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'Pagan Survivals' in the Samtíðarsögur

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'Pagan Survivals' in the Samtíðarsögur RÉGIS BOYER PAGANISM AND LITERATURE: THE SO-CALLED 'PAGAN SURVIVALS' IN THE SAMTÍÐARSÖGUR SINCE the general theme of this Conference deals with The Sagas and Medieval Icelandic Society', the precise subject I have chosen to develop here may seem puzzling at first view: one is not obliged to see immediately the link between Medieval Icelandic Society, its re- flection or embodiment or direct translation into the saga world, and the pagan survivals such as they appear in the samtíðarsögur. Before investigating the matter more accurately, and elucidating the puzzle, I have to explain why I chose, and limited my researches to the samúðarsögur, here below understood as the whole Sturlunga Saga and most of the Biskupa Sögur.1 According to the classification proposed by Sigurður Nordal in Nordisk Kultur VIII B (1953), the difference be- tween the samtíðarsögur and all other sorts of sagas comes from the distance in time which separates the presumed author of the work and the facts, more or Iess historical, that he relates. In the case of the ís- lendingasögur or family sagas, this distance is usually three or more centuries (two and a half at the very least). In the samtíðarsögur, this distance is often much less significant, and in some cases, such as Sturla Þórðarson's íslendinga Saga, it is non-existent since here the author is also one of the personalities in the saga. On the other hand, the purpose of the authors of the samtiðarsögur is visibly to write history, in the meaning the word had in the Middle Ages, that is a kind of chronicle of the events they had themselves experienced or learnt about from reliable witnesses. It follows that the image of society given by the samtíðar- sögur has every chance of being far closer to reality than that which we find in all other kinds of sagas. Also, it seems highly probable that a 1 The references will be to: Biskupa Sögur. Guðni lónsson bjó til prentunar. Reykjavík, 1953. 4 vol.; Sturlunga Saga. lón lóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason, Kristján Eldjárn. Reykjavík, 1946. 2 vol. All the sagas will be quoted by their tities and number of chapter in these editions. 136 GRIPLA good number of samtíðarsögur must have been written earlier than other sorts of sagas. These later sagas, if we consider the nature of the saga itself—a subject I shall not touch here—are more likely to be sub- mitted to a kind of literary convention which, so to speak, controls the way the texts were written, but one may presume that this literacy is not so great or deep in the samtíðarsögur as elsewhere. I mean that they could be more faithful to reality; also they may well have been used as models for many íslendingasögur, which then probably re- fined the devices and techniques used in the former. Finally, it is more difficult to accuse them of trying to project present situations into the past, a reproach which may be brought upon many an ís- lendingasaga, not to speak of fornaldarsögur and the like. In fact, this paper would like to make an attempt at studying one important feature of Icelandic medieval society, that is to say, its relig- ious attitudes such as expressed in the samtíðarsögur and, more pre- cisely, to raise the problem of the 'Pagan Revival' (la Renaissance pa'i- enne) in XlIIth century Iceland, since many a scholar—for instance F. Paasche2 — has used this expression. In the XlIIth century, Iceland has been christianized for more than two centuries. Has the victory of the Church over old Northern paganism been complete? And in that case, why and how has this pagan revival been possible, or more ex- actly, how genuine is this revival? Before studying the pagan survivals in the samtíðarsögur, however, two things are necessary: we have first to make certain obvious reserva- tions about the way a new type of culture and civilization can both rein- state and eradicate an older one: and then, to define the principles according to which the study of the phenomenon will be conducted. 1) As for the reservations to be made it should be born in mind that there are a certain number of immemorial structures (dealing in general with the fundamental organization of the society, the 'Weltan- schauung' and ethics) which can survive for centuries or more, inde- pendently of the superficial culture adopted by a country. As Mircea Eliade points out: 2 F. Paasche: Norges og Islands Litteratur, 2nd ed., 1957, pp. 398 ssqq. PAGANISM AND LITERATURE 137 It is true that most of the rural populations of Europe have been christian- ized for more than a millenary. But they have succeeded in integrating into their christianity a great part of their pre-christian heritage of an immemor- ial antiquity. It would be inaccurate to believe that, for this reason, the peasants of Europe are not Christians. / . / When they accepted Christ- ianity, the European peasants integrated into their new faith the cosmic religion they had preserved since Prehistory.3 If these basic structures are either inoffensive or neutral, or may easily be adopted (adapted) by the new religion, they are obviously of mini- mum significance or interest to us. The present study will, accordingly, deal only with the 'offensive' apparatus of Northern paganism. Moreover, since all the Icelandic medieval texts which interest us now were composed some two or three centuries after the christianization of the country, and composed either by clerics or by authors who had received a partly clerical education, we must not expect to find pagan features directly or openly; these texts ask for a 'second reading', and it is on the so to speak 'unconscious' level that they may be interesting. To give an example, when, in Islendinga Saga, chapter 55, Aron Hjörleifs- son, having just killed Rögnvaldr, takes his weapons and clothes and throws his corpse into the sea far from the coast, we may suppose that there is here a survival of an ancient custom of burying in the wilder- ness, under stones (kasa, færa í urð) or of casting into the sea the bodies of ill-doers, sorcerers and the like. But in fact, the practice may just as well be Christian and represent a refusal to bury a villain in the soil of Christian Iceland! Let us first observe that most of the 'pagan survivals' appear in the kenningar of the vísur included in the samtíðarsögur, or in artistic ob- jects such as discovered by archaeologists.4 As E. Ó. Sveinsson most rightly says, 'if Northern paganism seems to be still alive in the XlIIth century, it is in first place because of the scalds'.5 In this respect, these traces must be relevant to a kind of literary convention and we should be right in suspecting them of being devoid of living meaning. Accordingly, they should be treated with caution. It is also important to keep in mind the way the Church worked, in 3 Le Sacré et le Profane, Paris, 1965, p. 138. 4 See instances in K. Eldjárn: Kuml og haugfé, Reykjavík, 1956. 5 Um íslenzkar þjóðsógur, Reykjavík, 1940, p. 66. 138 GRIPLA the North as elsewhere, in fighting against paganism.6 The Church acted in four different directions: a) it accepted such features or be- liefs which did not in any way contradict its own teachings (for in- stance, belief in the existence of another world, a tenet common both to Northern paganism and to Christianity); b) it adapted those features which could easily be christianized, as for example some of the major festivals, jól becoming similar to Christmas, or such rites as ausa barn vatni, supposing this last one to be actually anterior to, and different from Christian baptism; c) it tried to devaluate features and beliefs which appeared to present a threat to Christian doctrine. Certain be- liefs in the Nordic gods may be included in this category, and one is justified in seeing a Christian intention behind eddic poems such as Lokasenna and Hárbarðsljóð, where gods are more or less ridiculized; and d) it openly struggled against features and beliefs which it could not accept, human sacrifices for instance, or the exposure of new-born children, and apparently, it succeeded in this work of eradication. It is, for example, most surprising to discover that there is no mention at all in the samtíðarsögur either of these practices, or of those fea- tures known to us through the íslendingasögur, such as hólmganga, fóstbrœðralag (I mean here, the ceremony itself), and, what is still more surprising, seiðr. Anyhow, it remains clear that in our present discussion only points c) and d) above are of importance to us. 2) Now for the principles: I should like to try to show that the so- called pagan revival in Iceland is the result of foreign and literary in- fluences, which came to Iceland through the institution of the Church, which acted here either directly, or as an intermediary. I would also like to show that there is a kind of displacement of time (décalage) or deliberate attempt to fuse past and present by including archaic ele- ments in the texts. And, finally, that the pagan features which may appear in the samtíðarsögur have, not unfrequently, an origin which is not local: they could have been borrowed from foreign sources and adapted to local taste. This paper being a study in method, I shall not try directly, or at 6 See H. Delehaye: Les légendes hagiographiques, Bruxelles, 3é éd. 1927, Chapitre VI. PAGANISM AND LITERATURE 139 least only in passing, to venture upon historical evidence.
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