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Á Austrvega Saga and East Scandinavia Papers from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences 14 Á austrvega Saga and East Scandinavia Preprint papers of The 14 th International Saga Conference Uppsala, 9 th –15 th August 2009 Volume 2 Edited by Agneta Ney, Henrik Williams and Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist in cooperation with Marco Bianchi, Maja Bäckvall, Lennart Elmevik, Anne-Sofie Gräslund, Heimir Pálsson, Lasse Mårtensson, Olof Sundqvist, Daniel Sävborg and Per Vikstrand http://www.saga.nordiska.uu.se Gävle: Gävle University Press, 2009 These preprint volumes, and the conference itself, has been made possible by very generous grants from the following sponsors: Swedish Research Council The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Samfundet Sverige-Island Sven och Dagmar Saléns stiftelse Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur Ortnamnssällskapet i Uppsala Uppsala kommun Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala The conference is hosted by and arranged through: Department of Scandinavian Languages at Uppsala University University of Gävle Institute for Language and Folklore Isländska sällskapet The logotype of The 14 th International Saga Conference on the cover and titlepage is derived from a detail in the pictoral scene of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani on the runic rock at Ramsund in the province of Södermanland, Sweden. Drawing: © Arkeobild. ISSN: 1653-7130. ISBN: 978-91-978329-0-8. © 2009, Contributors http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-4837 Layout: Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist. Printed in Sweden by Universitetstryckeriet, Uppsala, 2009. Brenna at Ups Älum : the Denial of Cosmos. Giovanna Salvucci, Università di Macerata, Italy Snorri Sturluson’s Ynglingasaga enumerates the kings who, from a mythological past, suc- ceeded one another up to the reign of R Ägnvaldr, father of Hálfdan svarti, the first “historic” Norwegian king who has a saga named after him in Heimskringla . In his prologue to Heimskringla , Snorri states that his sources were poetic genealogies, skaldic poems and the testimony of Ari fróði and his own sources, i.e. what he has been told by wise old people. Snorri seems to emphasize these sources because they contain, in particu- lar, information about the deaths of the kings they deal with. His comment on the lay of Þjóðólfr about King R Ägnvaldr, the Ynglingatal , is actually the following: ‘ Í því kvæði eru 1 nefndir xxx. langfeðga hans ok sagt frá dauða hvers þeira ok legstað ’ ( Yngs 1, ll. 12–14) Moreover, he stresses the same quality of the lay of Eyvindr skáldaspillir, the Háleygjatal , that enumerates the ancestors of the jarl Hákon: ‘sagt er þar ok frá dauða hvers þeira ok haugstað ’ ( Yngs 1, ll. 18–19) 2 One of the most peculiar deaths reported by Snorri in Ynglingasaga is certainly the death of Ingjaldr ønundarson who, surrounded by his enemies while he is at a feast in Ræning, sets the hall on fire, thus killing himself along with his daughter Ása and all his people. Together with Ynglingatal , among the sources available to Snorri to trace the history of the crucial period revolving around Ingjaldr ønundarson there probably was Historia Norvegiæ, according to which Ingjaldr committed suicide because he was abnormally terrified by King Ívarr: Post istum filius suus Ingialdr in regem sublimatur, qui ultra modum timens Ivarum cognomine withfadm regem tunc temporis multis formidabilem se ipsum cum omni comitatu suo cenaculo inclusos igne cremavit. (Historia Norvegiæ 101, l. 10–102, ll. 1–3) 3 Ynglingatal does not account for Ingjaldr’s fear, but it reports his suicide as being considered a remarkable deed: Ok Ingjald / ífj Ärvan trað / reyks r Äsuðr / á Ræningi, / þás húsþjófr / hyrjar leistum / goðkynning í g Ägnum sté. Ok sá yrðr / allri þjóðu / sanng Ärvastr / með Svíum þótti, / es hann sjalfr / sínu fj Ärvi / frœknu fyrstr / of fara skyldi. ( Yngs 30, ll. 15–22) 4 Both sources appear to say that after Ingjardr’s death, his son Óláfr trételgja continued to rule in Sweden. Historia Norwegiae writes that he reigned long and peacefully and died full of days in Sweden, while his son Hálfdan was accepted by the Norwegians as their king and died at an advanced age: 1 Trans. Hollander (3): ‘In this lay are mentioned thirty of his forebears, together with an account of how each of them died and where they are buried.’ 2 Trans. Hollander (3): ‘And in it also we are told about the death of each of them and where his burial mound is.’ 3 Trans. Kunin (13): ‘In succession to him his son Ingjaldr was elevated to the kingship. He had immoderate fear of a King Ivarr, called víðfaðmi, who terrified many people at the time, so with all his retinue he shut himself up in his feasting-hall and set it on fire.’ For a survey of Snorri’s sources see Whaley 1991:63–82. 4 Trans. Hollander (43): ‘Raging fire / at Rœning farm / trod Ingjald / while in this life, / when by stealth / in stocking feet / it fell on / the friend-of-gods; / and this fate / most fitting seemed / to all Swedes / for scion of kings: / to die first / in fiery death, / and end first / his own brave life.’ 832 Ejus filius Olavus cognomento tretelgia diu et pacifice functus regno plenus dierum obiit in Swethia. Olavus genuit Halfdanum cognomine hwitbein, quem de Swethia venientem Nor- wegenses in montanis sibi regem constituerunt; hic provectus ætate in provincia Thotne reddidit spiritum. (Historia Norvegiæ 102, ll. 3–9) 5 On the contrary Ynglingatal reports that Óláfr trételgja died in a fire, and it mentions that he had left Uppsala long before: Ok við vág, / hinns viðar[…] / hræ Áleifs / Älgylðir svalg, / ok glóðfjálgr / g Ärvar leysti / sonr Fornjóts / af Svía j Äfri. / Sá áttkonr / frá Ups Älum / Lofða kyns / fyrir l Ängu hvarf. (Yngs 31, ll. 23–27) 6 In the context of Snorri’s tale, the story of Ingjaldr ønundarson and Óláfr trételgja takes on a broader and symbolic meaning, and it is a possible clue to the ideologic and cultural basis which Snorri provided for his history of the Norwegian kings. Indeed, Snorri clearly states that it was because of Ingjaldr’s deeds and after his celebrated death that the dominion of Uppsala fell from the Yngling line: ‘Eptir Ingjald illráða hvarf Upsala-veldi ór ætt Ynglinga þat er langfeðgum mætti telja.’ ( Yngs 30 , ll. 27–29) 7 King Ingjaldr seems to represent a point of focus for Snorri, because after listing his 24 predecessors, of whom we are briefly told about the causes of their death, he devotes eight chapters to him ( Yngls 34–41). Contrary to all the other kings in the Ynglingasaga then, Snorri begins to tell of Ingjaldr’s infancy: once a very feeble child, after having been fed the heart of a wolf by his foster-father, he turned into the most violent of men: Annan dag eptir lét Svipdagr taka hjarta ór vargi ok steikja á teine, ok gaf síðan Ingjaldi konungssyni at eta, ok þaðan af varð hann allra manna grimmastr ok verst skaplundaðr. ( Yngls 26, ll. 6–9) 8 Through no fault of his own then, Ingjaldr assumes the main characteristic of the wolf, namely that of being útangarðs (out of the fence), i.e. out of the area of the social order. 9 Ing- jaldr becomes a creature enrolled by the forces of chaos, and in chapter 36 he begins his fight against the cosmos. He significantly starts by building a hall in Uppsala in order to give a fu- neral banquet in honour of his father. Snorri relates that his banqueting hall was very similar to the one already present in Uppsala, and that it was equipped with seven high-seats for the seven district kings invited, only six of whom showed up. The construction ex-novo of a ban- queting hall and the dramatic events that will take place there are not an unknown motif: the same fact can be found in the Celtic tale Fled Bricrenn (the feast of Bricriu), where the trick- ster Bricriu had built a hall, identical to the one of Tara, “which was doomed to reveal itself as the place of discord and profanation” (Poli 1985: 85 et passim ). In Germanic culture as well as 5 Trans. Kunin (13–14): ‘His son Óláfr, with the nickname ‘Tree-feller’, ruled the kingdom long and peacefully and died full of days in Sweden. Óláfr was the father of Hálfdan, with the nickname ‘Whiteleg’, whom the Nor- wegians of the mountainous region accepted as king when he came from Sweden. He gave up the ghost at an advanced age in the district of Þótn.’ 6 Trans. Hollander (45): ‘By bay bight / the building-wolf / swallowed up / Óláf’s body. / Fornjót’s son / with flaming heat / smelted off / the Swede king’s mail. / That ruler / of royal race / long before / had left Uppsalir.’ 7 Trans. Hollander (44): ‘With Ingjald the Wicked the race of the Ynglings lost their power over the domain of Uppsala, so far as one can follow the line.’ 8 Trans. Hollander (45): ‘The day after, Svipdag had the heart cut out of a wolf and had it steaked on a spit, and then gave it to Ingjald, the king’s son, to eat. And from that time he became the most cruel and most ill-natured of men.’ 9 See Chiesa Isnardi 1991: 578–582; Poli 1990, passim ; Hastrup 1985: 105–154, Meulengracht Sørensen 1993: 140–142. 833 in the Indo-European world, the banqueting hall seems to represent the civilized site, the har- mony of the universe, the sacral area where everyone occupies a seat according to one’s rank and function (Poli 1990: 597–608; Hastrup 1985: 105–154).
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