The Sagas of the Icelanders

by Smilely, Jane

  In the settlement stage, effective leaders were cultivated who could attempt to settle disputes over territory and local authority and to tame a sort of ‘wild western’ high-handedness that was a feature of life in the new land. The finest saga of settlement is The Saga of the People of Laxardal, although it is much more than that, defining over several generations ideals of chieftaincy and heroic character. It is worth noticing, too, how large a role women play in it, and more complex and problematic ones in some respects than those of the men. We are not allowed to forget in this saga, or in The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal, that it was families who moved, not merely aspiring or desperate Vikings. Where the saga does its hardest intellectual work is in telling the stories of how the succeeding generations in these founding families tested each other and the laws of Iceland in their competition for power. The saga never tells us what it ‘means’, but its thought resides instead in the narration of events and in the particularities of character and event. We are not told that such-and-such a thing will always happen, or even that it will ever happen again, but rather that this is a case in which serious and responsible people of goodwill landed in a conflict that tested their characters and abilities, as well as the social structure of the nation. And it usually sounds true enough to what we know about people that we believe it and remember it.

  Two of the sagas in this collection, The Saga of the Confederates and The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi, are tightly focused on a single theme: the limits of individual wealth and authority of a chieftain. They are very different in tone, but both are less broadly conceived than are the regional sagas, and it is interesting to note that women play essentially no role in them. Although it is so limited in scope and setting, Hrafnkel’s saga is one of the masterpieces of saga art. Since both Hrafnkel and Odd, the protagonist of the comic Saga of the Confederates, are ‘taught a lesson’, some commentators have been tempted to assign a didactic purpose to these two sagas, as though we readers should somehow learn the same lesson: don’t let your conduct be guided by allegiance to a pagan god; or just because you are three times wealthier than the next wealthiest man in the land, don’t consider yourself the equal of the ‘best farmers’. The sagas are about the intrinsic superiority of chieftains, despite their excesses and follies. Each, through the special lens of its art, sounds true, without recourse to allegory.

  *

  There are places in Iceland that are neither fertile valleys and upland pastures nor the sanctified sites of assemblies. They are the uninhabited places, often in the interior, where outlaws take refuge, sometimes in the company of spirits only partly human. It did not take long for this demarcation of social space to develop, as Iceland evolved into a reasonably stable and conservative rural society. People who found the constraints of normal social life impossible to accept, whether for reasons of honour or of excessive animal spirits, were often condemned to exile. They sometimes chose, as did the hero of Gisli Sursson’s Saga, to attempt survival in the uninhabited places in Iceland. Like The Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi, this saga is another little masterpiece of characterization. Gisli is a great hero, a good and patient man, but one of too little good fortune.

  The classical hero as a social and psychological type was under increasingly sceptical scrutiny as time went on in Iceland. A response to the military excesses of the Age of the Sturlungs may account for it. Even though many different literary conventions contribute to the characterization of saga heroes, so that there is considerable variety among them, they all occupy a liminal space that is barely on one side or the other of what normal Icelandic society can tolerate. Typically they acquire their skill at arms and their martial reputations in the larger world of action abroad, either (as in the case of Gisli) before they settle in Iceland, or as a conscious element in the education of the aspiring hero, or in the course of temporary exile.

  Ref the Sly and Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue in different ways illustrate the Icelandic hero’s dependence on the wider scope of foreign society. As a poet, Gunnlaug relies on the larger Norse cultural scene to earn his reputation: even so, his competitive nature and outspokenness are barely contained within the fine line of royal tolerance. Emblematic of the neccessity for a foreign setting is the fact that Gunnlaug’s passionate ambition for superiority in love, in poetry and in feats of arms culminates in a duel that must take place outside Iceland, where it has been prohibited by law. It is because of these lively heroes that we read and enjoy the sagas so much. But we also learn what a dangerous game they play if they attempt to carry out a heroic career in Iceland itself, a place that is devoted to social tranquillity and to a virtual experience of the heroic through literature rather than to an actual one. When Ref the Sly is forced to leave Iceland, as mentioned above, his uncle encourages him to have a story written about his achievements, which serves to make the point that Icelanders will enjoy reading his adventures as long as they don’t have to experience them in reality.

  At the end of Gisli Sursson’s Saga, when the characters are all accounted for, we are told that Gisli’s wife’s nephew, also drawn into Gisli’s outlawry, was able to go beyond the reach of Icelandic authority, and is on a ship bound for Greenland. Greenland was the new frontier of the Saga Age – rough, tough, but a lively and human place, where a man could make some money. Eirik the Red’s Saga illustrates the progress to Iceland, as a refuge from Norwegian law, and then to Greenland as a refuge from Icelandic law. As saga places, Greenland and the interior of Iceland were somewhat analogous to Finnmark in Norway, which figures in the early chapters of Egil s Saga. Such places outside conventional Icelandic society help to define what is meant by civilization, and also for us to distinguish between the forms of behaviour that can be tolerated in society and those, even at times heroic and noble, which are ‘beyond the pale’. Greenland is less magical and better suited to a fresh start in life than either the interior of Iceland or most other places of refuge abroad. The action of half a dozen sagas includes episodes in Greenland, and they all illustrate the vitality and renewal associated with the place. America as a saga place is so complex and special that it cannot be spoken of briefly. It is a world beyond Greenland, Finnmark or the interior of Iceland, a brave new world, within the reach of Norse seamanship, but beyond the grasp of its civilization.

  Further Reading

  Listed below are some of the more recent books in English about the Íslendinga sögur and their historical and cultural backgrounds. Much authoritative work on the sagas exists only in the Icelandic language or in journal articles and is not included. References to this more specialized literature may be found by consulting Pulsiano and Wolf, Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia and Clover and Lindow, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide (see below).

  Andersson, Theodore M. The Problem of Icelandic Saga Origins: A Historical Survey. New Haven, Conn. 1964.

  —. The Icelandic Family Saga: An Analytic Reading. Cambridge, Mass. 1967.

  Andersson, Theodore M. and Miller, William Ian. Law and Literature in Medieval Iceland: Ljósvetntnga saga and Valla-Ljótssaga. Stanford 1989.

  The Book of Settlements (Landndmabok). Trans. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Winnipeg 1972.

  Bragger, A. W. and Shetelig, H. The Viking Ships. Oslo 1951.

  Byock, Jesse L. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. Berkeley 1982.

  —. Medieval Iceland; Society, Sagas, and Power. Berkeley 1988.

  Clover, Carol J. The Medieval Saga. Ithaca, NY 1982.

  — and Lindow, John (ed.). Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. Islandica XLV. Ithaca, NY 1985.

  CluniesRoss, Margaret. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society. Vol. I: The Myths. Vol. II: The Reception of Norse Myths in Medieval Iceland. Odense, Denmark 1994, 1998.

  Ellis Davidson, H. R. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Harmondsworth 1964.

  Foote, Peter and Wilson, D. M. The Viking Achievement. Revised edn. London 1980.

  Frank, Roberta. The Old N
orse Court Poetry Dróttkvatt Stanza. Islandica XLII. Ithaca, NY 1978.

  Gade, Kari Ellen. The Structure of Old Norse Dróttkvatt Poetry. Islandica IL. Ithaca, NY 1995.

  Graham Campbell, James. The Viking World. London 1980.

  Hallberg, Peter. The Icelandic Saga. Trans. Paul Schach. Lincoln, Neb. 1962.

  Hastrup, Kirsten. Culture and History in Medieval Iceland. Oxford 1985.

  Ingstad, Helge. Westward to Vinland: The Discovery of Pre-Columbian Norse House-sites in North America. Trans. Erik J. Friis. New York 1969.

  Íslendingabók (The Book of the Icelanders). Trans. Halldór Hermannson. Ithaca, NY 1930.

  Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age, Rochester, NY 1991; Woodbridge, England 1992.

  Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, NY 1995.

  —. Old Norse Images of Women. Philadelphia 1996.

  Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd edn. Oxford 1984.

  Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature. 2nd edn. London 1908; rpt. New York 1957

  Kristjánsson, Jónas. Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature. Trans. Peter Foote. Reykjavik 1992.

  Kunz, Keneva. Retellers of Tales: An Evaluation of English Translations of Laxdala Saga. Reykjavik 1994.

  The Laws of Early Iceland: Grágás, The Codex Regius of Grdgds with Material from Other Manuscripts, I. Trans. Andrew Dennis, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins. Winnipeg 1980.

  Lönnroth, Lars. Njdls Saga: A Critical Introduction. Berkeley 1976.

  Madelung, Margaret A. The Laxdala Saga: Its Structural Patterns. Chapel Hill, NC 1972.

  Meulengracht Sorensen, Preben. Saga and Society: An Introduction to Old Norse Literature. Trans. John Tucker. Odense, Denmark 1993.

  —. The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society. Trans. Joan Turville-Petre. Odense 1983.

  Miller, William Ian. Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland. Chicago 1990.

  Nordal, Sigurdur. Icelandic Culture. Trans. Vilhjálmur T. Bjarnar. Ithaca, NY 1990.

  Ólason, Vésteinn. Dialogues with the Viking Age: Narration and Representation in the Sagas of Icelanders. Trans. Andrew Wawn. Reykjavik 1997.

  Pálsson, Hermann. Art and Ethics in Hrafrkel’s Saga. Copenhagen 1971.

  The Poetic Edda. Trans. Carolyne Larrington. Oxford 1996.

  Pulsiano, Phillip and Wolf, Kirsten, et al. (eds.). Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York 1993.

  Sawyer, Birgit and Peter. Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800–1500. Minneapolis 1993.

  Schach, Paul. Icelandic Sagas. Boston 1984.

  Sigurdsson, Gísli. The Gaelic Influence in Iceland: Historical and Literary Contacts. Reykjavik 1988.

  Steblin-Kamenskij, M. I. The Saga Mind. Trans. Kenneth H. Ober. Odense 1973.

  Strayer, Joseph R. (editor-in-chief). Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York 1982–8.

  Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Trans. Anthony Faulkes. London 1987.

  —. Heimskringla. Trans. Samuel Laing, revised Jacqueline Simpson and Peter Foote. 3 vols. London 1961–4.

  —. Heimskringla. Trans. Lee M. Hollander. Austin, Tex. 1964.

  Sveinsson, Einar Olafur. The Age of the Sturlungs: Icelandic Civilization in the Thirteenth Century. Trans. Jóhann S. Hannesson. Islandica XXXVI. Ithaca, NY 1953.

  —. Njdls Saga: A Literary Masterpiece. Ed. and trans. Paul Schach. Lincoln, Neb. 1971.

  Tucker, John (ed.). Sagas of the Icelanders. New York 1989.

  Turville-Petre, E. O. G. Origins of Icelandic Literature. Oxford 1953.

  —. Myth and Religion of the North. London 1964.

  —. Scaldic Poetry. Oxford 1976.

  A Note on the Texts

  The sagas and tales in this book are reprinted from The Complete Sagas of Icelanders I–V, published 1997 by Leifur Eiríksson Publishing, Iceland, with minor alterations. This was the first complete edition of the forty sagas of Icelanders in English, and included forty-nine tales. All the material was translated specifically for the edition, with the exception of three sagas that were adapted to the general editorial policy. Robert Kellogg’s introduction has been expanded to reflect more closely the thematic framework of the present volume.

  Örnólfur Thorsson chose the sagas and tales and supervised this volume, provided material for prefaces to individual sagas and compiled the explanatory material accompanying each. Gisli Sigurdsson wrote the preface to the Vinland Sagas and produced material for the Vinland maps. Bernard Scudder contributed to the prefaces and reworked all the explanatory material into the final English versions. Robert Kellogg and Robert Cook also read all the prefaces and made invaluable suggestions. Jean-Pierre Biard designed the maps. Örnólfur Thorsson and Viðar Hreinsson produced the Index of Characters.

  The Reference section comes from Vol. V of The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, but in a slightly altered form here.

  THEMES AND CLASSIFICATION – A REPRESENTATIVE SELECTION

  All the Sagas of Icelanders, also known as the Family Sagas, share certain characteristics of form and content, but they can be classified into several closer groupings. Three sets of criteria are generally used to classify them: time of writing and textual considerations; historical and geographical setting; and literary considerations (in particular theme and point of view). The present selection includes texts from most periods in the ‘Age of Writing’, but its chief aim is to show the diversity of good literature within the family saga canon, and it contains representatives of all main literary types, set in virtually all the known Viking world.

  Many sagas in this selection begin with a prelude in Norway and trace the arrival of a particular family as settlers in a particular part of Iceland. Sometimes Norway supplies more than distant noble roots for the main characters – in Gisli Sursson’s Saga, for example, Gisli displays the blind obedience to the revenge ethic which will send him into exile in Iceland too, and in Egil’s Saga the first third of the action takes place in Norway, launching the running feud with the royal family there. The main focus of most sagas, however, is the third and fourth generation after the settlement. Although the Sagas of Icelanders as a whole span virtually all the Viking Age from the second half of the ninth century to the middle of the eleventh, most deal in the greatest detail with 975 to 1025. By this time the political and legal structure of the Commonwealth was firmly in place, so that the dominant theme of the conflict between individual and society has a clear frame of reference. Perhaps even more significantly, the fulcrum of these fifty years is the adoption of Christianity in 1000, when a new system of values and ethics replaced the ancient Viking code of personal honour, and also when the seeds of a new, centralized power structure were sown. The maturing society of farmers would become increasingly intolerant of the heroic individualism on whose vision and ideals it was originally founded. The friction between public law without executive power and men of action driven by personal motivation is crucial to the plots of most sagas.

  A basic distinction can be established according to whether the point of view of the saga is the individual or society.

  Biographical sagas concentrate on an individual and his conflicts and relationships either with other individuals (seen in the sagas of poets and warriors such as Egil or Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue) or with society as a whole (in the sagas of outlaws such as Gisli Sursson). Since outlaws live on the fringes of society, we often see in them elements of a supernatural world which contrasts with the typical saga realism, although it is generally described with the same objective nonchalance. Significantly, we also see elements of fantasy on the fringes of the known geographical world in Greenland, both in the otherwise realistic Vinland Sagas and in the fantastical Saga of

  SAGAS FROM GREENLAND AND VINLAND

  Eirik the Red’s Saga

  The Saga of the Greenlanders

  The Tale of the Greenlanders

  POETS AND WARRIORS

  Egil’s Saga

 
; Kormak’s Saga

  The Saga of Hallfred the

  Troublesome Poet

  The Saga of Bjorn, Champion

  of the Hitardal People

  The Saga of Gunnlaug

  Serpent-tongue

  The Saga of the Sworn Brothers

  Killer-Glum’s Saga

  Viglund’s Saga

  OUTLAWS

  Gisli Sursson’s Saga

  The Saga of Grettir the Strong

  The Saga of Hord and the People

  of Holm

  CHAMPIONS

  Bard’s Saga

  The Saga of Finnbogi the Mighty

  The Saga of the People of

  Kjalarnes

  The Saga of Thord Menace

  The Saga of the People of Floi

  The Saga of Ref the Sly

  Gold-Thorir’s Saga

  The Saga of Gunnar, the Fool of