James Alan Cochrane Phd Thesis Submitted to University College London Bright Dreams and Bitter Experiences: Dreams in Six Sagas
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JAMES ALAN COCHRANE PHD THESIS SUBMITTED TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2004 BRIGHT DREAMS AND BITTER EXPERIENCES: DREAMS IN SIX SAGAS OF ICELANDERS 1 UMI Number: U591693 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U591693 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing discussion of dreams in the Islendingasogur. Most previous scholarship on this subject has dealt with one of the following: either attempted to identify a scheme to explain the origin of saga dreams (e.g. identifying influence from European dream-book theory on saga dreams), or attempted to explain the saga dreams using what can be referred to as the “matching approach”, that is taking specific elements from the dream and seeking to understand their relevance to the rest of the text. My thesis hangs upon the following two hypotheses: 1. saga dreams are essentially inconsistent in their nature and therefore saga readers were required to bring to bear a variety of interpretative techniques when seeking to understand them, and 2. saga dreams use complex and multi-layered symbolism. The imagination of the medieval saga readership allowed and even expected dream-symbolism to operate on a number of levels and for dream-symbols to have a number of referents elsewhere in the text. In order to test these hypotheses, I have reviewed all of the dreams in all of the Islendingasogur, but chosen six particular texts to seek to understand how these authors used dreams. These texts are as follows: Droplaugarsona saga Njals saga Laxdoela saga Viga-Glums saga Gisla saga Surssonar Hardar saga I have devoted a chapter to each of these six sagas. For each dream I have written a ‘context’ that allows the dream to be understood. I have then presented a text of the dream alongside an English translation. Following this I have written a short commentary dealing with some of the textual problems in the passage, identifying the role of the dream and seeking to understand the way in which the medieval reader would have understood it, suggesting loans, analogues and analogies elsewhere in Norse literature. 2 Table of Contents Index of tables 5 Acknowledgements 6 Chapter I: Introduction 7 1.1 Foreword 7 I.ii Scope of survey 9 I.iii Practicalities 11 I.iv Previous criticism 13 Chapter II. The dreams of Droplaugarsona saga 19 11.1 Introduction 19 ILii Helgi’s dream of wolves 20 ILiii Conclusion 38 Chapter III. The dreams of Njals saga 39 IILi Introduction 39 IILii Hgskuldr’s dream of the bear 42 IILiii Gunnarr’s wolf dream 48 IH.iv Kolskeggr’s dream of the shining man 56 III.v Flosi’s dream of Jarngrimr 62 III. vi Yngvildr’ s dream of her son’s red clothes 81 IH.vii Earl Gilli and the battle 86 III.viii Conclusion 90 Chapter IV: The dreams of Laxdcela saga 91 IV.i Introduction 91 IV.ii Olafr pai’s dream of the ox’s mother 93 IV.iii Gudrun’s four dreams of her future husbands 101 IV.iv An hrfsmagi’s dreams 121 IV.v f>orkell Eyjolfsson’s beard dream 128 IV.vi Herdis Bolladottir’s dream of the sibyl 134 IV.vii Conclusion 140 Chapter V: The dreams of Gisla saga Surssonar 141 V.i Introduction 141 V.ii Gisli’s dreams of the wolf and the viper 145 V.iii Gisli’s dreams of the women and the fires 152 3 V.iv Gisli’s first dreams of the bad dream-woman 172 V.v Gisli’s dream of the good dream-woman on horseback and the well furnished hall 177 V.vi Gisli’s further dreams of the bad dream-woman and the impending battle 184 V.vii Gisli’s final dream of the fighting birds 198 V.viii Conclusion 204 Chapter VI: The dreams of Viga-Glums saga 205 VLi Introduction 205 VI.ii Glumr’s dream of the huge woman 207 Vl.iii Glumr’s dreams of the whetstone and women 215 Vl.iv Glumr’s dream of his ancestors and Freyr 224 VI.v Conclusion 227 Chapter VII: The dreams of Hardar saga 228 VILi Introduction 228 VILii Signy’s two dreams of trees 230 VILiii borbjgrg’s dream of wolves 243 VILiv Conclusion 248 Chapter VIII: Conclusion Appendix I. The etymology of the word draumr 253 Appendix II. The number and distribution of dreams in the Islendingasogur 255 Bibliography 259 4 Index of Tables The men named by Jamgrimr in Flosi’s dream 69 GuQrun’s dreams and their fulfilment in the saga 107 Gisli ’ s dreams of the dream-women 159 List of sagas 257 5 Acknowledgements I have been greatly assisted in the production of this work by the provision of a grant for three years from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, for which I am very grateful. I would like to thank both my tutors Professor Richard Perkins and Dr Richard North for all their help, support and exacting standards. Inevitably any errors are entirely my own. In addition I would like to thank Daisy Neijmann for additional language support, Christopher Saunders and the Ordbog over det norrone prosasprog for providing advanced drafts of part of the forthcoming volume and to Bemadine McCreesh who also made available forthcoming material. I am grateful to my former tutors at Leeds for inspiring me to achieve in this rewarding area and to members of Ordhenglar past and present, in particular Peter Foote and Alison Finlay who have both offered encouragement and wisdom in equal measure. Thank you to my family for love and support. Most of all, thanks to my wife, without whose encouragement this project would not have been started and without whose love it could never have been finished. Jamie Cochrane, September 2004 6 I.i Introduction: Foreword Chapter I: Introduction I.i Foreword This thesis is a contribution to the ongoing discussion of dreams in the Islendingasogur. Most previous scholarship has dealt with one the following: either attempted to identify a scheme to explain the origin of saga dreams (e.g. identifying influence from European dream-book theory on saga dreams), or attempted to explain the saga dreams using what can be referred to as the “matching approach”, that is taking specific elements from the dream and seeking to understand their relevance to the rest of the text. My thesis hangs upon the following two hypotheses: 1. saga dreams are essentially inconsistent in their nature and therefore saga readers were required to bring to bear a variety of interpretive techniques when seeking to understand them, and 2. saga dreams use complex and multi-layered symbolism. The imagination of the medieval saga readership allowed and even expected dream-symbolism to operate on a number of levels and for dream-symbols to have a number of referents elsewhere in the text. In order to test these hypotheses, I have reviewed all of the dreams in all of the Islendingasogur, but chosen six particular texts to seek to understand how these authors used dreams. These texts are as follows: Droplaugarsona saga Njals saga Laxdcela saga Vlga-Glums saga Glsla saga Hardar saga I have devoted a chapter to each of these six sagas. For each dream I have written a ‘context’ that allows the dream to be understood. I have then presented a text of the dream alongside an English translation. Following this I have written a short commentary dealing with some of the textual problems in the passage, identifying the role of the dream and seeking to understand the way in which the medieval reader would have understood it, suggesting loans, analogues and analogies elsewhere in Norse literature. 7 I.i Introduction: Foreword My approach is intentionally different from all previous scholars working in this area (see below). I am not seeking to describe a viking way of dreaming, nor am I seeking to suggest a single source from which saga literature received its rich tapestry of saga dreams. My method is to seek to explore saga dreams through a series of examples, working from the minutiae of understanding a single saga, towards gaining a greater knowledge of the medieval saga reader’s understanding of dreams. I hope that each of my chapters, focussed on a particular saga, may contribute in some small way to the overall understanding of that text. However, these are not six individual studies, but chapters of an ongoing discussion. Accordingly I have kept the introduction of this thesis to a minimum, and reserved the argument, both general and specific, for the discussions of the dreams. 8 I.ii Introduction: Scope o f survey I.ii Scope of survey I have limited my discussion to the six texts listed above. The selection of these texts has been made according to the extent to which they fulfil the following criteria: 1. The saga has literary importance to the canon. 2. The dreams in the saga are a good illustration of a particular type of saga dream. 3. The dreams have a particular literary significance or interest for the saga reader.