Beowulf, Ynglingatal and the Ynglinga Saga : fiction or history? Rausing, Gad Fornvännen 80, 163-178 http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/1985_163 Ingår i: samla.raa.se Beowulf, Ynglingatal and the Ynglinga Saga Fiction or History? By Gad Rausing Rausing, G. 1985. Beowulf, Ynglingatal and the Ynglinga Saga. Fiction or History? Fornvännen 80. Stockholm. Can Beowulf be used to test the value of the earliest Norse sagas as historical sources? Since at least one, and possibly two, of the persons and of the events mentioned in Beowulf can be corroborated and dated with the help of contem­ porary chronicles we must, until the opposite can be proved, accept the rest of the accounts as historical. Since several persons who figure in Beowulf are also mentioned in other, independent sagas, Ynglingatal, the Ynglinga Saga and Widsid, we must assume them to be historical and, if so, also the rest of the east of these sagas. The geographical notices in Beowulf also appear to fit reality and the conclusions appear to be confirmed by the distribution of the archaeological material. Thus, those modern historians who have denied the historical value of the sagas appear to bc wrong, since they have not taken into account all the material available. Beowulf should be taken as "history" and so should all the sagas with the same east, Ynglingatal, the Ynglinga Saga och the Sköldunga Saga. Gad Rausing, 78 Addison road, London W14 8ED, England. Our convcntional and arbitrary division of in Viking-age Seandinavia, where new fami­ the past into "prehistoric" and "historie" lies came into power, apparently in the up­ times is misleading, there being no clear bor- heavals during the "missionary period", derline between the two. Man has never ex- (tenth to twelfth centuries), families without a perienced a "prehistoric time" since there vested interest in keeping the "old" traditions neither is nor has ever existed any tribe or alive, those dynastic and family sagas which nation which has not been acutdy conscious had constituted the political authorization of of its own history, of its own ancestors, of their predecessors in power. However, some their ambitions and activities and of the effect sagas have survived, in Seandinavia and else­ which these have had on the actual situation. where, affording glimpses of the course of The perspective may have been long or short events in northern Europé, in Denmark and but man has always seen himself as acting in in Sweden, during the Migration Period and a historical continuity, fully conscious of and even during the Late Roman Iron Age. usually fairly well informed about its more recent part. Within such a historical conti­ The Sagas nuity the transmission of knowledge between Our most important sources of knowledge generations could be interrupted by political concerning conditions and events in Seandi­ upheavals. Such seems to have been the case navia are Ynglingatal, the Ynglinga Saga, Beo- Fomvännen 80 (1985) 164 G. Rausing wulf and Widsid. Is there any kernel of fact in The composition of the Ynglinga Saga differs these tales, as we now know them? completely from that of the Heimskringla In the seventeenth, eighteenth and nine- proper. In the latter, the theme is the conflict teenth centuries all the Norse sagas were taken between the chiefs and the king, Snorre quite at face value, as contemporary accounts of clearly siding with the chiefs. Ynglingatal and actual events. In the present century, a more the Ynglinga Saga mirror an entirely different critical approach has predominated. Thus ideal; they are the works of "poets laureate", Weibull and his school challenged the tra­ the official historians' summary of the course ditional approaches and the accepted orthodox- of events, as seen from the kings' points of ies of Swedish history in many areas from the view. It is thus most unlikely that Snorre was Middle Ages on. By the mid-century, they the "author" of the Ynglinga Saga. But who dominated Swedish historiography, de- was, and how old was the Saga when inclu­ nouncing the assumption by historians of ded by Snorre in his great work? Is it a single "national, political or religious attitudes" and poem, composed by one man, or is it a chro­ waging war on research which "deals with nicle, composed and amended över the years loose presumptions and rests on the shifting by many bards? sands of romantic hypothesis". Is it concdvable that, long after the time of Since, by definition, all historical research the incidents described, a prose saga like that must deal with more or less loose presump­ of the Ynglingar could be composed with the tions, such as eyewitnesses' subjective accounts, aid of "registers" of Ynglingatafs type, as with the consequences of actions and the in­ believes Sune Lindquist, or with the aid of a terpretation of motives, and since conse­ series of sagas of Beowulfs type, attached to quently historical research can only result in the "register sagas"? If such is not the case, hypothesis it appears that, at least sometimes, the prose sagas must date from very early the baby is thrown out with the bath for the times and must have been composed not long sake of the method — that it is more import­ after the events described. If so, even those ant to demonstrate "modern" methods than episodes which are mentioned in the Yng­ to evaluate all available sources without pre- linga Saga but not in Ynglingatal must be judice. treated as acceptable historical events. Thus, no historian discussing Beowulf or The fact that Snorre included the Ynglinga any of the other sagas has tried to fit the Saga verbatim in the Heimskringla, in spite of action into a geographical setting — except the former's political message being the very on maps. No one has actually sailed all the opposite of the latter's, suggests that, by waters discussed nor walked all the shores Snorre's time, the Saga had already attained and no one has taken all the archaeological "canonical status", i.e. that it was accepted material into account. Neglecting such by everybody as being true. Apparently Snor­ sources, simply because they are unwritten re also utilized other sources, since he quotes ones, is bad science. Håloygjatal in the passage on Jorund and In the Ynglinga Saga, Snorre quotes extensi- Erik. vdy from Ynglingatal. The latter is held to The Beowulf poem, which appears to be have been composed by Tjodolf of Hvin, to­ quite independent, confirms the information wards the middle of the ninth century, as the gleaned from Ynglingatal and from the Yng­ dynastic saga of the Vestfold kings, who linga Saga, several persons and episodes men­ claimed descent from the Swedish Ynglinga tioned in the latter also appearing in the for­ dynasty. It is extremely succinct, devoting mer. but a few lines to each king and to his fäte. The Widsid poem also refers to several of As we know it today, the Ynglinga Saga the personages mentioned in Beowulf, at least forms part of Snorre's Heimskringla, being two of whom, Egil-Ongentheow and Hrot- his introduction to his history of Norway from hulf—Rolf Krake, also appear in the Ynglinga the time of Harald Fairhair to the year 1177. Saga and in Ynglingatal. This is strong, al- Formännen 80 (1985) Beowulf, Ynglingatal, Ynglinga Saga 165 though circumstantial, evidence indicating matter of comparing and of weighing written that the Ynglinga Saga's, Ynglingatafs and sources against each other, it is a matter of Beowulfs relations of the course of events in evaluating and of weighing all the evidence the early sixth century do render historical relating to the problem under study. This reality. If such is indeed the case, we must includes the internal evidence of the sagas also accept the testimony of the sagas for the themselves as well as any archaeological ma­ whole of the rest of the time covered by them. terial which can be brought in. Every ar­ Unlike Ynglingatal and the Ynglinga Saga, chaeological investigation, every historical Beowulf is no family chronicle. Where the study, is like a trial. Elementary justice former, and apparently also the Sköldunga requires that all relevant evidence be brought Saga and Håloygjatal, cut vertically through in, that all witnesses be found and called. time, with laconic references to each genera­ The value of the early sagas as historical tion, Beowulf is a sweeping description of the sources has long been disputed, in a reaction course of events in various parts of Seandina­ against the tendency of nineteenth-century via, during a whole generation. Beowulf sur­ scholars to regard them as authoritative. vives in one version only, a manuscript of Here, Sune Lindqvist's stånd, although about 1000 A.D., in late West Saxon dialect. rather ambivalent, has become normative. The apparently strong Christian influence According to him, the Ynglinga Saga is Snor- permeating the poem has been taken to prove re's own creation, a poem pure and simple, a that it could not have been composed until work of fiction around a framework culled the eighth century. It has also been taken for from Ynglingatal. Knut Liestöfs studies of a romance, composed in a monastery by aris- recent Norwegian traditions having appa­ tocratic monks, men with a thorough knowl­ rently shown that such have not survived for edge of their families' early history in pagan more than at most four hundred years in the times. However, the Christian references are setting afforded by Norwegian farming com- limited to a small number of passages which munities, Lindqvist considered the informa­ could, concdvably, have been transsubstan- tion found in Ynglingatal to be acceptable tiated into a Christian form from a pagan one.