SAGA-BOOK VOL. XXVII VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 2003 ISSN: 0305-9219 Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter CONTENTS TROUBLESOME CHILDREN IN THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS. Ármann Jakobsson ......................................................................................... 5 LOF EN EIGI HÁÐ? THE RIDDLE OF GRETTIS SAGA VERSE 14. Russell Poole ................................................................................................ 25 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YORK VIKING POETRY? MEMORY, TRADITION AND THE TRANSMISSION OF SKALDIC VERSE. Matthew Townend ............... 48 HERMANN PÁLSSON .............................................................................. 91 REVIEWS ORDBOG OVER DET NORRØNE PROSASPROG. A DICTIONARY OF OLD NORSE PROSE. 2: BANDA. Edited by James E. Knirk, Helle Degnbol, Bent Chr. Jacobsen, Eva Rode, Christopher Sanders, Þorbjörg Helga- dóttir; ONP 12: NØGLE // KEY. (Ian McDougall) ............................. 94 NORSKE DIPLOM 13011310. Edited by Erik Simensen. (Else Mundal) 98 RUNES AND GERMANIC LINGUISTICS. By Elmer H. Antonsen. (Michael Barnes) ............................................................................................. 100 CORPUS OF ANGLO-SAXON STONE SCULPTURE. VI: NORTHERN YORKSHIRE. By James Lang. (James Graham-Campbell) ....................................... 104 HISTORIA NORWEGIE. Edited by Inger Ekrem and Lars Boje Mortensen. Translated by Peter Fisher. (Carl Phelpstead) .............................. 105 SKRIFT OG HISTORIE HOS ORDERIK VITALIS. HISTORIOGRAFI SOM UDTRYK FOR 1100-TALETSRENÆSSENCE I NORMANNISK OG NORDISK SKRIFTKULTUR. By Pernille Hermann. (Elisabeth van Houts) ................................... 109 STAÐUR Í NÝJUM HEIMI: KONUNGASAGAN MORKINSKINNA. By Ármann Jakobsson. (Alison Finlay) ............................................................... 110 ST BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN. By Bridget Morris. (Katrina Attwood) .............. 112 THE NORSEMEN IN THE VIKING AGE. By Eric Christiansen. (Jayne Carroll) 114 BISKUPA SÖGUR III: ÁRNA SAGA BISKUPS, LÁRENTÍUS SAGA BISKUPS, SÖGUÞÁTTUR JÓNS HALLDÓRSSONAR BISKUPS, BISKUPA ÆTTIR. Edited by Guðrún Ása Grímsdóttir. (Kirsten Wolf) ................................................. 118 SÖGUGERÐ LANDNÁMABÓKAR: UM ÍSLENSKA SAGNARITUN Á 12. OG 13. ÖLD. By Sveinbjörn Rafnsson. (Siân Grønlie) .......................................... 120 THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF ICELAND: PRIESTS, POWER, AND SOCIAL CHANGE 1000 1300. By Orri Vésteinsson. (Helgi Skúli Kjartansson) ............. 123 SHIPS AND MEN IN THE LATE VIKING AGE: THE VOCABULARY OF RUNIC INSCRIP- TIONS AND SKALDIC VERSE. By Judith Jesch. (Matthew Townend) .. 125 THE MATTER OF THE NORTH: THE RISE OF LITERARY FICTION IN THIRTEENTH- CENTURY ICELAND. By Torfi H. Tulinius. Translated by Randi C. Eldevik. (Rory McTurk) ............................................................... 126 THE POETIC EDDA: ESSAYS ON OLD NORSE MYTHOLOGY. Edited by Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington. (Rory McTurk) ................................... 129 LAWS OF EARLY ICELAND: GRÁGÁS. THE CODEX REGIUS OF GRÁGÁS WITH MATE- RIAL FROM OTHER MANUSCRIPTS. Translated and edited by Andrew Dennis, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins. Volume II. (Chris Callow) .............................................................................................. 133 THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. Translated by Magnus Magnusson. (Carolyne Larrington) ........................................................................................ 135 ICELANDIC HISTORIES AND ROMANCES. Translated and introduced by Ralph OConnor. (Martin Arnold) ................................................. 137 GRETTIS SAGA: DIE SAGA VON GRETTIR DEM STARKEN. Edited and translated by Hubert Seelow; SAGAS AUS OSTISLAND: DIE HRAFNKELS SAGA UND ANDERE GESCHICHTEN VON MACHT UND FEHDE. Edited and translated by Dirk Huth; ISLÄNDISCHE MÄRCHENSAGAS. BAND I: DIE SAGA VON ALI FLEKK, DIE SAGA VON VILMUND VIDUTAN, DIE SAGA VON KÖNIG FLORES UND SEINEN SÖHNEN, DIE SAGA VON REMUND DEM KAISERSOHN, DIE SAGA VON SIGURD THÖGLI, DIE SAGA VON DAMUSTI. Edited by Jürg Glauser and Gert Kreutzer. Translated by Jürg Glauser, Gert Kreutzer and Herbert Wäckerlin. (Marvin Taylor) ............................................... 139 PÍSLARSAGA SÉRA JÓNS MAGNÚSSONAR. Edited by Matthías Viðar Sæ- mundsson. (Ruth C. Ellison) ..................................................... 142 THE OLD NORSE POETIC TRANSLATIONS OF THOMAS PERCY: A NEW EDITION AND COMMENTARY. Edited by Margaret Clunies Ross. (Michael Baron) ............................................................................................ 147 VIKING AMERICA: THE FIRST MILLENNIUM. By Geraldine Barnes. (Andrew Wawn) ............................................................................................... 150 Troublesome Children 5 TROUBLESOME CHILDREN IN THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS BY ÁRMANN JAKOBSSON Of all social groups which formed the societies of the past, children, seldom seen and rarely heard in the documents, remain . the most elusive, the most obscure. (Herlihy 1978, 109) 1. Medieval Children? ID CHILDREN EXIST in the Middle Ages?1 It seems a silly question, Dbut for some time it was a commonplace in historical scholarship that childhood as a notion was alien to the medieval mentality. Philippe Ariès expressed this view thus (Ariès 1962, 128): In medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist; this is not to suggest that children were neglected, forsaken or despised. The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children: it corresponds to an awareness of the particular nature of childhood, that particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the young adult. In medieval society this aware- ness was lacking. Ariès was not himself a medievalist, but this particular statement, though based on superficial scholarship, proved extremely seductive and has often been repeated. More fruitfully, it spurred medieval scholars to enter into intensive research on childhood. In the last few decades many medievalists and renaissance scholars have done so, and in general have found that, contrary to Arièss claim, people in the Middle Ages did indeed recognise childhood and distinguish it from adolescence and adulthood in many and varied ways (see e.g. Burrow 1986, Hanawalt 1993 and 2002, Orme 2001, Péter 2001, 38, Pollock 1983, Shahar 1990). One of the first was Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, who in his influential research on the village of Montaillou countered Ariès (without actually referring to him) with the statement that there was not such an enormous gap, as has sometimes been claimed, between our attitude to children and the attitude of the people in fourteenth-century Montaillou and upper Ariège (Ladurie 1978, 212). As Barbara Hanawalt outlines in her recent review of the study of childhood in the last few decades, many medieval scholars have found 1 This article is part of a research project which has been generously supported by Vísindasjóður Íslands. 6 Saga-Book fault with Arièss reasoning and gone on to draw on sources he did not consider. Among those medievalists who have done the most extensive research on the concept of childhood, the view seems now to be domi- nant that while medieval experiences and conceptions differed from those of today, childhood was distinguishable and children were con- sidered different from adults (Hanawalt 2002, 45657).2 It must be stressed that the concept of childhood is certainly not an easy one (see e.g. Boswell 1988, 2239). One is tempted to ask whether any generalisations about medieval or modern attitudes to childhood might not pose problems. It is not altogether implausible that in the Middle Ages there existed side by side the contrasting views that chil- dren were small adults, and that they were different and strange. In fact, the same also applies to the present. Some parents regard their children as more or less an extension of themselves, while others are captivated with their otherness. And while some would focus on the similarities between children and adults, others find their logic and train of thought very strange and not altogether comprehensible. What remains is to examine how this otherness is expressed. Instances where children play important roles in long, partially realistic narra- tives, such as the Sagas of Icelanders, would seem ideal for this purpose. In medieval and modern times alike children are most often defined by their status as minors, who are so much smaller and weaker than our- selves that they escape our notice if they are not our own. Children are supposed to be innocents who neither threaten nor intimidate adults. They are thus liable to be overlooked at times. As a rule they are re- garded as passive rather than active, victims rather than perpetrators. And in most instances where children are mentioned in medieval Icelan- dic narratives, they are indeed rather passive and certainly not dangerous.3 2 Or, in the words of the folklorist Ilomäki, childhood was a self-regulating system that is largely impervious to outside interference (2002, 77). 3 I do not intend to provide a complete picture of the life and treatment of children in medieval Iceland, such as is to be found in the studies of Stein-Wilkeshuijs (1970) and Kreutzer (1987). Stein-Wilkeshuijss work is encyclopaedic, and rather than analysing narratives she provides examples of various aspects of childhood. She deals first with normal children, then with those who are either above or below the norm. Kreutzers main focus, on the