SAGA-BOOK VOL. XXXIII VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2009 VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH OFFICERS 2008– 2009 President Heather O'Donoghue, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil., University of Oxford. Hon. Secretaries ALISON FINLAY, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil. Birkbeck, University of London, Malet St, London WC1E 7HX. Matthew Townend, M.A., D.Phil., University of York. Hon. Treasurer David Reid, B.A., University College London. Hon. Assistant Secretary Christopher Abram, M.A., Ph.D., University College London. Saga-Book Editors ALISON FINLAY, B.A., B.Phil., D.Phil., Birkbeck, University of London. Christina Lee, M.A., Ph.D., University of Nottingham. John McKinnell, M.A., Durham University. Carl Phelpstead, B.A., M.Phil., D.Phil., Cardiff University. ISSN: 0305-9219 Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS GYLFAGINNING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CONVERSION THEORY. Christopher Abram ................................................................... 5 MANSLAUGHTER AND MYSOGYNY: WOMEN AND REVENGE IN STURLUNGA SAGA. David Clark ......................................................................... 25 CONTEXTUALISING LEIÐARVÍSIR: SANT’ AGNESE, THE CATACOMBS, THE PANTHEON AND THE TIBER. Tommaso Marani ............................... 44 A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND. Derek Mathers 67 ALAN LAWRIE BINNS .......................................................................... 95 REVIEWS CORPUS OF ANGLO-SAXON STONE SCULPTURE. VIII: WESTERN YORKSHIRE. By Elizabeth Coatsworth. (John Hines) ................................................ 99 THE NORTHERN CONQUEST: VIKINGS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By Katherine Holman. (Martin Arnold) .............................................................. 101 LES MAGICIENS DANS L’ISLANDE ANCIENNE. ÉTUDES SUR LA REPRÉSENTATION DE LA MAGIE ISLANDAISE ET DE SES AGENTS DANS LES SOURCES LITTÉRAIRES NORROISES. By François-Xavier Dillmann. (Margaret Cormack) ......................................................................................... 103 WHEN THE NORNS HAVE SPOKEN: TIME AND FATE IN GERMANIC PAGANISM. By Anthony Winterbourne. (Richard North) ................................... 105 HOLY VIKINGS: SAINTS’ LIVES IN THE OLD ICELANDIC KINGS’ SAGAS. By Carl Phelpstead. (Rory McTurk) .......................................................... 108 THE LOST VELLUM KRINGLA. By Jon Gunnar Jørgensen. Translated by Siân Grønlie. (Elizabeth Ashman Rowe) ................................... 112 EGILS SAGA SKALLAGRÍMSSONAR. BIND III. C-REDAKTIONEN. Edited by Michael Chesnutt. (Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir) ....................... 114 SNORRI STURLUSON AND THE EDDA. THE CONVERSION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL IN MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA. By Kevin J. Wanner. (Patricia Pires Boulhosa) ........................................................................................ 117 ÞÚ ERT VÍSUST KVENNA. BEATRICE LA FARGE ZUM 60. GEBURTSTAG. Edited by Klaus von See and Julia Zernack. (Lena Rohrbach) ............ 120 THE VIKING WORLD. Edited by STEFAN BRINK in collaboration with NEIL PRICE. (R. Andrew McDonald) ............................................. 122 ALTNORDISCHE PHILOLOGIE. NORWEGEN UND ISLAND. Edited by Odd Einar Haugen. Translated by Astrid van Nahl. (Marvin Taylor) ......... 124 Gylfaginning and Early Medieval Conversion Theory 5 GYLFAGINNING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL CONVERSION THEORY BY CHRISTOPHER ABRAM University College London NORRA EDDA’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS PAGAN RELIGION, and Sits possible antecedents in medieval Christian thought, have been the subject of much debate. For the most part, these discussions have centred on the Prologue to Snorra Edda, although Gylfaginning and the early parts of what is now referred to as Skáldskaparmál (the ‘mytho- logical’ sections of the Edda) are undoubtedly also relevant to them. The focus of this discussion has been located in Snorri’s distance from and degree of belief in pagan traditions:1 while some scholars have seen in Snorra Edda vestiges of genuine, and vital, pagan traditions (von See 1988, 120) or evidence of ongoing syncretism between the two religions in the culture of thirteenth-century Iceland (Kuhn 1971, II 378–86), most critics, following Walter Baetke (1952) and Anne Holtsmark (1964), have come to accept that Snorra Edda’s version of Norse mythology has been substantially recast according to contemporary Christian codes (Böldl 2000, 74–76; Lindow 1985, 36–39). According to Gerd Wolfgang Weber, for example, Snorri’s mythography was in full agreement with orthodox Christian theories such as euhemerism, natural religion, necro- mancy, idolatry and demonology (Weber 1986, 312), with demonology providing the most important conceptual framework for his treatment of pagan gods. According to demonological theory, Satan and his demons deceived people into regarding them as gods; Hár, Jafnhár and Þriði— the hypostases of Óðinn who attempt to deceive Gylfi into accepting themselves as deities—can be read as demons as well as euhemerised historical figures (Weber 1986, 318). Weber’s case is perhaps weakened by the fact that Snorri, in marked contrast to many Christian authors, never reveals the demonic identity of his pagan protagonists; whereas his euhemerising strategies are clearly apparent in the Prologue, Gylfa- ginning and Skáldskaparmál (and in Ynglinga saga, if we take that work 1 Throughout this article, I shall use the name Snorri as a convenient short-hand for the author of Snorra Edda in its conventional form. While I am happy to accept the attribution of the whole of the Edda (and Ynglinga saga) to the historical Snorri Sturluson, this attribution is not important to my arguments here. 6 Saga-Book into account alongside the Edda), a demonological interpretation of paganism is never made explicit in his work. Anne Heinrichs (1994, 56) notes that Snorri includes far fewer demonological elements in his work on paganism than the near-contemporary authors of the so-called ‘Conversion þættir’. While he seeks to understand and explain the old religion, he stead- fastly refuses to condemn it (Faulkes 1983; Wanner 2008, 154–55). But Snorri is interested in the religious status of the pagan myths and poems that his treatise preserves. And while he does not condemn his ancestors for their paganism, nor is he able to approve of it. Near the beginning of Skáldskaparmál (as the work is currently reconstructed),2 the author addresses an audience of ‘young poets’ directly. He reminds them forcefully that stories of the type that Gylfaginning contains— what we might well call pagan myths—are to be enjoyed only for learning and enjoyment’s sake: En þetta er nú at segja ungum skáldum þeim er girnask at nema mál skáldskapar ok heyja sér orðfj†lða með fornum heitum eða girnask þeir at kunna skilja þat er huldit er kveðit: þá skili hann þessa bók til fróðleiks ok skemtunar. En ekki er at gleyma eða ósanna svá þessar s†gur at taka ór skáldskapinum fornar kenningar þær er h†fuðskáld hafa sér líka látit. En eigi skulu kristnir menn trúa á heiðin goð ok eigi á sannyndi þessar sagnar annan veg en svá sem hér finnsk í upphafi bókar er sagt er frá atburðum þeim er mannfólkit viltisk frá réttri trú, ok þá næst frá Tyrkjum, hvernig Asiamenn þeir er Æsir eru kallaðir f†lsuðu frásagnir þær frá þeim tídindum er gerðusk í Troju til þess at landfólkit skyldi trúa þá guð vera. (Skskp, I 5/25–35) But these things have now to be told to young poets who desire to learn the language of poetry and to furnish themselves with a wide vocabulary using traditional terms; or else they desire to be able to understand what is expressed obliquely. Then let such a one take this book as scholarly enquiry and enter- tainment. But these stories are not to be consigned into oblivion or demonstrated 2 There is some doubt as to where the boundary between Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál lies in medieval manuscripts of Snorra Edda. In Codex Uppsaliensis (U), the only codex which consistently provides rubrics giving titles for each section, the ‘advice to young poets’ passage occurs after Gylfaginning, but before the beginning of what the manuscript names as Skáldskaparmál. It occurs on folio 19r, under the heading her segir hverso skilja skal skalldskap ‘here it is discussed how poetry is to be understood’. The two parts are clearly separated by several folios of interpolated material and a full-page illustration. In older editions of Snorra Edda, the ‘advice to young poets’ was often counted part of the so-called Bragaræður, the exchange of mythological information that takes place outside of Gylfaginning’s frame-narrative and which belongs properly nei- ther to that text or to Skáldskaparmál, but provides a bridge between the two (Wessén 1940). It is no longer usual to observe this distinction. On the contents of these manuscripts, see Nordal 2001, 44–57. Gylfaginning and Early Medieval Conversion Theory 7 to be false, so as to deprive poetry of ancient kennings which major poets have been happy to use. Yet Christian people must not believe in heathen gods, nor in the truth of this account in any other way than that in which it is presented at the beginning of this book, where it is told what happened when mankind went astray from the true faith, and after that about the Turks, how the people of Asia, known as Æsir, distorted the accounts of the events that took place in Troy so that the people of the country would believe that they were gods. (Translations from Snorra Edda 1987.) The ‘beginning of this book’ presumably refers back to Gylfaginning and the Prologue, in which the descent