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On the Origins of Þórðar Saga Kakala

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On the Origins of Þórðar Saga Kakala On the origins of Þórðar saga kakala A thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Icelandic By Daniel Martin White Department of Scandinavian Studies University College London November 2020 2 Daniel Martin White Declaration I, Daniel Martin White, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. November 2020 On the origins of Þórðar saga kakala 3 Abstract This thesis focuses on the origins of Þórðar saga kakala. Chapter 1 reviews scholarship on the lost original version of Þórðar saga kakala (*Þórðar saga kakala hin mikla). By testing previous arguments and suppositions, it concludes that: *Þórðar saga kakala hin mikla was a “biography” of the adult life (c. 1233-56) of Þórður kakali Sighvatsson (c. 1210-56); it was written during the 1270s in the Western Quarter of Iceland; and Svarthöfði Dufgusson (c. 1218-c. 86) may have been its author. It also identifies a gap in previous research of Þórðar saga kakala’s earliest history: there has been no satisfactory attempt to establish its contemporary significance. The thesis attempts to remedy this over the following two chapters. In chapter 2, a literary- analytic approach is applied to *Þórðar saga kakala hin mikla. This literary analysis takes into account the formal elements of the extant text and reconstructed lost original, as well as what we know about the worldview of the audience. Chapter 2 constitutes the point of departure for chapter 3: an historical analysis of *Þórðar saga kakala hin mikla. After theorising about the telos of the biographical contemporary saga subgenre in general, *Þórðar saga kakala hin mikla is turned to in particular by considering the product of the literary analysis in chapter 2 within a 1270s political context. The conclusion drawn is that the saga can sensibly be considered as a work of propaganda to support Hrafn Oddsson in his power struggle with Þorvarður Þórarinsson 4 Daniel Martin White during the period 1273-9. Chapter 3 then evaluates the ways in which Þórðar saga kakala concords with what we know and can infer about Hrafn’s political stances to appraise and bolster this interpretation of the text. On the origins of Þórðar saga kakala 5 Impact statement In general terms, this thesis is the first ever systematic and lengthy study of Þórðar saga kakala. Scholars, students, and others interested in this saga will find it useful. The specific utility of the thesis is its comprehensive perspective on Þórðar saga kakala’s origins. This is of particular worth to historians seeking to evaluate and cite the text as a primary source. It also provides a basis for future debate on the literary dimension of the ostensibly historical Þórðar saga kakala. This is important as the contemporary sagas have only recently begun to be approached from an aesthetic, rather than merely historiographic, perspective. Beyond the topic-centric products underscored above, the thesis makes further, and broader, significant and original contributions to research. Methodologically, the thesis deploys and demonstrates the efficacy of several novel approaches, such as stylometry. Still further, the thesis pragmatically combines tried and tested methods in revivifying and transdisciplinarily integrative ways. For instance, the synthesis of formalist and new historicist approaches in chapter 2 – based on a pragmatic dismissal of the theoretical conflict of the two – accords with and complements the understanding of human cognition presented by scientific disciplines. 6 Daniel Martin White At a disciplinary level, this thesis works to rehabilitate the aims of traditional Philology, whilst remaining mindful of the limitations of the stemmatic method in textual criticism, as well as the methodological and theoretical contributions of New Philology to the study of Old Icelandic texts. This kind of “metaxic” Philology is of significance going forward due to its concordance with an ongoing turn in Literary Studies: scholars of pre-Modern literature are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of integrating lost texts into literary history. The thesis’ research and analysis will be circulated via a number of peer-reviewed articles. Additionally, alongside the author’s recent publication of an edition and translation of Þórðar saga kakala, the thesis is another step towards the aim of producing the first academically rigorous biography of Þórður kakali Sighvatsson. On the origins of Þórðar saga kakala 7 Acknowledgments In Icelandic, liðveisla denotes both ‘help’ and ‘support’. I owe a debt of gratitude to my liðveislumenn, and dedicate this thesis to each and every one of them. My thanks go out to my supervisors. Haki Antonsson, my primary supervisor, sparked my interest in Þórður kakali Sighvatsson’s life and saga when he casually mentioned Þórður’s gestasveit during our first supervision back in the Autumn term of 2017. Haki’s guidance and support in our subsequent supervisions was critical to the successful completion of the doctorate. Erin Goeres, my subsidiary supervisor, allowed me to audit her Advanced Old Norse class in the first year of my PhD. The opportunity to study Old Norse alongside the 2017 class of undergraduates in Scandinavian Studies was highly educational; I do not believe I have met undergraduates studying elsewhere in Great Britain who have a better grounding in the diachronics of the North Germanic languages. I would like to thank my examiners. Mart Kuldkepp and Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, the panelists of my viva voce, gave me a positive experience and enjoyable conversation. Beyond providing corrections to better this thesis in the final version, their joint examination report will be of great assistance when I come to prepare the thesis for publication. I would also like to acknowledge my upgrade examiners, Richard North and Alison Finlay, who both provided 8 Daniel Martin White valuable feedback at my upgrade viva. Their comments were of much help when I came to redraft and edit my thesis for initial submission. I must thank the institutions that made funding this research possible. During my first year, whilst I was tutoring to support myself, the Sir John Plumb Charitable Trust awarded a generous grant to fund part of my research. From my second year onwards, the salary from my full-time employment with Buckinghamshire Council provided me with a means to live comfortably and continue my research. For the opportunities to disseminate my research in written and oral forms during the PhD, I give thanks to the editorial teams at punctum books (especially Vincent van Gerven Oei) and the Delos journal, as well as the organisers and audiences of: the Medieval Scandinavian Seminar; the Society for Comparative Cultural Inquiry; the Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Seminar; and the Cambridge, Oxford and London Symposium in Old Norse, Old English and Latin. I ought also to thank the Viking Society for Northern Research for their invitations to various events – for example, the Flateyjarbók launch party at Den Norske Klub and the Embassy of Iceland in London – which were valuable occasions for networking with colleagues from across the UK and the World. In terms of reproduced content, I need to thank two individuals for their gracious permission to reproduce material from their works in the section on stylometric localisation in chapter 1 of this thesis. The first is Tam Blaxter for providing me with a high-resolution image of the consensus tree from her paper on the stylistic geography of the Íslendingasögur. Because of this, I On the origins of Þórðar saga kakala 9 was able to include this for illustrative purposes and commentary. The second is Matthew Jockers, whose publisher kindly provided me with a free license to incorporate a modified version of Jockers’ authorship attribution R code.1 Finally, I thank my family and friends for their love and support these past three-and-a-bit years. In respect of encouragement, an honourable mention goes out to Dad, whom not only attended a talk on the poetics of Þórðar saga kakala that I gave at UCL in 2019, but also went as far as to join me on a roadtrip around Iceland in 2018 despite his ill-health. In terms of aid, I would like to express my gratitude in particular to Mum, whom graciously provided me with bed and board in the eyewateringly expensive outer fringe of London back at the start of my PhD. This was critical to the success of this project as it gave me the space and time to formulate a plan for funding my research and establishing myself in the South without the added pressure of needing to worry about keeping the fridge full and the lights on. 1 This content is reprinted and adapted by permission from Springer Nature Customer Service Centre GmbH: Springer International Publishing, Series: Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Science, Text Analysis with R for Students of Literature, Matthew L. Jockers, Copyright 2014. 10 Daniel Martin White Table of contents Frontmatter Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Impact statement 5 Acknowledgments 7 Table of contents 10 A note on spelling 15 Introduction 16 I.1 – Historical background, c. 1220-80 17 I.1.1 – The Age of the Sturlungar, c. 1220-64 18 I.1.2 – The establishment of a new order, 1264-80 23 I.1.3 – Þórður kakali Sighvatsson, c. 1210-1256 27 I.2 – Þórðar saga kakala: Preliminaries 30 I.2.1 – The form and genre of Þórðar saga kakala 30 I.2.2 – The contents of Þórðar saga kakala 32
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