The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250) PDF
Preview The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250)
Islandica A Series in Icelandic and Norse Studies Cornell University Library patrick j. stevens, managing editor volume lv Ee The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250) THEODORE M. ANDERSSON The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250) E e Theodore M. Andersson islandica lv cornell university library ithaca, new york 2012 Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University Library All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. First published 2012 by Cornell University Library Printed in the United States of America Design and composition: Jack Donner, BookType A complete version of this book is available through open access at http://cip.cornell.edu/Islandica ISBN: 978–0–935995–14–5 Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface vii Abbreviations ix chapter 1: The Oral Prelude to Saga Writing 1 chapter 2: The Prehistory of the Kings’ Sagas 35 chapter 3: The First Written Sagas of Kings and Chieftains 45 chapter 4: Sources and Attitudes in Óláfs saga helga 83 in Heimskringla chapter 5: Political Subtexts in Morkinskinna, 119 Heimskringla III, and Egils saga chapter 6: Domestic Politics in Northern Iceland 143 chapter 7: Warrior Poets in the Northwest 171 Epilogue 189 Notes 197 Sources for the Present Volume 213 Bibliography 215 Preface The present volume assembles several papers from the last ten to fi fteen years in slightly corrected and updated form and combined in such a way as to argue a general thesis. Chapters 1–5 substantially reproduce previously published papers (listed before the Bibliography); chapters 6–7 are new, though based on earlier work. To some extent the last fi ve chapters make an attempt to work out the chronology of the early sagas. A number of these have traditionally been dated in the middle or toward the end of the thirteenth century, but I argue that some are appreciably earlier. Part of the project is therefore to establish what the repertory of early sagas is likely to have been. The larger project is an experiment in literary history at the time when the fi rst sagas came into being. Readers will inevitably fi nd the detailed exposition of the texts under study somewhat trying, but it is necessary for the purpose of establishing the textual interplay and the historical framework. The general argument is that these sagas, without being explicitly ideological, nonetheless interact with one another on political and literary matters. Relations between Iceland and Norway were particularly troubled in the period 1215–1220, and this seems to have been the time frame in which saga writing fi rst blossomed, with the appearance of the most distin- guished kings’ sagas and the fi rst notable sagas about Saga Age Iceland. It seems inevitable that the political tensions must have carried over into the nascent writing of the period; the Icelanders were surely concerned with the status of their own polity and its connections abroad, most especially its relationship to the mother country. After some introductory consideration of the antecedent oral traditions, the Icelandic perceptions of self and others become the subject of chapters 3–5. They outline how a prefatory cultivation of royal panegyric yielded viii Preface to a more searching and critical account of the Norwegian kings. In due course this critical posture affected the composition of native sagas, in which international antipathies are replaced by regional rivalries within Iceland. Chapter 6 explores a few relevant cases in the area of Eyjafjörður. But the literature was not long constrained by local antagonisms, and chapter 7 illustrates how saga writing soon freed itself from political concerns and embraced more personal and social issues. Taken together, the chapters try to illuminate how the earliest sagas evolved into the narratives that modern readers still fi nd so remarkable. My fi rst acknowledgment goes to the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen in Norway for three most agreeable spring seasons in 2006, 2007, and 2008. I am much beholden to Sverre Bagge and Else Mundal for their very warm welcome at the Centre and to all the colleagues in residence for much stimulation. They kept my interest in Norse-Icelandic matters alive for a decade after I retired from Indiana University. I am also greatly indebted to the staff of the Stanford University Library, especially to Mary-Louise Munill for her instantaneous provision of interlibrary loan books and to Eric Heath and his colleagues, who suffered and solved the most arcane questions. Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Patrick J. Stevens and the staff of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, for a month of generous hospitality and a cornucopia of Icelandic journals and books from the riches of the Fiske Collection. T.M.A. Menlo Park, CA December, 2011
Description:The list of books you might like
