The Icelandic Sagas

Sir William A. Craigie

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781839746413
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

IN this brief outline of an extensive subject I have endeavoured to explain clearly not only what the Icelandic sagas are, but how it happened that they arose in a place so remote from the rest of Europe...The special reasons which explain it are fully stated in the first chapter,...the central Germanic area is not strongly represented; it is on the outmost borders, in Iceland, England, and southern Germany, that literary activity of a high order first manifests itself. This would appear to suggest that the Germanic race was first enabled to create original literature of a permanent character when it had come into contact with, or even had largely mixed with, other races, and had received the impulse of new experiences. Thus the more central peoples of the Germanic stock—the southern Scandinavians, the Frisians, the Saxons, and the Lower Franks—have either little or nothing in the way of early literature to set beside the poetry and prose of the extreme north, west, and south. However this may be, the cultivation of a great poetic and prose literature in Iceland is remarkable enough, and becomes more notable when the period to which it belongs is considered. The poetry, so far as preserved, dates from about or before 900, and is very copious for the centuries that follow. The prose literature begins about 1120, and is at its highest level in the thirteenth century, at a time when there was practically no writing of prose either in England or in Germany. The comparative isolation of Iceland enabled it to take its own course, and to preserve, in its own language and with its own literary style, the records of its own past and of other countries as well.

CHAPTER I — THE ORIGIN OF THE SAGAS

THE general title of Icelandic Sagas is used to denote a very extensive body of prose literature written in Iceland, and in the language of that country, at various dates between the middle of the twelfth century and the beginning of the fifteenth; the end of the period, however, is less clearly marked than the banning. The common feature of the works classed under this name, which, vary greatly in length, value, and interest, is that they have the outward form of historical or biographical narratives; but the matter is often purely fictitious, and in many cases fact and fiction are inseparably blended. Both in the form and in the matter there is much that is conventional, and many features of style and content are quite peculiar to the special Icelandic mode of story-telling.

The word saga (of which the plural is sögur) literally means ‘something said,’ and was in use long before there was any written literature in Iceland. From an early period it had been a custom, which in course of time became an accomplishment and an art, to put together in a connected form the exploits of some notable mail or the record of some memorable event, and to relate the story thus composed as a means of entertainment and instruction. It was out of these oral narratives, augmented and elaborated during the course of several centuries, that the written saga finally arose; but before entering into any account of how this came to pass it will be well to explain why Iceland, of all the Scandinavian countries, became the home of this form of literature. For this purpose it is necessary to take a brief survey of the history of that island, and of its relations with the lands lying nearest to it.

Iceland was colonized, mainly from Norway, and almost entirely by settlers of Norwegian origin, during the half-century or so following upon the year 874 A.D. As late as the middle of the ninth century, Norway was still a country of small kingdoms, each independent of the other, and having distinctive names. Even within these petty kingdoms the power of the kings was far from absolute, and many earls and chiefs were men of as much importance and influence as some of those who bore the royal name. The Viking period, with its constant expeditions to foreign lands in search of plunder, fostered the spirit of independence by enriching the bolder spirits of the community, and made them less inclined than ever to brook interference from, those of higher rank. With the second half of the century an important change took place. Harald the Fair-haired, whose paternal kingdom was limited to a small district in the east of Norway, began at an early age to extend his domain by conquest. According to the story given in the saga of Harald, his desire of dominion was mainly due to the words of a girl, who refused to consider his wooing of her so long as he was only king over a few small districts; “and I think it strange,” she said, “that there is no king who will try to make Norway his own, as Gorm has done in Denmark, and Eirík at Uppsala.” When these words were reported to Harald, he declared himself grateful for them, and made a vow never to cut or comb his hair, until he had made himself master of the whole of Norway. The following years, from 865 onwards, witnessed the rapid fulfilment of this resolve, culminating in the great sea-fight at Hafrsfirth on the west coast of Norway, in the year 872. After this battle, says his saga, King Harald met with no further resistance. His greatest opponents had either fallen, or fled from the country; and the latter were sufficiently numerous to colonize several new districts, such as Jamtaland and Helsingland (in modern Sweden), and even new-found lands like the Faeroes and Iceland. There was also much emigration to Shetland; and many powerful men who were outlawed by Harald took to ‘western viking.’ They lived in the Orkneys or the Hebrides in the winter, while in the summer they plundered in Norway, and did much damage there.

The tendency to make the British Isles their chief resort, on the part of those who could not or would not remain in Norway after Harald’s triumph, was greatly checked by the discovery of Iceland. As soon as the existence of this extensive island (larger even than Ireland) became generally known, and some idea had been gained of what it could offer to the settler, one or two of the bolder spirits were not long in seizing the opportunity which thus presented itself. The land was to be had for the taking, for the only inhabitants were a few Celtic monks who had wandered there in quest of solitude and who left again when the new settlers came; and the long sea-voyage did not deter men to whom the sea had become almost a second home. The first settlement, that of Ingólf, appears to have taken place in 874, and for the next fifty or sixty years a steady stream of colonists, coming either directly from Norway or from the Norwegian settlements in Britain, poured into the island, until every valley round its deeply indented coast had been occupied So great was the emigration from Norway that King Harald became alarmed, and tried to lessen it by imposing a tax on every one who went out to Iceland. Thanks to the deep and unbroken interest in genealogy and history among subsequent generations of Icelanders, a very full record of the details of the colonization has been preserved, and is to be found in the compilation known as Landnáma-bók, while the broader outlines are carefully stated in the still earlier Íslendinga-bók of Ari the Learned. From these two works, as well as from many of the sagas, the names and much of the history of all the leading settlers are known; and it is thus possible to understand clearly both their relations with their old home and the manner in which they adapted themselves to their new one.

Not a few of these settlers belonged to old and famous families in Norway, and some of them were closely connected with kings and earls there, or in other Scandinavian countries. When these removed to Iceland, they were accompanied by many of their adherents and dependents, and asserted for themselves in the new land the leading place they had held in the old. To such settlers it was a source of pride to recall and recount the names and exploits of the famous men to whom they were related; and an immense quantity of old lore, reaching back into early prehistoric times, was thus carried out to Iceland, and preserved there after it had been forgotten in the place of its origin. Not a few of these men had also seen much of other lands before they went to end their days in Iceland. Some had played an active part as vikings—to them an honourable as well as profitable occupation—and had plundered in the Baltic lands, or in the British Isles, or even further south. Others had seen the manners and men of foreign countries in the more peaceful capacity of traders, and as such had frequented not only foreign towns but even the courts of foreign kings, as Ohthere and Wulfstan did that of King Alfred. Others again, as we have already seen, had been actually settled for some time in the Scottish islands, or in Ireland, and had intermarried with the Gaelic peoples there. Some of these were men and women of great distinction, and played a prominent part in the early history of Iceland, though their number was smaller than has sometimes been supposed; at the very most only one in every six of the leading settlers came from ‘west the sea.’ Many of these colonists brought with them thralls belonging to other countries, some of whom were almost immediately set free and established in homes of their own, thus helping towards a mixture of race which can be clearly observed at the present day. In all this there was much matter worthy of being remembered, and the origin and adventures of such men formed themes of great interest both for their own descendants and for ethers.

As might be expected, the occupation of a new land by this crowd of strong-willed men, already taught by experience how to hold their own against others, did not always take place in a peaceful manner. There were some who recognized no right as prior to their own, and did not hesitate to make their own strong arm the law. Quarrels readily arose over small matters, and northern ideas as to the duty of revenge often converted these differences into prolonged and bitter family feuds with violent and tragic endings. Out of these many conflicts between persons and families there grew fresh matter for tradition, and in each district the memory of notable men and their deeds of courage or mischief was long and carefully preserved. This preservation was greatly assisted by a strong bent towards the art of story-telling, which often led to the incidents being narrated in good set form by one or other of the parties concerned, while they were still new and capable of being verified The story thus told was then carefully learned by others, and handed on with all its details, in a way that would have been impossible with any looser or less formal style of tradition. The accuracy of the narrative was; often further secured by another factor—the Icelandic fondness for poetry. In many cases the events had been the cause or theme of single verses or of poems, whether composed by actors in the affair or by others, and these not only served to adorn the tale, but could be cited to prove the facts. In another line of tradition, as will presently be seen, such verses and poems were of even greater value.

Although isolated by their position in a remote Island of the Atlantic, the Icelanders did not allow themselves to become a secluded people, with no interest in the lands beyond the sea and no knowledge of their affairs. For several generations close relations were maintained not only with their original home in Norway, but also with Sweden, Denmark, and the British Isles. Apart from the risks involved in crossing the wide stretch of ocean, risks which were reduced as far as possible by sailing only in summer, there was no difficulty in keeping up an intimate connexion with these countries. The Icelander, in fact, had exceptional qualifications for doing so. He spoke a language which at the beginning of the eleventh century was still in use over the whole of Scandinavia and in part of Russia, which had also extended its range to the north and west of Scotland, to the north and east of England, to the chief sea-ports in Ireland, and even to the greater part of Normandy. Over the whole of this great area, with its complex nationalities, its varied culture, and rapidly changing history, the Icelander could range with little difficulty, and converse with men of his own tongue. If he were still more adventurous, he could make his way down the great Russian rivers and so reach the court of the Byzantine Emperor, whose bodyguard he would find composed of men of his own race and speech. Many Icelanders did avail themselves of these opportunities, and everywhere met with the most encouraging reception. Their reputation in general stood very high, either as good and faithful fighting-men, honest and enterprising merchants, or skilful poets and story-tellers. In Scandinavia and the British Isles they were usually welcome at the courts of kings and earls, and many of them obtained high positions of trust under these, or received from them special marks of favour or esteem.

These exceptional opportunities of acquiring information about foreign lands were not neglected. The Icelander who went abroad, and sooner or later returned home, brought back with him a well-filled budget of instructive or entertaining matter, which he soon communicated to eager ears and retentive memories. The information thus gained might have quickly spread from man to man by means of ordinary intercourse, but its diffusion was further assisted in no small degree by special circumstances. Within a short time after the settlement began, local assemblies (called things) had grown up in various parts of the island, and formed regular meeting-places for all the men of the district Later on, in the year 930, a general assembly for the whole country (the Althingi) was established, and met every year in the tenth week of summer for the transaction of legislative and legal business. The local gatherings were also regulated, and were held annually in spring and autumn. Both the smaller and the greater assemblies formed natural centres for the exchange of the latest news, Icelandic and foreign, and the opportunities they afforded were fully taken advantage of. Those who had an interest in such matters took care to learn all they could from the newly returned voyagers, and by doing so year after year gradually acquired a store of knowledge relating to the history of the neighbouring countries and their great men. This they put together in the best form they could; and the narrative as told by them was learned by others, and so handed on to later times. It is to these instinctive historians, whose diligence in collecting the facts was equalled by their power of remembering and skill in recounting them, that we owe practically all our knowledge of Scandinavian history prior to the twelfth century, together with much that throws light on the early history of the British Isles.

This branch of historical tradition also gained immensely in fulness and accuracy by the existence of a large body of poetry which was closely connected with it This partly consisted of single verses called forth by particular incidents, as in the case of the purely Icelandic traditions already mentioned, but also included a large number of shorter or longer poems, in which the exploits of some king or earl were celebrated From an early period it had been a regular practice among the poets in Norway to recommend themselves to the notice of some noble patron by a poem of this kind, and many poets enjoyed the special favour of the great man to whom they attached themselves. In the second half of the tenth century the art of poetry began to decline in Norway itself, and thenceforward, with few exceptions, it was by Icelanders only that the profession of skáld was followed. For the young Icelander, going abroad for the first time, one of the surest ways to attract attention, and lay the foundations of his fortune, was to have his poem ready when he arrived at the residence of the king or earl whom he visited, and obtain permission to recite it as soon as possible. This first poem was necessarily based upon information which he had collected in Iceland, but hid subsequent work often recorded only what he had seen with his own eyes, as he followed his liege-lord by sea and land and took part in his battles. The number of such poets during the tenth and eleventh centuries was very great, and their poems were naturally still more numerous. Their importance as historical evidence is strongly emphasized by the great Icelandic historian, Snorri Sturluson, in the prologue to his Heimskringla, written about 1225. “There were skalds with Harald (the Fairhaired),” he says, “and men still know their poems, and the poems about all the kings who have since ruled in Norway. And we take our statements most of all from what is said in those poems which were recited before the rulers themselves or their sons. We accept as true all that is found in these about their exploits or battles. It is certainly the custom of poets to praise most highly the person they are addressing, but no one would have dared to recite to the man himself exploits which he and all the hearers knew to be false and feigned; that would have been mockery and not praise.” Although the poems thus referred to by Snorri mainly relate to Norwegian kings, many of the events recounted in them bore upon the history of the other Scandinavian countries and the British Isles. Moreover, there were also Icelandic poets who made their way to Sweden and Denmark, to the Orkneys, to Ireland, and even to the English court, and composed poems in which they recounted the exploits of the kings and earls whom they found there. These poems, no less than the others, were in due time carried back to Iceland, and helped to maintain and increase a knowledge of the affairs of these countries. The total number of such poems known and repeated in Iceland during the eleventh and twelfth centuries must have been very great It is recorded of one man, Stúf the Blind, who was himself a poet that he could recite more than thirty long encomia (called drápur) and as many shorter ones (flokkar); this was about the year 1060.

Out of all these materials there gradually grew up in Iceland a rich body of genuine historical tradition, beginning fro...