brynja med vass blick redan som nyfdd. Relationen mel-
lan far och son antyds som nra. Sigmund avbryter en stridskamp fr
at bege sig till den nyfdde och enligt dikten ge honom en lkvxt,
en symbolisk gva.7 Borghild tl dock inte sin styvson Sinftle, efer-
som denne ddat hennes broder i en strid. Vid et gstabud r Sigmund
ouppmrksam p at hon planerar at mrda Sinftle genom at lgga
gif i hans l. Sinftle misstnker at let r frgifat och antyder deta
till fadern, som vifar bort det hela genom at uppmana sin son at sila
det genom skgget. Nr gifet verkat och Sinftle dr r Sigmund sjlv
nra at d av sorg. Sagan bertar hur han tar sin dde son i famnen och
gr till skogs. Nr han kommer fram till en ford fr han se en man i en
bt. Mannen frgar om Sigmund vill at han skall forsla den dde ver
forden. Till deta sger Sigmund ja. Efersom bten r s liten fnns inte
plats fr dem alla tre, s Sigmund skall g runt forden. Men d bten
frsvinner utom synhll tervnder Sigmund hem.8 Han frskjuter d
Borghild och gifer senare om sig med Hjrdis.9
5 Vlsunga saga, kap. 7, s. 133 f. (s. 122), Ney 2007, s. 101 f.
6 Vlsunga saga, kap. 8, s. 124 (s. 46).
7 Helgakva Hundingsbana I, i Eddukv i, strof 68, s. 165 (Det frsta kvdet
om Helge Hundingsbane, s. 168 f.).
8 Vlsunga saga, kap. 10, s. 133 f. (s. 57).
9 Vlsunga saga, kap. 10, s. 134 (s. 57), kap. 11, s. 135 (s. 58), Ney 2007, s. 102.
Den utfrliga historien om Sigurd och Sinftle som Vlsunga saga
bertar, saknas i eddadiktningen. I den sgs inte heller direkt at de r far
och son. Sinftle omnmns i Helgakvia Hundingsbana I som Siggeirs
styvson, samt at han var van vid vargens ylande ute i skogen. En anspel-
ning p at denne levt i skogen som varg grs sledes, men utan at Sigmund
omtalas.10 Andra kllor som nmner Sigurd och Sinftle r skaldedikt-
ningen, nrmare bestmt Eirksml. Den dikten bertar om Eirkr blx
dd (r 954) och at han vid ankomsten till Valhall tas emot av Sigurd och
Sinftle som nmns tillsammans, men utan at ngot slktband anges.11
Slktbandet far och son utrycks dock tydligt i Edda Snorra Sturlusonar.12
Till skillnad frn de vstnordiska kllorna, omnmns Sigmund och Sinftle
(Fitela) i Beowulf som morbror och systerson, en relation som fr vrigt
skildras mycket positiv fr et framgngrikt krigarskap.13
He related everything that he had heard men say
of Sigemund, his deeds of valour, many untold things,
the struggle of the son of Wls, his wanderings far
and wide, the feuds and treacheries things that the
sons of men know nothing of save Fitela (who was)
with him, when he, the uncle, would tell something
of such a mater to fadern his nephew, as they had always
been friends in need in every struggle, and had felled
with their sword large numbers of the race of
monsters.
Allting frtljer han
som han har hrt sagas
10 Helgakva Hundingsbana I, i Eddukv i, strof 41, s. 172 (Det frsta kvdet
om Helge Hundingsbane, strof 43, s. 172).
11 Jnas Kristjnsson, Eddas and Sagas. Icelands Medieval Literature, transl. Peter
Foote, Reykjavk 1988, s. 95 f.
12 Skaldskapens sprk, i Snorres Edda, verstning av Karl G. Johansson och
Mats Malm, Stockholm 1991, s. 151.
13 Beowulf and the Finnsburg fagment. A translation into modern English Prose by
John R. Clark, London 1911, s. 5051 (Beowulf), Beowulf, vers. Bjrn Collinder,
Stockholm 1955, strof 874885, Beowulf, ed. George Jack, Oxford 1994, vers
875, Sigemunde, vers 897, Fitela, not 877, s. 79.
158 Agneta Ney
om Sigmunds den,
om mnga stordd
och sllsamma ting,
vlsungens vigrn
och vida frder,
arvfejd och nidverk,
som ingen man
rt vet utom han
och med honom Fjotle,
ty slikt hade Sigmund
fr systersonen
frtalt et och vart
de voro ju stdse
i alla slags vigverk
vapenbrder.
Sigmund fr i sit ddsgonblick veta at Hjrdis vntar barn, ngot
som r vsentligt fr framhvandet av genealogin. Sigmund ges nm-
ligen tillflle at ytra sig om sin sons framtid (at det skulle bli en son
tas fr givet, min anm.). Srad p slagfltet sger Sigmund till Hjrdis
at deras son kommer at bli bermd och dessutom den frmste i vls-
ungaten: ferr me sveinbarn ok f at vel ok vandliga, ok mun
s sveinn gtr ok fremstr af vrri t. ([] du br et gossebarn under
dit hjrta och kommer at fda det tryggt och skert, och den pojken
kommer at bli bermd och bli den frmste i vr slkt.)14 Sigurd fds
sledes utanfr slktkollektivet, vid kung Hjalpreks hov i Danmark, dit
hans mor kommit efer makens dd.15
14 Vlsunga saga, kap. 12, s. 137 f. (s. 61).
15 Enligt det ldsta germanska namnskicket var det mycket vanligt med en kon-
tinuitet som en namngivningsprincip, det vill sga at en del av faderns namn
terkom i barnets, som fadersnamnet Sig-mundr i frhllande till Sig-urr.
Tanken bakom det slags namngivning var at man ville befsta den genealo-
giska kontinuiteten och verfra vrdefulla egenskaper frn far till son, se
Janzn, Assar, De fornvstnordiska personnamnen, i Personnamn, utg. av
Assar Janzn, Stockholm 1947, s. 22186. I Vlsunga saga r deta slags namn-
givning sllsynt. At samma frled ges till tvillingarna Sg-ny och Sig-mundr r
dock et annat exempel p variation av namngivning med samma frled.
Sigurds avsaknad av fadern mrks i det samtal som han fr med
draken Fafner. Frst sger Sigurd at han r bde moderls och faderls,
men sedan avsljar han vem han r och vem som r hans far. Fafner kal-
lar honom fr inn frneygi sveinn (famgde sven; terigen en anspel-
ning p vikten fr en hjlte och krigare av at ha en speciell blick) och
tillstr at Sigurds far var hrd och at et sdant mod r medft.16
Uppenbart r at Vlsunga sagas mytologiska del har en annan fadersdis-
kurs n den senare hviska delen: den kollektiva karaktren som karaktrise-
rar Vlsung och hans sner, det msinta bandet mellan Sigmund och Helge,
men framfr allt den nra relationen mellan Sigmund och Sinftle.
I Vlsunga sagas hviska del r far och son-relationen oviktig. Kung
Gjuke hller sig i bakgrunden medan hans sner skildras som aktiva
och agerar utan faderns nrvaro. Sigurd som far r tmligen osynlig
och kommenteras aldrig direkt i literaturen. Han fr tv barn, frst en
doter med sin trolovade Brynhild, och senare en son med sin maka
Gudrun. Nr dotern, Aslaug, r fdd, sger Brynhild till sin fosterfar
kung Heimir at fickan skall uppfostras hos honom. Fr Sigurd sjlv
frefaller faderskapet till dotern vara oknt, och ngon relation till
sonen skildras ver huvud taget inte. Det enda som publiken fr veta
r at sonen r tre r nr Brynhild drper honom efer at Sigurd ddats
av sina svgrar. P sin ddsbdd ytrar Sigurd en franing om sin sons
de och drmed bekrfar han ven sonen som sin legitime arvinge:17
eg til ungan
erfnytja,
kann-at hann frrast
r fndgari,
eir sr hafa
svrt og dt,
enn nr numi
nleg r.
16 Ffnisml, i Eddukv i, strof 25, s. 231 f. (Fafnesml, s. 209).
17 Vlsunga saga, kap. 27, s. 178 (s. 113), kap. 30, s. 188 (s. 125), kap. 31, s. 194
(s. 132). Efer Sigurrs dd fder Gurn en doter, Svanhldr, Vlsunga saga,
kap. 31, s. 193 (s. 131), Sigurarkvia in skamma, i Eddukv i, strof 26, s. 274
(Det korta Sigurdskvdet, s. 243).
160 Agneta Ney
Alltfr ung r arvingen min,
han tar sig ej ut ur ovnners grd;
till egen skam och skada ha de
p sistone ndrat sit sinnelag.
Den frndrade fadersrollen i Vlsunga saga r intressant p fera
st, inte minst fr at den s uppenbart fljer sagans indelning i en myto-
logisk och en hvisk del.18 At Sigurds fadersroll i den hviska delen r
s otydlig r trots allt logisk med tanke p de drag av riddarkultur som
den delen uppbr samt at Sigurd har fullt upp med sig sjlv i ngot som
kan beskrivas som en individualiseringsprocess.19 Dessutom r sners
kollektiva hmnd efer en fars dd inte lngre et motiv i den hviska
delen, dremot brders kollektiva hmnd fr en svgers svek samt fr
sin systers dd. Sigurds son dr fre fadern och Atles sner dr fre
honom sjlv, i bda fallen initierat av kvinnors hmnd.20
Det r inte enbart p nordiskt omrde som far och son-motiv gnas
utrymme. Grundlggande i den fornfranska genren chanson de geste r
et homosocialt perspektiv, det vill sga at mn defnieras i frhllande
till andra mn. I genren fnns dock en utrycklig konfikt mellan genera-
tionerna. Om fadern fnns i livet skildras han som ambivalent gentemot
sina sner om de behver hans hjlp. I exempelvis Chanson de Roland
verlever fadersgenerationen och den yngre generationen dr. De festa
unga mn dr dessutom barnlsa. Jmfrelsevis sts i den franska rid-
darromanen fadersrollen t sidan och snerna agerar som sjvstndiga
vuxna redan i unga r.21 I riddarromanen ges mnnen en identitet som
grundar sig p mannen som subjekt och individ. Nr det gller det
sistnmnda frefaller det som om Sigurd i Vlsunga sagas hviska del i
18 Se vidare Ney 2007, s. 80 f.
19 Jfr Gurevitj, Aron, J., Den svrfngade individen. Sjlvsyn hos fornnordiska
hjltar och medeltidens lrde i Europa, vers. Carl G. Liungman, frord Tomas
Lindkvist, Stockholm 1997, s. 99 f., Krfve, Eva, Konsten at bli mnniska.
Individ och myt i medeltidens riddarvrld, Stockholm / Stehag 1997, s. 22 f.
20 Atlakvia, i Eddukv i, strof 39, s. 325 (Kvdet om Atli, strof 40, s. 269),
Atlaml, i Eddukv i, strof 80, s. 344 (Atlaml, strof 74, s. 280).
21 Kay, Sarah, Te Chanson de geste in the Age of Romance. Political Fictions, Oxford
1995, s. 103.
varje fall kan stmma verens med bilden av riddarromanens yngling,
medan fadern Sigmund i frhllande till Sinftle kan jmfras med
fadersdiskursen i chanson de geste. Den ambivalens hos fadern i frhl-
lande till snerna som karaktriserar den genren kommer till utryck i
Sigmunds vargbet, men framfr allt i frgifningen av Sinftle. Sigurds
identitet i den mytologiska delen grundlggs i frhllande till et genea-
logiskt perspektiv dr i frsta hand hans far och farfars egenskaper ger
honom status och anseende. Den identiteten frsvagas i den hviska
delen till frmn fr relationer till sekundra slktband.
Referenser
Beowulf, ed. George Jack, Oxford 1994
Beowulf, vers. Bjrn Collinder, Stockholm 1955
Beowulf and the Finnsburg fagment. A translation into modern English Prose by John
R. Clark, London 1911
Breisch, Agneta (numera Ney), Frid och fedlshet. Sociala band och utanfrskap p
Island under ldre medeltid, Ser. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Historica
Upsaliensia 174, Uppsala 1994
Den poetiska Eddan, vers. Bjrn Collinder, 2. uppl., Stockholm 1964
Eddukv i, ed. Gsli Sigursson, Reykjavk 1998
Fritzner, Johan, Ordbog over Det gamle norske Sprog 1-III, Kristiania 18861896
Gurevitj, Aron, J., Den svrfngade individen. Sjlvsyn hos fornnordiska hjltar och
medeltidens lrde i Europa, vers. Carl G. Liungman, frord Tomas Lindkvist,
Stockholm 1997
Jnas Kristjnsson, Eddas and Sagas. Icelands Medieval Literature, transl. Peter Foote,
Reykjavk 1988
Kay, Sarah, Te Chanson de geste in the Age of Romance. Political Fictions, Oxford
1995
Krfve, Eva, Konsten at bli mnniska. Individ och myt i medeltidens riddarvrld, Stock-
holm / Stehag 1997
Ney, Agneta, Drotningar och skldmr. Grnsverskridande kvinnor i medeltida myt
och verklighet ca 4001400, Mklinta 2007
Snorres Edda, vers. Karl G. Johansson och Mats Malm, Stockholm 1991
Vlsunga saga, i Fornaldar sgur Norurlanda, band 1, ed. Guni Jnsson, Reykjavk
1976
Vlsungasagan, vers. Inge Knutsson. Inledning Stafan Bergsten, Lund 1991
Summary
Sigurr the Dragon-slayer is characterized as an ideal man in Icelandic
heroic poetry, legendary sagas, as well as several other Scandinavian and
German sources from the Viking and the Medieval Ages. Te sources
represent a pre-state society organized through interpersonal con-
structions and male bonding. Male bonding may be studied in many
respects, but the present study focuses on the father-and-son motif.
Te article deals with Sigurrs own relations to his father as well as
his own role as a father. Te father-and-son motif from a genealogi-
cal perspective of the Volsung family will be discussed as well, and
to a certain degree compared with other medieval writen texts. One
main point is the diference within the Saga of the Volsungs. While
the mythological part does narrate a close relationship between father
and son, the corresponding relation in the chivalric part seems to be
unimportant. An example from the chivalric part seems to be King
Gjki who remains in the background, while his sons are active promi-
nent fgures. Sigurr himself being as a father is a man of no action and
lacking commitment. His role as a father is thus of no importance to
the author. Considering the elements of chivalry in the later part of
the saga and the changes in Sigurrs personality, from an energetic hero
to a yearning knight, his absence as a father fgure may be no surprise.
Te Father-and-Son Motif in Icelandic Heroic Poetry
and Saga Literature
Agneta Ney
University of Gvle
Saga Refections in Karen Blixens Texts (with Focus
on Grjotgard lvesn og Aud)
Ieva Steponaviitu
Vilnius University
Feeling quite an intruder in this honourable assembly of experts of
the Viking age, I will start by quoting a person who stands closer to my own
feld of research, namely Jorge Luis Borges, one of the key fgures in modern
West ern literature. In his book Old Germanic literature, he writes:
Among ancient Germanic literatures, the Scandinavian is beyond
comparison the richest and the most manifold. Te frst texts writ-
ten in England and Germany have value because they announce, or
we make us believe that they announce what would be writen later:
Miltons glory casts light backwards on Cynewulf and the Song of
the Nibelungs anticipates Richard Wagner. But the Old Norse litera-
ture possesses value in itself and those who study it can safely look
away from Ibsen and Strindberg.1
Although a professor of literature, Borges was no real specialist
in sagas and his book is writen more from a fction writers perspec-
tive. Yet most of us will probably agree with his idea of the autono-
mous value of the Old Norse heritage and vast possibilities it ofers
for researchers. As it does for authors of fction: for hundreds of years,
the classical Norse literature has served as an object of inspiration, imi-
tation and transformation for Nordic writers. And if those interested in
1 Orig. De las antiguas literaturas germnicas la ms compleja y rica es incom-
parablemente la escandinava. Lo que al principio se escribi en Inglaterra o en
Alemania vale porque prefgura, o porque imaginamos que prefgura, lo que se
escribira despus; la fama de Milton ayuda a la fama de Cynewulf y el Cantar
de los Nibelungos anuncia a Wagner. En cambio, la antigua literatura nrdica
vale por cuenta propia; quienes la estudian pueden prescindir de la evocacin de
Ibsen o de Strindberg. (Borges 1951: 76)
164 Ieva Steponaviit
sagas might forget Ibsen and Strindberg, to study Ibsen or Strindberg
without at least minimal knowledge of Old Norse literature is hard-
ly possible, for one would risk missing something very important in
their work. Both Strindberg and Ibsen,2 just like many Nordic authors
before and afer them, such as Adam Oehlenschlger, Selma Lagerlf,
Sigrid Undset, Johannes V. Jensen, Halldr Laxness, William Heinesen,
Torgny Lindgren, Herbjrg Wassmo, Svava Jakobsdtir, Einar Mr
Gumundsson and lots of others, borrowed from sagas and Eddas motifs
and stylistic devices and replayed them in their own artistic key.
Te Danish author Karen Blixen (18851962) is no exception in
this respect. Allusions to Gylfaginning and Vlusp, paralleling,
albeit ofen ironic, of female characters to saga women or valkyries
(for example, Miss Malin in Te Deluge of Norderney or Ehrengard
in Ehrengard respectively), the intellectually cool narrator, showing
litle emotional involvement with the characters fates that she relates,
insertion of verse into the narrative, expression of a characters emo-
tional state through changes in his / her physical appearance rather than
explicit psychologising all these aspects can be studied as refections
of Old Norse literature in Blixens authorship.
Tus it is surprising, that despite these afnities and despite ample
cases of Blixens play with Biblical and classical plots,3 there is only one
story that is an explicit remake of a saga narrative. And this story is
Grjotgard lvesn og Aud.
Te text, which has never been fully completed, was writen when
Blixen was in her twenties. It was frst published in 1962, shortly afer
the authors death, based on a typewriten copy by Blixens brother
Tomas.4 A somewhat diferent version was published in 1985 in Blixe-
niana, the publication of the Blixen society, based on a manuscript from
2 One can refer here to Te Folkunga Saga by Strindberg, or Te Vikings at
Helgeland by Ibsen, to mention just a few examples.
3 Consider, for example, transformations of Te Dead by Joyce in Babetes
Feast, Ball-of-Fat by Maupassant in Te Heroine, Te two Baronesses
by H.C. Andersen in A Country Tale, Te Seducerss Diary by Sren
Kierkegaard in Ehrengard or the naughty recount of the escape of the Holly
Family to Egypt in Te Deluge at Norderney.
4 Blixen 1962.
165 Saga Refections in Karen Blixens Texts
Blixens own hand.5 I will refer to the later version in my analysis, since
the former one, as the editors of Blixeniana claim, might contain Tomas
Dinesens own contribution (Lasson 1985: 13). It is possible, however,
that some diferences in the two versions are due to Blixens own rework
of the story, if she, for example, considered its publication later in her
career.6 Te Blixeniana version does exhibit traits of Blixens mature writ-
ing: elaborate syntax and also so typical of Blixen semantic ambiguity
resulting in difculty for the reader to (re)construct the fabula behind
the sjuet, i. e. to answer the question what really happened in the story.
Yet another typical trait would be the art of storytelling as the ultimate
topic of the text and a sense of narrative pleasure encoded therein.
Te plot of Grjotgard lvesn og Aud is based on a series of epi-
sodes from Saint lf s Saga which is part of Heimskringla, the history
of Norwegian kings writen, as most sources agree, by Snorri Sturluson.
Tese episodes relate the feud between the landlords of Egg and King
lf which indirectly leads to the climax of the saga lf s death at
the Batle of Stiklarstath.7 Tis storyline starts around the middle of
the saga (Chapter 106) when we are told about Olvir of Egg, the leader
of farmers who kept sacrifcing to heathen gods, despite the kings efort
to convert them to Christianity. lf had him captured and executed,
as this was his way to spread the new faith in Norway. Olvirs good
looking and rich widow Sigrith was then married by lf to one of his
men Klf rnason, who later turned away from the king and even took
part in his killing.8 As the text implies, Klf did it on Sigriths demand
to avenge the killing of the two sons Trir and Grjtgarth she had
had with Olvir (Chapter 183).
Trirs death is recounted in one of the most artistic episodes
of Snorris saga, containing a dramatic dialogue in which the king and
5 Blixen 1985.
6 Unfortunately, the editors of Blixeniana do not provide any information about
the possible dating of the manuscript that they have published.
7 Te English transcription of Old Norse names and place-names is taken from
Lee M. Hollanders translation, see Snorri 1964.
8 Snorris text does not state explicitly whether it was Klf rnason or his name-
sake who stroke the fatal blow, but Klf rnasons participation in the batle
of Stiklarstath is beyond doubt (see Chapters 223225 and 229).
Trir try to outwit each other (Chapter 165). King lf is staying with
his men at Trirs farm. Trir is now eighteen, a handsome strong
man and a wealthy landlord. He gives lf a royal treat and everyone
is happy till lf talks to one of his men Dag, whom he believes to
possess clairvoyant powers. Dag claims that Trir has received pay-
ment from the Danish King Knt for promising to kill lf. Te proof
of that, Dag says, is the golden ring that Trir is wearing on his right
arm. Trir is unmasked under the dialogue with the king a brilliant
example of Snorris understatement technique:
How old a man are you, Trir?, asked the king.
I am eighteen years old, he replied.
Te king said, A big man you are for your age, Trir, and a fne
fellow. Ten the king put his hand around Trirs right arm and
stroke it above the elbow.
Trir said, Gently, sire! I have a boil on my arm. Te king held
on to his arm and felt something hard underneath.
Te king said, Havent you heard that I am a healer? Let me see
that boil. Ten Trir saw that it would not do to conceal it any
longer and took of the ring and showed it to the king. Te king asked
whether it was a gif from King Knt. Trir said he would not deny it.
(Snorri 1964: 455456)
Trir is executed the next day and the next chapter briefy tells
of his brother Grjtgarth who sets out to avenge Trirs death by
atacking the kings property and people, but is killed one night in a
fght with lf s men.
Tese are the events that constitute the main frame of reference
for Blixens text and are incorporated in it without considerable altera-
tion. Blixen does not change the outcome of the events, nor does she
distort the family relations. Blixens Tore (= Trir) and Grjotgard
(= Grjtgarth) are also brothers, whose father lve (= Olvir) has been
executed by King Olav (= lf ).9 Tore also receives the king in his
home in Blixens text. Here too, the king has Tore killed afer having
9 Te names are spelled here as they appear in the Danish text by Blixen.
talked to Dag an act that provokes Grjotgards revenge. So in general,
Blixens story seems to respect the rules of good reading that Umberto
Eco (2004) describes in his article On Some Functions of Literature
in which he further develops his concept of the limits of interpretation.
Eco speaks of the paradox of great literature: although fctive, it is in pos-
session of truth that is much more difcult to deny than it is in the case
of historical facts. It is possible that one day a proof is found that will
change our knowledge of the circumstances of Napoleons death, but
Sherlock Holmes will forever remain a bachelor, as it is absolutely true
that Hamlet never marries Ophelia, and who can respect those who
claim otherwise? A good interpreter, Eco insists, wont dare to vio-
late the truth of great narratives in which people have invested their
emotions and which make us understand that things dont develop
the way we want, but follow their own, albeit sometimes tragic, course:
Te function of unchangeable stories is precisely this: against all our
desires to change destiny, they make tangible the impossibility of chang-
ing it (Eco 2004: 1415).
With the original story line lef unaltered, Blixens text demon-
strates awareness of this basic function of literature, as well as respect
for the narrative in which Nordic people of many generations have
made their emotional investments. Yet, I wouldnt bother you here
with an analysis of a text if it was nothing more than a respectful
repetition of the factual truth of a story already known. Grjotgard
lvesn og Aud deserves the readers atention, because Blixen imag-
ines between the lines and episodes of the saga, slightly alters some
of its details and creates her own story with its own dramas and its
own ideology.
Te very frst sentence of Blixens text, which contains an obvious
allusion to the saga writen by Snorri, announces a new perspective:
A tale writen down by a chiefain is also being told by a slave.10
In contrast to her precursor, Blixen introduces into the story an
intradiegetic frst person narrator. It is Grjotgards slave Finn, who
through a series of fashbacks (a method seldom, if ever, encountered
in saga literature) relates the events surrounding Tores death. Part of his
10 Orig. Et Sagn, som er nedskrevet af en Hvding, fort lles ogsaa af en Tr l. (p. 52)
recount, namely the kings stay at Tores place (including the dialogue),
is a direct borrowing from the saga, yet Finn also tells of events which
might have preceded and followed this episode and which are not men-
tioned in Snorris text. Te explicit narrators presence in the text has an
ambiguous efect. On the one hand, it creates the illusion that we are
going to hear a more truthful story than that presented by its precur-
sor. Finn tells of events that he has witnessed, while Snorri, as we know,
writes his story down more than 100 years afer the events took place.
On the other hand, Finn is a story-teller who tells fairytales to children,
and who, as we are told, creates where he forgets.11 So the fgure of this
unreliable narrator telling a fragment of Norwegian history seems to
be a metafctional suggestion that the true representation of history is
hardly possible, since we cannot approach history other than through
someone elses narrative.12
Another change on the level of the narrative structure in Grjotgard
lvesn and Aud is the rearrangement of dramatis personae. In the saga,
Grjtgarth is presented very briefy in an episode developed with much
greater narrative economy and less stylistic fnesse than the preceding
one about Trir. In Blixens text, he becomes a title character on whose
fate the story is focused. First of all, Blixen supplies her Grjotgard
with a CV. We are told that he has been away on a Viking raid for two
years, doing nothing at the moment (a fact that annoys both Finn and
Grjotgards households), but is secretly planning to go to Denmark to
see King Knut, King Olavs greatest enemy (p. 58). Grjotgard is also
granted an existential condition: situated somewhere between two
cultures, the heathen and the Christian, he belongs to neither of them.
He tarries revenging his fathers death, but cannot forgive it either. And
then fnally, Blixen sets this character in an emotional relationship to
other characters, frst of all to his brother Tore. With the help of numer-
ous dialogues that Grjotgard enters in Finns recount, we fnd out that
he is bearing a grudge against Tore. One of the reasons for this rif is
11 Orig. <> havde han glemt noget, digtede han det. (p. 55)
12 Tis implication is reinforced by the incorporation into Finns story of yet
other narratives that of Groa, the female slave in Aud and Tores house, and
that of the messenger, both of whom witness the events taking place in Tores
house where Finn himself was not present.
Tores becoming friends with their fathers killer. Tis can be concluded
from Grjotgards answer to Finns question why he is not at his brothers
farm when the king is there:
I am not there for two reasons, <> First, because I am no friends
with King Olav. I was twelve when he had my father killed at Egge; he
is not likely to think that Ive forgoten that as well as Tore. Te king
doesnt know either if I am just as good a Christian as my brother.13
Of the second reason, Grjotgard tells almost nothing (Te second
reason is that I dont like being at my brother Tores place14), but Finns
words help us to understand that it is jealousy: You dont like to be there
in the morning, my lord, and you dont like it much to be there at midday,
but least of all you like it, when the bedtime approaches <>.15
While Grjotgard was away on a Viking expedition, Tore, as we fnd
out, married Aud, a girl whom Grjotgard had loved. Tus Blixen cre-
ates in her text an additional semantic feld of the two brothers discord,
introducing a love triangle as one of its elements.
Aud does not exist in Saint lf s Saga (we are only told that
Trir was married, and that the marriage made him rich).16 Blixen not
only invents this character, but also makes it the key agent in the devel-
opment of the narrated events. As we already know, Aud is one of
the reasons for the two brothers alienation. It is also her who incites
Grjotgards revenge when he comes to Tores place afer having received
Auds message of his death:
13 Orig. Jeg er ikke med af to Grunde <> Frst fordi jeg ikke staar mig godt
med Kong Olav. Jeg var tolv Aar, da han lod min Fader dr be paa Egge; han tror
nok ikke, jeg har glemt det saa godt som Tore. Saa ved Kongen hellerikke, om jeg
er saa god Kristen som min Broder. (p. 56)
14 Orig. Men den anden Grund er det, at jeg ikke synes godt om at v re hos min
Broder Tore. (p. 57)
15 Orig. Du synes ikke saa godt om at v re der om Morgenen, Herre, og du synes
ikke meget godt om det om Middagen, men mindst synes du dog om det, naar det
gaar mod Sengetid <>. (p. 57)
16 Snorri 1964: 454.
<> in his own farm he was killed, in his own house! I have sat here
and heard them shout for revenge, your kin and mine.<> Tank
you, Grjotgard, for I know now, I will get my revenge.17
Te active role Aud plays in the story is not, however, limited to
the two things just mentioned. Tere are implications in the text that
she, paradoxically enough, plays a role not only in the events invented
by Blixen, but also in those that are borrowed directly from the saga,
i. e. Tores unmasking and death.
Te idea that Aud was the actual reason for Tores death is frst
proposed by Grjotgard. Tis happens at the very end of the story, when
Grjotgard and Aud fnally meet again besides Tores body and exchange
obscure mutual accusations:
Grjotgard said: Its not sure, if you have to thank me, Aud. Would you
like to know what I was thinking while riding here? It was that you are
guilty of Tores death more than anyone else. <> Hadnt Tore had
you in his house, he would have never betrayed the king.
I did not advise him, said Aud. Yes, you did, Aud, said Grjotgard,
I had known him before you knew him; I know there was somebody
behind him, otherwise he wouldnt have done that. Were you a man,
I would kill you.18
I will shortly come back to the interpretation of Grjotgards words
and of Auds role in Tores death, but let me frst quote Auds reply:
17 Orig. <> i sin egen Gaard er han blevet dr bt, i sit eget Hus! Jeg har siddet
her og hrt dem raabe om H vn, din t og min. <> Aa, du skal have Tak,
Grjotgard, for, at jeg ved nu, jeg faar H vn. (p. 69)
18 Orig. Grjotgard sagde: Det er ikke saa sikkert, at du skal takke mig, Aud. Vil du
vide, hvad jeg t nkte, mens jeg red herover? Det var, at mest af alle er du Skyld i
Tores Dd. <> Havde Tore ikke haf dig i sit Hus, saa havde han aldrig sveget
Kongen. Jeg raadte ham ikke, sagde Aud. Jo, du raadte ham, Aud, sagde
Grjotgard, jeg har kendt Tore, inden du kendte ham; jeg ved det nok, at der har
v ret nogen bag ham, eller havde han ikke gjort det. Hvis du var en Mand, saa
vilde jeg dr be dig. (p. 57)
<> you let me hear that I have caused my husbands killing; now I
will tell you, that you are guilty in your brothers death.<> Its true,
Grjotgard <> I know how he lay awake at night, when he had heard
about your reputation in daytime. He never had another thought,
I know it best.19
Te dialogue ends the story but, as it typically happens in Blixens
writing, the end does not bring it to closure. Although imagining what
is lef unsaid in the saga, Blixen creates her own blanks, gaps and inde-
terminacies, provoking the reader to go on imagining. Grjotgard and
Aud talk in riddles: it is obvious that they blame each other for Tores
death, yet it remains unclear how exactly they think the other could
have brought it about. It is also strange that Grjotgard accuses Tore
of betraying the king (Olav?), when earlier in the text he blames his
brother for forgeting their fathers death and hosting the killer. And
yet it seems possible to solve these textual puzzles and make sense of
the dialogue as well as the whole story. In the present paper, this will
be done by interpreting diferent hints scatered throughout the story
and fting them into each other, as well as by analysing the allusions
and references of the text to the saga.
One can start by saying, that the king whom Grjotgard refers
to does not have to be Olav, the king mentioned most extensively in
the text. Having in mind his earlier grudge against Tore for forgiving
Olav their fathers death, it is more reasonable to think that Grjotgard
has in mind King Knut (having heard Auds messenger, he knows now
that Tore had sworn allegiance to the Danish king, just like Grjotgard
was planning to do himself ). Tus he seems to be blaming Aud for
convincing her husband to break this allegiance and join Olav, in this
way delivering him right into the hands of their familys enemy (Hadnt
Tore had you in his house, he would have never betrayed the king).
Aud, in her own turn, does not deny her own involvement in Tores
death, what she does not accept is the accusation of exercising infuence
19 Orig. <> du har nu ladet mig hre, at jeg har raadt min Mands Bane; nu vil
jeg sige dig, at du er Skyld i din Broders Dd. <> Sandt er det dog, Grjotgard,
<> jeg ved nok, hvordan han laa vaagen om N terne, naar han havde hrt dit
Ry om Dagen. Han havde aldrig nogen anden Tanke, det ved jeg bedst. (p. 57)
on her husband (I did not advise him). At the same time, she claims
that the initial reason for Tores death lies with Grjotgard himself. She
indirectly accuses him of taking no action against Olav, at the same
time implying that Tore was planning to kill Olav. It is possible to claim
so, because earlier in the text we are told by Finn that people regret
Grjotgards passivity and hope that he is planning to join the King of
Denmark (pp. 5758). So this must be the reputation that according
to Aud did not let the younger brother Tore sleep at night and forced
him to commit the revenge himself. Tat Blixens Tore did not forget
his loyalty to King Knut and was indeed planning to avenge his fathers
death is of litle doubt, as Blixen changes one small detail in the scene
borrowed from the saga: Tore retains the golden ring on his arm (a sign
of loyalty), whereas he takes it of in the original text.20
It seems, however, that Aud was resisting this scenario, according
to which the revenge should be executed by Tore. As we shall see, she
had a diferent plan for which it was even necessary to have Tore killed.
Tere are several things that suggest Auds involvement in Tores death:
not only Auds hawkish eyes (p. 59), as a symbolic expression of her
untamed and dangerous nature, but also her behaviour during the epi-
sode of the kings visit. Aud is described as absolutely undisturbed.
Despite warnings about the change in the kings mood, she tells her hus-
band himself to serve the king (p. 65), so, we may guess, he can discover
the ring. Another support for the proposition that Aud may have ploted
Tores death can be found in the character of intertextual relations of
the episode to its hypotext,21 i. e. the saga. It follows the narration in
the hypotext very closely, tending towards direct quotation, thus we
can look for suggestions for its interpretation in the saga. In Snorris
text, there is a great deal of obscurity surrounding the circumstances of
Trirs unmasking. Te king is told about Trirs complot by Dag. Dag
informs the king about the ring, which, Dag claims, Trir does not let
anyone see. Shall we believe that Dag knows of the ring because he pos-
sesses clairvoyant powers, the way the king believes it? Te narrator of
the saga seems, however, to be ironic (or at least doubtful) about Dags
20 Cf. Blixen 1985: 65 and Snorri 1964: 456.
21 An anterior text, which a given text (the hypertext) transforms. (Genete
1982: 5)
skills and does not share lf s trust in him: the only proof he provides
for Dags miraculous talent is when he in the earlier episode relates how
Dag fnds the hiding place for property that he himself was accused of
stealing (Snorri: 453454). So a more reasonable explanation for Dags
prophecy would be that he knew about the ring from somebody very
close to Trir, and why could it not be his wife?
Tere is one more direct intertextual allusion to the saga in Blixens
text (this time relating directly to Auds character) that should be
mentioned in this argument. By inciting revenge for Tores death, Aud
partly takes over the role performed in the saga by Sigrith, Trir and
Grjtgarths mother. Sigrith demands from her husband Klf to avenge
the death of her frst husband and their sons and openly rejoices when
Klf s brother is killed, for now she can expect Klf to take action: It is
good that you had to bear that from the king, because it is likely that
him you will wish to avenge, even though you do not care to avenge
the wrongs done to me (Snorri: 478). Although this parallel does not
point directly to Auds involvement in Tores death, it suggests that she
is at least happy with it.
Aud has a similar goal as Sigrith (to incite Grjotgard to act), but her
motives are diferent, and so is her function in the text. While Sigrith
can be said to play the role of the guardian of the honour code that was
gradually disintegrating with the advance of Christianity described in
the saga, Aud is concerned with something other than the restoration
of family honour. She defnitely was not planning her husbands death
in order to marry Grjotgard: a scenario that would ft a cheap melo-
drama, but not a text by Blixen with her love of paradox. Te key to
Auds motives are to be found in Auds words to Grjotgard before her
marriage with Tore: If I were you, I would never let any other man be
equal to me.22 Just as Sigrith, Aud desires that Grjotgard should take
action, but the revenge she calls for seems to be only a means for her
to make Grjotgard, the man she loves, a hero. Aud could not accept
Grjotgards passivity, but as Tores wife she could not incite Grjotgards
action against Olav. Now with Tore dead, she has a right to demand
22 Orig. Hvis jeg var dig, saa vilde jeg ikke lade nogen anden Mand v re lige med
mig. (p. 60)
revenge for her husband and gives Grjotgard a chance to face an oppo-
nent worthy of him.
Auds aspirations, compared to those of Sigriths, have a somewhat
romantically demonic favour, though her very actions, both explicit
and implied, do not contradict the behaviour of saga women. We know
of saga women, who could consciously contribute to their husbands
death, had they a good reason for that (the classical example would
be Hallgerd from Njals Saga who spares her hair that could have saved
Gunnars life as she cannot forget the slap on her face, she has once
received from him).
Tis seems to be the message that Auds character appears to con-
vey: women want to love men who deserve their love, and if men cannot
fnd one themselves women sometimes try to arrange for them a pos-
sibility to prove their brilliance. But in order to interpret the message
of the whole story, we, of course, have to take into account its narrative
situation. It is the explicit narrator Finn who arranges the events into
a narrative, so it is important to know what he thinks about the whole
afair. Tere is litle doubt that Finn regrets that everything did not go
the way Aud had planned. Also he had had great plans about Grjotgards
future, and he is sad to admit to his listeners that his predictions about
Grjotgards meeting with Olav did not come true:
<> Sometimes, when many people listen to you, and theres great
news in the air, one cannot help seeing great pictures and predicting
in a great many words. While one speaks, one believes in what one
says, but later fnds out, that it was nothing.23
Finn does not tell us how it went with Grjotgards revenge, but he
does not need to, for we know it from the saga the factual truth of which
Blixens text respects. Grjtgarth, as Snorri records, sufers a pathetic
death: surrounded by lf s men, he rushes out utering brave words,
23 Orig. <> Men sommetider, naar mange Folk hrer paa n og der er store
Tidender i Lufen, kan man ikke lade v re at se store Billeder for sig og spaa i
mange Ord. Mens man taler, tror man paa det selv, men bagefer ved man nok,
det er ingenting. (p. 67)
but in the darkness directs his sword at the wrong man and is slain at
once (Snorri 1964: 457).
Blixens text allows us to guess what kind of future Finn had imag-
ined for his master instead of this one. At one point of his story, Finn
reminds Grjotgard of an episode, when he, being only ffeen, killed
the bear which Kalv (= Klf ) had been chasing for days (p. 578). Tus
he implies that he was greater than the man whom we know as one
of the key fgures in the scene of the batle of Stiklarstath.24 It is true,
however, that there is a reservation in the saga that Snorri, the historian,
makes about Klf s role in the slaying of lf, saying that Men disagree
as to which Klf [Klf rnason or Klf rnfnnsson] wounded the King
(Snorri 1964: 515). Yet, Snorri, the story teller, seems to be quite sure
that it was Klf rnason, since in the very same episode he quotes a
verse of skaldic poetry glorifying him.
Finn, as we remember, is also a storyteller. But it is a strange story
he tells, a story that lacks cohesion. Finn starts a tale about Grjotgard
and then regresses to fairy tales and gets angry when his listeners ask
him to come back to the tale (p. 55). Actually he never brings it to
the very end, to Grjotgards death. With all his hopes about Grjotgards
glorious meeting having collapsed, he seems simply to be lacking mate-
rial for his art. He is deprived of a possibility to create the story he
wishes for and, we may now assume, this is the true reason why he is
lef to grieve over his masters death forever.25
Blixens story was writen at the very start of her career, but its
message is so typically Blixenish: life has value only when it can be
transformed into art and allowed to enter the common cultural memory.
We will later fnd similar ideas in Out of Afica, or Te Sorrow Acre,
for example. Te message itself may sound trivial or too high-fown
for the modern ear, yet the irony of Blixens texts is that they do not
state their message explicitly, but ofen trick the reader into arriving at
simplifed conclusions. Te very way it is done through creation of
24 Also Aud presents Grjotgard with a plan that could have led him directly to
the glory at Stiklarstath, had he listened to it. She urges him to seek allies and
assemble an army, instead of atacking Olav immediately the way he wants it
and supposedly does, as the episode of his death in the saga suggests. (p. 68)
25 Orig. Grjotgards Tr l Finn, som aldrig ophrte at srge over sin Herre <>. (p. 52)
a semantically dense and opaque (inter)textual feld can hardly be
called trivial and simple.
I will conclude my analysis here by saying that what I just did was to
look at the two texts from the traditional intertextual perspective, using
the hypotext, i. e. the saga as an interpretative key to open up the seman-
tic contents of the hypertext, i. e. Blixens story. Ofen it is also interesting
to apply the reversed, the so-called Borgesian model of intertextuality,
and speak of the later text as a key to the earlier one.26 Tough I am afraid,
this could be considered too far fetched, since Grjotgard lveson and
Aud is not a very well known story and Blixen was no great writer when
she composed it. And yet, if you read the episodes about Trir and
Grjtgarth in the saga afer having read Blixens text you cannot help
concentrating on the things that allowed the engendering of Blixens
story: on the blank spaces of the saga, on things that raise suspicion or
somehow do not make sense. On questions like: how is it possible that
Grjtgarth was not with his brother if the later was ploting something,
especially when the saga says that he was around in the area, and was
Trir really guilty of the crime he was killed for, or who might have
told Dag about the ring if he was not clairvoyant? And although it is
nothing revolutionary to say that Saint lf s Saga is more a piece of
art, than history, the reading of Blixens story raises this awareness even
more, since you feel that Snorris text atracts you by its power to create
suspense by what is lef unsaid, or is said ambiguously, thus making
space for readers own imagination. Actually professor Vsteinn lason
in his enlightening presentation yesterday and in his book Dialogues
with the Viking Age27 devoted to the narrative specifcs of the sagas of
Icelanders illustrated the idea, that modern texts lend their reading
strategies for reading sagas. Tey do encourage to study what is implied
or is decontructive alongside with what is explicit and logically sound.
But what is even more important, is that such texts like the one
I have just discussed simply make you read sagas. I must confess that
26 Cf. his famous phrase: Every writer creates his own precursors. His work
modifes our conception of the past, as it will modify the future. (Borges
1964: 199201)
27 Vsteinn lason 1998.
my copy of Heimskringla was very dusty when I found it, but I am happy
that I did it, and I did it because of Blixens text. But this is only part
of the story. I turned to the later because I knew that our Center of
Scandinavian Studies would host a conference on Old Norse culture.
So afer all, maybe one shouldnt be too arrogant about Strindberg and
Ibsen (and one can hardly fail noticing the irony in Borges words), or
Blixen for that mater, because we have here a cycle of mutual depend-
ence: we read sagas to beter understand modern literature, but it
is modern literature that brings us back to sagas and to a very high
extent secures them their sustainable position within the national or
even transnational cultural memory. Tis is no new thing to say (these
processes have been dwelt upon by T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges and
Harold Bloom among others), and as our reading experience shows,
it still holds.
Bibliography
Blixen, Karen. Grjotgard lvesn og Aud, in: Osceola. Ed. by Clara Svendsen.
Kbenhavn: Gyldendals Julebog, 1962, pp. 1037.
Blixen, Karen. Grjotgard lvesn og Aud, in: Blixeniana 1985. Ed. Hans Andersen
and Frans Lasson. Kbenhavn: Karen Blixen Selskabet, 1985, pp. 5269.
Borges, Jorge Luis (in collaboration with Delia Ingenieros). Antiguas literaturas
germnicas. Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1951.
Borges, Jorge Luis. Kafa and his Precursors, in: Labyrinths. New York: New
Directions, 1964, pp. 199201.
Eco, Umberto. On some functions of literature, in: On Literature. Trans. Martin
McLaughlin. New York City: Harcourt, 2004, pp. 115.
Genete, Grard. Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree. Ed. and trans. Channa
Newman and Claude Doubinsky. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
Lasson, Frans. Om Karen Blixens ungdomsfortllinger, in: Blixeniana 1985,
pp. 1114.
Snorri Sturluson. Heimskringla. History of the Kings of Norway. Trans. Lee M. Hollan-
der. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964.
Vsteinn lason. Dialogues with the Viking Age. Narration and Representation in the
Sagas of the Icelanders. Reykjavk: Heimskringla, 1998.
Scenes from Daily Life in the Sagas of Icelanders:
Narrative Function
Vsteinn lason
Te rni Magnsson Institute for Icelandic Studies, University of Iceland
Tis topic may sound trivial, and so it is, in a sense. It should be empha-
sized, however, that this paper does not deal with scenes from daily
life in the sagas from the point of view of folklife studies although
that might in itself be interesting but strictly from a literary angle.
It is or was frequently assumed that the saga was a rather simple
and pure narrative form one of the Einfache Formen (to quote an
old book title) like the folktale and the heroic song.1 Te saga is in
some ways similar to the simple forms: action is all-important, but
the sagas development as a writen form has opened up possibilities for
the occasional inclusion of elements that enlarge and add new dimen-
sions to the picture drawn by the narrative, thus raising the question
of how this might afect the potential that the genre has for expression
of ideas and emotions.
In Dialogues with the Viking Age, a book that I published in 1998,
I atempted to describe the sagas as a kind of literature, outlining their
formal characteristics as narratives as well as their relationship to a par-
ticular society, a particular culture and its memories. Tere I maintained
that the people who wrote the sagas tried to fnd their bearings in a
turbulent world by conducting a kind of dialogue with their own past by
1 See Jolles 1968. Jolles discusses the Icelandic sagas briefy in the context of
Sage, pp. 6675. Although a frm believer in oral sagas, Jolles does not classify
them as Einfache Formen; they are, he says, an und fr sich ebensowenig
Einfache Form, wie die Viten, die in den Acta Sanctorum gesammelt wurden.
Auch hier haben wir, was wir Vergegenwrtigung einer Einfachen Form oder
aktuelle Form genannt haben. Aber darber hinaus ist auch die gefestigte
mndliche berlieferung, die in den Handschrifen schriflich fxiert wurde,
noch keine Einfache Form auch sie ist gegenwrtig und damit in gewissem
Sinne schon Kunstform (p. 71).
180 Vsteinn lason
telling stories about important and interesting events in the lives of their
ancestors. Te saga writers were deeply anxious about the changes taking
place in their society that presented serious challenges to their tradition-
al values. Christianity ofered them a strong world view that answered
all questions about maters of morality as well as public life. Tat world
view had never fully gained ground in secular afairs, although this was
now occurring as the Norwegian king sought to extend his infuence
and authority in Iceland. However, Icelanders knew tales and poems
from the past that described events, ofen tragic events, in the lives of
people who were considered admirable, although these people did not
necessarily behave admirably from the point of view of the Christian
morality. Te duty to take revenge for certain ofences against their
families led them into feuds that ofen had tragic consequences.
Terefore, the Icelanders of the thirteenth century looked nos-
talgically to a world that was basically tragic, but in which people had
the choice to act with dignity at the risk of losing their lives or those
who were dearest to them. Te thirteenth-century world seemed to
ofer simpler solutions, but something was missing. Te sagas react in
diferent ways to this situation, and there is, in my opinion, a develop-
ment in the reactions. What is under discussion here may be seen as
a side issue in the analysis of the saga genre, but it is usually helpful to
approach complex problems from many sides.
A study of one particular kind of literature in a historical context
inevitably makes one aware of the interplay of genres, or discourses if
you like, that constitute the background of a particular genre and defne
it. Part of my previously mentioned project was therefore to compare
the sagas with other kinds of narrative that could have formed this
background, but also to modern narrative. Tese remarks about daily
life in the sagas are to be seen in this context.2
When the sagas started to be known outside Iceland, they were seen
primarily as interesting expressions of the spirit of a primitive Germanic
or Northern society with a peculiarly developed sense of honour and a
fne narrative tradition. Accidentally, many of their characteristics found
2 Another extension or continuation of the argument in Dialogues with the Viking
Age is to be found in a recent article by the present author, 2007a. See also:
Vsteinn lason 2007b.
181 Scenes fom Daily Life in the Sagas of Icelanders
an echo in the literary taste of the nineteenth century, a taste that was
formed by the realistic tradition in novel writing. For all the diferences
between saga and novel, the characterization and restrained style of
the sagas was much closer to the nineteenth-century tastes than the style
of medieval narrative forms already familiar to people, such as courtly
romances or saints lives. Moreover, the sagas told stories of ordinary
people rather than limiting themselves to kings and aristocrats, and
this harmonized well with the tastes of new groups of readers. Several
scholars declared that there was an unmistakable relationship between
the sagas and the novel.3 Historically, it is easy to prove that such afni-
ties as there are between the sagas and the novel must be accidental;
there is no direct link. When the modern novel arose in totally diferent
social circumstances, the sagas were totally unknown outside Iceland
(the frst important novelist who knew anything about the sagas was
Sir Walter Scot (Wawn 2000: 66).4 Exactly for this reason, however,
it is interesting to study the narrative form of the sagas and ask what it
is that has made people compare them with the novel. Scenes from
daily life can be interesting from this point of view, because no genre is
as rich in such scenes as the novel. Te function of such scenes afects
the relationship between content and form, and demonstrates that when
form is flled with a new kind of content, it will be changed.
Experience shows that when scholars are dealing with groups of
texts they ofen tend to work with simplifcations, plot summaries in
the case of narrative literature. Te scholar looks at one important link
afer another in the chain of narrative, investigates what is added to
what happened previously and what possibilities are opened for further
development of the plot. Tis is practical, but it means that many scenes
and episodes, not to mention smaller segments of the text, that seem
less important escape atention, although such elements may be reveal-
ing and interesting upon a closer look. Many scenes from daily life are
of this sort. Although structurally unimportant, they add nuances to
the texture of the works that ought not to be overlooked in the analysis
and interpretation of these works.
3 See, for instance Ker 1957: 183.
4 See also Simpson 1973.
182 Vsteinn lason
In slendingasgur, interest is directed only or almost exclusively
to memorable events leading to, advancing and resolving conficts
concerning honour.5 Describing daily life for its own sake is defnitely
not one of the sagas concerns. Nevertheless, we can fnd scenes from
daily life in the sagas, and the study of such scenes can throw interest-
ing light on their nature as narratives. Te Icelandic saga gradually
developed into a separate kind of writen narrative during the second
half of the twelfh and the frst half of the thirteenth century. Te saga
has many roots: on the one hand in the writen literature of the Middle
Ages, historical works (historiae), chronicles, romances and saints lives,
but also in oral narratives such as the heroic lay and the heroic tale, as
well as historical or local legends of various kinds. Although the saga
developed its own distinct characteristics, it did not sever all its ties
to these diferent kinds of narrative; on the contrary, it developed in
constant interaction with the types of texts (writen or oral) surround-
ing it. Inclusion of scenes from daily life may widen the scope of saga
narrative and change its nature in the process, and it may ofer clues
to its interpretation, to our understanding of the fate of the characters
not otherwise easily decipherable.
It is well known that many types of traditional narrative are indeed
closed texts, that is, they move through conventional steps that lead
to a predictable end, and their world is composed of a fnite set of ele-
ments that can be arranged in diferent ways but on the basis of fxed
or nearly fxed rules, that can be seen as a kind of grammar. Tese rules
govern the understanding as well as the creation of a tale: the tale refers
directly only to its own kind. Te best known example of this fnite-
ness is the fairy tale or Mrchen, as analysed by Vladimir Propp (1968).
Te heroic tale is a much looser concept, and it refers to a more varied
group of texts than the fairy tale. Nevertheless, there have been many
atempts to describe a basic form of tales about heroes using methods
similar to those employed by Propp and his structuralist followers.6
5 A thorough treatment of the subject is found in Meulengracht Srensen 1993:
187248.
6 A survey of hero patern studies is found in Taylor 1964 Best known of such
studies is probably Lord Raglans study, Te Hero (1936); see also de Vries
1959: 194208.
It is a fundamental feature of both the fairy tale and the heroic
tale or the heroic song that practically every element in the text
serves the action. Tis is not always obvious when we are looking at
descriptive or introductory elements, but in fact they serve either to
characterize a type of person flling a certain role, which is necessary for
the action, or, perhaps, a type of environment, a conventional seting
for such action as will occur. Tere is, of course, some room for varia-
tion in all of these elements, depending upon the convention. We must
keep in mind that the world and action of writen narrative can be just
as conventional or closed as that of oral narrative, although the writen
form usually allows for more variation.
slendingasgur have many conventional elements. Tey have hero
types and typical paterns of action,7 but quite ofen there are elements
in the texts that are not easy to classify as belonging to a fxed or fnite set
of saga-elements. Occasionally, we fnd scenes from daily life that seem
to open a window to the world which surrounds the closed universe of
the conventional saga. If such openings are found only exceptionally,
the basic structure may remain intact, but if they become more numer-
ous, if one peephole is replaced by many windows, we see a qualitative
change in kind, from a closed to an open narrative. Tis change is most
important, because it opens the narrative for new and various inter-
pretations. Such a change towards a more open form was occurring in
slendingasgur, causing them to make a relatively modern impression
compared with many other literary works of the Middle Ages. As an
illustration, fve saga-scenes from daily life shall be discussed here: two
describe meals, one describes hair-washing, and two show a man and
a woman in the privacy of the bedchamber.
Tere is hardly a more common act in peoples lives than having
a meal. How it is done varies greatly depending on time and place and
the relationship of the individuals involved, as we all know. In many
modern novels we fnd detailed descriptions of such scenes. Tey are
a convenient frame for dialogue and help to characterize the cultural
environment of a place or a period and add local colour. Moreover, for
many modern people writing and reading about a meal is a source of
7 Tese are discussed, for instance, by Lnnroth 1976: 6182.
184 Vsteinn lason
pleasure in itself. Such scenes are rare in slendingasgur, and those we
fnd are certainly not included for the purpose of describing the enjoy-
ment of a good meal. A gathering for eating and drinking, a banquet in
a hall, is a conventional motif in Germanic heroic poetry as we know
from Beowulf, the eddic lays about Atli, and from sagas. Tese banquets
are very formal occasions, with emphasis on how people are seated
according to status, and quite ofen a dialogue occurs which is crucial
for the action to come. Tis motif is prominent in Icelandic sagas, such
as Egils saga, Laxdla saga and Njls saga. In two sagas, however, we
read about a diferent kind of meal, informal and much closer to daily
life than a banquet.
In Fstbrra saga (Te Saga of the Sworn Brothers) one of
the two heroes, orgeirr Hvarsson, has sought quarters with a farmer
during his wanderings around a sparsely populated area of Iceland.
Te farmer already has a visitor, a tramp called Butraldi, whom the saga
describes as: einhleypingr, mikill mar vexti, rammr at afi, ljtr
sjnu, harfengr skaplyndi, vgamar mikill, nasbrr ok heiptigr
(F, vol. 6, pp. 14243). [a loner of no fxed abode. He was a large, pow-
erfully built man with an ugly face, quick-tempered and vengeful, and
he was a great slayer of men (CSI, vol. 2).]8
Although orgeirr is described in more respectful terms, much
of this description actually also fts him quite well. Te farmer is a
truly comic fgure, faint-hearted and niggardly, although he is well
of. Te laws of hospitality force him to give the travellers shelter for
the night and serve them food, but his lack of spirit and generosity is
shown by the meal he serves:
Skammr er skutill minn, segir orkell, ok gakk hingat, orgeirr,
ok sit hj Butralda. orgeirr gerir sv, gengr um vert glf ok sezk
nir hj Butralda undir bors endann. Fr vergetum er sagt vandliga:
Tveir diskar vru fram bornir; var eit skammrifsstykki fornt disk-
inum hvrum ok forn ostr til gntar. Butraldi signdi skamma stund,
8 Quotations in Icelandic are from the editions in the series slenzk fornrit (abbre-
viated F), vols. 3 (Reykjavk 1938) and 6 (Reykjavk 1948), while quotations
in English are from Te Complete Sagas of Icelanders (abbreviated CSI), vols. 2
and 4 (Reykjavk 1997).
tekr upp skammrift ok skerr ok neytir ok leggr eigi nir, fyrr en allt
var rut af rifum. orgeirr tk upp ostinn ok skar af slkt er honum
sndisk; var hann harr ok torstr. Hvrrgi eira vildi deila vi annan
knf n kjotstykki. En at eim vri lt verr vandar, fru eir
eigi til sjlfr at skepja sr mat, v at eim ti at skomm sinnar
karlmennsku (F, vol. 6, pp. 14445).
[I dont have much to ofer, said Torkel, but come, Torgeir,
sit here beside Butraldi.
Torgeir did so. He walked across the room and sat down at
the table beside Butraldi. Tere is a detailed report of what they ate:
two platers were brought in; on one of them was some old short-rib
muton and on the other a large quantity of old cheese. Butraldi made
a brief sign of the cross [implying that he did not follow this custom at
all], then picked up the muton ribs, carved of the meat and contin-
ued to eat until the bones were picked clean. Torgeir took the cheese
and cut of as much as he wanted, though it was hard and difcult to
pare. Neither of them would share either the knife or the food with
the other. Tough the meal was not good, they did not bring out
their own provisions for fear that it would be seen as a sign of weak-
ness (CSI, vol. 2, p. 341).]
Te scene is repeated the next morning, only with the roles reversed:
orgeirr grabs the meat while Butraldi tackles the old cheese. Tey then
leave the farm, exchange insults, and orgeirr kills Butraldi in a pictur-
esque way that may be either the model for the famous description of
how Skarphinn kills rinn on the ice in Njls saga, or a parody of it,
depending on which saga is older and how we interpret Fstbrra saga.
In Njls saga, the hero Skarphinn glides on the ice covering the banks
of a river, jumps across the river itself where it is not frozen, glides on
towards his enemies, chops the head of their leader, and then glides
away on the ice; in Fstbrra saga, orgeirr glides on hard snow down
a slope and kills Butraldi. Although more exaggerated, Skarphinns
feat is described in an indisputably heroic style without irony, while in
Fstbrra saga this scene is writen in an ornate style, more frequently
found in this saga than other slendingasgur, and characterized, i. a.,
186 Vsteinn lason
by alliteration. Tis rather high style underlines the irony of the pas-
sage through the contrast with the mater being related.
It is difcult to appreciate fully the humour and ambiguity of this
episode when it is read out of context, and the irony implicit in the style
does not come through in translation. Te climax is reached with one
of orgeirrs heroic deeds, and Butraldi is described as a formidable
opponent. His killing adds one more trophy to orgeirrs collection.
However, the context clearly shows that both heroes are nothing but
brutal thugs. Teir wanderings about the barren regions of northwest
Iceland, their meagre meal and their fghts, can easily be seen as a parody
of the wanderings of errant knights through the greenwood and their
encounters with noble knights, their feasts in castles and their single
combats, sometimes fought against giants. Te description of the meal
just given is pure comedy, and orgeirrs heroic image (he certainly tries
to live up to a heroic ideal) is undermined by the description of his host,
of his adversary, and the meal. Te conclusion is that Fstbrra saga
is certainly not a closed, conventional heroic tale but an ambiguous
and ironic narrative that maintains a critical distance from the heroic
convention. Apart from the style, the contrast between content and
form, there are of course other episodes in the saga that support such
an interpretation. Tis does not mean that the saga is pacifstic, that it is
contemptuous of heroism, physical bravery or dexterity at arms as such,
but it shows that such gifs of God should only be used in the service of
a good cause, and the viking ideals that orgeirr embodies are rejected
and even ridiculed.
In Heiarvga saga (Te Saga of the Slayings on the Heath), there
is a scene describing how food is served. No less than the scene from
Fstbrra saga it gives us an unexpected glimpse into the daily life of
Icelanders in the Middle Ages. To explain the situation for those who
do not know this saga, it should be mentioned that the oldest son of
the family in question was killed abroad by Icelanders from another
district. Te killers then perished at sea, but the family honour had
to be reclaimed by exerting vengeance. Trough a carefully planned
series of events Bari, the second son, has created a situation that will
allow him, without seeming excessively vindictive, to atack the killers
kinsmen, people who had nothing to do with the killing of his brother.
Te following scene takes place when he and a number of men that
he has gathered are prepared to undertake the dangerous ride into
the other district to make the atack:
N ferr Bari heim ok foruneyti hans ok er heima nt . Um morgi-
ninn br Koll-Grss eim dogur; en at var sir, at lagr var matr
bor fyrir menn, en vru engir diskar. at var til nnmis, at af
hurfu rennar deildirnar fyrir rem monnum; gekk hann ok sagi
til ess Bara. Hef fram bor, segir hann, ok r ekki um at
fyrir orum monnum. En urr mlti, at eim sonum hennar sky-
ldi ekki deila dogur, ok kvazk hon deila mundu. Sv gerir hann, at
hann hefr bor fram, bor fyrir mann, ok deilir mat . urr gengr
innar ok leggr sit stykki fyrir hvern eira brra, ok var ar
yxinsbgrinn ok brytjar rennt. Tekr hann Steingrmr til ora ok
mlti: er n brytjat strmannliga, mir, ok ekki tu vana til at
gefa monnum sv kappsamliga mat, ok er essu mikit vanstilli, ok
ertu nr vitandi vits. Hon svarar: Ekki er eta fura nein, ok mtu
eta ekki undrask, fyrir v at strra var Hallr, brir yvarr, brytj-
ar, ok heyra ek yr ekki ess geta, at at vri nein fura (F, vol. 3,
pp. 27677).
[Bardi and his companions then went home to spend the night at
his farm. Te following morning Koll-Gris prepared them a meal.
According to the custom of the time food was placed on the wooden
platers before the men, as there were no dishes then. Something
unusual happened: three servings, intended for three men, had
disappeared.
He went and reported this to Bardi, who said, Lay the platers and
say nothing of this to anyone else.
Turid said that her sons should not be served breakfast, but that
she intended to serve them. Koll-Gris brought forth platers, a plater
for each man, upon which his food was served. Turid then went in
along the hall and placed a portion before each of the brothers, which
turned out to be the shoulder of the ox, split into three pieces.
Steingrim spoke, saying, Youve carved these portions gener-
ously, mother, although youre not usually one to serve food so eagerly.
188 Vsteinn lason
Tis is completely out of proportion, and you must have nearly lost
your wits.
She answered, Teres nothing strange about it, and you neednt
be surprised, as your brother Hall was carved up into larger pieces
without me hearing you mention that it was anything strange (CSI,
vol. 4, p. 104).]
Tis passage introduces a goading-scene, a hvo t. Te mother is here
creating a situation in which she can mock her sons and remind them
of the dishonour aficted on the family, in order to strengthen their
thirst for revenge. Te scene serves the heroic plot of the saga by open-
ing a dialogue between mother and sons, and it is an atempt to make
the narrative more efective by frst creating a puzzle, which is then solved
by urrs speech. Te dialogue that follows is indeed part of a con-
ventional heroic patern, and the scene as a whole functions exactly as
Gurn Gjkadtirs hvo t in the eddic lays Hamisml and Gurnarhvo t:
the mother is sharpening the will of her sons and making them angry
as they are about to ride of on a journey of revenge. It is a stock-scene
of heroic narrative, charging the text with emotions and slowing down
the action. However, the circumstantial manner in which the preparation
for the meal is described gives us a glimpse into the daily life of these
people. Te narrator also uses the opportunity to mark the distance in
time and emphasize the historical nature of his narrative by pointing out
that things were done diferently at the time when the saga takes place
from how they are done in his own age. Te saga has a wider scope than
the eddic lay, and it can include detail for which there is no room in a kvia
or lay. Te details of this scene are not likely to have been recorded from
oral tradition: the author of the saga, who based his narrative on heroic
models that he knew from tradition, must have invented the scene with its
descriptive detail as well as the dialogue. Te broad approach of the saga
has called for innovation and atention to detail that inevitably changes
the form of heroic legend and opens it up for interpretation. Compared
with Gurns direct and dignifed approach in the eddic lay, urrs cir-
cumstantial way of introducing her goading words has a comic ring, and
an ambiguous feeling is strengthened when we are told that the following
morning, when she tries to accompany her sons on their ride for revenge,
they get rid of her by making her fall into a small stream out of which she
crawls and turns back home alone, beref of the dignity that is befting
the mother of heroes. Te goading scene is looked at from a distance,
as it were, and it is lef to the reader to determine whether it should be
taken seriously or as comic relief. In this scene we fnd the same irony as
in the previous scene from Fstbr ra saga: there is an ambiguity here
that is much more akin to the novel than the heroic lay. Te saga audience
might have remembered that urrs mother, orgerr, the daughter
of Egill Skallagrmsson, actually accompanied her sons on a journey of
revenge for her son, and in that case no indignity is implied.9
Although both Heiarvga saga and Fstbrra saga can present
heroes in a comic light, the atitude to heroic ethics demonstrated by
the two sagas is not identical. Fstbrra saga pays lip service to heroic
ideals while it consistently portrays the hero orgeirr as a comic fgure,
and the other hero, ormr, as a man with severe faults mixed with some
positive traits. Heiarvga saga maintains stronger ties to heroic conven-
tion, but now and again the author creates distance between the saga and
the traditional heroic tale, appearing to be very well aware of the short-
sightedness of heroic conduct even if he cannot help but admire it. Two
more scenes from daily life illustrate this ambiguity. Te frst one gives
a fne image of heroic splendour, while the other shows that the hero,
although calm on the surface, is emotionally tense and unable to return
to normal and domestic life afer the carnage he has caused.
In the chapter preceding the one already quoted from Heiarvga
saga, the brothers gather their forces, and we fnd a scene that does
not seem to advance the action, and could for that sake be cut with no
loss for the plot:
N rr Bari aan ok kemr Bakka, ar sem rds bj, ok st ar
hestr solar, ok skjoldr st ar hj, ok riu eir heim mikinn dyn
tnit eptir horum velli. ar var ti karlmar ok kona, ok hon
hofu hans, ok vru au rds ar ok Oddr, ok var at vanlykum
9 Bjarni Gunason (1993) argues that Heiarvga saga is younger than Laxdla
saga, where the episode in question occurs, but opinions are divided on that
issue. In any case, it cannot be excluded that the tale about orgerr was
known from oral tradition.
190 Vsteinn lason
nokkut, er hon hofu hans, ok hafi hon eigi vegit laur r hofi
honum. Ok egar er hann s Bara, spretr hann upp ok fagnar
honum hljandi. Bari tk vel kveju hans ok bir konu lka verki
snu ok vaska honum betr. Hann lt sv gera; ok n bsk hann ok ferr
me Bara (F, vol. 3, p. 273).
[Bardi then rode of and when he came to the farm at Bakki, where
Tordis lived, a horse was saddled and waiting, with a shield nearby.
He and his following rode with a thunder of hooves into the hayfeld
across a hard plain. Outside were a man and woman, who proved
to be Tordis and Odd. She was washing his hair and had not yet
completed the job, as his head was still full of froth. As soon as he
saw Bardi he sprang to his feet and greeted him with a laugh. Bardi
returned his greeting and asked the woman to fnish her work and
wash him properly. Te man allowed her to do so, then made himself
ready and set of with Bardi (CSI, vol. 4, p. 102).]
Tere is no obvious reason for including this picture of a widow
washing her stewards hair in the narrative; it is not so guligt, i. e., not really
a mater for a story, and it does not seem to have any narrative function
other than retardation. Nevertheless, it enlivens the narrative about
the gathering of forces and makes it memorable: we can see that the men
joining up with Bari are no dirty gangsters, like the thugs of Fstbrra
saga. When Oddr is introduced into the saga, he is thus described:
Oddr var gildr mar fyrir sr. Ekki var hann eins kostar fgofugr ea
tstrr; var hann frgr mar (F, vol. 3, p. 264). [Odd was a man
of some consequence. Tough he was neither wealthy nor of good family
he was well-known (CSI, vol. 4, p. 98).] Odd has a strange surname: he
is called Gefnar-Oddr, which connects him with the goddess Freyja and
therefore characterizes him as a ladies man, although he is not a noble-
man. It is likely that his nickname was known from the traditions about
the slayings on the heath and inspired the author to create this image
of daily life. It illustrates intimacy between the man and the woman,
and makes him come alive as a gallant fgure. Although Oddr is not a
poet, his character is the same as that of the protagonists of the sagas of
skalds. In the batle itself he shows his valour and some dexterity with
words when an opponent mocks him for his amorous afairs. We may
ask if the adventurous and gallant ladies man was a traditional type or
if it was formed under the infuence of romance. Whatever the answer
to that question is, this episode shows us how the author of Heiarvga
saga uses a scene from daily life to transgress the limits of traditional
narrative. Here this is done in a more elegant and original manner than
in the previous example, and no irony is to be found in this scene. It is,
however, interesting that this scene, as well as the scene from Fstbrra
saga already discussed, seems to contain an allusion to the world of
romance, thus making the meaning of the text more complex.
My last example from Heiarvga saga is from its fnal chapter.
Te protagonist Bari has married a woman of one of the best Icelandic
families, Aur, the daughter of Snorri the Priest. Having lived together
for more than a year Bari and Aur leave for Norway, and there the fol-
lowing, totally unexpected, scene takes place:
Sv bar til einn morgin, er au vru ti skemmu bi, at Bari vildi
sofa, en hon vildi vekja hann ok tekr eit hgendi ltit ok kastar
andlit honum, sv sem me glensi; hann kastar braut, ok ferr sv
nokkurum sinnum; ok eit sinn kastar hann til hennar ok ltr fylgja
hondina; hon reiisk vi ok hefr fengit einn stein ok kastar til hans.
Ok um daginn eptir drykkju stendr Bari upp ok nefnir sr vta ok
segir skilit vi Aui ok segir, at hann vill eigi af henni ofrki taka n
orum monnum; ekki tjr orum vi at koma, sv er eta fast set
(F, vol. 3, pp. 325).
[It happened one morning that they were both out in a nearby build-
ing; Bardi wished to sleep but his wife intended to wake him. She took
a small cushion and threw it in his face, as if it were a joke. He tossed it
aside and this was repeated several times. Ten he threw it at her and
let his hand follow [that is, he hit her]. She grew angry, picked up a
stone and threw it at him. Tat same day, afer men had gathered for
drinking, Bardi stood up and named witnesses and said he was divorc-
ing Aud, on the grounds that he would not stand for her tyranny nor
anyone elses. Nothing anyone said could dissuade him, his mind was
so set on this (CSI, vol. 4, p. 128).]
192 Vsteinn lason
Te fght between the couple is so real that it could have happened
yesterday: an innocent and even firtatious pillow-fght that gets out of
control and ends in disaster. At this point in the story, the heroic plot is
fnished and the afermath is being related. Since the hero has still not
been killed, the author, according to saga conventions, has to dispose
of him in some way. In the rest of the chapter, we are briefy informed
of the subsequent lives of the couple: Bari journeys to Constantinople,
joins the Varangian guard, earns a good reputation and falls in batle,
while Aur var gipt orum rkum manni, syni ris hunds, er Sigurr
ht, ok eru aan komnir Bjarkeyingar, inir gztu menn (F, vol. 3,
p. 325326). [Aud was married to another powerful man, called Sigurd,
son of Torir the Dog. Te Bjarkey clan, the fnest of men, is descended
from them (CSI, vol. 4, p. 129).]
Bari is here portrayed as a lonely man unable to develop lasting
emotional ties to other people, and the path he was forced to choose,
the path of the avenger, proves to be a dead end in his personal life.
Te feeling created is exactly the same as when we see the lonely hero of a
western movie ride towards the sunset afer he has killed those who had
to be killed and lost his friends and allies in the course of the action.
Te narrator has here taken leave of the hero and given him the
heroic death that is due to him, but he also honours another convention,
to name the descendants of some of the main characters, when it is men-
tioned that Baris wife Aur was married again and had noble descend-
ants in Norway. Tis is in striking contrast to her former husband, who
leaves no ofspring. Te saga might be asking whether it is beter to leave
the world nothing but a great reputation or to leave fne descendants.
Te saga provides no answer, and the question about the inevitability
and yet the futility of revenge hovers in the air. Fstbrra saga mocks
the hero orgeirr and presents the story of his life as a comedy, while
Heiarvga saga presents Bari as a tragic hero; individual scenes as
the goading by urr function as comic relief, but the overall mode of
the saga is tragic, as is shown in the way it takes leave of its main hero.
It is not ofen that slendingasgur give us a glimpse into a couples
bed-chamber, as in the example above. Gsla saga Srssonar (Te Saga
of Gsli Srsson) is an exception, and the scene now to be discussed
ends very diferently from the one in Heiarvga saga. In addition to
two scenes in Gsla saga in which important characters are killed in their
beds in the presence of their wife or sister, a more mundane, apparently
trivial, scene from a bed-chamber is given in one of its chapters. orkell
Srsson, the brother of the heroic Gsli, has overheard a chat between
Gslis wife Aur and his own wife sgerr, during which Aur suggests
that sgerr has more love for Aurs brother Vsteinn than for her
own husband. sgerr agrees, and their words indicate that the afair
was more than just a crush. Te women realize that orkell has heard
their words when he rises from his resting place and recites a stanza
saying that their words will lead to the deaths of one or more people.
Te same evening the following scene takes place:
orkell neytir lt matar um kveldit ok gengr fyrstr manna at sofa.
Ok er hann var kominn rekkju, kemr ar sgerr ok lyptir
klum ok tlar nir at leggjask. tk orkell til ora: Ekki tla
ek r hr at liggja ntlangt n lengra banni. sgerr mlti: Hv
hefr sv skjt skipazk, ea hvat berr til ess? segir sgerr. orkell
mlti: Bi vitu vit n sokina, t ek hafa lengi leyndr verit, ok mun
inn hrr ekki at meiri, at ek mla berara. Hon svarar: munt
ra vera hugleiing inni um eta, en ekki mun ek lengi fask til
hvlunnar vi ik, ok um tv kosti tu at velja. S er annarr, at tak
vi mr ok lt sem ekki s orit. Ella mun ek nefna mr vta n egar
ok segja skilit vi ik, ok mun ek lta four minn heimta mund minn
ok heimanfylgju, ok mun s kostr, at hafr aldri hvlurong af mr
san. orkell agnai ok mlti um sir: at r ek, at ger hvrt
r lkar, en eigi mun ek banna rekkjuna ntlangt. Hon lsti brt yfr
v, hvrr henni ti betri, ok ferr egar rekkju sna. Eigi hafa au
lengi bi saman legit, r en au semja eta me sr, sv sem ekki
hefi orit (F, vol. 6, pp. 3233).
[Torkel ate very litle that evening and was the frst to retire to bed.
Once he was there, Asgerd came to him, lifed the blanket, and was
about to lie down when Torkel said, I will not have you lying here
tonight, nor for a very long time to come.
Asgerd replied, Why this sudden change? What is the reason
for this?
194 Vsteinn lason
We both know whats behind this, said Torkel, though I have
been kept in the dark about it for a long time. It will not help your
reputation if I speak more plainly.
You think what you will, answered Asgerd, but I am not going to
argue with you about whether I may sleep in this bed or not. You have
a choiceeither you take me in and act as if nothing has happened
or I will call witnesses this minute, divorce you and have my father
reclaim my bride-price and my dowry. Ten you wouldnt have to
worry about my taking up room in your bed ever again.
Torkel was quiet for a while, then he said, I advise you to do as
you wish. I shall not stop you from sleeping here all night.
She soon made clear what she wanted to do, and they had not
been lying together for too long before they made up as if nothing had
happened (CSI, vol. 2, p. 10).]
Te types of characters we meet here are well known from heroic
narrative. orkell is the anti-hero, an indeterminate and cowardly man
who does not do his duty by honouring his obligations to his kins-
men and who generally does not keep his word. sgerr is a female
hero, proud, determined and passionate. Obviously, she does not have
the ferce pride of Brynhildr, who wants none but the best of men.
sgerr, however, will accept no humiliation from her husband, and she
has no scruples about using her sexual power over him to ensure this.
Tere are fne psychological nuances here. orkells lack of character is
never directly mentioned, let alone condemned, but is revealed through
the contrast between his brave words and his actions, as well as repeat-
edly through the contrast between his own behaviour and that of his
brother.10 As a mater of fact, both sgerr and orkell act according
to practical unheroic considerations, but the woman shows strength
10 Te ethics of Gsla saga Srssonar, the evaluation of the characters and their
acts, is a controversial subject, especially to what degree an underlying criti-
cism of Gslis heroic values is inherent in the text. I have discussed this in
Vsteinn lason 1999 and 2003; for more or less difering interpretations, see
Bredsdorf 1971: 6781, Meulengracht Srensen 1986, and Andersson 1968, and
2006: 7785.
and determination. Tis scene seems to have more in common with
comic narratives of a fabliaux-type than with a heroic lay.
In spite of the conventional traits of this scene, it opens the heroic
form towards daily life and invites the reader to compare the saga with
diferent kinds of texts. All the scenes that have been discussed here
do this in one way or another. Tey do not belong to the high points
in the narrative, and they would be lef out in plot-summaries because
they tell of events that in themselves are unworthy of telling according
to convention. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of the text, belong
to the web of the tale, bring the characters closer to the readers and
help them to see through the text. From the fnite traditional heroic
tale they create one of the sagas many links to infnite textuality as well
as to the extra-textual reality of the past.
slendingasgur have come to us as literature, and one of the things
that make them fascinating is that we can see how they are formed by
conficting and even contradictory social and textual forces. Inclusion
of details from daily life and an ambiguous atitude to heroic ethics
identifcation and admiration conficting with critical or ironic ati-
tudes as well as allusions to other contemporary kinds of narrative,
cause the sagas to be seen as foreshadowing the birth of the novel. Tat
being said, it must be repeated that the saga and the novel are two fun-
damentally diferent kinds of narrative, not historically related at all.
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On Some Pragmatic and Symbolic Features of
Island Representation in Old Norse Literature
Kristel Zilmer
University of Bergen
Book 7 of the classical masterpiece Te Odyssey contains a scene where
the hero Odysseus (Ulysses) describes how he was shipwrecked and washed
ashore on Calypsos island, Ogygia. He thus relates: [] Tere is an isle,
Ogygia, which lies far of in the sea. [245] Terein dwells the fair-tressed
daughter of Atlas, guileful Calypso, a dread goddess, and with her no one
either of gods or mortals hath aught to do; but me in my wretchedness did fate
bring to her hearth alone, for Zeus had smiten my swif ship with his bright
thunderbolt, [250] and had shatered it in the midst of the wine-dark sea.1
Calypso kept Odysseus with her for seven years and even promised him
immortality if he would stay on the island an ofer refused by Odysseus, who
longed to return to his family. At last, with Zeus intervention, Calypso had to
let Odysseus leave the island but his adventures were far from being over.
Te reason for using the quote above as an introduction to the present
paper lies in the fact that it illustrates ftingly the central role that islands have
played in the human mind and imagination for a long time. Te sequence of
events concerning the numerous islands that Odysseus reached during his
voyage is perhaps one of the most well-known cases; already there and then
one can trace characteristic motifs developed in western thought in con-
nection with islands. Another popular example is the medieval Navi ga tio
Brendani, a story about the legendary voyage of Brendan of Clonfert, a sixth-
century Irish monk who is said to have travelled from one island to another
in search of the Isle of the Blessed (the Promised Land of the Saints).2
1 Te English translation is given according to the Perseus Digital Library text collec-
tions at www.perseus.tufs.edu/hopper. Te Greek text can also be found there.
2 Tere are more than 120 medieval manuscripts that relate the story of Brendan;
the oldest one dates from the 10th century but it is considered likely that
the legend as such had achieved a full-bodied form already by the beginning
of the 9th century (see e. g. Anderson 1988: 316).
198 Kristel Zilmer
During diferent times and within varying cultural contexts
the themes and approaches can naturally vary a lot. But at the same
time, there is ample reason to claim that there has existed and still
exists a universal fascination with islands. Tis is what we could call
the phenomenon of islomania characterised as [] a central fea-
ture of Western culture, a core idea that has been a driving force
from ancient times to the present (Gillis 2004: 1). According to
Gillis, such an atraction does not simply refer to being interested
in islands as particular features of landscape, but also to a deeper
epistemological experience: Dividing the world into discrete things,
islanding it as a means of understanding, is a peculiarly Western way
of navigating a world that seems otherwise without shape and direc-
tion (op. cit.: 2).
Te main focus of this paper concerns the discourse of islands on
the basis of medieval Old Norse-Icelandic narrative tradition one
chapter in the history of island representation. According to our view,
the imagery of islands in Old Norse sources is simultaneously refective
of certain contemporary European ideas, as well as of specifc Nordic
experiences that also bear witness to cultural-historical awareness.3
Te emphasis in this paper is twofold: for one, we shall concentrate
upon the representation of particular islands and events. Such a per-
spective serves at the same time to illuminate the above-mentioned
Nordic dimension of island experiences. Secondly, we shall discuss
the manner in which certain more general and symbolic features can
be atached to the concept of island as mediated by the sources. Tis
later viewpoint can parallelly be applied to illustrate some facets of a
broader medieval tradition on islands.
Teoretical considerations
In the introduction the source material was defned as medieval Old
Norse-Icelandic narrative tradition. Needless to say, this paper will dis-
cuss only a limited fraction of the overall material. We have chosen to
use particular forms of saga literature as the point of departure more
3 A similar combinatory approach is also followed in the recent article Scenes
of Island Encounters in Icelandic Sagas Refections of Cultural Memory
by Zilmer (2008a).
199 On Some Pragmatic and Symbolic Features
precisely, the main emphasis is laid upon relevant examples deriving
from the sagas of Icelanders (slendingasgur) and the kings sagas
(konungasgur) as is well known, the former focus upon the activi-
ties (conficts) of signifcant Icelandic families mainly in the 10th and
early 11th centuries, whereas the later relate the history of primarily
Norwegian kings through diferent periods of time.4 With the sagas
themselves being writen down some time during the 12th14th cen-
turies, they treat the subject mater from a retrospective and predomi-
nantly realistic point of view, making the claim of being historical sagas
about the past, to quote Meulengracht Srensen (1993: 98).5
In addition to discussing the island imagery in sagas, there will be a
few parallels drawn to the motifs occurring in Old Norse poetry mean-
ing frst and foremost the skaldic praise poetry of the Viking Age and
the early Middle Ages. It is logical to include corresponding examples
due to the very fact that they are mediated as quotations in the same
sagas. It is indeed thanks to the eagerness of medieval saga writers
to illustrate and document their statements in terms of (potentially
authentic) skaldic stanzas that this category of Old Norse poetry has
been preserved.6 But besides skaldic poetry, we shall also briefy refer to
the island theme in the framework of the mythological tradition of eddic
4 Te temporal frames of individual kings sagas are summarised e. g. by Jackson
(1993: 1015). A considerable part of the kings saga tradition centres around
the two missionary Norwegian kings, i. e. lfr Tryggvason (ruled ca. 995
1000) and lfr Haraldsson (ruled ca. 10151030).
5 Another mater is whether sagas can be analysed as historical sources as well.
During the past few decades scholars have started to treat sagas as potential
sources of cultural history and the history of mentality. For a discussion of
diferent trends in recent saga scholarship, see e. g. Lnnroth (1993).
6 Te authenticity and credibility of preserved skaldic poetry is another widely
discussed mater. One common view is summarised by Frank (1985: 173):
Today almost none of the verse in the family sagas is considered secure;
poetry in the kings sagas still commands credence, for it has not yet seemed
likely that these verses are fabrications, falsely atributed to the early ska-
lds. However, the debates around individual poems continue. Concerning
the source value of skaldic poetry and the criteria for tracing genuine
stanzas, see also Bjarni Einarsson (1974); Vsteinn lasson (1987); Jesch
(1993; 2001).
200 Kristel Zilmer
poetry as this was (still) known in medieval times.7 When consulting
diferent types of sagas as well as poetic texts, it is possible to illustrate
the application of particular themes across various genres of Old Norse
literature and in this manner demonstrate their common character. In
further studies the scope of the source material can be enwidened to
include other forms of saga literature and medieval prose tradition.
Te main arenas of action in slendingasgur and konungasgur
are Iceland and Scandinavia, respectively. Te later area also lies in
the focus of much of the skaldic praise poetry, whereas with regard
to eddic poetry we cannot determine the precise seting in the same
manner.8 Besides the main seting, sagas also include references to
various other travel destinations travel is in itself a popular motif in
many a saga narrative; or as it has been put, the sagas [] are full of
movement and experience, at home and abroad (Jesch 2005: 134).
Te image of a travelling poet, chiefain, king or simply a fame- and
fortune-seeking young man is equally well recorded in slendingasgur
and konungasgur; both types of sources cast light upon movements
on a more regular scale, such as smaller raiding and trading enterprises,
as well as upon larger campaigns and expeditions. Similarly, much of
the skaldic poetry contains elements of travelogue in terms of list-
ing the sites where the honoured kings and chiefains headed to. As
expected, the content is then poetically modifed; the act of travelling
interests the skald in the framework of dramatic events and is combined
with expressive batle imagery.
In this current context we shall examine islands as belonging within
the scheme of travelling. Tis allows us to draw atention to several
characteristic features of the overall island representation. In order to
limit the scope of study, we have chosen to concentrate mainly upon
two geographical setings. For one, we look at the islands in the Baltic
7 As sources, eddic and skaldic poetry are obviously rather diferent with regard
to their context of preservation, mater of authorship, formal and stylistic
criteria as well as main content. For an overview of the characteristic features
of both types of poetry, see e. g. Hallberg (2003), Mundal (2004). Certain
parallels between skaldic and eddic poetry are discussed by Zilmer (2008b).
8 However, as will be shown during the analysis, among the toponyms inserted into
the eddic poetry there do occur a few identifable island references as well.
Sea, in the region of the Kategat and the Danish straits an active arena
for communication. Te second seting is made up by islands along
the western coast of Norway that are depicted to host frequent trafc
in the context of western travels along the North and the Norwegian
Seas.9 Both of the above-mentioned territories demonstrate clear com-
municative signifcance as atested to by the sagas.
A fnal consideration concerns the defnition of an island in this
study. Determining what exactly an island is can be a tricky linguistic-
semantic, cultural-historical as well as geographical mater. On the one
hand, one could analyse the application of particular linguistic elements
in Old Norse place names and look at various descriptive references pro-
vided by the sources.10 On the other hand, it would be necessary to take
into consideration diferent contextual factors and among other things
to discuss the relationship between island(s) and mainland(s). Certain
puzzlement concerning the distinction between islands and mainlands
is visible from the sources as well. In the 13th-century Norwegian prose
work known as Konungs skuggsj (Te Kings Mirror) composed as a
dialogue between a father and a son a question is posed as to whether
Greenland should be considered a mainland or an island: Sv forvit-
nar mik ok at, hvrt r tlit at at s meginland ea eyland (Keyser
et al 1848: 42).11 Te father then explains that the size of Greenland is
unknown, but it is taken to be a mainland and that it is connected to
some other mainland; the proof is found in the fact that Greenland has
such animals that do not usually live on islands. Tat one had to get a
sense of a territory in order to determine whether this was an island also
shines through in a short passage in Grnlendinga saga (ch. 2) describ-
ing the voyage of Bjarni Herjlfsson. Bjarni and his men intended to
9 Again, in further research, it is without doubt important to include other
maritime territories as well; for example, there occur interesting island motifs
with regard to the Northern Atlantic seting.
10 An interesting semantic mater would be to look at diferent terms applied in
connection with islands and study specifc compounds including the element
ey (island). See e. g. Cleasby et al (1957: 134) for examples that refer to dif-
ferent types of islands (inhabited ones, ones that lie far out in the sea, etc.).
11 Note the application of the word eyland (island, or literally: island-land);
the same word is refected in the modern Swedish proper name land des-
ignating an island of the eastern coast of Sweden.
202 Kristel Zilmer
sail to Greenland, but due to unfavourable sailing conditions came
across several unknown lands. Approaching a third unknown territory
they: [] halda me landinu fam ok s, at at var eyland (Mathas
rarson and Einar lafur Sveinsson 1935: 247).12
A few general concepts to keep in mind in the meantime are the fol-
lowing. In Old Norse cosmography (and similarly in ancient geography),
we fnd the notion of the inhabited world being an island, surrounded by
the chaotic Ocean, in Old Norse known as thaf (see e. g. Hastrup 1990:
2829; Gillis 2004: 1213). Considering the model that sees the whole
world as an island, it seems obvious that the size (and the status) of
the landmass is not necessarily an apparent feature to pursue when
defning (is)lands. Also, an island does not even have to be surrounded
by water; according to Gillis (2004: 17), in medieval times any strange
and distant place could be viewed as an island.13
Here we shall follow a somewhat simplifed practice and still defne
islands frst and foremost as waterbound insular communities, emerg-
ing as such on the basis of the narrative context itself. Tis approach is
motivated by the actual perspective of the sources; as is for example said
in the 13th-century work known as Snorra Edda or Te Younger Edda
(according to the manuscript Codex Upsaliensis, DG 11): [] en ey heitir
at land sem sior ea vatn fellr vm hverfs (Jn Sigursson 1852: 366).14
Islands as signifcant sites
Te treatment of islands in slendingasgur and konungasgur as well as
in skaldic poetry in many ways presents them as useful sites for localis-
ing various events. Furthermore, they emerge as important cognitive
landmarks from the maritime perspective, bearing witness to the sailing
experiences of the Northmen. On the whole, we can say that the role of
islands in the narrative is very much connected to the typical activities
of a travelling hero. One distinctive facet of island imagery in the sagas
and in skaldic poetry is that they provide a suitable seting for batles,
campaigns and raids. Te fghting may then occur either directly on
12 [] [they] followed the land and saw that it was an island (my translation).
13 Gillis (2004: 6164) also explains that it was only in the 16th century that one
started to make a clearer distinction between islands and continents.
14 [] an island is a land which is surrounded by sea or lake (my translation).
the island or in the waters around it; various features of the landscape
may be illuminated, showing for example how islands could be used
to organise stakeouts, etc. Corresponding motifs are well-recorded in
konungasgur, but also meet us in certain slendingasgur.
At one extreme, such island confrontations include big batles
between Scandinavian kings; at the other, private duels between two
opponents. In fact, the concept of duelling creates an association to
islands also in terms of its name, i. e. hlmganga, which contains a ref-
erence to small islands (holmr / hlmr). As we learn from the sagas, an
alternative to the island seting is to carry out a duel on top of a small
hillock; in the meantime, even such a site appears as a kind of island
in relation to the surrounding landscape. But the sagas do also refer to
actual island duels and those may involve fghting a vicious warrior
or even a supernatural creature.15
We shall illustrate the motif of islands as key (batle) sites by tak-
ing a look at the island of Hlsey (Ls) in the middle of the Kategat.
In the saga on Magns blindi and Haraldr gilli in the 13th-century
Norwegian kings saga compilation Heimskringla, we hear about a batle
Haraldr held by that island (see ch. 12 of Magnss saga blinda ok Haralds
gilla). Te same event is referred to by the somewhat earlier kings saga
compilations Morkinskinna and Fagrskinna. In all three cases the saga
statements are illustrated by a skaldic quote assigned to a 12th-centu-
ry poet Einarr Sklason; here the whole stanza is given according to
the skaldic poetry edition: O tu skn vi sltan, / serkrjr Ho ars,
merki, / harr, ars hregg of virum, / Hlseyjar ro m, blsu; / hs brann
up, en eisur / fat, sa knti, / malmr so ng, en hl hilmir / hr ko st, vi
sk gn fa (Finnur Jnsson 19121915 B I: 424425).16
15 See e. g. ch. 65 of Egils saga Skalla-Grmssonar that contains a scene of Egill
fghting with a berserk, or ch. 18 of Gretis saga smundarsonar where Gretir
fghts against a troublesome mound-dweller.
16 Te hardened colorer of Hlfrs [legendary king] shirt [byrnie, warrior]
held batle by the level shore of Hlsey [Ls] where the storm caused stand-
ards to billow above the men. Many a house was consumed by fre, and one
could see fames leaping against the clouds; steel sang, and the king stacked
a corpse pile. Translation according to the English version of Morkinskinna
(Andersson and Gade 2000: 365). Note that Morkinskinna quotes the whole
stanza whereas Fagrskinna and Heimskringla give only the frst half of it.
204 Kristel Zilmer
Before mentioning the batle at Ls, the sagas point out another
island and again an illustrative skaldic quote is inserted into the narra-
tive. Tis island is identifed as Hven (Ven), a small island in the strait
of resund, between Sjlland and Skne. Fagrskinna also specifes here
that Haraldr was fghting against some Vikings.
In this context islands are thus identifed as fting sites for hold-
ing victorious batles. However, island encounters do not always prove
to be successful for the saga character; the narratives also highlight
potential dangers connected to such places. In ch. 94 of lfs saga
helga in Heimskringla, we hear about a certain Gauti Tfason; his story
is told as news to the Swedish king by a wise man called Emundr from
Skara.17 One time Gauti Tfason sailed along the Gta River and when
he reached Eikreyjar (referring to the northern Gteborg archipelago
where we also fnd the island of cker) he noticed fve Danish trade
ships. Gauti conquered four of them together with his men, and then
started chasing the last one with one of his ships, but lost sight of it.
Due to a heavy storm he lost his ship and all the men on board this
happened by the island of Ls. Meanwhile, his remaining companions
who were still waiting for him by Eikreyjar themselves got atacked by
more Danes, and now the fortune turned, because they all got killed.
Besides its informative value this litle tale carries allegoric signifcance,
since it demonstrates how one loses everything as a result of having got
too greedy. In this manner, Emundr also prepares the ground for bring-
ing up a more important case of complaint in front of the king.
Tis later example referred to Ls in the context of stormy
weather leading to a shipwreck. Islands can thus fgure in the scheme
of events that highlight the hardships caused by weather and prob-
lematic sailing conditions in a situation like that, batling becomes
much more challenging. Ls is also mentioned in ch. 35 of Haralds
saga Sigurarsonar in Heimskringla. King Haraldr, who has been raiding
around in Denmark, is sailing northwards in the Kategat when con-
trary winds force him to take lee by Ls. Te same scene is brought
up by Fagrskinna (see ch. 55) and Morkinskinna (p. 166). In the mean-
time, the later two accounts claim that Haraldr had to fnd shelter by
17 Te same scene is analysed in Zilmer (2005: 286).
a diferent Danish island namely Smsey (Sams). In all three cases
there is also mention of a heavy fog occurring on the island that forms
a contrast to the sun refecting from the ships out on the sea those
being the approaching ships of Haraldrs opponent, the Danish king
Sveinn lfsson. As explained by Finlay (2004: 206), the reference to
Ls in Heimskringla can be considered more probable in relation
to Limaforr (i. e. the sound of Limford in Jutland), also forming part
of the seting. On the other hand, Sams gets mentioned as an impor-
tant locality earlier in Morkinskinna in connection with King Magns
gi; the island is then characterised as the usual anchorage for the king:
[] eir kuomu uid Samsey og lagu skipunum ar j einre hofn sem jafnan
hafde legit Magnus konungr fyrr (Finnur Jnsson 1932b: 146).18
It is not always necessary to identify the location precisely; more
important is to show that the site as such fulfls its particular narrative
purpose. On certain occasions, it can also be expected that specifc con-
textual clues would make it clear which place one had in mind. Among
famous batle sites, the island of Svo lr (i. e. Svolder) is given as the set-
ting for the fnal batle of lfr Tryggvason.19 As for example stated in
Fagrskinna (ch. 24), the enemies of the king had gathered their forces
there: Vi einn hlma fyrir Vinlandi vru saman komnir margir strir
ho fingjar. essi hlmi heitir Svo lr (Bjarni Einarsson 1985: 147).20 In
the preserved skaldic poetry relating of that batle, the name of the island
is not necessarily specifed. Erfdrpa lfs Tryggvasonar by Hallfrer
tarsson vandraskld, for example, localises the batle in the south
of the sea; the location is further described as the broad sound of an
island ( vu Holms sundi, see stanza 17). Te southern direction is
also emphasised in Eirksfokkr by Haldrr kristni; and there as well a
18 [] they came to Smsey (Sams) and anchored in the harbor where King
Magns had always anchored of that island in earlier days (Andersson and
Gade 2000: 185).
19 Te exact location of Svolder is unknown; it has for example been suggested
that it is an island somewhere in the southern Baltic close to the German coast.
See the short overview provided by Andersson in his translation of Te Saga of
Olaf Tryggvason by Oddr Snorrason (2003: 147); cf. also Finlay (2004: 116).
20 By an island of the coast of Vinland there were gathered many important
chiefains. Tis island is called Svolr (Finlay 2004: 116). See also ch. 99 of
lfs saga Tryggvasonar in Heimskringla.
206 Kristel Zilmer
reference is provided to the island in terms of applying the word holmr
(see stanza 3). Perhaps in these cases it is the southern seting itself that
makes the locality clear, so that no further identifcation is required.21
On the other hand, sometimes the sagas may fnd it important to
identify even small and uninhabited islands and provide descriptive
comments as to their particular features. One such example concerns
Brenneyjar (in modern Swedish Brnnarna) another archipelago
on the western coast of Sweden. Tese small islands are mentioned on
several occasions; and in Bjarnar saga (ch. 7) it is explained: [] at
eru margar eyjar ok vru lt byggar. ar vru launvgar, ok var ar
jafnan herskt af vkingum; skgr var ar ok no kkurr eyjunni (Guni
Jnsson and Sigurur Nordal 1938: 127).22 Similarly in ch. 48 of Egils
saga Skalla-Grmssonar, we hear that Vikings used to wait for passing
trade ships in the region of Brenneyjar.
Te examples above have illustrated certain islands as the focal
points in the southern Baltic. Other islands in the same region (but
also in other maritime landscapes) fulfl similar functions. In the case of
the bigger Danish islands, such as Sjlland, Fyn, and Falster, it is obvious
that besides being common batle sites they also belong with the picture
of extending ones territorial dominion much trafc is taking place in
between these and other islands as a result of the political confronta-
tions between various Danish and Norwegian rulers. But in addition
to that, the depiction of islands in the Baltic Sea also expresses strategic
navigational purposes. Te islands form part of common sailing routes,
and the knowledge connected to them has pragmatical signifcance.23
21 At the same time the name Svo lr is recorded in a poem by Skli rsteinsson;
the skald speaks of a batle sunnr fyr Svo lrar mynni i. e. south by the mouth
of Svolder (see stanza 2) which according to Finlay (2004: 116) may create
the impression of Svo lr being a river. However, sagas relate that Svo lr was
an island. Te phrase the mouth of Svolder could perhaps be taken as refer-
ring to a sound connected to that island. Furthermore, certain formulations
in skaldic poetry are only motivated by stylistic considerations.
22 Tis is a group of many islands, not much inhabited at that time. Tere were
hidden creeks in them, and they were always exposed to raiders. Tere was
also some woodland on the islands (Finlay 1997: 263).
23 Te strategic signifcance of islands in the Baltic sea as depicted in various
Old Norse sources is also emphasised in Zilmer (2006, see pp. 259267).
On the one hand, islands may appear as navigational aids, suitable
outposts and anchorages; on the other hand, it is important to stay
aware of the challenges that sailing around certain islands could pose.
Such are the very practical aspects of island representation that can
be traced on the basis of both narrative and directly geographical
sources.
In the following, we shall concentrate upon a more symbolic facet
of island representation. Earlier we referred to such island combats
where one has to fght against some remarkable or even supernatural
creature. A quote from eddic poetry that refers to the island of Ls
from a similar perspective can provide a fting transition from the prac-
tical to the symbolic. Tus, in the poem Hrbarslj, stanza 37, we hear
about the god rr fghting against some berserk women on Ls
combining a clear identifcation of a well-known maritime site with
mythological motifs. Tis is what rr says about his island experience:
Brir bersrkja / barak Hlsyju, / r ho fu verst unnit, / vlta j
alla (Finnur Jnsson 1932a: 87).24
Island symbolics
Tis brings us to the symbolic level of island representation, which in
many ways accords with a broader medieval tradition on islands. Islands
thus get connected with peculiar events and appear as mysterious and
miraculous sites both in the positive and negative sense. To start with
the later, in sagas we for example meet the motif of islands as sites for
outlaws and criminals. Due to its relative isolation, an island can provide
a perfect hiding place and / or prevent contact. Similar perceptions
shine through in an island reference occurring among eddic poems,
namely in Vo lundarkvia (see Finnur Jnsson 1932a: 125126). A small
fctional island called S varsto (meaning sea-harbour) fgures as
the place where the smith Volundr is kept in captivity and has to work
for the king. No one else is supposed to have contact with him; this
does not really work out, and later in the poem we hear about some
horrifc incidents taking place on the island.
24 Berserk women I fought in Hlesey, / theyd done the worst things, bewitched
all men (Larrington 1996: 74).
208 Kristel Zilmer
Another motif concerns the somewhat strange habits of people
living on islands, as well as the fact that islands may provide a home
base for weird and dangerous creatures. With regard to the former,
Old Norse even had a special term coined for marking islanders they
could be called eyjar skeggjar, i. e. island beards (see Cleasby et al 1957:
134). Concerning the later aspect, we already referred to certain motifs
in sagas (for example, Gretis saga smundarsonar) that speak about
encounters with island monsters.
In accordance with common medieval perceptions, an island itself
may appear as a monster or a gigantic creature of some kind. Te above-
mentioned Navigatio Brendani includes a scene concerning the so-called
Fish Island (Jasconius). Brendan and his followers camp on the back
of the giant fsh, believing it to be an island; they even celebrate Easter
there. Once they light a fre on its back, the monster awakes and starts
moving and the men have to fee.
Parallels to that particular story and / or other similar motifs can
perhaps be found in a litle humouristic episode related in ch. 3 of
Kntlinga saga and ch. 33 of lfs saga Tryggvasonar in Heimskringla.
In this connection, we hear about problems the Danish king Haraldr
Gormsson was having with Icelanders who were producing mocking
verses of him. One of the kings sorcerers is sent on a magic ride to
Iceland in the form of a whale; remarkably enough, he later informs
the king that there live all kinds of monstrous creatures on that land,
and that it also lies way too far to be reached by ship. Tis litle com-
ment provides a kind of side-step regarding the image of Iceland, in
supposedly representing the islands role in the eyes of those from
the outside, and fting well with the medieval practice of depicting
remote and mysterious places.
But islands could also be given religious signifcance; according to
another medieval concept islands emerge as holy and sacred sites (see
Gillis 2004: 2639). In Old Norse sources islands may be associated
with both heathen and Christian practices; on more specifc occasions
there are even magic activities taking place there. Looking at an example
from eddic poetry, in stanza 24 of Lokasenna Loki accuses inn of
having engaged in disgraceful magic practices (seir) on the island of
Sams: n ik sa / ku Smsyju , / ok drapt vet sem vo lur, / vitka
lki / frt verj yfr, / ok hugak at args aal (Finnur Jnsson 1932a:
105).25 Again, it is interesting to observe how the very real island is con-
nected to certain fantastic events in the framework of eddic poetry.
In this current context we shall in the meantime concentrate upon
the motif of islands as sites for religious transformations resulting from
the act of Christianisation. Te islands that are in focus are those located
along the western coast of Norway connected to the missionary activi-
ties of lfr Tryggvason and lfr Haraldsson. We shall use the former
as our point of departure and look at a few scenes occurring in a separate
saga on lfs saga Tryggvasonar by Oddr Snorrason (from the end of
the 12th century), as well as in the kings saga compilations Fagrskinna
and Heimskringla.26
lfr is said to have sailed from the Orkney Islands to Norway afer
having baptised the Orkney jarl. In Norway he lands on the island of
Moster (in Sunnhordland); during the night he is visited by a saint who
says the king should call people to give up their old customs and accept
the new religion. We further hear about lfr organising an assembly
on the island and speaking to the people while standing on a high rock.
Tree men atempt to come with arguments that would oppose lfr,
but neither among them is able to deliver his speech: Nu frir ui at eir
voro sigrair me sua miclum krapti. a tocu margir vi tru. Oc frir letu
forna villu oc fylgu allir konungs boi (Finnur Jnsson 1932c: 96).27
In the following, the saga relates about the island of Selja (in Sogn
og Fjordane), which emerges as a sacred site. Several people are said
to have experienced special light and sweet fragrance coming from
the island, and they relate these stories to the king. lfr then heads
to the island together with his bishop, and they fnd there a place with
25 But you once practised seid on Samsey / and you beat on the drum as witches
do, / in the likeness of a wizard you journeyed among / mankind, / and
that I thought the hallmark of a pervert (Larrington 1996: 89). Concerning
the practice of seir, see e. g. the dissertation by Heide (2006).
26 Originally Oddr Snorrason wrote his work in Latin, but what is preserved is
the Old Norse translation of it. Oddr himself was most likely infuenced by
both Latin hagiography and Old Norse learned texts.
27 Because the three of them were overcome by such power; many accepted
the faith and abandoned their former superstition and followed the kings
command (Andersson 2003: 76).
210 Kristel Zilmer
bones, i. e. holy relics. Te king understands the religious signifcance
of the island and thus has a church built there: Oc at bn byskups oc
konungs rai. var ar kirkia ger. oc helgu essum gus monnum er ar voro
(Finnur Jnsson 1932c: 100).28 Te saga also provides a comment with
regard to the island of Kinn: Slict hit sama vera oc morg tocn iannarri
eyio er KiN heitir. ero ar oc helgir domar essarrar sueitar. sem iSelio.
Oc ueitir gu frir huarratueggio sakir margar iartegnir frir milldi sina oc
miscunn (ibid.).29 Regarding the religious community of Selja, the saga
includes a story concerning the tradition on Saint Sunnifa. According
to the legend, she was an Irish princess who abandoned her home to
escape marrying a heathen man. By the good will of God, she and her
people came to the island of Selja. Selja also became the death place
of Sunnifa and her followers the caves on the island collapsed over
them, saving them from falling into the hands of local heathens who
thought they were causing trouble on the island. Te saga also remarks
that there are many miracles connected with the island and provides
the names of the churches that have been built there.30
As a parallel to the discussed episodes in lfs saga Tryggvasonar by
Oddr Snorrason, we can mention that ch. 47 of lfs saga Tryggvasonar
in Heimskringla contains a short reference to the island of Moster.
Te island is similarly identifed as the site where lfr Tryggvason frst
came ashore. According to Heimskringla, a mass was sung on the island,
and later a church was built there.
Heimskringla does not relate of Selja in connection with lfr
Tryggvason. In the meantime, Selja is mentioned in ch. 29 of lfs
saga helga with certain parallels noticeable between this reference
to the activities of lfr Haraldsson and the one that relates of lfr
Tryggvasons arrival on Moster. Both islands function as outposts for
the kings arriving in Norway. In the case of lfs saga helga, it is told
28 At the request on the bishop and the command of the king a church was built
there and dedicated to the men of God who were there (Andersson 2003: 77).
29 Tere are also many signs on another island called Kinn. Tere are also holy
relics of the same community as on Selja. In honor of both, God performs
many miracles in his graciousness and mercy (Andersson 2003: 77).
30 A detailed account on the tradition concerning Sunnifa and the actual fnds
made on the island of Selja is given in Rindal (ed., 1997).
that during the return trip to Norway lafr and his men experienced
trouble on the sea, but thanks to the good luck of the king everything
went well. Tey landed on the island, which in Heimskringla is given
the name S la, meaning luck and happiness. Tis is naturally taken as
a good sign by the king. Fagrskinna contains a similar scene in connec-
tion with lfr Haraldsson (see ch. 28): eir kmu at haf tan at Stai
ok ar land, sem ey ein ltil er ok heitir S la. m lti lf ok lt
tmadag hafa land tekit ok tali at got mark, at eir vru komnir S lu
(Bjarni Einarsson 1985: 170).31 In both Heimskringla and Fagrskinna, it
is further related how the king stumbled on land, an unlucky accident.
In the meantime, his companion tried to save the situation by stating
that in this manner the king established his power over Norway.
Te symbolics connected to the island of Selja as it is represented
in saga narratives, as well as other sources that relate of Sunnifa, dem-
onstrates that the site was considered important for several reasons.
Te explicit saga motifs show Selja as a holy site, with clear religious
signifcance. From a comparative perspective, it has been pointed
out that one can fnd elucidative parallels between Selja and certain
holy sites along the British coasts. As argued by Crawford (1997: 178),
it must have been necessary for the kings to fnd a suitable locality
for establishing a religious cult; and according to the Celtic tradition,
an island of the coast was especially well suited for such purposes.
In this way, we can also notice missionary and political motivation
behind the scenes that are refected in the sagas. Also, the emphasis
upon Selja and other similar islands is not accidental. As has been
pointed out for example by Hommedal (1997: 6365), the location
of Selja is indeed strategic, and the island made up a perfect natural
harbour for people travelling past the Stad peninsula. Te later prom-
ontory is known because of complicated weather conditions that can
occur in its neighbourhood. Tus, for travellers Selja must have made
up an ideal anchorage when they had to wait out harsh weather, for
31 Tey came in from the sea at Star, and came to land where there is a litle
island called Sla. Ten lfr spoke, saying that the day of their reaching land
was a lucky one, and he reckoned it a good sign that they had come to Sla
(Happiness) (Finlay 2004: 137). As commented by Finlay (ibid.), S la has
been considered a variant of Selja, adopted for the sake of the pun.
212 Kristel Zilmer
example.32 In this way the circle is complete, since we have returned
from symbolic and religious features to the visibly pragmatical aspects
of island representation.
Conclusions
Island representation in Old Norse narrative sources is based upon
insights from the practical activities and experiences of the Northmen
as well as the more general medieval concepts concerning communica-
tion with islands. In this current paper we have concentrated upon a
few limited aspects of such island imagery.
Islands both real and imaginary, named and unnamed appear
in diferent types of narrative contexts and fulfl a variety of functions.
On the one hand, islands may emerge as signifcant (batle) sites that
are further characterised by their strategic positioning on the maritime
landscape; on the other hand, it has been shown that there are special
religious and mythological motifs atached to them, which illuminate
their peculiarity.
Te examples discussed above have at the same time demonstrated
that one dimension does not have to exclude the other we can rather
witness a combination of various types of features across the sources.
Tis concerns both the imagery of particular islands (take for example
the Norwegian island of Selja), as well as the broader understandings
on islands as spatial and cognitive fgures. In this we can witness a mix-
ture of various narrative depiction techniques, as well as the blending
of actual cultural traditions.
All in all, it is obvious that the Old Norse sources in their own
way bring out the many dynamic qualities of island representation
in the human imagination. As such, there are various ways in which
the mediated images can contribute to our ongoing fascination with
islands.
32 Similar perspectives can be associated with other islands as well. Te motif
of the island of Moster functioning as a site where ships could be stationed
is for example included in ch. 31 of Haraldssona saga in Heimskringla.
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