Leszek P. Słupecki. Scripta Islandica 65/2014

Comments on Sirpa Aalto’s Paper

LESZEK P. SŁUPECKI

Sirpa Aalto begins her paper with the question of whether Jómsvíkinga saga belongs to medieval historiography at all, to which she answers yes. This is true — but perhaps she should stress more strongly that Jómsvíkinga saga undoubtedly belongs to the written sources for medieval history. As such, it is of course first and foremost (as Aalto stresses) a source for the time when it was written and not for the time when the legendary Jómsvíkings were believed be real historical figures. Information about the time of the Jómsvíkings (but not about the Jómsvíkings themselves as they belong to the world of legend!) is to be carefully extracted and interpreted first and foremost from other sources, but that was notthe aim of Aalto’s paper. However, information about the circumstances in which the saga was created can help us to understand its background and — finally — say something new (although not very much) about the real history of the time in which the narration of the saga is placed — the time of the Jómsvíkings. Aalto rightly notes — as does the existing secondary literature — that Jómsvíkinga saga has some features typical of both Kings’ sagas and forn aldarsögur, but that it seems to be especially close to Orkneyinga saga and Færeyinga saga. What those three sagas seem to have in common is an aristocratic, yet anti-royal flavour. So those three sagas form a group of, what we might call, anti-royal Kings’ sagas; this may sound like a paradox, but it is quite true. How far such a tendency was already present in the supposed sources of Jómsvíkinga saga, such as *Skjöldunga saga or *Hlaðajarla saga, is difficult to say, as both are so-called lost sagas; it is, of course, dangerous to explain ignotum per ignotum. What seems to be very important here, however, is Aalto’s question: for which Icelandic family was Jómsvíkinga saga (or rather the story of the Jómsvíkings) so important, that they (probably) sponsored the writing of the saga. If such an assumption is correct (and I believe it is!), there arises another question,

Słupecki, Leszek P. 2014. Comments on Sirpa Aalto’s Paper. Scripta Islandica 65: 59–61. 60 Leszek P. Słupecki namely, how to identify such a family. The simplest way is to check who in Iceland claims family relations to some of the people believed to have belonged to the brotherhood of Jómsvíkings (Jómsborg story is a legend, but the characters described there are not totally fictitious persons, as has been proved elsewhere (Słupecki 2006: 911–12; Morawiec 2009: 96–112)). The focus of the story is in Jóm (as skaldic poetry calls it) but in the text of the saga it is already called the more modern-sounding Jómsborg! For the Old Icelandic author of the saga the place seems to be rather remote. But it is important to remember that from Wolin to Sjælland there is a distance short enough to cross in one day by boat! And generally the southern coast of the Baltic Sea was not very distant from Scandinavia, especially at the time of the Danish King Valdemar the Great (who conquered Arcona), when Jómsvíkinga saga was possibly written down — but the situation was not very different at the times of King Magnus who burned down Wolin and King Haraldr Gormsson who escaped to Wolin to save himself when he was defeated by his son Sven (but unfortunately died there shortly afterwards). Of course, to place the scene of this adventure story outside of Scandinavia (in Russia, Bjarmaland and so on) is a common trope in fornaldarsögur. But there is something else important to stress here — when events in sagas were located on the southern (“Polish” or “Pomeranian”) coast of the Baltic, they were almost always located in Jómsborg. In that way Jómsborg is the standard, most important and in fact almost the only location from that area mentioned in sagas. Heroic ideal is obviously very important for the narration of the saga and Aalto correctly states that at the time of its writing such an ethos appears in other sources too (Vederlov is perhaps the earliest but not the only example, another could be Hirðskrá, based on Hirðlög, a more distinct model could here be Königsspiegel). The rules of knightly orders are also worth mentioning as a possible model — Aalto did of course do this. It seems that in order to understand the intellectual European trends that eventually influence the way in which Jómsvíkinga saga was written, it is also important to explore more contemporary Latin sources. The sources used in Aalto’s investigation are in fact limited to Old Norse material. As Icelanders at that time were always open to the outer world it may be fruitful (although not easy) to make the field of comparisons and the search for models a little bit broader. Comments on Sirpa Aalto’s Paper 61 Bibliography Słupecki, L.P., 2006: Facts and Fancy in Jómsvíkinga saga. In: The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature. Sagas and the British Isles. The 13th Inter national Saga Conference. Vol. 2. Ed. by J. McKinnnell, D. Ashurst & D. Kick. Durham. Pp. 906–15. Morawiec, J., 2009: Vikings among the Slavs. Jomsborg and Jomsvikings in Old Norse Tradition. (Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia 17.) Wien. SCRIPTA ISLANDICA

ISLÄNDSKA SÄLLSKAPETS ÅRSBOK 65/2014

REDIGERAD AV LASSE MÅRTENSSON OCH VETURLIÐI ÓSKARSSON

GÄSTREDAKTÖRER JONATHAN ADAMS ALEXANDRA PETRULEVICH HENRIK WILLIAMS

under medverkan av Pernille Hermann (Århus) Else Mundal (Bergen) Guðrún Nordal (Reykjavík) Heimir Pálsson (Uppsala)

UPPSALA, SVERIGE Publicerad med stöd från Vetenskapsrådet.

Preface...... 5 Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir & Veturliði Óskarsson, The Manu scripts of Jómsvíkinga Saga: A Survey...... 9

Workshop Articles Sirpa Aalto, Jómsvíkinga Saga as a Part of Old Norse Historiog raphy...... 33 Leszek P. Słupecki, Comments on Sirpa Aalto’s Paper ...... 59 Alison Finlay, Jómsvíkinga Saga and Genre...... 63 Judith Jesch, Jómsvíkinga Sǫgur and Jómsvíkinga Drápur: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts...... 81 Daniel Sävborg, Búi the Dragon: Some Intertexts of Jómsvíkinga Saga...... 101 Alison Finlay, Comments on Daniel Sävborg’s Paper...... 119 Jakub Morawiec, Danish Kings and the Foundation of Jómsborg. . 125 Władysław Duczko, Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin) in the Norse Context of the Southern Coast of the Baltic Sea...... 143 Michael Lerche Nielsen, Runic Inscriptions Reflecting Linguistic Contacts between West Slav Lands and Southern Scandinavia. . 153 Henrik Williams, Comments on Michael Lerche Nielsen’s Paper . . 173 Jürgen Udolph, On the Etymology of Jómsborg...... 183 Alexandra Petrulevich, Comments on Jürgen Udolph’s Paper. . . 211 Marie Novotná & Jiří Starý, Rendering Old Norse Nouns and Names in Translation into West-Slavic Languages...... 213

Isländska sällskapet Agneta Ney & Marco Bianchi, Berättelse om verksamheten under 2013...... 237