Romance in Iceland [Reprint ed.] 0846217082, 9780846217084

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ROMANCE IN I CELAND By MARGARET SCHLAUCH

NEW

Y O R K /R U SSE LL

Gf R U S S E L L

FIRST P U B L I S H E D IN 1 9 3 4 B Y P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS F OR T H E A ME RI CA N SCANDINAVIAN F OU ND AT ION REISSUED, I 9 7 3 , B Y R U SS ELL & RU SS ELL A DIVISION OF A T H E N E U M P U B L I S H E R S , I N C. B Y A R R A N G E M E N T W I TH M A R G A R E T S C H L A U C H L . C. C A TA L OG CARD NO: 7 2 - 8 6 9 8 I

ISBN: 0-8462-1708-2 P R I N T E D IN T H E U N I T E D STATES OF A M E R I C A

PREFACE H IS book is in many respects a mere preliminary survey of a vast field which still awaits detailed investigation. It is to be hoped, therefore, that future studies on the lygisögur will speedily supplement it and eventually supersede it entirely. The sooner this happens, the better the author will be pleased; for the book was written partly to call the attention of students in Germanic and R o­ mance philology to the existence of new worlds to conquer. The books o f Finnur Jonsson and of Henry Goddard Leach, the bibli­ ographies o f Halldor Hermannsson, and the catalogues of Scandi­ navian manuscript collections by Kristian Kaalund have been of invaluable assistance, and I take especial pleasure in mentioning them here. The study itself could never have been undertaken, had it not been for the generous award o f a fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, to which I owe a profound debt of gratitude. I wish also to thank Professor W . W . Lawrence of Co­ lumbia University for many suggestions on the manuscript, and Miss Hanna Astrup Larsen and Mr. Neilson Abeel, of the American Scan­ dinavian Foundation, for help in preparing it for the press. During my study abroad in 1929-30,1 received the most courteous help from officials in the Royal and University Libraries, Copenhagen, in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, and in the State Library of Reykjavik, Ice­ land. Thanks are also due to the Columbia University Library in New Y o rk City for permission to use the stacks and seminar rooms over a period of many years. A word about the orthography of Icelandic names. The less famil­ iar ones, like Játmundr and SigrgarSr, have been left precisely as they occur in the texts, normalized in the nominative case. But names likeT h or, Odin, and Sigurd have become so familiar in English that it would seem affected to write pórr, ótSinn, or SiguríSr. It has been difficult to draw the line, but I have tried to achieve accuracy while avoiding pedantry, and I crave the reader's indulgence for what­ ever inconsistencies may be the result. M argaret S chlauch

T

New Y o rk University, 22nd September, 1933.

CONTENTS PAGE

P reface

v

A bbreviations

I II III

IV V VI

viii

T he S etting

i

T he O ld G ods and H eroes T he C lassical T radition

42

I. Latin Learning II. Greek Romance

42 55

T he R oad to

69

the

E ast

R ecurrent L iterary T hemes M agic

I mitations

V III

C onclusion

of

119

F rench R omance

149

A ppendix : T ranslations before

1550

95

Supernatural

and the

V II

I ndex

18

170 and

A daptations 179 189

A B B R E V IA T IO N S A N S B : Altnordische Saga-bibliothek Arn. M a g .: Manuscript of the Arna-Magnaean collection, Copen­ hagen Bókm entaf.: Manuscript of the Bókmentafélag (Literary Society) in the Reykjavik Library E E T S : Early English Texts Society F S N : Fornsögur N orðrlanda, ed. Valdimar Asmundarson Germ.-rom. Zeitschr.: Germanisch-romanische Zeitschrift Gl. kgl. S m l.: Manuscript of the Gamle kongelige Samling, Copen­ hagen J E G P : Journal of English and Germanic Philology M L N : Modern Language Notes N y kgl. S m l.: Manuscript of the Nye kongelige Samling, Copenhagen P M L A : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America S SN : Scandinavian Studies and Notes

CHAPTER I

T H E S E T T IN G V E N the most casual visitor in Iceland today, if he has any knowledge of literary history, will find it easy to imagine him­ self in the heroic age of Germanic legend. From the first moment when the precipitous rocky shore of the island lifts itself out of the cold northern sea, he will begin to identify himself with the stern rebellious emigrants, now so famous in story, who first settled there in the ninth century; and even the presence of automobiles and electric lights will not seriously disturb him, for nature itself has remained quite unchanged from the heroic age to our own. Let the visitor go but a short distance away from Reykjavik, and his illusion will be complete. Let him walk over ancient lava fields (now covered with grass and moss) beside a swift, torrential river from the moun­ tains; let him climb up to the crater of an extinct volcano and look into its silent pit, now filled with w ater; let him stand on the brink of a thunderous waterfall fed by the immense field of a glittering white glacier in the distance; let him raise his eyes at any time, in any place, to the massive range of naked volcanic mountains which crest the horizon, and he feels himself close to the earliest age of Germanic colonization. On these lava fields many a feud was fought out to the death; in these mountain caves formed by ancient eruptions, many an outlaw lurked: and these events seem to have occurred but yesterday. The people one meets, to be sure, no longer carry on feuds, or lie in ambush for their foes, or demand zvergild for a murdered thrall, but in other respects they are still the sam e: they are hospitable and eager to talk to strangers. They are quick to estimate the character of another, and pithily laconic in their remarks about it. Their language has changed so little since the heroic age, that one seems to be living an ancient saga when one speaks it with them ; two women who gos­ sip by a street corner, or a pair of husbandmen in the post office, or little children at play, will let fall from their lips sentences which might have been part of a great prose narrative of the time of Snorri Sturluson. For this reason, Iceland is one of the most satisfying

E

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ROMANCE IN ICELAND

places for a literary pilgrim to visit. The past has little need of re-creation there. Seldom indeed is a literature so closely associated with the physical aspect of the country which produced it as in Iceland. Despite a pos­ sible indebtedness to Irish models, the early sagas are truly autoch­ thonous in style and subject-matter. Their authors wrote of their own folk and families, of the land they dwelt in and the conflicts they knew. They told of the struggles of man against nature and other men; of crops and fishing and voyages of trade and piracy; of out­ lawry and feuds and the slow passing of the seasons; of seas and ships and the coming home after adventure; of true friends and false, of honor and revenge, and of death, less important than any of these. Their heroes are veritable human beings, often cruel to others, but likewise unflinching towards themsehes; grasping, eager for glory, jealous of their rights, but also ready to cast aside all possessions and life itself when their code of honor demanded it. Especially in the Viking age were these ideals glorified. The individual maintained his superiority against insensate, vigorous nature and hostile world by refusing to bend to circumstance; by contemptuously ignoring safety. He might die as a consequence, but he had preserved his integrity in the only manner known to h im : the heroic manner. O f these charac­ ters Axel Olrik has said, “ They are human beings whose will is a colossal power. Their ego is like a block of granite: you can split or crush it, but you cannot bend it.” 1 Considering the climate and the age in which the early Icelanders lived, it is no wonder that their literature treats of such indomitable, unyielding persons. The style is in accord with the themes. The action develops slowly but relentlessly; the clash of one human being against another is presented in trenchant, pointed, epigrammatic sentences; a gesture or a spoken word is made to reveal the profoundest motives and is charged with the heaviest consequences; the important scenes are developed with full consciousness of their dramatic effect. Above all things the authors understood the power of reticence. The thing which is not said is often more eloquent than what is told; when two 1 Nordisk Aandsliv i Vikingetid og tidlig Middelalder, Copenhagen, 1927; N or­ disches Geistesleben (tr. by W ilhelm Ranisch), Heidelberg, 1908, Chap. iv. This has been published in English under the title Viking Civilisation. American Scandina­ vian Foundation, N ew Y o rk, 1930. See p. 64.

THE SETTING

3

persons meet and exchange indifferent remarks, the reader is fully aware of what is seething within them, even though the sagarnan holds his tongue; perhaps the more so for this very reason. Very typical is the scene in the ligils saga Skallagrimssmiar when the hen;, now an old man, lies ill in his room— ill of no disease except great sorrow and a will to die— and his daughter wooes him back to life again. Before she speaks she lets him feel her silence; what she said was less potent, one suspects, than what she left unsaid. Typical also, because of its laconic style and bitter humor, is the scene from the Droplaugnr sana saga,2 in which the concluding combat of a long feud is fought between a snowdrift and a frozen river: "The shield of Helgi Droplaug’s son was hewed asunder, and he saw that it was of no avail to him as things stood. Then Helgi showed his skill in warlike feats: he cast aloft his shield and sword and grasped the sword again, and therewith he smote at Hjarrandi, hit­ ting above the knee; but the sword did not bite when it reached the bone; it glanced down to the hollow o f the knee, and from that wound Tf jarrandi was made unfit for battle. But at the same moment he struck at Helgi. Y et Ifelgi raised his shield and so turned the blow that the sword struck his face and hit the lower jaw so that the lip was cut off. Then said Helgi, “ Ί never was handsome, and thou hast not improved me very much now!’ " Soon after, he was lying dead in the snow with many other men. Such v/as the literature of the classic period in Iceland, a literature peculiarly characteristic o f the age and the people who produced it. But the golden age passed, and people’s tastes changed. Iceland, remote as it is, nevertheless is part of the world of European culture, and has felt strongly the currents of influence from the south. Besides, Icelanders have always traveled, and their kinsmen at home have always been eager to hear stories from returned wanderer*. T o this day it is so; the stranger in Iceland finds him*elf eagerly and intelligently cross-examined by his neighbors concerning the remote places he has visited, the manners and customs of alien people. In the Middle Ages, too, foreigners and returned natives were expected to discourse like eloquent living books of travel, anil their narratives 2 Ed. porleifr Jónsson, R eykjavik, 1878, Chap. x.

4

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

were preserved and repeated endlessly. A t that time, particularly during the period of V iking expansion, most of Europe could be regarded as the natural province of any traveler of Scandinavian blood. I f an Icelander visited Britain, he found Danish settlements in the north; after 1066, a Norman dynasty in the south and for a time a Danish and Norwegian kingdom in Ireland. If he stopped in Normandy, he found a smiling province recently settled by his own blue-eyed and yellow-haired cousins of the N orth; and in Sicily and southern Italy he would be welcomed by a ruling class which was proud to remember that it too was Norman; in Byzantium, a fabulous and wealthy city which exercised a potent spell over the imagination o f Ice­ landers, he could become part of a flourishing colony of Scandinavian emigrants, and he might even become a daily witness of the splendors of the imperial court by joining the Varangjan Guard. He might fol­ low a group of compatriots on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (one such group was headed by no less a person than a Norwegian king, Sigurd Jórsalafari), and on his return he might stay with others o f his native land and study at the University of Paris. I f he wished, he might make the long journey eastwards from Iceland by another route: from Sweden to Russia, and thence by way of Lake Ilmen to the Dniepr or the V olga River. So he might reach Byzantium from the north, or he might continue south and east to still more strange and fabulous places: to Persia and Arabia, the portals o f Asia. And all through Russia he would find in the V iking period, the time o f which the Nestorian Chronicle tells, settlements o f his fellow Scan­ dinavians, and petty kingdoms founded and ruled by them. He could speak his own language freely from the G ulf of Finland to the Caspian Sea.* W e know from many sources that a large number of Icelanders did travel over land and sea by all these roads, and that they brought home with them much treasure, both ponderable and imponderable. The sagas tell us o f curiously wrought swords, of rich garments, and precious relics which were displayed by many a proud Odysseus upon his return to the Northland. W e can infer also that these wanderers brought back even greater and more various treasures in the shape of 8 See M ax Vasm er, “ W ikingerspuren in Russland,” Sitzungsberichte der preussisehen Akademie der Wissenschaften, PhiL-hist. Klasse, X X I V , 1931, 649-74; also T . J. Arne, La Suéde et VOrient, Stockholm, 1914.

THE SETTING

S

stories from all over the world, knowing as they did that the public awaiting them at home was second to none in its thirsting eagerness for a good tale; that when the people gathered to welcome a ship and surround its passengers (as they still do every other Sunday after­ noon in R eykjavik), they would not only “ ask for tidings,” but most probably demand a saga as well, a foreign, fictitious saga, very differ­ ent indeed from their native ones about “ real” people of well estab­ lished families. And what stories did not the Icelanders bring hom e! There were, for instance, romantic tales of chivalry picked up in France or England which dealt, incredibly enough, with knights who swooned constantly for love of a fair lady and yet sallied forth with unimpaired vigor to slaughter dragons, monsters, and Saracens. (H ow comical these heroes and heroines must have appeared at first to audiences accustomed to the somber, intense stories of Sigurd and Brynhild, Gunnlaug and H elga!) From France also came the vogue of stories resembling the chansons de geste: and the popularity of Arthurian romance at the court of Norway had its influence on Ice­ land in the thirteenth century. Voluptuous and fantastic Oriental romances, bits of Celtic fairy lore, marvelous accounts of Byzantium and India, waifs and strays of classical tradition, echoes of Talmudic commentary and of the life of Buddha, were adopted in Iceland and combined, incongruously enough, with native lore about trolls and giants and witches. The new literature enjoyed a tremendous vogue, even though it was spoken of under the humorously contemptuous term of lygisögur or “ lying sagas.” Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Icelandic literature had ceased to be predominantly autoch­ thonous ; it was more cosmopolitan than any other in Europe. It was lamentably inferior to the older type of narrative, to be sure, but it was greatly varied; it had plundered the whole world for themes. There was another cause of the marked shift in taste from native heroic tales to foreign material, and that was the introduction of Christianity into the island in the year 1000. W ith the new religion came the Latin alphabet and a general use of the Latin language, which served to bring Iceland close to European learning. Many of the early bishops were trained in Continental schools. One of the first missionaries o f Christianity in Iceland, Thorvald Koðránsson, was accompanied in 991 by Frederick, Bishop of Saxony, whose sermons he translated orally for Icelandic audiences. Perhaps it was for this

6

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

reason that a number of the early bishops studied in Saxony or made visits there,4 notably ísleifr Gizurarson, of whom we read that he was “ taught in Saxony, in the city called E rfurt." V ery soon church schools were founded in Iceland, in which were taught Latin gram­ mar, music, prosody, and a certain amount of astronomy, in addition to church doctrine and ritual. ísleifr Gizurarson and his father were originators of the famous school at Skálholt; “ many men sent him their sons as students, and these became good clerks afterwards, and two of them became bishops.” 5 porlákr Runoltsson, bishop 1 118-1133, who had himself studied in Haukadal, continued the educational work at Skálholt; Sæmundr the Wise and his son Ey jólfr taught at Oddi, where Bishop porlákr, author of many learned books, went to school; Jón Helgi, a pupil of ísleifr, founded a famous church school at Ilolar after he became bishop, and appointed Gisli Kinnason of Gautland as director. It is specifically stated that Gisli taught "grammaticam” and that a cer­ tain priest named Rikinni taught music or verse-making (sainig cffa versagjö r ð )? The latter was so clever, says Gunnlaug Múnkr, Jon’s biographer, “ that he knew all the chants of the twelve months with­ out a book.” Among the pupils who studied under him was a learned woman, Ingunn, who “ was inferior to none in the said sciences (boklistum) ; she taught grammaticam to many, and instructed any who wished to study. . . . She amended many Latin books, so that she had them read aloud before her, but she herself sewed, played chess, or did embroideries from the sagas of the saints.” 7 There is a tale recounted by Gunnlaug Munkr concerning a master who taught “ astronomiam” to Sæmundr the W ise, Jon’s friend. The story is obviously apocryphal, but it indicates that there was instruction given in that subject at the school in Oddi.*1 The Benedictine monastery at 4 See Biskuþa sogar, Copenhagen, 1858, I, 53, 66, 153, 216, 219; also B. Kahle, Kristni saga, Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, X I, Halle, 1905. 6 ibid,, 63. In Jón porkelsson’s O m Digtningen paa Island, Copenhagen, 1888, Chap. I, there is a brief sketch of the development of church schools and ecclesias­ tical learning in Iceland; also in H ugo Gering’s Islenzk Æ ventyri, II, H alle a/S., 18S3. Introduction, and H alldor Hermannsson’s "Saemund Sigfússon and the Oddaverjar,” Islandica, X X I I, 1932. e Biskupa sogar, I, 168; also 235. 7 ibid., 241. 8 ibid., 228 /. The story is an amusing modification of the marchen of a prince and princess pursued by a witch, and the devices used by the fugitives to escape from

THE SETTING

7

þikkvibær was likewise distinguished by many celebrated teachers and students. Eminent among the former was Abbot Brandr Jonsson, who was chosen bishop of Hólar in 1262. Brandr translated both the Gyðinga saga and the Alexanders saga for K ing Magnus Hákonarson of N orw ay; as Latin sources for the former he used the Vulgate translation of the first Book of the Maccabees, the Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor, and the Antiquitates Judaicae and De Bello Judaico of Flavius Josephus.9 The titles alone indicate the learning o f the man. W ith the influx of Latin ecclesiastical learning into Iceland, there came also a certain amount of Latin learning that was not ecclesias­ tical. It may be assumed that clerks who could read the Cara Pastoralis — which is mentioned as the favorite reading of some of the early bishops— could also read less elevating works. And an amusing epi­ sode told in two versions of the life of Bishop Jón Helgi serves to indicate what some of these other works were. According to the older version, the Jons saga helga hin elzta, it is reported to the bishop that a young priest named Klængr Thorsteinsson has been reading a book called Ovidins epistolarum (sic), “ In that book there is a great love-song (mansaungr), but he [Jon] forbade him to read books of that sort, and said that it was hard enough for every man to guard himself from fleshly lust and wrongful love, even if he did not inflame his thought thereto with any acts or with such-like verses ” 10 In the biography by Gunnlaug Munkr, the name of the censored book is changed, significantly enough, to Ovidius de Arte, with the explanation: “ In this book Master Ovid tells about the love of women, and teaches how men should beguile them, and obtain pleasure of them.,,n There is no doubt that Gunnlaug means the De Arte Amandi, rather than the Heroides spoken of in the earlier account. In any case, the young priest Klængr was reproved for reading one or another of the works of Ovid. Later on Klængr himself became bishop, and was especially zealous in teaching priests and in writing music for the psalter ( söng psaltara). It would be interesting to know whether he continued to read her. In the Jóns saga helga, the “meistari” uses astronomy to locate the fugitives, Jón and Sæmundr. 9 Guðmundur porláksson, Gyðinga saga, Copenhagen, 1881, Introduction. 10 B is kupa sögur, I, 165 /. 11 ibid., p. 238.

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ROMANCE IN ICELAND

worldly Roman poets, and how many of the priests under him did likewise. The mere fact that Ovid was known as early as about iio o in Iceland is of great importance. Where Ovid was known, medieval romance could easily follow. The consequent changes in literary taste become more comprehensible. Some of the Latin learning fostered by the church appears directly in the fictitious sagas, as we shall see. Isidore of Seville is given as an authority in the porláks saga Biskups ,12 and his encyclopedic Ety­ mologies are cited in the sagas. The Vulgate is quoted frequently throughout the Biskupa sögur, with translations (which, to be sure, are not always quite accurate13). Handbooks on geography and his­ tory were introduced, which could not fail to influence the vernacular literature. Not all the accounts of the riches and wonders of the Orient reached Iceland orally, on the lips of travelers; some of them were derived, as we shall see, from learned written sources such as Pliny, Isidore of Seville, and Solinus, or from annals or outlines of world history which were transcribed in the monasteries. The effects of this new knowledge began to be apparent quite early. W e can trace some of it in tales which deal supposedly with historical native characters, before it had become the vogue to write about such unreal personages as Adóníus of Antioch or Nitida of France. But this classical lore is seldom used slavishly; in fact, it is amusing to see how the authors have adapted it to their own needs. The later sagas may be inferior in literary quality to the earlier ones, but if anything they are more ingenious in the working together of variegated themes. In many ways the international organization of the medieval church helped to make the literature of Iceland international. Foreign bishops were sent to the country from early times. The Hungrvaka mentions several of these who came during the lifetime of Bishop ísleifr: they were Jón of Ireland (hinn irski), BjarnvartSr Vilráðsson of England, called the Book-wise ( bokvisi), a Rúðólf r said to be of Rouen, and Bjarnharftr the Saxon.14 And of course, Icelandic clerks, abbots, and bishops went abroad quite as much as did the vikings and merchants. A number of them, like Jon Helgi, visited Rome directly 12 Biskupa sögur, I, 91 and 266. 13 In Biskupa sögur, I, 241, the phrase “dominus voluntatem timencium se faciet” is translated “drottinn man gera vilja sik elskandi manna/1 14 ibid., I, 65. In connection with the presence of Jón of Ireland, cf. the pun in Old Irish recounted in the Jons saga hins helga, of Gunnlaug Múnkr, ibid., 2&j.

THE SETTING

9

before assuming their episcopal duties. Others traveled abroad as young men. Bishop porlákr, after studying at Oddi under E y jó lfr Saemundarson, went abroad to see the world and “ learn to know the customs of other good men, until he came to P a ris; and he remained in school there as long as he thought necessary for the knowledge he wished to acquire. Thence he journeyed to England, and dwelt in Lincoln, and gained great knowledge there.” which he imparted to others in Iceland.1* Bishop Pall also studied in England, and he learned so much, according to his biographer, “ that it is scarcely likely that any f other] man has acquired so much knowledge, nor of such a character, in so short a tim e; and when he came out to Iceland, he surpassed all other men in the courtesy (kurteisi) of his learning. . . . }>Ui His “ courtesy“ probably means his willingness to impart what he had acquired abroad. Tw o of the earliest missionaries of Chris­ tianity, Thorvald Kofiránsson and Stefnir porgilsson, spent their latter days abroad: they journeyed as far as Jerusalem, then to Con­ stantinople, anrl finally to Russia, where Thorvald died. Aron H jórleifsson also visited Jerusalem. Rafn Sveinbjarnarson visited many princes and ecclesiastical dignitaries, among the latter being Thomas of Canterbury. Bishop Laurentius, while yet a priest, studied canon law at Nidarós under a Flemish teacher, Master Johannes: “ and it seemed most entertaining to Laurentius, that he [Johannes] strug­ gled to speak Norse, and yet he had little success therewith.” 17 The custom of studying abroad was continued in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.1* That these men were not exclusively inter­ ested in ecclesiastical literature is proved by the career of Jon Halldorsson. Bishop of Sk/dholt from 1322 to 1339 Having begun his studies in Bergen, he continued them in Paris and Bologna. In Paris he found a story about a haughty princess who cruelly humiliated her wooers until one of them tamed her, “ written in Latin in France in the form which they call ‘rithmos/ but we call ‘hendingar/ ” This story he translated into Icelandic, probably while he was still in Paris, and took back to Iceland with him. He delighted in circulating other stories he had heard abroad, according to his biographer. “ Who can sufficiently explain how willing he was to delight people present 15 ibid., 92. Jón died in 16 ibid., 127; also 267.

1180.

17 ibid., 793. 18 See Jón porkelsson, Om Digtningen, Chap. 1.

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ROMANCE IN ICELAND

with the extraordinary examples he had learned abroad, from books as well as from life! As witness thereof we can tell but a small part o f the matter in this little book, for some men in Iceland have put together his tales for the delight of themselves and others. In the first place we must mention the u'rcntxr that were told in his presence in the two schools of Paris and Hologne.,,1*‘ These tcvcntýr were cxcntpla or stories told to illustrate a sermon; they represent the first collection of foreign nozrllcn in Iceland. Despite their didactic purpose, not all o f them are of a religious nature: a number contain romantic themes. In their present form they probably do not represent the exact words of Bishop Jó n ; rather, in the phrase of his biographer, they were “ put together” from memory by men who heard them. It is no wonder that foreign literature, particularly romance, achieved a popularity in Iceland, if some of her bishops were as hos­ pitable to it as these quotations indicate. But the question still remains: why did these foreign products so completely supersede the older, far superior sagas in the favor o f the people? Many writers have speculated on this amazing revolution in liter­ ary taste. It is as if a modern realistic novel dealing with contempo­ rary American civilization were suddenly to introduce dragons, incitbi, trolls, and vampires as seriously credible personages. The impression is just as incongruous if one turns from the austere sim­ plicity of the Laxdœla saeja to a phantasmagoria such as the Gibbons soya t'k Grciju. It is difficult to believe that the same nation should have produced and apparently delighted in both within a compara­ tively short period. Political, climatic, and economic causes have been suggested lot* this literary metamorphosis, and probably all of them did contribute to the same result. The loss of political independence did no doubt bring Iceland closer to the Continent, especially to Norway, which assumed lordship over the island. It was in Norway, be it noted, that Arthurian romance was first welcomed into the Scandinavian North in the early thirteenth century, and it was in Norway that Chretien de Troyes’ Y:\iin and other romances were translated for Eufemia. consort of Håkon Magnusson, in the four­ teenth. The economic distress prevalent in Iceland in the latter Middle 19 Biskupa sögur, II, 223; quoted in part by Halvdan Koht, The O ld Norse Sagas, New York, 1931, 156, and in its entirety by Hugo Gering, Islensk Æ ventýr, II, xxii, as part of a full biography of Jón Halldórsson.

THE SETTING

II

Ages may have contributed to the falling-off of the literary standard, but this theory has yet to be proved. So far as we know, prosperity does not necessarily insure good literature, nor a financial depression cause its corruption. In fact, the reverse is sometimes true. A t most we can suggest that Icelanders may have welcomed the unreality and the imaginative fantasy of the lygisögur as a sort of intellectual nar­ cotic which gave them release from unpleasant actuality. It is one possible explanation, but not the only one. But it seems to me that the two causes we have been discussing were far more important: the wanderings of individual vikings, and the introduction of Chris­ tianity, which in turn was followed by an exchange of foreign and native scholars between Iceland and the Continent. One further result of the introduction of Christianity is of capital importance. W e have noticed the character and general interests of a number of the ecclesiastical personages who went to Paris and Rome, E rfurt and Lincoln. It is very likely, as Halvdan Koht sug­ gests,20 that the best raconteurs of the old sagas, the men most inter­ ested in presenting a good tale effectively, were the very ones that would be attracted by the new religion and the new learning. Many of them must have entered the monasteries. A t first, to be sure, the clerics continued to have a strong interest in native literature, the preserva­ tion of most of which we owe to them. The Saga porlåks Biskups hin elzta explicitly tells us that the bishop “ was constantly occupied with studying, and often with writing, and between the two with prayer; and when no other thing detained him, he learnt what his mother could teach him: genealogies and family histories ” 21 The lore acquired from his mother is precisely the material of the older sagas. But the most talented clerks, probably the most creative spirits among them, were soon absorbed in ecclesiastical affairs to the exclusion of others. Belonging as they did to a universal church, they must in time have come to think of themselves less as Icelanders than as represen­ tatives of an international faith, and their journeys to the Continent must have strengthened them in this feeling. There are even indica­ tions of a certain hostility towards the native popular literature, and especially native superstition. The same Bishop Jón who forbade Priest Klængr to read Ovid also attempted to forbid “ all ancient lore, 20 The O ld Norse Sagast 174 ff.

21 Biskupa sögur, I, 91.

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heathen sacrifice, witchcraft or incantations” ; and to suppress a sport which “ was customary among folk; an uncomely game, namely, an exchange of verses between man and woman and woman and man; they were disgraceful, mocking verses, unfit to hear.” 22 Y e t neither the songs nor the magical practices disappeared under his prohibition. For the ordinary citizens outside of the church were very conservative in many w a y s : they kept their language practically unchanged for centuries, they clung to old customs and beliefs, they cultivated genea­ logical research with undiminished passion, and they never ceased to love their own island with a devotion which can be felt in all native authors down to the contemporary Gunnar Gunnarsson. But they were not narrow provincials. Their traveled kinsmen and their religion prevented that. It must not be supposed that all of the earlier sagas were unflinch­ ingly devoted to verisimilitude and realistic subject-matter. Even in the most reliable sagas dealing with the authentic traditions of well known families, the so-called tslendinga sögur, we find a use of the supernatural— witches, trolls, spells, and prophetic visions— which may heighten the dramatic effect, but which does not heighten the reader's credulity. In the less historic or purely fictitious tales dealing with Icelandic characters, there is an increase in the use of strange, fantastic and supernatural motives. This second group, the fornaldarsögur, was regarded as fiction rather than history, although the chief characters were still supposed to be Icelanders, and were in fact some­ times connected with eminent families.23 In a still later group, the characters were quite unknown, and there was no pretense at reality. Here the adventures become wildly unreal, and they also become stereotyped·: when one has read a single account of a combat with a giant, an encounter with an amorous and well disposed giantess (skessa)f or a holmgang with a berserkr, one has read them all. Finally, under the influence of foreign romance, of which we have just been speaking, the sagas reached the acme of wild fabrication and dream-like unreality; but the tendency in this direction already existed before the appearance of the riddarasögur (knightly tales 22 Bisknpa sögur, I, 165. 23 These types are clearly defined by A . L eR oy Andrews, “ The Lygisögur,” Publi­ cations of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, II, 1914-15,

255-63.

THE SETTING

13

translated or imitated from foreign tongues). Even without foreign influence from the south, a greater part of the native sagas might have been devoted to supernatural persons, but they would have been only the familiar witches and trolls of Scandinavian (and Celtic) lore; as it is, the later sagas were hospitably thrown open to genii, djinns, fairies, and magicians of many other countries as well. Perhaps a few illustrations will make this clear.24 In Chapter C X X I V of the N jáls saga, important events are presaged by a myste­ rious apparition seen by one of the characters: a man on a grey horse within a fiery ring, who rides by carrying a flaming brand. This ghostly rider throws his firebrand eastwards towards the falls, and they flame up to meet it. In the Eyrbyggja saga, Chapter II, a shep­ herd sees a whole realm of the deád within a mountain. In the same saga there is a witch called a kveldriða ( “ rider by night” ). The father of Skallagrim in the Egils saga is Kveldúlfr, so named because he was supposed to be a shape-shifter ( hamrammr) who became a wolf by night. Egil himself has an adventure which anticipates one of the most favored themes of later sagas: a combat in behalf of a maiden, to save her from a monstrous wooer. Thus we see that the earliest sagas contain a few of the elements which were later ex­ ploited to the exclusion of all others. Particularly enlightening is the story of a certain family which has come down to us in two versions: an early short one of great simplicity, which contains no incident that would strain a modern readers belief, and a later, more elaborate version, to which elements of folklore and fairy-tale have been added. The former of these is the Droplaugar sona saga, from which we have already quoted. It tells of a capable widow named Droplaug who is as good as any husbandman in Iceland, and o f a feud in which her two sons became involved, finally leading to the death of one and the exile of the other. The style is characteristic o f the best classical Icelandic. In the longer version, however, Fljótstdœla hin meiri, the following amazing story is told of D roplaug: 24 The use of superstition in the earlier sagas has been discussed in a number of separate monographs. One o f the best general ones is by Helene Neuberg, D er A ber­ glaube in den Islendinga Sögur, Riga, 1926. Heinz Dehmer also discusses the gen­ eral problem in his Prim itives Ersählungsgut in den islandinga Sögur, Leipzig, 1927. There are articles on various phases of the subject, to o : e.g., M. Rieger, “ Über den nordischen Fylgjenglauben,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, X L I I, 1898,

277#.

14

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

When she was a young girl she was carried off from the court of her father, a Jarl, by a giant named Geitir. A t the next Yule season, a young man named Thorvald who is visiting the Jarl has a strange dream which he recounts as follows: he thought he was walking by the sea, and after traversing a ford and a mole he came to a cave in a mountain where a fire was burning. Here, he says, “ I saw an iron pillar under the roof of the cave, and to this pillar a woman was bound; her hands were made fast behind her, and her hair was wound about the pillar; iron chains were on her hands, and there was a lock at the other end, with which she was fastened: methought I undertook to free her, and I was able to do so.” 26 The Jarl admits that this must be his daughter Droplaug, and that he has promised her in marriage to any man who will rescue her. W ithout further comment, Thorvald sets off and discovers the maiden in the highly uncomfortable position of which he had dreamed. She warns him against her captor, as is the way of maidens in such a predicament, but she gives an account of Geitir which is interesting because o f the comparatively favorable light in which the giant appears: “ He goes out to catch fish by night, and binds me to the pillar while he is away; but in the daytime he lies in his bed and disports him there with me; he reaches out and takes me by the hand; but when he wishes to sleep, he gives me gold and jewels to play with. He never gives me food that I may not eat of, and no whit does he think he has done too well by me in anything he can do.” Despite this touching tribute to the absent giant’s amiable qualities, Thorvald seizes his host's sword and frees the girl, who is quite willing to flee with him. The giant pursues, but is cut down bv his own sword— the only sword that could kill him, as he pathetically remarks to the victor: “ 111 hast thou deceived me, and more than I expected, since thou hast taken the one weapon that could harm me. T pursued thee without fear because I thought not that a trifling person should be my bane!” So he dies, and Droplaug is taken back to her father, who bestows her on Thorvald. She goes home with him, and, after this fantastic adventure, the rest o f her life is that o f the practical Icelandic matron delineated in the shorter saga. 25 Fljótsdœla hin meiri, ed. K . Kaalund, Copenhagen, 1883, 15.

THE SETTING

iS

It is apparent that the redactor has merely prefixed a marchen to his saga by way of introduction. Many variants of this tale are known ; the formula is always that a princess has been carried off by an ogre, but the hero learns from her where the monster’s heart is, what his life is bound up with, or how he may be slain.26 V ery often he can be slain only by his own weapon. The Icelandic narrator has not entirely succeeded in joining the marchen to the saga. On the return from the giant's cave, he tells us, Thorvald found it necessary to carry Droplaug across the ford, since the tide had begun to flow in, and then “ he found that she was very pinched, for she was ‘óheil’ (pregnant)." Y et the author completely forgets the child that he obviously planned to give Droplaug by the giant— more is the pity, because it might have added somewhat to our knowledge of the operations of heredity after the union of a human being with a supernatural creature. In the fornaldarsogar there are many episodes as fictitious as this. The Kctils saga Hcnigs 27 contains the fairy-tale motive of advice given to the hero by his father and other well disposed persons, with this important difference: that the Icelandic hero deliberately violates all counsels given him, in order, no doubt, to show his fearlessness and his superiority to fate. In the Hálfdánar saga Brönnfostrap the hero finds a captive damsel in a mountain cave, guarded by a troll and his wife. She too is bound to a pillar by her hair, and her feet are immersed in cold glacier water. In the Grims saga Loðinkinna ,29 the maiden betrothed to Grim disappears just before her marriage because of a spell put upon her by her wicked stepmother. Later in the saga Grim finds her again, but so changed from her former beauty that he does not recognize her: “ She was no taller than seven-year-old girls, but so stout, that Grim thought he would not be able to put his arms about her; she was long-faced and hard-looking, hook-nosed and high-shouldered, swarthy and heavy-cheeked, foul in looks and bald-headed. She vras black both in her hair and her skin, and clad in a shriveled skin cloak which reached down her back no farther than to her buttocks." This unattractive creature invites Grim to kiss her 20 See Stith Thompson, Types of the Folktale, a translation of Antti Aarne's Ver­ zeichnis der Märchentypen, Folklore Fellows Communications, Helsinki, 1928, item 302, II, with bibliography. 27 Ed. Valdim ar Asmundarson, Fornaldar sogur Norðrlanda, II, 1886, 139, 160. 28 ibid,, III, 43 S-S8 · 29 ibid., II, 163-73; see 168 /.

ι6

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and share her bed; it is only when he reluctantly does this that she is unspelled and restored to her natural fair semblance, even as the heroine in the English ballad Kemp Owyne. Grim and the lady are supposed to be the parents of the Icelandic hero Qrvar-Od^r; and Ketill Hæng, mentioned above, is supposed to have been his grand­ father. The adventure attributed to Grim, by the way, is to be found in a number of other sagas, as we shall see. It is apparent, therefore, that bespelled maidens, rescuing heroes, captor giants, and the like, are not limited to romantic sagas trans­ lated or closely imitated from foreign models. This book will deal chiefly, to be sure, with the genuine romantic sagas in which foreign influence is strongest, the lycjisögur, but it will be impossible to neglect the fomaldarsögur which offer close parallels. In many cases a comparison of the two types will be most illuminating; moreover, there is no rigid dividing line between the two, for there are many sagas using Icelandic names and setting, which are nevertheless noth­ ing but a tissue of motives from marchen and romance. Although, in general, the sagas here discussed fall between the dates 1200 and τ ςςο, a few will be cited from a still later period. The old formulas were imitated even in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and it is as difficult to establish a later limit as an earlier one. Hitherto very little has been done on the general subject o f the romantic sagas, nor does this book pretend to exhaust the material. T o give an account of every one of these plots, together with an array of its sources and analogues, would be to cover almost all o f the world's fiction from very early times to the end o f the Middle Ages. The Icelanders were bafflinglv eclectic; the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries saw a veritable syncretism o f romance in their literature. Nevertheless, it is high time that a first attempt was made to classify the material and make it accessible. Once a guide book has appeared, no matter how full of lacunae and faults it may be, many experts will no doubt work upon the innumerable problems o f comparative litera­ ture here suggested, and also edit the texts. Most of these lie in manuscript still in the Scandinavian libraries, especially in Copen­ hagen. The mass of material is in itself discouraging; but on the other hand there is no greater unexplored field for students o f com­

THE SETTING

17

parative literature. T o take even one of these stories and study all its variants is to realize as never before how freely fiction passes over the face of this globe, and how slight is the barrier offered by foreign languages when people wish to pass on a good tale.

CHAPTER II

THE OLD GODS AND HEROES I

O T H Christianity and the Latin alphabet as we know it came to the F ar North from Rome. They came at the same time; therefore even the earliest o f the native literature was written down under the auspices of the new religion. T o be sure, the Chris­ tianity of Icelandic authors did not prevent them from having a keen interest in the deeds and pagan beliefs o f their unregenerate ancestors, but that interest was already an antiquarian one. Snorri Sturluson, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of the heathen religion, was really a Sir Walter Scott of his day, writing of legends already remote and ancient. He constructs his Yalhall with its massive towers, and peoples it with the great gods Odin and Thor and Freyr, but he is at pains to make it clear that these were not really gods, but Trojans who migrated to the north to gain themselves greater worship and glory. Similarly, Saxo Grammaticus begins by assuring us that the old religion was a delusion, and he explains the cult o f “ Othinus” as a deception practised on the people of ancient times by a powerful chieftain who had himself worshiped as god in order to satisfy his own lust for glory. Saxo is a euhemerist, and explains that the chief residence of the so-called gods was in Byzantium, here on earth; but he forgets this explanation from time to time, and speaks of the gods as real divinities, without any saving remark about the falseness of their cult. O f Frigga he says: “ She was not worthy to have a god as husband“ ; and to Othinus he attributes a supernaturally venerable age, an ability to give and withhold victory, and dominion over the souls o f slain warriors. In other words, Saxo preserves some genuine tradition concerning the old gods, even though he writes as a Chris­ tian antiquarian. Scattered throughout the sagas about pioneer Icelandic families we also find traces o f genuine pagan tradition. Where the authors were

B

THE OLD GODS AND HEROES

19

dealing with the heroic times before a .d. 1000, they sometimes intro­ duced curious and valuable information about the old religion; but it must not be forgotten that they too wrote as antiquarians, from the lofty position of true believers. In this respect there is no difference between them and the authors of the later romantic sagas. Here too the gods sometimes appear, incongruously enough. T o a certain extent it is a consciously scholarly and literary interest that has kept them alive, but it is none the less worth while to see what has become of the one-eyed Odin, gracious Freyr, and mighty Thor, in the age when Christianity and southern romance had so profoundly changed the native literature. A s late as the eighteenth century there were authors who chose to continue the tradition, basing their stories upon earlier sagas, Latin works, and the like, and manufacturing new adventures for the gods according to old models. Such at least seems to be the reason for the existence of the two late sagas about the god­ dess (or witch) Huld, which are to be discussed later; but in any case there is little difference between the belated sagamen of the eighteenth century and Snorri or Saxo. They were antiquarians all. Odin, supreme ruler in Yalhall, august commander of fallen heroes, was the most imposing of the heathen gods, and also the most popular one in the later sagas. It is generally conceded now that he was origi­ nally not a god of warfare and victory, but a god of the dead. Thus in Saxo, Othin grants one of his favorites, Harald Hilditönn, invulner­ ability from iron, in return for the souls of all the men whom the latter slew; and to another, Siward. he gives recovery from severe wounds in return for the same g ift.1 The expression “ to dedicate to Odin” meant to kill in battle; and originally the slain went to find the god in a dark and gloomy abode beneath the earth.2 But in the age of the skalds, Valhall was substituted for the dolorous abode of Heb and the slain warriors found Odin enthroned in a mighty palace above the earth. He still exacted sacrifice, but he also rewarded valor and helped his favorites among the living heroes. This is the guise in which he appears in a number of the prose sagas, both early and late. These 1 Ed. A lfred Holder, Strassburg, 1886, Bk. V I I , 247, and IX , 304. A new edition is being made by J. O lrik and H. Raeder; Vol. I, Copenhagen, 1931. 2 See H . M. Chadwick, T he Cult of Othin, London, 1899; W . von Unwerth, Untersuchungen über Totcnkult und Odinnverehrung, Breslau, 19 1 1; Gustav Nerkel, W alhall; Studien über germanischen Jenseitsglauben, Dortmund, 1913.

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

20

references are of doubtful value for the reconstruction of primitive ideas of Odin’s godhead, but they do show in what form he appeared to later sagamen. In the Ketils saga Hccngs we read of a viking named Framarr who “ sacrificed to Arhaug . . . and received the boon from Odin'that no iron could bite him.” 3 But the hero of the saga does not believe in Odin, and is therefore able to defeat Framarr none the less. In the Völsunga saga, a prose novel (if the term may be used) covering the grand old traditions about the Niblung heroes, Odin appears often as the special protector and helper of the Völsung dynasty which has sprung from him. Here his favor is given freely, not purchased by sacrifice. He himself carries Sin fjotli’s body away— to Valhall, no doubt— in a little boat that disappears mysteriously when it is mid­ way across a fjord; he confronts Sigmund in the midst of his last battle, a tall, portentous, one-eyed apparition, and brings him death, that is, “ calls him home,” bv making weak the magic sword formerly bestowed on Sigmund; he visits Sigurd in mortal shape and helps him choose a horse.4 Even so, in the Latin pages of Saxo Grammati­ cus, he acts the part of guardian to his favorites: his reputed son Frogerus has the gift of assured victory;5 his favorite Harald Hilditönn is made invulnerable, just like Framarr, and later this lucky Harald receives instruction in warfare from the same august oneeyed personage.6 A t one time “ Othinus” mingled in a battle to insure victory for his worshipers, the Danes.7 Y e t he might at any time withdraw his favor,8 and sometimes it had to be dearly purchased. The story of Starkafir, which has come down to us in a number of versions, tells how Odin exacted a terrible price for his gifts. In the Gautreks saga,9 Starkaftr is conducted by Odin himself (who passes under the name of Hrosshárs-Grani) to witness a meeting o f the twelve chief gods, at which the fate of StarkaSr is being determined. Odin, who presides, grants the listener a lifetime thrice as long as that of most m en; but Thor counters with the decree that in each lifetime Starkaðr must commit one dastardly act (niðingsverk). The first of 3

FSN, II, 154 /·

4 Ed. Magnus Olsen, Copenhagen, 1906-08. 5 IV , l i 7. β V I I , 247 /. 8 cf. Saxo, V , 158: “ U ggerus [ = Odin] left him in the lurch.” 7 V I I I , 281. 9 F S N , III, 3-38.

THE OLD GODS AND HEROES

21

these is in the nature of a sacrifice to Odin in return for his favor: StarkaSr must give up his own lord V ikarr to the Lord of Valhall. The sacrifice is carried out by means of a ritual hanging and stabbing of the K ing with a spear, with the w ords: “ Now I give thee to Odin.” ( Nú g ef ek þik Óðni.) Although StarkaSr uses a reed staff to strike V ikarr, it becomes a spear in his hands; there is no cheating the god of his due. Since loyalty to one's lord was the cardinal virtue of Germanic society, no more tragic fate could have been imposed on Starkaðr than this. It made his name a byword in the later sagas. This sacrifice of V ikarr to Odin is referred to in other places: in the H álfs saga ok Hálfsrekka 10 the K ing is foredoomed to Odin before birth, in return for help given his mother. Here Odin takes the place of the devil or giant of numerous marchen, who gives assistance in return for an indefinitely specified fee that turns out to be the sup­ pliant's unborn child. Therefore V ikarr's father speaks of his son's doom prophetically in these w ords: Geirhildr, getta! gott er öl þetta, ef því andmarkar øngvir fylg ja ;

Geirhildr, behold! W ell made is thy beer, But an evil fate W ill follow, I fear;

ek sé hanga á hávum gálga son þinn, kona! seldan ÓÍSni!

On the gallows I see T h y son hang h igh ; A s g ift to Odin, W ife, he will die.

In the account by Saxo,11 however, the sacrifice is accounted for as in the Gautreks saga, as the price of StarkaSr's longevity; and in the fourteenth century Icelandic Starkaðs saga Stórvirkssonar12 the ex­ planation is precisely the same. Because of the manner in which Vikarr is killed— especially because he has been chosen by lot to die and because StarkaSr pronounces what seems to be a religious formula of consecration to Odin— it has 10 F S N , II, 23-46. 11 Bks. V I and V I I I . F o r a study of the growth of the legend of Starkaðr, see A xe l d r i k , Danmarks gamle Heltedigtning, II, Copenhagen. 1910. The relationship of Starkaðr to other long-lived heroes has been investigated by the present author, “ W idsið, Víðförull, and some other Analogues," P M L A , X L V I , 1931, 969-87. 12 Sagan af Starkaði Stórvirkssymi, Winnipeg, 1911,

22

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

been assumed that we have here a trace of regular sacrifice of Scandi­ navian kings to the god for the sake of their people.13 It must be remembered, however, that all of our authorities for the story are too late to give us certain information about truly primitive rityal. The Gautreks saga itself must have been composed after that romantic love story, the F r id tjo fs saga, to which it refers and upon which it depends. Nevertheless, there are so many references to human sacri­ fice to the gods— not only to Odin— in the whole body of the sagas, that there is probably some basis in ancient custom for the story of V ikarr’s death. The account of a sacrifice to Odin in the Hervarar saga on the occasion of a famine is another bit of evidence for the validity of the tradition. When Odin appeared in human guise to help his friends or thwart his friends' foes, he usually wore the semblance of a tall, venerable old man with one eye, whose laconic speech revealed great wisdom, wide experience, and extensive wanderings over the face of the earth. Thus it is that he enters the hall of King Yölsungr at Signy’s wedding in the Volsunga saga. In the Harðar saga Grimkelssonar,14 the hero, who is engaged in a dangerous and difficult adventure, finds a tall man clad in a blue cloak living alone in the forest, who greets him with these words: “ I knew thee when I saw thee, though I had never seen thee before; I was a friend of thy kinsman and thou too shalt enjoy the good of that friendship.” The old man gives Hörðr useful advice which leads to success in the adventure; but when he and his party return, both the old man and his house have disappeared, “ and men thought it true that he must have been Odin.” In the H rólfs saga Kraka, likewise, the hero and his followers are entertained by a mys­ terious old husbandman who gives them warnings and advice con­ cerning their visit to the hostile K ing Aðils of Sweden. On the way back, H rolfr angers the old man by refusing a g ift of weapons from him, and so the hand of warriors rides on, oppressed by a feeling of evil fortune. Suddenly one of them exclaims: “ A foolish man is wise too late, and so it is with m e: methinks we did unwisely when we 13 cf. Chadwick, op. cit., and Sir J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, N ew Y o rk, 1927, 354 f . : “ The human sacrifices to Odin were regularly put to death by hanging or by a combination of hanging and stabbing, the man being strung up to a tree or a gallows and then wounded with a spear/’ 14 Islendinga sögur, Copenhagen, 1847, I I ; see p. 44.

THE OLD GODS AND HEROES

23

refused what we should have accepted, for it is victory that we have refused.” And K ing H rólfr replies: “ I have the same foreboding, for that must have been the ancient Odin, and of a surety the man had but one eye.” 15 They return and try to find him, but of course he has disappeared. Great wisdom goes with the great age of Odin. Thus it is that he always wins whenever he is engaged in a contest in the solution of riddles or the telling of tales concerning olden times. In the Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks16 he substitutes for one of his favorites, Gestumblindi, and wins such a contest for him against Heiðrekr. This episode is derived from the Poetic Edda. Elsewhere too we find the one-eyed wanderer impressing mortals with his wisdom : in the Ólafs saga hins Helga17 he entertains K ing O laf with accounts of the older kings and heroes he has known, but is recognized by the all-too Chris­ tian monarch as a pagan demon; in Saxo, he visits the court of Rinda’s father, a mortal king, in the guise of a wanderer, and on another occasion it is said of him that “ no one knows his age, but in any case it surpassed the limits set for mortals.” 18 These descriptions but continue the tradition of the Poetic Edda\ and there are further echoes of the supernatural one-eyed wanderer, albeit somewhat de­ based, in the romantic sagas. Concerning the other gods, the earlier Icelandic sagas also give us a certain amount of information. The warlike Thor, wielder of the hammer» likewise had his favorites. It would seem that he was hostile to the friends of Odin, however, for he it was who imposed the evil doom on Starkaðr, and according to one account, the Hervarar saga, he killed StarkaSr himself. In the Fóstbrccðra saga,19 a fugitive is made invisible to his pursuers by sitting in a chair with T hor’s image carved upon it. In the Kjalnesinga saga20 there is an interesting de­ scription o f a temple or blóthús to Thor, together with the rites of sacrifice therein observed: “ [Thorgrim ] caused a great temple to be erected in his y a rd : it was 100 feet long, and 60 wide, and for it all 16 F S N , I , 72. 20 Islendinga sogar, I I , 4 0 2/., C h a p . 11. ie F S N , I , 309 ff . ; a ls o ed. J ó n H e lg a s o n , C o p e n h a g e n , 1924. 17 P a r t o f th e Flateyjarbók, C h r is tia n ia , 1862, I I , 134 /. C f. th e a u th o r ’ s a r tic le on W íd s lð , c ite d a b o v e , n o te 1 1. 18 B k . I l l , 78, a n d V , 158. 19 E d . K o n r a d G isla so n , C o p e n h a g e n , 1852, 97, C h a p . i x .

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men had to lay down a temple-toll. Thor was most worshiped there. Within, it was circular like a vault, and it was all adorned with hang­ ings and windows. Thor stood in the middle, with other gods at his two sides; farther forward there was a pedestal artfully made and planked above with iron : upon it there was to be a fire which was never to go out; this they called the sacred fire. On the pedestal there was to be a large silver ring which the temple priest should have at hand for all meetings with men. By the pedestal there was supposed to be a large bowl of copper, and into it ran the blood of cattle sacri­ ficed to Thor or to m an; this they called the sacrificial blood and bowl. The blood was supposed to be sprinkled on men and cattle. . . . ” Despite the comparative lateness of this document, and its doubtful value for the reconstruction of early Germanic religion, there are details of the description which recall some parallels in other cults. The circular structure may be due to Celtic or classic models; and the sprinkling with blood has many parallels, notably in the religion of Mithras. In the Guðmundar saga cns Rika there is likewise a refer­ ence to the sprinkling of men with sacrificial blood at fornum sið ( “ according to ancient custom” ).21 The god Frevr also enjoyed widespread worship, and received sac­ rifice, sometimes even human sacrifice. He is rather different from Thor, being essentially an agricultural god, not a military one; like others of the Vanir, such as Baldr and N jörðr, he seems to have con­ cerned himself with the increase of crops and fertility in cattle and men; hence the orgiastic nature of his cult, especially at Upsala, and its survival as a form of witches’ Sabbath in honor of Frö in medieval and early modern times.22 The sacrifices to Freyr which are 21 íslenzkar fomsögur, C o p e n h a g e n , i88o, I , 128. 22 S e e G u d m u n d S c h ü tte , Dänisches Heidentum, H e id e lb e r g , 1923 ( H jem ligt Hedenskab , 1 9 1 9 ). 93 ff. T h e w o rs h ip o f th e a g r ic u lt u r a l g o d s F r e y r and B a ld r b e a rs som e s ta r tlin g re sem b la n c e s to o r g ia s t ic c u lts in h o n or o f A d o n is , A t t is , and T a m m u z a n d th e P h r y g ia n K o t y s in A s ia an d A s i a M in o r : B a ld r a n d F r e y r b o th m ea n “ L o r d / ' a tra n sla tio n o f th e S e m itic w o rd s A d o n is , M o lo c h , and B a a l ; and “ B a ld e r s F r a u N a n n a hat L a u t fü r L a u t einen B ein am en d e r G ö tt e r k ö n ig in B a a la t od e r A s t a r t e ü b e rn o m m e n ; a u c h in K le in a s ie n is t e in e N a n a a ls G e lie b te d e s G o tte s A t t is b e k a n n t” ( S c h ü tte , 1 1 4 ) . T h e r e a re m a n y in d ic a tio n s th a t th e idea o f a d y in g g o d o f v e g e ta tio n , a g o d o f fe r t ilit y w h o is w o rs h ip e d w ith s e x u a l rite s, re a ch e d th e N o r t h fro m th e O r ie n t a t an e a r ly d ate. T h e s e re la tio n sh ip s a re e x h a u s t iv e ly stu d ied b y G u s ta v N e c k e l, Die Überlieferung vom Gotte Balder, D o rtm u n d , 1920. T h e p ro b ­ lem is fa s c in a t in g ; bu t w e a re less c o n ce rn e d h e re w ith th e o r ig in o f p a g a n cu lts th a n th e ir s u r v iv a l in th e la te r M id d le A g e s .

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25

mentioned in the sagas may bear some relationship to his power over the forces of nature. There is even some evidence that at one time human sacrifice was demanded by him ; it is well known that Upsala, a center of the cult of Freyr, was famous for this form of placation o f the gods in the time of Adam of Bremen. In the Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða the hero is a priest of Freyr, and very zealous in making sacrifices to his god.23 Late in the same saga, when Hrafnkel and his men are captured by enemies, their execution is debated in terms which imply a religious rite. One of the captors says to his brother: “ W hich would you rather do, porkell: sit here by Hrafnkel and watch over these [captives], or go out of the yard to the sanctuary by the farmstead and declare the execution on some heap of stones where there is neither farmland nor meadow?” And the author adds: “ This was supposed to be done at the time when the sun was full in the south.” Here the legal formula pronounced on the pile of stones sounds like an echo of sacrifice; the tabu on fertile ground or meadowland is no doubt connected with the idea that impure blood might diminish the earth's fertility. In the Hervarar saga, King HeiSrekr is a devotee of the god, to o : he “ sacrificed to Freyr, and the largest boar that he received he gave to Freyr; they looked on it as such a holy [beast], that over its bristles they took oath concerning all weighty cases: with this boar they made special sacrifice, and on Yule eve they led it into the hall before the K in g ; then the men laid their hands over its bristles and took oaths to do great things.” 24 Certain tabus seem to have been associated with the worship of Freyr. According to the Viga Ghhns saga,25 the god would not tolerate the presence of outlaws in places sacred to him. He sometimes showed favor to men who tried to propitiate him. porkell Háfi, it seems, once sacrificed an ox to Freyr with the following prayer: “ Freyr, thou who hast long been my protecting god, and hast received many gifts from me and well rewarded them, now do I give thee this ox so that Glumr may be forced to leave pverárland even as I am forced to now. Do thou let me see some token whether thou accept this or no.” 23 E d . J a k o b Ja k o b se n in

Austfirðinga sögur,

C o p e n h a ge n ,

1902-03; C h a p s, π

and XIII.

24 p. 328. T h e re fe re n c e to heitstrenging, o r s w e a r in g to do a d ifficu lt feat, m a k e s d o u b tfu l th e a n tiq u ity o f th is rite, fo r heitstrenging is c h a r a c te r is tic o f th e lygisögur. T h e s a c r ific e to a b o a r a p p e a rs in th e Ynglinga saga, C h a p . x x i . 26 íslemkar fornsögur, C o p e n h a g e n , 1880, I , 56, 29, a n d 78.

2Ó

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And the ox straightway roared aloud and fell dead. Later it is Glún who provokes the anger of Freyr, possibly for harboring the exi V ígfúss, who had violated the sanctuary of Upsala. Glúinr drean that he sees many men as suppliants before Freyr, who if sitting c a throne; they explain to Gh'imr that they are “ your kinsmen wl have died, and we are begging him that thou be not sent away froi pverárland; but it avails not, for Freyr answers briefly and angril and he calls to mind the ox that was given him by porkell H áfi.” S Glúmr is forced to leave the district, in spite of the intercession of h dead relatives. According to the Friðþjofs saga hins Frockna, certain tabus wei connected with the sanctuary of Baldr, a god who resembles Frej in a number of w a ys: “ So great was the zeal of heathen folk that n injury might be done there, either to man or beast, and men were nc permitted to have dealings with women there.” 26 The hero is bol enough to risk the anger of Baldr, however, for he pays frequer amorous visits to Princess Ingebjorg, who is kept in the enclosur« Nor does he suffer any great punishment as a result. Since the Frit, þjófs saga is probably a foreign tale imported into Scandinavia frot the Near East,27 this episode throws little light on ritual chastity i early Germanic religion; but since Baldr himself is probably strange god from Asia Minor, the combination of ideas is harme nious enough. And there is a description of a rite within his tempi which indicates that Baldr, like his Oriental comrades, Adonis an Attis, w as‘ regarded as a god of vegetation and fertility connecte with the revival of nature in the spring. It is in the spring the FriÖþjófr, returning to the sanctuary, finds women anointing, warn' ing, rubbing, and drying the image of Baldr by the side of a gres fire in the temple. The process seems to be intended as sympatheti magic to hasten the return of warmth and sunshine and the revive of vegetation in the vernal season. Precisely the same means wer used, as Neckel and Schütte have pointed out, in the cults of Atti and Tammuz.28 The parallel is interesting, even though the Friðþjój saga is merely fiction, and foreign fiction at that. 26 E d . L u d w ig L a rs so n , H a lle , 19 0 1; C h a p . 1. 27 S e e C . N . G o u ld , “ T h e F r ið þ jó f s s a g a an O r ie n ta l T a le / ’ S S N , V I I , 2 19 ff A . H . K r a p p e , Balor with the E v il E ye, N e w Y o r k , 1927, 82 ff. 28 N e c k e l, Gott Baldr, 12 9 ; S c h ü tte , Dänisches Heidentum, 116.

THE OLD GODS AND HEROES

27

There is some evidence in the sagas for the worship of theriomorphic divinities. In the Ragnars saga Loðbrókar ,29 a certain King Eysteinn has a remarkable cow named Siblia to whom he sacrifices, and from whom he receives help; but the very name of the beast looks suspiciously classical, although a similar cult is mentioned in the Heimskringla (ed. Unger, 180). Similarly, the sacred bull and vul­ ture kept by the priestess in the Bósa saga30 belong rather to the realm of marchen than to genuine historical tradition about ancient custom. In both the Hjálmþérs saga ok Givers and SturlaugssagaStarfsama *1 we read about the worship of oxen, but these stories are only fantastic romance. A s Schütte says, there is too little evidence for safe general­ izations about the worship of animals. And now, what of the gods as they appear in the romantic and “ lying” sagas? So far as they appear at all, they are either directly imitated from the earlier authors, Snorri and Saxo, or they are low­ ered to the rank of magicians and evil spirits. In the Egils saga ok Asm undar 'i2 a lusty and active giantess named A rinnefja seeks the help of Odin when she is on a quest for a magic cloak. She finds the erstwhile god ruling as a prince of darkness ( hofðingia myrkanna) within the depths of a mountain, but she recognizes him none the less: “ It seemed to me that that must be Odin, for he was one-eyed,” she explains. A fter she has lain with him, she receives the required garment. Thor also helps Arinnefja— at the same price, plus a goat promised as offering. There is little of the dignity of the old gods about these consorters with giants and witches. T o the author of the Sigurðar saga pögnla33 also Odin is an evil spirit and a teacher of witchcraft. Speaking of various types of persons who hear sagas, he says in the preface: “ Some are excited at times, and at others calm, even as was Odin and others who learned magic arts and leechdom of him; and there is enough reason to suppose that some [folks'] bodies have had motion from the breath of an unclean spirit, as for example Einarr Skarfr in the saga of O laf Tryggvason, or Freyr in 29 E d . M a g n u s O ls e n , C o p e n h a g e n , 1906-08. 80 E d . O . L . J ir ic z e k , S tr a s s b u r g , 1893. 8 1 F S N , I I I , 347 " 98 , a n d I I I , 461-502. 32 Egils saga Einhenda ok Asmundar Berserkjabana, ed. A a k e L a g e r h o lm D rei Lygisögur, A N S B , X V I I , H a lle , 1927. 83 E d . E in a r p ó r ð a r s o n , R e y k j a v ik , 1883.

in

28

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Sweden, whom Gunnar Helmingr slew.” In the Egils saga ok Asmundar, Odin's spear causes the death of Asmundr at the very end. In the Sigrgards saga Frakna there is another reference to the magic spear, which is, however, wielded by another person, a tall and powerful man named Skjöldr, who is a confederate of trolls and monsters: one end of his staff is marked with the point of Odin’s spear, and from the other end fire seems to blaze out.34 In the Brag 8 aMågus saga? 1 which is a fantastic reworking of the French Maugis d*Aigrcmont and other Carolingian epics, there are also some curious statements concerning the magic arts of Odin. The hero. Magus, is an adept in these arts, just as was his French counterpart Maugis, but the explanation for his proficiency would certainly have astonished a French audience: some men say, according to the saganian’s con­ clusion, that Magus was descended from Odin's son Narfi or Nari, “ and therefore it is very likely, if he came of that race, that he knew much about necromancy ( niðromantia), for the Æ sir were wont to be distinguished in this art.” (It may be added that Magus resembles Odin the wanderer in some of the disguises he assumes.) And the Æ sir are introduced incongruously enough as gods worshiped by a Saracen prince from A frica who invades France and demands the Princess Elinberg, Charlemagne’s daughter, in marriage. 4T shall receive her, and rule over France, if she will believe in T hor and Odin,” he says; “ otherwise there will be war.” It is curious to see what strange company is kept by the high gods of Valhall in these romantic sagas: Thor is found among trolls and giants, his tradi­ tional enemies; Odin becomes a patron of witches, and an adept in necromancy: both of them serve as Saracen gods in what was once a chanson de geste. This is a new form of the ragnarok indeed. Some of the later sagas contain rather lengthy descriptions of the gods and their home, generally using the euhemeristic interpretation of Snorri, and giving a definite geographical location for Valhall. The genealogy of demigods and men at the beginning o f the porsteins saga Vikingssonar3β is probably imitated from Snorri’s Prose Edda. In the Soria þáttr,37 the introduction also concerns the gods, whose home, AsgariSr, is placed in Asia. Freyja, the mistress of Odin ( !), 84Sagan af Sigrgarði Frœkna, Reykjavik, 1884, p . 35 Ed. Gunnlaugur pórðarson, Copenhagen, 1858. 86FSN, II, 5 5 -h *

30.

37 ibid.,

I , 269-81.

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29

gains a jewel from some dwarf blacksmiths by lying with each of them in turn. Loki reports this misbehavior to Odin, and is commis­ sioned to steal the jewel from her. This he does (he is the same old L o k i!), and Odin tells her that she will never have it back “ unless you bring it about that the two kings, who are served by twenty kings each, shall become foes and fight together under the charm and spell that they must arise and fight on as quickly as they fall, until some Christian man is so bold . . . as to dare to enter their combat and fight their men with weapons.” The rest of the saga relates how Freyja brings this about. The authority for her greed and treachery seems to be in Saxo Grammaticus, or in a source used by Saxo, for in the History o f the Danes we read that Frigga, w ife of Othinus, did a somewhat similar thing. When the god ordered his image to be made in gold and sent to Byzantium, she tried to gain the gold for herself by committing adultery with the artisan concerned. This it is which leads Saxo to the indignant exclamation that she was unworthy to have a god for a husband; perhaps for the same reason the sagaman substituted Freyja, the mistress, for Frigga, the wife. In some of the sagas, adventurous characters come upon the home of the gods in the course of one quest or another, and the experience is not always pleasant. The hero of the Sturlaugs saga Starfsama38 is sent forth by a king whom he has annoyed, to find an ur-οχ horn which the K ing had lost. When Sturlaugr asks for directions, the K ing replies curtly (in the manner of tyrannical monarchs in fairy­ tales) : “ Look to that for yourself!” ( Hygg þú sjálfr fyrir því.) Sturlaugr finally obtains some directions from the wise-woman Snælaug, Queen of Hundingjaland, who describes the place where the horn is to be fou n d : “ It is to be told that there is a great court standing in Bjarmaland, consecrated to Thor and Odin, F rigg and F reyja; it is artfully made, of the most precious wood, and its two doors face northwest and southwest. W ithin is Thor alone; the ox horn lies on the table before him, as fair as g o ld ; but Sturlaugr alone shall enter the court, for to him alone will good luck hold out so long. Let him not grasp the horn with bare hands, for it is full o f poison and magic spells.” W hen Sturlaugr finally reaches the palace, he finds that he must leap over a ditch of poison to obtain the horn. Thor 38ibid.,

I l l , 461-50 2.

30

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is not quite alone in the h all; he is surrounded by sixty women, of whom the chief is “ as large as a giant and as livid as Hel.” There are also many treasures near them. Sturlaugr’s companion is caught by the gods and killed, but the hero escapes with the horn. According to the opening of this saga, the gods were Turks and men of A sia who once dwelt in the Northlands under their chief or formaðr, Odin. The attitude of the sagaman is precisely that of Snorri Sturluson or Saxo Grammaticus. In fact, the closest parallel to Sturlaugr’s quest is to be found in S axo’s account of the journey of a certain Icelander named Thorkillus to the other world in search of the treasures of Geruthus, a former enemy of Thor (the same as the giant GeirrauSr of the Prose Edda). The palace of Geruthus is a gloomy place, full of snakes and poison and a horrible stench. Geruthus is pinned to the wall by a sword which Thor had put through him. When Thorkillus attempts to touch the treasure— one piece of which is, by the way, a rich and bejewelled horn (ingens bubali cornu)— he provokes an earthquake and an attack of the spirits who inhabit the place. On another occasion, Thorkillus makes a journey to the joyless realm of eternal night where rules I garthilocus, and he finds that it too is inhabited by snake.: and monsters. Saxo differs very much from Snorri Sturluson’s description of the same abode; but the whole pur­ pose of Saxo was apparently to paint the heathen picture o f the other world in as gloomy a manner as possible in order to afford a contrast to the new religion, Christianity, which was supposedly being preached at the time of the journeys of Thorkillus. Therefore the emphasis on poison, snakes, and stench may be due to the Christianity of the narrator. Gudmundus, brother of Geruthus, appears as Gu$mundr á Glaesisvöllum in the Hervarar saga. In the porsteins saga Bccjarmagns,89 we find further use o f the older lore concerning the abodes of gods and giants, and especially of the realm of the giant Geirrauðr, which was visited by Thor, accord­ ing to the Prose Edda. Thorstein joins GutSmundr of Glaesisvellir (or Glittering Plains) in Risaland, and with him he visits King Geirratíðr of Jotunheim, to whom the former owes tribute. (Accord­ ing to Saxo, by the way, Gufimundr and Geirrauðr are brothers, but it is not so here.) T o reach Glæsisvellir they must cross a preternatur89 MS. Rask 32, fol. 8gb-94b, Copenhagen University Library.

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31

ally cold river in which Thorstein's toe is wetted, and as a result he has to cut it off. (T his recalls an adventure of Qrvendill with Thor in the Poetic Edda.) At the court of GeirrauSr there are contests in sports, during which Thorstein, like Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied, helps his friends by means of his invisibility. A t this court they also see a rich magical horn upon which grows a human head with pro­ phetical powers. This head is reported to be hostile to Christian men, but it is not superior to flattery. One of the servitors of K ing Geirrauðr is supposed to be a swain sent him by “ K ing Odin.” 40 In truth, there is something strangely spooky about the whole place, and the visit resolves itself into a contest of magic against magic. In this contest Thorstein w in s: he evokes storm, solar heat and fire, and as a climax he strikes GeirrautSr dead. When he returns to the realm of ordinary mortals, he brings with him some precious jewels, including the horn Hvitingr as a present for his king. The porsteins saga Bccjarmagns resembles other accounts of a quest to the Scandinavian Other World ( especially since a horn plays such an important part both here and in the Sturlaugs saga Starfsama and in Saxo Gram­ maticus), and it is easy to trace the origin of some of the details to the two Eddas; but whence came the idea of a vocal human head growing at one end of a drinking horn, it would be very difficult to say. Still another story, the Samsons saga Fríða (part 2), makes use of K ing Guftmundr á Glæsisvöllum, whose realm is, however, de­ scribed according to medieval Latin accounts of India. A s late as the eighteenth century, Icelanders with an antiquarian interest like Snorri's were still composing sagas devoted largely to the affairs of the gods. There are two such sagas in which the chief character is Huld, a powerful witch-woman, whose supernatural gifts (derived from Odin) make her almost an equal of the gods. One of these sagas is much longer than the other; I shall therefore refer to them as the shorter and longer Sagas of Huld respectively.41 In the shorter Huldar saga there are really two supernatural women named Huld. The first is a daughter of a giant who has 40 M S . fo l. 93b. O d in a p p e a rs a s a k in g in th e g e n e a lo g y a t th e end o f th e Sigurðar saga ok Signýjar, N y k g l. S m l., 1802, 4to. 41 Sagan af Huld hinni miklu og fjölkunnugu Trölldrotnigu, A k u r e y r i, 1 9 1 1 ( th e s h o r t e r ) ; Sagan af Huld Drottningu hinnu Riku, R e y k j a v ik , 1909 ( th e lo n g e r ) . T h e r e a r e n o c r it ic a l e d itio n s ; a n u m b e r o f M S S . e x is t.

32

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learned magic from K ing Frosti o f Finnmark. She lures Odin— a Turkish chieftain who has come to the Northlands and is now wor­ shiped as a god— to her cave by causing him to pursue a hart while he is out hunting. He tells her that his name is A tríðr— an epithet of Odin derived from the Grímnismál in the Edda. He is also an expert in m agic; when he ties his horse he “ sings charms over it*' (c/ol galdra y'fir, at enginn fiíi tckið). Their conversation involves ancient runes and magic, and she explains that she has been impressed by the sud­ den rise of the gods to glory, in comparison with the race of the giants. Odin grants her the assurance that her offspring will be famous. The other Huld (who is possibly just a variant o f the first one) is the daughter of a king of Sweden, himself descended from the god Frevr, and a mysterious woman named G 1ÖÍS whom he found living alone in the forest. This Huld likewise is fostered in Finn­ mark : here she learns such useful arts as the ability to change her shape, the power of interfering in battle and the ability to exercise witchcraft at a distance, so that a man can die of a nightmare she sends to him. These arts she transmits to her two daughters, and many person* find it profitable to call on these redoubtable ladies for assistance. In fact, there is less talk of appealing to the gods than to Huld. The saga, despite its use of older sources, really marks the triumph of witchcraft over godhead. When Huld dies— or rather, when she retires from active life, for she continues to aid those who invoke her after her supposed “ death”— she leaves her powers to her two daughters. She tells them as part of her last advice, not to have a special temple erected to her, since that might diminish the prestige o f the two survivors: “ It will increase your fame to have a temple raised to you, and not to me. It was intended for my daughters, and not for me, when Odin decreed your fates.” And she counsels them to fetch the likeness of Frevr from Upsala to help them in their magic arts. “ Y our course will be protected so long,” she says, “ as Freyr can have his likeness saved. The image was gained when men entered the mound of Freyr several years a g o ; but so great a fear came over them that they stole nought but two wooden men [statues] which were placed there to amuse him. Y e shall fetch one of them hither, and have it always with you.” 42 This reminds one of the description of the 42 P. 53/.

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33

statues warmed by the fire in the F riðþjófs saga. In fact, there is another passage immediately preceding this43 which contains a verbal echo from the F riðþjófs saga. When Ilolgi, H uld’s husband, is about to die, he too leaves instruction: “ When I am dead, ye shall tell my men that I have gone to GóSheim [the home of the good]. . . . I wish to have a burial mound made over me, a very grand one, with one layer of stones and earth and the other of gold and silver. And I wish to sit up in my mound, clad in whatever weapons can be put in. But thou, Heimgestr, hast three years still to live. Do thou be buried here opposite my mound, so we can discuss the great tidings that befall.” When Holgi says this, his last remark ( kunmnn við pa ncffast vii1 fyrir stórtíðindum) , recalls the instruction of Thorstein to his son in the first chapter of the F riðþjófs saga: “ I wish to be buried opposite the mound of K ing Beli on this side of the fjord, down by the sea. Then it will be an easy thing for us two to call to each other concern­ ing what will happen.” Since this is so, it is also likely that the F riðþjófs saga suggested the cult of Freyr and his statue, as de­ scribed by Huld. One of the most interesting chapters of the shorter H'uldar saga, the eleventh, contains another passage concerning the worship of Freyr in Upsala, derived from other sources. During the reign of K ing Dómaldi in Sweden, there is a great famine. “ The Swedes made sacrifice and called on their gods, but the famine continued. . . . Then they made a great sacrifice of men, thinking that things would improve” ; but instead, they became worse. The chiefs of the land now begin to recall tales of a still more desperate sacrifice which might be made in such times, namely, the offering up of their own king; and they begin to prepare for this. A s a first step they require Dómaldi to marry, and when he has had a son to inherit the kingdom, they proceed: “ A t this time the Swedes held great councils. They were agreed that the great famine was due to Dóm aldi; and they added that ancient examples had shown that the leaders of the folk had always had most power over their good fortune, just as was said of yore about N jörðr and Freyr. They reckoned it most certain that their fortune would never be bettered while Dómaldi ruled the king­ dom; and at [a meeting of] the Thing they attacked and slew him 43 p. Si.

34

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

and all the chieftains who ruled over the land, and gave them to the gods, and smeared their blood on the pedestals of the gods.” Dómaldi himself, it may be noted, was a descendant of Freyr. That a king is directly responsible for the welfare of his people, and that calamities befalling them are due to some want in him, is an authentic primitive concept of cause and effect. There arc many instances of it collected from many tribes of so-called savages and discussed at length by Sir »James Frazer, in “ The Killing of the Divine K ing,” a chapter of “ The Dying God” in his Golden Rough. There are traces of this idea in highly developed literatures, to o : Sophocles gives us to understand at the beginning of Oedipus R ex that the famine from which the country is suffering is due to the undiscovered crime of its king which compels his people to sacrifice him, lest by sympathetic magic he cause the crops and cattle to suffer a similar diminution of powers. A famine was supposed to be caused by a senescent ruler; yet the saga definitely tells us that Dómaldi was a young one. Probably the author was using medieval material of which he, living in a more rational age, did not understand the true significance. He obviously used the two Eddas, and the Ynglinga saga, and probably Saxo Grammaticus also, who tells the story of a witch-woman named Kraka who resembles Huld. Kraka also enjoys partly divine powers, and is able to help persons who call on her name when they are in need.44 We have seen that there are resem­ blances to the Friðþjófs saga, and the author explicitly refers to skaldic verses and the H rolfs saga Kraka as sources. Thus the shorter Huldar saga is made of many borrowings, and the passage about the sacrifice of kings in ancient Sweden is far removed from original evidence on the subject. Nevertheless, it is interesting to find so many of the old ideas concerning the relations of gods, witches and kings— some of them very primitive ideas— thus faithfully pre­ served in a late document. It was the patriotism and antiquarian zeal o f the authors that kept them alive. The longer Huldar saga is concerned chiefly with the complicated adventures and feuds of two heroes, H ergeirr and Hildibrandr. In the midst o f their repetitious and boring feuds, Huld sometimes intervenes, just as she did in the shorter saga, when heroes call on 44V, 130 and 149.

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35

her: she controls storms, fights for a devotee in the form of a whale, or flies over a battle-field emitting arrows against the foe from every finger-tip. She is descended from the giants, but is exposed by her mother, Queen Magia of Huldurmannaland, in annoyance at the infidelities of the King. A giant uncle of hers adopts her in the forest. The story of her connection with Odin (who is here repre­ sented as an ordinary king) differs somewhat from the one in the shorter saga. K ing Odin is out hunting one day with two courtiers, Loki and Hænir. He leaves them to pursue a hart alone, and in the depths of the forest he encounters three imposing women, the chief of whom speaks as follow s: “ Is it true, as it appears to me now, that our proud and wise K ing Odin is faring alone here in the forest, and that he wishes to steal our goods like a thief or a village boor? Methinks I also perceive that he is perplexed in his m ind; or can it be that the embraces of Freyja in AsgarSr are less pleasing to him than a search for our dwelling by a long way through the dark forest? Be thou welcome here, Odin.“ During his visit to her, Odin gives her domin­ ion over the trolls and giants. She in turn presents him with the two ravens “ which ever after followed him and told him tidings and all things that he desired to know.” She gives him a ring which causes trouble when he returns home to AsgarSr. This ring had been made by four dwarfs for Nimrað, and with it went the power of dominion over trolls. “ But when F reyja knew o f the love that was between Odin and Huld the troll-wife, and [learned] that the ring had been gained in this wise, she bribed Loki to steal it, and thereafter she sent it to Skrama,” a giantess. So, according to this saga, Odin is a rather passive individual, and the two women, Huld and Freyja, direct events as they please. T o the Eddas our author must have been indebted for the association of K ing Odin with Loki and Hænir at the beginning, for the god was traveling with these two companions when he became involved in the complex story of the Nibelung gold. The Eddas also furnished the legend of the two ravens who attend Odin and report happenings in the world of m en; but there is no authority for the idea that they were presented to him by a witch like Huld. It is curious that F rigga has been replaced by F reyja as Odin's consort, just as in the Soria þáttr. The reason may be that in the latter saga Freyja ( O d in s mistress)

36

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was likewise associated with a robbery of a jewel, although there she gained the coveted object by infidelity, instead of employing Loki. The tradition, as we have seen, may be traced back to Saxo Gram­ maticus ; beyond that we do not know. The chief indication that Odin is really more than an ordinary king is the authority which he pos­ sesses to make Huld the ruler over all the trolls and giants. He also retains some magical powers, for it is said that he had made a certain sword invincibly sharp {hefir Óðinn það ålagt, að enginn skuli þess egg jar deyfa). This is in accord with the best medieval tradition, as the sword of the Völsung family will testify. But we do not know how he came to be associated with the troll-wife or witch Huld. She is a stranger to the gods of the heroic age. T o be sure, she is probably ancient and venerable enough in her own right, since she may be identified with the vague but unquestionably genuine Teutonic Frau Holde of German legend, and her name is related to that of the huldufolk of Icelandic folklore. She is primarily a witch in our two sagas, and her association with Odin is symbolical of the fate which overtook the high gods in the later sagas. They have become dealers in magic, patrons and even lovers of the trolls against whom they once waged war. They escaped the purifying death by fire which the heroic age decreed for them, hut they have descended to an abode of darkness (according to a number of the sagas), and they care more for the society of witches than for fallen heroes. Curiously enough, this is a return to their original state. Modern research has proved that Odin and his kind once dwelt in a gloomy land of the dead beneath the earth, chill and repulsive as the one described by Saxo. The bright citadel of Valhall was a creation of the V iking age. A fter that time, as we have seen, later sagas returned them to the land of Hel— partly as a result, no doubt, of Christian theology. Freyr be­ came Frö, patron of the witches’ Sabbath in Sweden; Odin became the lover of the witch Huld and of the lusty giantess Arinnefja, a hofSingi myrkanna. This was the true Götterdämmerung. The gods did not d ie; they merely fell. II

Just as a lively literary interest in the gods caused repetition and imitation of the traditional scenes in which they occurred, so the popularity of certain heroes in the older sagas gave rise to later imi­

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tations. In many cases, too, an inferior late saga tries to purchase itself a modicum of esteem by pretending to be connected with a tale already popular. A good instance of this is the fantastic and inco­ herent porsteins saga Vikingssonar, which purports to deal with the ancestors of the characters in the F riðþjófs saga, or the Egils saga ok Asmundar, which is still more loosely connected with the legend of StarkaÖr. Such connections are, however, very tenuous; they are usually limited to a few genealogical notices in the last chapter of the lygisaga. In other cases we are confronted with a borrowing of situations and plots, and that is more significant. There was a certain amount of this prevalent even in the classical age of saga-w riting; and in fact some literary situations were so conventional that it is difficult to discover which is the most original treatment.45 One of the most popular sagas was the Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungu ,4e for we find traces of its influence even in nearly contemporary tales. O r was it merely that certain situations tended to repeat themselves in real life? It is difficult to say. In the Gunnlaugs saga we have the story of a man betrothed to a girl, Helga, whose father agreed that she should wait for him for three years; if after that time Gunnlaug had not returned home, the father was free to marry her off to someone else. When Gunnlaug was unavoidably detained abroad, his rival wooed and won Helga from her father. Upon Gunnlaug’s return, a quarrel broke out between husband and lover which ended in the death of both of them, and Helga alone was left alive, taciturn as always, but certainly very near heartbreak. She had never ceased to love Gunn­ laug. This is a simple enough situation, probably often recurrent in real life. The important thing is that it is also recurrent in literature. In the porsteins saga Hvita47 there is a precisely similar situation; the heroine is even called Helga as in the Gunnlaugs saga; but here the hero kills the false friend who had won Helga from him; he marries her, and there is a happy ending. The new conclusion is brought about by a very slight change in the plot. Even closer is the plot of the Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappay4B a splendid story full of dra45 F o r a d is c u s sio n o f so m e o f th e se ste re o ty p e d situ a tio n s, see A n n a C o r n e lia K e r s b e r g e n , Litteraire Motieven in de N jála, R o tte rd a m , 1927. 46 E d . E . M o g k , H a lle , 1908. 48 E d . E . C . B o e r , H a lle a / S . f 1893. 47 E d . J a k o b J a k o b se n in Austfirðinga sögur, C o p e n h a g e n , 1902-03.

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matic action, pointed dialogue, suspense, and the restrained expression of deep human feeling. A s in the Gunnlaugs saga, the two rivals are both skalds, and both serve foreign princes during their absence from Iceland. Their feud is long-drawn out. The husband finally brings about the slaying of Bjorn, the wronged and cheated lover, but he survives himself. Oddny, the wife, says nothing; but from that time forth she is a victim of constant restlessness; she is unable to remain in one place, although she is ill, and they lead her about from one homestead to another on horseback until she dies. She, like the two Helgas, had remained loyal to the man she was first pledged to in marriage. These three are classical sagas, belonging to the best age o f literary activity in Iceland and dealing with real families. Another saga, o f the more imaginative type, was also imitated in some o f the lygisögur, namely the Völsunga saga. Here, too, there is a tragic love story resulting from a broken betrothal and a marriage founded on decep­ tion. Sigurd, the famous dragon-slayer, forgets the warrior maiden Brynhild whom he has awakened from magic sleep, and marries the Princess GifSnin. He even brings about a marriage between Brynhild and his brother-in-law Gunnar. Later, when his memory returns to him, he finds himself in the midst of a dangerous and complicated situation which ends tragically because of the jealous rivalry o f the two women. Since four persons are involved instead o f three, the affair is less simple than in the Gunnlaugs saga; nevertheless there is enough resemblance to enable authors of later sagas to imitate both plots at once. A good instance of this is the Hrings saga ok Tryggva ,49 Brynhild, Princess of GarSarik, loves Hringr, heir of Miklagarðr, who has been fostered at her father's court. But when the young man asks her to pledge herself to him and wait for him until he has returned from winning glory abroad fas Gunnlaug asks H elga), she is full of gloomy forebodings. She replies cautiously: ‘T know not what may come to pass; but I can tell thee that I might not choose a hardier man than thou art, though I had the choice of the most excellent princes in the world. But I fear that there will be some hindrance to 49 E x t a n t in a n u m b e r o f M S S . T h e q u o ta tio n s u se d h e r e a re b a se d on N y k g l. S m l. 1772*, 4to. T h e o ld e r p a rch m e n t M S S . m e n tio n e d b y F in n u r Jó n sso n , Den old norske og oldislandske Litteraturs Historie , a r e fr a g m e n t a r y .

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our marriage, so that we shall not have joy of each other in peace.” And soon after the departure of H ringr her apprehensions are realized: a gigantic, troll-like wooer demands Brynhild, and can only be defeated by young K ing T ryggvi of Saxland, who insists upon receiving her as his reward, despite her previous betrothal. Forced to choose between the giant and T ryggvi, her father naturally yields her to the latter, who remarks casually that he has a sister to offer to H ringr as consolation. So Brynhild is married to T ryggvi, and goes home with him, but she remains persistently sorrowful. When her husband questions her, she replies : “ I cannot deny that H ringr is always in my m ind; though thou art the higher in rank, still I put my love on him beforehand. But the greatest cause of my sorrow and care is the fear concerning the quarrel which will follow between you.” When H ringr does arrive, she succeeds in reconciling them after a severe duel, and she even brings about the marriage of H ringr to her husband's sister Brynvegr. The four characters are now in precisely the relationship of Sigurd and Brynhild, Gunnar and Guðrún. The solution is rapid; in fact it is too easy and too external to the characters concerned. Saxland is attacked by a treacherous enemy: in the ensuing battle T ryggvi is killed, and his sister dies of grief. This elimination leaves Brynhild and Hringr free to marry as they had originally intended. It would seem that the author had amused himself by imitating the Völsunga saga up to a certain point and then adding an ending which was "‘happy” for two of the persons at least. It cannot be said that the innovation is an improvement. The Hrings saga ok Tryggva contains a subplot which follows the Gunnlaugs saga quite closely. It tells of Æ sa and Ásmundr, who pledge faith to each other for three half years in the course of which Æ sa’s father and brother force her to marry O laf of Norway against her will. She prevents the consummation of the marriage, however, by telling the King that the Norns have put an álög (spell, charm) of illness upon her if she is deprived of her maidenhood within the first three years. A t the end of that time her lover returns, bent on revenge, and sets fire to the hall of King Olaf. But Æ sa refuses to come out and be saved unless her husband and his friends are likewise rescued : “ If thou wilt not grant peace to O laf and Eyvindr, I shall see to it that thou wilt be talked of far and wide, for I and my son, who is thine also, will be burnt here together.” A t this threat, Asmundr has

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the flames put out, and O laf restores Æ sa to him. Even this episode is partly under the influence of the Völsunga saga. The pretext of Æ sa for deferring the consummation of her marriage reminds one of the speech of Brynhild to (the supposed) Gunnar when she js won by her unwanted second lover; and the scene at the burning hall is clearly modeled on the thrilling interview between Signý and S ig ­ mund, when the former insists upon reentering the flames to die with the husband she has always hated. In fact, the close imitation causes an absurd inconsistency in the Hrings saga ok Tryggva. Since Signv is able to speak of her son Sinfjótli and reveal to Sigmund that the boy is his child, Æ sa must perforce refer to a son also (though he had never been mentioned before), and claim Asmundr as his father; and yet the K ing is supposed to be under the delusion that his wife is still a maiden! The saga does not tell us by what álög she explained this difficult situation. V ery similar to the main plot of this tale is the Hrings saga ok Skjalldar/° another echo of the Gunnlaugs saga. Skjölldr is fostered with Princess Dagmær of Sweden, and although there is no betrothal, the two are in love with each other. While Skjölldr is away on an expedition, Dagmær is courted by a gigantic berserkr, and by H er­ mann of Bjarmaland, who offers to save her from him. Like Bryn­ hild, she chooses the lesser of the two evils, although she remarks w istfully: “ I had intended to have another husband/’ Naturally Skjölldr is angry when he returns home, and there is a holmgang ( or duel) between the husband and disappointed lover. Neither combatant is killed, however, and Skjölldr receives the sister of Hermann as wife, as consolation for losing Dagmær. This amicable arrangement brings the saga near to the situation in the Völsunga saga, but here it is regarded as a satisfactory solution, and there are no tragic consequences. In Chapter V III of the Völsunga saga, there is a dramatic story told of Sigmund which is imitated closely in an obscure later saga. The father and all the brothers of Sigmund have been treacherously attacked by their brother-in-law, Signý’s husband. The brothers are put into stocks and placed near the edge of a wood, whence a fierce 60 N y k g l. S m l. 119 7, fo l. 9 5 -114 . T h e s a g a is p re c ed ed b y th e f o llo w in g im p re s siv e n o t e : “ S n g u þ e ssa fan n P h ilp p u s {sic] M e is ta r i á ein u m s t e in v e g g i P a r is b o r g m e ð L a tín u s k r ifa ð a , o g sn e ri h en n i å N o r r æ n u . . .

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she-wolf comes every night and devours one of them. But Signý contrives to save Sigmund, the last of them : she sends a maid out to him who smears his face and mouth with honey; this causes the wolf to lick h im ; he grasps its tongue between his teeth, and in the ensuing struggle is torn free of the stocks. In the pjalar-Jons saga,51 the hero is also captured by an enemy, the slayer of his father, and is put in stocks where he will be exposed to the wolves. His mother sends her maid out to smear his face with honey, and give him a magic ring that will protect his life. “ The maid journeyed,“ says Jón, “ until she found me sitting bound in the stocks. She spread honey on the stocks and about them ; next she gave me food, and smeared all the honey on me, and into my mouth she thrust a clot of the honey; then she put the ring on my finger, and cut free both my hands and my feet, and spread her cloak over me. . . . “ The she-wolf comes in due course; her aspect is so terrible that Jón decides at once to become a Chris­ tian if he escapes whole. “ The wolf went licking about the grass and the stocks,“ continues Jón, “ where she recognized the scent of honey; she licked me between heel and neck. And when she had done this, she thrust her tongue into my mouth. . . . I bit on the tongue, plung­ ing into [the cavity] from above, and held fast, and drove the other hand into the w olf's mouth and cut out the tongue by its roots. She started back so fiercely that she lifted the stocks aloft, and they broke asunder, and I was free.“ This passage is so close to its original that one can even recognize verbal echoes. But it is needless to say that the grim, unbending Sigmund of the Völsunga saga makes no such cautious bargain with God as pjalar-Jón confesses to here. There are other instances of the imitation of early sagas during the age when foreign influence was strongest, but these will suffice to prove the point. Even in the midst of French, Greek, and Oriental plots, we still find the old gods and heroes quite often. The gods have changed, and the heroes are but pale shadows of their originals, but they are still recognizable. There was, as a matter of fact, no sudden and complete break with the past even when Icelandic literature “ went romantic,“ and the Huld sagas show that the old tradition was carried on, because of antiquarian interest and enthusiasm, until modern times. In fact, the antiquarian interest is still strong in Iceland, though it manifests itself now in different ways. 51 Sagan af pjalar-Jóni ,

önnur útgafa, Reykjavik, 1907, 30/.

CHAPTER III

T H E C L A S S I C A L T R A D IT IO N I. LATIN LEARNING

N E of the noteworthy elements in the later sagas is the learn­ ing, or pseudo-learning, derived from Latin sources. It is often used quite incongruously in the midst of native Ger­ manic material. Sometimes the authors actually give their sources, or use Latin words which serve as a clue; at other times they content themselves with general borrowings which cannot be traced. Part of the vogue for such subject-matter expressed itself in the names chosen for characters: in the Adonius saga, for instance, we find characters named Constantius, Marsilius, Remedia, Fabricius, Metellus, and Ludovicus: the doughty heroes of the Ectors saga rejoice in such names as Aprival and Trancival, Alanus, Fenatius, Florentius, and Vernatius. Greek names occur, too, in a saga like the Kirialax saga; and in others classical ones appear together with the Germanic, as in the Sigurðar saga pogida, where we find persons named Sigurd and Halfdan consorting with worthies named Eufemia, Sedentiana, and Agapitus. From Pliny the Elder through later authorities such as Isidore of Seville, and by w'ay of the medieval lapidaries, there reached Iceland some of the classical lore about precious stones. This was incor­ porated, for instance, in the Alfrœði íslenzk ,1 a little encyclopedia, which contains a special section on náttúrusteinar (precious stones) based on the lapidary of Marbod of Rennes. And the lygisögur fairly abound in these náttúrustcinar; the Icelanders developed an almost Oriental fondness for descriptions of jewels with magic properties. In the Ectors saga ok kappa hans,2 the hero lives in a tower illumi­ nated solely by the blaze of jewels which decorate it. His helmet is adorned w ith “ smaragdus, saphirus, carbunculus, christallus, vietillus and adamas,” the last stone being thus described: “ it is invincible

O

1 E d . K . K a a lu n d , C o p e n h a g e n , 1908-18. 2 G l. k g l. S m l. 1002, fo l. 120a ff. S e e R . M e iss n e r, “ Z u r islä n d isch e n H e c t o r s a g e ,”

Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum , X X X V I I I , 1894, 333-5.

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except if it be first put for three nights into a ram’ ; blood; then it becomes subdued, and attains such hardness that it surpasses gold and jewels; it is so bright that it gleams through the whole hall.,, This is fairly close to the account by Marbod, which also mentions the soaking in goat's blood. Later there is a reference to the self-luminous carbuncle, which acts as a lamp “ and all the house was lit by it,” just as the lapidaries assure us it would be. Quite as valuable is the stone dionysius, of which it is said that “ if it is placed in water, then [the water] flows like wine, and he who drinks of it is gladdened, as though it were by the best w ine; nor does he become drunk thereby, but casts aside all heaviness and waxes joyful.” 3 In other sagas, such as the Sigrgarðs saga ok Valbrands (Chapter II) and Rémundar saga Keisarasonar, we find carbuncles used to illuminate a h all; of these more will be said later. In the Saga af Faustus og Ermenu % Serklandi/ the hero is made invulnerable by a helmet adorned with the stones “ adamas and arcilis.” It is impossible to tell of the vast number of magic stones with special qualities, but no special names, which appear in the sagas: stones that induce love at first sight (as in the Sigurðar saga pögula) , or provide the wearer with invisibility (ibid.— and elsewhere!), or work the cure of a dread disease (as in the Játmundar saga L jiifa ), or reveal what is happening in other parts of the world (as in the Blomstrvalla saga, the Nitidu saga, the Gibbons saga ok Gregu, and many others). So great was the admira­ tion for jewels of any sort, in any connection, that in one saga5 the eyes of a beautiful woman are compared to carbuncles— surely a strange comparison, one would think, unless the eyes were inflamed, and therefore anything but beautiful! In the Konráðs saga Keisara­ sonar0the chief adventure is a quest for precious stones in the palace at Babylon, which are to be found in a receptacle suspended in the air because of the action of magnets concealed in the walls. The virtues of these jewels are thus explained: the green “ jacintus” protects one from snake-bite, drunkenness, and defeat; “ smaragdus” does the same; but “ carbunculus” in addition “ protects houses from fire and keeps them illuminated.” 8 T h e re fe r e n c e s to th e d ia m o n d , c a rb u n c le , a n d d io n y s iu s a p p e a r on fo lio s 120b, 129b a n d 1 2 1 b r e s p e c tiv e ly . 4 M S . o f th e B ó k m e n ta fé la g , 227, 4to, R e y k j a v i k L ib r a r y . 5 T h e Hjálmþérs saga ok ölvérs, F S N , I I I , 375. • E d . C o p e n h a g e n , 1859.

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Besides precious magical stones, the incredible monsters of an­ tiquity appear also from time to time in the sagas. In the Sigurðar saga pögula, the author makes no secret of his indebtedness to classi­ cal sources. On one occasion he describes a horned, one-eyed giant: “ he was noseless and bald; the kind o f troll who is called ciclopes in books“ : and o f course he is killed by the putting out of his one eye by a spear thrust. Although Polyphemus is not named, this is surely an imitation of him, as are the one-eyed giants living in caves to be found in other sagas. Again, there is a description o f a whole army o f monstrous creatures led by K ing Ermedon of Bláland (A fric a ), remarkable for its mixture of classic and Germanic ideas: “ First there were blamenn (A fricans) and berserks, dwarfs and dularfolk [disguised folk?], giants and trolls. He also had with him ettins of the country called Ceneofali [sic]. They bark like dogs, and have dogs’ heads. He had likewise men with one eye only in their fore­ heads; and others were headless, having mouth and eyes in their breasts. These people were huge as giants and black as pitch.“ 7 No question whence come these quaint creatures topped with dogs’ heads or lacking heads entirely: from authorities like Solinus,* this won­ drous lore had been incorporated in learned Icelandic works which must have been used by authors of lygisögur. The encyclopedic work, Alfrœði íslenzk, contains a convenient catalogue* o f monsters from the Orient under the heading o f Risaþjóðir: it contains “ Cicopli” with one eye, whose aspect has not changed since classical antiquity, despite the metathesis their name has suffered. It also tells of the dog-headed men, the “ Cenocefali,” in words which echo Solinus’s characterization: “ ad sermonem humanum nulla voce, sed latratibus tantum, sonantes.” Here also are the headless folk, called Lamnies, and the tiny Pigmies, and practical-minded Skioppodas who use their one large foot as an umbrella when they lie down, and all the other diverting creatures with whom medieval geographers peopled India and other conveniently remote places in the Orient. Under still more corrupted names these curious persons are to be found in the Rimbcgla, a collection of miscellaneous information on history, 7 Ed. Reykjavik, 1883, 64. 8 I v lii S o lin i Polyhistor , V ie n n a , 1520, 299 ( C h a p .

l x v ).

· p. 34.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

45

geography, and astronomy.10 Here the Cynocephali masquerade as Cerocephali, and the Cyclopes as Cituplex! It is easy enough to recog­ nize the Monopedes as Einfætingar (which are found, for instance, in the pjalar-Jóns saga and the Vilhjálms saga S jó ð s) and the Höfudlauser explain themselves; but who would recognize the fish­ eating Ichthyophagi under their new cognomen, the Anthiofagi? It would be difficult but for the qualifying description: [peir] nyta ekki nema fiska etna. No wonder the names appear under a strange form in the sagas.11 There are other classical monsters in the sagas, some of them sadly fallen from a more dignified state. The Sigrgarðs saga ok Valbrands12 casually mentions “ the bird called Venus” ; the Fertrams saga ok Platós contains a horse Bullsifal or Bussifal, which was once the proud steed Bucephalus, belonging to Alexander the Great. In the Kirialax saga, the Minotaur is renamed “ honocentaurus,” and “ Dydalos” is boldly identified with Volundr the Smith of the Edda. In the Ü If hams saga,1* there are annoying birds called Tronur, really enchanted women, who, like the Vergilian harpies, disturb the heroes whenever they sit down to eat. In the Asmundar saga, Vilhjálms, ok Valtara,1A there is a strange flying creature called the “ afinia” of which we know nothing, save that its name appears classical; and the Vilhjålms saga Sjóðs contains a fourteen-footed beast named Catamansus. The Ernestus saga ok Vestelus15 (which is, to be sure, a late translation from the German) contains the griffons and Sciopedi and Harpies which had been popularized in mendacious books of travel like the famous one attributed to Sir John Mandeville. Indeed most of these monsters are to be found in sober books on geography— that is, medieval geography, which evokes visions not particularly suggestive o f sobriety to us. Even ordinary animals, in the Middle Ages, were endowed with qualities which move us to smiling wonder. Aristotle and Pliny began 10 S e e T h . T h o ro d d s e n , Geschichte der isländischen Geographie, L e ip z ig , 1897, 7 7 ; t e x t e d ite d a s Rymhegla, C o p e n h a g e n , 1780. 11 I n th e Blomstrvalla saga, ed. T h . M o b iu s, L e ip z ig , 1855, th e re a r e m o n ste rs n a m ed fingalptar, p o s sib ly re la te d to sphinges’, th e b is e x u a l m o n ste r G e b a l is im i­ ta te d , no d o u b t, fr o m th e “ E r m a fr e d ita e ” o f th e Rimbegla, 346. 12 N y k g l. S m l. 1695, 4to, 283-419. 13 K a l i 613 , 4to, fo l. 163a. 14 H a n d r it B ó k m e n ta fé la g s in s , V ið b æ t ir B 1 7 , 103-64. 15 A r n . M a g . 581, 4to.

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the tradition; the bestiaries continued it through the Middle Ages. There are traces of these edifying disquisitions on the nature of various animals in our sagas. Sigurd pöguli is (like Chretien's Y vain ) accompanied by a grateful lion whom he has rescued; this leads the author to comment on the nature of the K ing o f Beasts: “ He has many remarkable natural gifts. He sleeps with his eyes open and sees what befalls him which might cause him danger or harm. The female lion bears her whelps dead, and they remain lifeless for three days and nights: but then the male approaches and breathes on the whelps until they come to life; and in this he tokens forth God Himself who raised His Son from the dead on the third day after His torment. He [the Lion] strikes the earth with his tail, so that his footsteps cannot be followed. Master Lucretius calls the lion holy in nature because he does not harm a man except for extreme hunger, if the man does nought against him. . . . ” 16 Despite the reference to an unknown “ Master Jmcretius” (hardly the Roman poet), the real source of this passage is the Bestiary, sometimes called “ Physiologus.” The author of this saga, by the way, quotes another Latin author of whom we df) know something, namely, the “ Meistari Ovidius,” whose amorous verses were censured by Bishop Jon* When someone claims to have been the first lover o f Queen Sedentiana, Sigurd remarks dryly that few would believe it, “ as Master Ovid says, and many other wise men." He further shows indebtedness to Ovid when he refers to love as “ Amors leik” ;17 but this saga is unus­ ually rich in classical allusions. Ovidian ideas on love were, by the way, fairly current in Scandinavia by the middle of the thirteenth century. Not only were the works of the Roman poet read in the original, as we have seen, but a medieval imitation of his De Arte Amandi, namely, the Pamphilus ct Galatea, had been translated into Old Norse by that time. This didactic poem in elegiac verse is pre­ sented in simple dialogue form. The lover, Pamphilus, appeals to Venus for help; the goddess appears and gives him advice concerning the rules of the game of lo ve; later, with the help of an intermediary — an old woman— Pamphilus gains his desire. The rules cited by Venus are of the simplest: serve your lady assiduously; frequent her 16 Sigurðar saga pöguli, 41. 17 p. 8 4 : “Nú sem leið mjök náttin ok frúin var heit orðin, bæði ok því er veðrit tók at batna . . . ”

af

Amors leikum

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

47

presence; show a cheerful mien, play the part of a rich man, and use strength at the right moment. Yet these counsels are derived from the more elaborate ones of Ovid.18 T o return to the bestiaries: In the Vilhjálms saga S jóð s 19 there is another hero who wins the services of a grateful lion after rescuing it from a dragon; and later, when the lion is killed and its heart is given to a timid person to eat, the latter suddenly becomes bold and fierce. This is no more than is to be expected, granting the premises of sympathetic magic. The Kirialax saga tells us, on the authority of “ Ysidorus biskup,” that elephants can be terrified by mice, and explains the defeat of an Oriental army by means of an exploitation of this strange antipathy.20 T o Isidore of Seville is probably due the information about the dromedary in the Ectors saga, namely, that it is so called because “ it is as swift in running as a bird is in flying.” 21 There are many references to the history of classical antiquity as it was understood in the Middle Ages. W ith some authors it became fashionable to prefix a brief account of the world's history to a saga, in order to present the story as an account of authentic happenings. Probably these prefaces deceived no one, but were considered effective in winning attention. The chief sources used were the Bible and Troian legend, either directly from the Latin De Excidio Trojae of Dares Phrvgius, or from the Trojumanna saga. A convenient sec­ ondary source was the Veraldar saga, or compendious history of the world in Icelandic, and the Gyðinga saga gave a concise survey of Biblical history. The A dóntus saga, for instance, begins with the division of the earth by the sons of Noah, passes over the empires of Persia and Babylon, and describes briefly the settling of Phrygia, the Trojan W ar, and the career of Alexander the Great, before proceed­ ing with the saga, which concerns a fictitious dynasty of Antioch. The Ectors saga makes use of the Trojan legend at every turn, pos­ sibly in imitation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, thóugh the authority quoted is a wise “ Master Galterius.” It begins with the statement that Priam ’s kin sailed away and founded many new cities after the fall 18 Pamphilus saga ok Galathea, ed. E . K o lb in g , Germania, X X I I I , 1878, 129 -41. S e e J o se p h d e M o r a w s k i, Pamþhile et Galatée, P a r is , 19 17, In tro d u c tio n . 19 A r n . M a g . 182, fo l. 20 E d . K a a lu n d . 29 /. 21 F o l. 12 1 a . S e e Isid o re , X I I , i, 36, w h o s a y s : “ D ro m e d a ge n u s c a m e lo ru m est, m in o ris q u id em sta tu ra e , sed v e lo c io r is .”

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of T ro y; one of these descendants is K ing Karnótius, who founded an empire in “ Tirkland” and eventually regained the land of Illium. T o his queen there appears a vision of a warrior who says: “ I am called Ector, Priam’s son of Troy. . . . I give my name to the ^on thou art carrying now.” The hoy is accordingly named Ector, “ and the master says he was most like to him who was called Alexander Paris, King Priam ’s son.” The adventures contained in the saga are not derived from the Trojan legend, for they are limited to a monotonous succession of combats with giants and dw arfs; but at the end we find a curious note, in which (according to the scribe, who keeps himself quite distinct from the author) “ Meistari Gallteri” is quoted as authority by the composer of the tale: “ and therefore we can not misdoubt this tale (œfentyrc) of the great battle which occurred on the first [of the] Kalends of July, being 377 years after the redemp­ tion of the world’s torment.” Similarly, the Heðins saga ok Hlöðvcrs refers at the end, with edifying precision, to the reign of Darius, and the date 3409 after the creation of the world. This is typical of the desire to make lygisögar masquerade as history. Still more daring is the claim advanced by the Vilhjálms saga Sjóðs, supposed to have been written by Homer and preserved in Babylon! Some of the M SS. begin: “ The Saga of Vilhjálm r Sjóðr, which is said to have been found in Babylon, composed by Homer,” but on one22 the skeptical note has been added in Latin (in another hand ) : “ Non quod Homerus hoc opus unquam scripserit, verum quod materiam hvperbolarum auctor ex Homerus hauserit.” Y et the connection with Homer is tenuous enough: it is limited to the state­ ment (possibly modeled on Geoflfrey of Monmouth) that the hero’s father was descended from the great Aeneas of Troy, and to the use of classical names like Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Hercules. The allusions are derived, not from Homer directly, but from Latin (or Icelandic) accounts of the Trojan W ar and the exploits of Alexander the Great.23 The Alexander legend is also used in the Dinus saga Drambláta,2* which begins with a description of A frica, and particu­ larly of the city of Memphis: “ The wise Master Galterius also men­ tions it [the city] when he tells of the great honor received by A lex­ ander Macedo as he rode to Babylon, for men went to meet him with 22 A r n . M a g . 182, fol. 23 A le x a n d e r ’s c a r e e r is r e fe r re d to on

p.

8.

24 A r n . M a g .

185,

f o l . ; se e fo l.

2a.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

49

bowed head, since they believed him immortal on account of the worship they were wont to give their gods. These gods were made known from the town of Memphis in Egypt, where folk believed the greatest wisdom abode in those days.” Here we may be fairly sure that the “ Master Galterius” is Gautier de Chatillon, whose Alexandreis was translated into Icelandic about 1260 under the name of the Ale vanders saga ;25 but he is also quoted as an authority for the war of Jugurtha against Rome, which really was described in the translation of Sallust contained in the Romverja saga. Since many of the lygisögur contain accounts of long, adventurous wanderings in remote countries, the books of classical geographers were often plundered for material. This is particularly true of the descriptions of the Orient, not all of which, by any means, are the records of first-hand observation. A good example is the picturesque Eireks saga Víðförla ,29 which tells of an ambitious hero who set out to find the Ódainsakr, or Earthly Paradise, which is probably identi­ cal with the “ Undersakr” of Saxo Grammaticus. Being a seriousminded Christian Norseman, not a Celt, he turned his face eastwards, not westwards, to find this place; probably because he had read Solinus. On the way he is entertained at the court of the Emperor of Byzantium, from whom he receives instruction concerning Christian theology and cosmology. The dialogue between them is based on the Latin Elucidarius, a handbook of Christian theology presented in the form of questions by a “ Discipulus” and answers by a “ Magister.” There is but a short section of the Latin text used;27 then Eirekr 25 S e e F . P . M a g o u n , J r ., The Gests of King Alexander of Mace don, C a m b r id g e ( U . S . A . ) , 22, n. Alexanders saga, ed. C . R . U n g e r , C h r is tia n ia , 1848. 26 F S N , I I I , 5 17 -2 7 . 27 O n e p a s s a g e w ill s e r v e to illu s tr a t e th e c lo se re la tio n sh ip . I n th e Elucidarius , L ib e r P r im u s , D is c ip u lu s a s k s : “ Q u o m o d o in te llig it u r T r in it a s u n u s D e u s ? ” M a g is ­ t e r r e p lie s : ‘ \A sp ice so le m in q u o su n t tr ia , sc ilic e t, ig n e a su b sta n tia, sp len d o r et c o l o r : q u a e in ta n tu m su n t in se p a ra b ilia , u t si v e lis in de sp len d o re m s e g r e g a r e , p riv e s m u n d u m s o le ; e t si ite ru m c a lo re m te n te s se ju n g e r e . c a re a s sole. In ig n e a ig it u r su b s ta n tia in te llig e P a tr e m . in sp len d o re F iliu m , in c a lo re S p iritu m sa n ctu m .” In th e sa g a , th e K i n g s a y s : “ G u ð a lm á t t ig r sá e r ein n g u ð í g u fid ó m i, enn þ ren n r í g r e in in g u .” E i r k r m æ l t i : “ H v e r j a r e ru þ æ r þ r ij á r g r e in in g a r ? ” K o n u n g r s e g ir : “ L ít t u í s ó lin a ; í hen n i e ru þ r j á r g r e in ir , e ld r, b ir ti o k v e r m ir o k e r þ ó ein s ó l; sv á e r o k í g u ð i fa ð ir o k son o k h e ila g r and i, o k e r han n þ ó einn í sín u m a lm æ tti.” ( 5 1 8 .) T h e c o rr e s p o n d in g p a ss a g e in th e Volksbuch c a lle d Lucidarius is n ot so clo se ( s e e ed. b y C . J. B r a n d t o f D a n is h v e r sio n . C o p e n h a g e n , 1849, 1 9 ) . D [ is c ip u lu s l : “ K iæ r æ mtsXœrœ, h u a r m a a th et w æ ræ , a th i n personae m a a w æ r æ en til g u td o m .

So

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

turns his questions to more practical matters, and asks about the earth, the countries on it, and more definitely, the location of Ódainsakr. It is to be found in farthermost India, he learns; incidentally, he learns about ‘'all the eastern and southern parts of the world, about the mighty K ings’ realms and various isles, the deserts and the places they had to pass through, of wondrous men and their attire and the customs of many folk, of vipers and dragons and all sorts of beasts and birds, and of gold and jewels.” The source of this material is probably some such encyclopedic work as the De Imagine Mundi of Honorius of Autun. But the sagaman may not have used this type of book directly. The conversation between Eirekr and the K ing is closer at this point to a popular book containing both theological and geographical information in the form of a catechism, the Lucidarius,28 which was known in most of the vernacular literatures of Europe before the Reformation. The name of this Volksbuch is certainly an imitation of Elticidarius; but the contents are augmented by loans from other works, notably the De Imagine Mundi (fo r geographical lore) and the Gemma Animae (fo r the interpretation of the mass) by Honorius. Thus Eirekr’s royal informant in Constantinople appears to be a well read medieval scholar. In due time Eirekr and his men cross India, pass through a region of darkness where the stars are always visible, cross the River Phison which flows from Paradise, kill a dragon, and finally come to a “ fair land, its grass bright as costly stuff, with sweet scent and much blos­ som. . . . Such was the sunlight that it never became dark there and there was never any shade.” Here they find a tower which hangs in the a ir ; when they mount to it by a “ path” (stigi) they find rich fur­ nishings within, a table set with silver dishes, abundant food, and sumptuous beds. The angelic vision vouchsafed to Eirekr in this fforthv thct undhcr mek moghW. ath noghen maa wæræ bothæ en oc ill.” M[ agis­ ter] : “Thet er oucr menyskæ vnderstandelsæ ath syæ [vdhenl soo moghet som wy kimnæ merkæ me//i thee tyngh ther skapthæ ær, fsosoml Solen, forthi wy see wel, ath solen hau*r al wardens lywsen oc gywer hedhæ af sek, oc er ey vth*n en sool oc hauer togh trennæ krafthæ. Saa er oc guth en til williæ, oc æn til woldh oc til gemingh, oc til gutdom ær han en, oc ær thok skild ath i pirsonæ.’* It is apparent that the sagaman used either the Latin text of Elucidartus or a faith­ ful Icelandic translation (which was contained in the Hauksbok) ; not the Lucidarius. (The Hauksbok. compiled by Haukr Erlendsson, ca. 1300, is published, Copenhagen, 1892-96.) 28 For the edition, see the preceding note. The preface gives a list of translations.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

51

place, ódainsakr, convinces him of the truth of Christianity, and he returns to spread the faith in the Northlands. The saga is not alone in describing India in these terms. Pliny had stated, long before, that India was one of the places where no shadow was cast at midday of the solstice; he had located an “ island of the sun” ( Solis insula) near Taprobane (Ceylon) ; he had stated that the heavens over India are different from ours, and that every year has two summers there. The same lore, repeated by Solinus, Vincent of Beauvais, and others, led naturally to the representation of a coun­ try in which there is no such thing as night. The realm of darkness adjacent to and contrasting with this land of the sun is to be found in the Travels of Sir John Mandeville, which was known in Scandi­ navia;20 the Travels had borrowed the idea from the Alexandrine romances.30 There was precedent also for making India the home of immortality: Solinus had told of a people near the Ganges River, which is the same as the River Phi son of the saga, who required no food to keep them alive; they were sustained merely by the scent of wild apples, but if they were deprived of these, they died. The account attributed to Sir John Mandeville repeats the tale. That is no doubt why, in the Danish Kong Olger Danskes Kronike ,31 an elaboration in prose of the French Ogier le Danois, the hero finds himself sud­ denly near the castle of Avallon ( “ Davallon” ) belonging to Morgan la Fee— in India! Here he too eats of some apples (after killing a dragon), is welcomed by Queen Morgan and K ing Arthur, and lives in their Earthly Paradise for two hundred years. Besides, the Bible was sufficient warrant for placing Eirekr’s Ódainsakr in this part of the world. The Vulgate says that the River Phison, which he crossed, flowed from Paradise: “ Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis, ad irrigandum paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita. Nomen uni Phison, ipse est qui circuit omnem terram Hevilath, ubi nascitur aurum. Et aurum terrae illius optimum est; ibi invenitur odellium, et lapis onychinus.” 32 Thus Christian and pagan classical tradition united to create the India which Eirekr found: the home of 29 c f. M . L o re n z e n , Mandeville s Rejse i gammeldansk Oversættelse, C o p e n h a g e n , 1882. 30 S e e th e ed itio n o f M a n d e v ille b y P a u l H a m e liu s , E E T S , 1919-23, I I . 135 and 144. 31 K . L . R ahb elc, Dansk og norsk Nationalværk , C o p e n h a g e n , 1828-30, I, 250. 82 G en . H i: 10 -12 .

52

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

strange creatures, the land of plenty and great wealth, the site of the Earthly Paradise. Another account of India, of later date, may have contributed something to our saga, especially to the description of the super­ natural tower: the fabulous account attributed to Prester John in the Epistle33 which circulated in Europe during and after the latter twelfth century. Here is to be found the Biblical statement (echoed by the saga) that the land is flowing with milk and honey; besides, it is said to contain a fountain of youth, which cures all ills and keeps people at the age of thirty, and also a palace in which no one feels hunger, thirst or infirmity. The palace of Prester John is described in detail: the golden tables, the sapphire bed, and the rich furnishings recall the tower of Eirekr, although only in a general way. The edify­ ing conclusion to the saga seems to be quite original.84 In many other sagas we find this idealized composite picture of India. Other aspects of the country are mentioned by other authors, but in general the same classical and medieval encyclopedists are fol­ lowed. Because of its supposed abundance of magic stones, medicinal herbs, and places exempt from poison, India was a favored country for quests, especially quests for cures. Thus, in the Ala Flekks saga86 the hero is sorely wounded by a troll-wife who beats him during a dream and tells him that he will only find cure in India, at the hands of her brother; he must journey to the unreachable end of the world where “ day and night are equally strong” ( pat cr jafnríkt nótt og dagr, t o o ) . In the Rcnmndar saga, the Emperor’s son cannot be healed of his wound, received from gigantic Eskupart, until he finds his distant, unknown lady-love in India. He is carried there by way of Africa, in a ca rt; and the India he finds is surely Prester John’s: the father of the Princess is K ing Johannes; his palace glitters with jewels, and is expressly compared to Paradise; his capital is called Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. The author remarks that the country abounds in marvels, but he restrains himself from digression con33 T e x t ed. b y F r . Z a rn c k e , De Epistola quae sub Nomine Presbyteri Johannis

fer tur, L e ip z ig ( n .d .) . 84T h e s a g a is le ss c lo se to th e E p is t le th a n to th e o th e r so u rce s m e n tio n e d ; f o r in stan ce , th e E p is tle c a lls th e r iv e r flo w in g fro m P a r a d is e th e Y d o n u s ; th e s a g a g iv e s th e B ib lic a l fo r m P h iso n . 85 E d . A . L a g e r h o lm , Drei Lygisögur, 84-120.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

S3

cerning them. Játmundr Ljúfi, in the saga named from him,8· goes on a quest to India for a magic stone Svarbanus to cure the Princess of Sicily. In the Nitidu saga,37 Prince Liforius takes a wounded comrade home to India to cure him; in the A ja x saga38 the hero finds the W ater of L ife which cures his father in India. In the porsteins saga Vikingssonar, a cure for leprosy— as well as the disease itself— comes from India. In the Kára saga Kárasonar39 it is a W ater of Love that is found, among other magic objects, in the same country. No won­ der the Danish Volksbuch of Tristan i0 changes Iseult to a Princess of India, and makes “ Tistram ” seek the cure for his wound in her native country. There are other reminiscences of Prester John and the Travels of Sir John Mandcville. The Villi joints saga Sjóðs describes “ Eyrsland” in familiar terms elsewhere applied to India: “ It is so near the seat of the sun that it never waxes any brighter there, but stars may be seen at midday. When thou comest to the land beyond it, thou seest a country of blossoms with herbs and fruit-trees, and the sun shines at midnight, when in other places in the world the day is darkest.“ 41 In the Dinus saga Dramblata, one of the characters is a son of Prester John. The Fertrams saga ok Platos mentions the “ River Assdon, which flows throughout Indialand” ; this may or may not be a manuscript corruption of Phison for the Ganges. The Kirialax saga refers to tv/o famous products of India: griffons, and the bird Phoenix. The German Herzog Ernst, translated as Ernestus saga ok V estelus *2 peoples the East with a friendly race of Cyclopes who are attacked by our old friends the “ Sciopedi” (a marginal note says “ Æ dipodi” ), described in the familiar words: “ with this one foot of theirs they shield themselves in the heat of the sun“ ; also pigmies who are plagued by “ krankfuglar,” their traditional enemies. The Emperor o f India, like Prester John, is a Christian. Other sagas merely place 8 e H a n d r it B ó k m e n t., V ið b æ t ir B 2 3 . ( ic)c ) .

42 A m . M a g . 581, 4to, see fol. n b .

87 Am. Mag. 529, 4to. 88 H . E rle n d ss o n a n d E . p o r ð a r s o n , Fjórar Riddarasögur, R e y k ja v ik , 1852. 89 R e y k j a v ik , 1886, 63. 40 En meget smuk Historie om den ædle og tappre Tistram, ed. b y K . L . R a h b e k , Dansk og Norsk Nationalværk, C o p e n h a g e n . 1830, I I I , 191-304. T h e D a n ish , to be su re , is f o llo w in g a G e r m a n m o d el, bu t th e re a so n s fo r th e c h a n g e to In d ia m u st be th e sa m e in a n y c ase, tr a c e a b le p e rh a p s to th e in flu e n ce o f P r e s t e r Jo h n . 41 p. 29. c f. M a n d e v ille 's d e s c rip tio n o f th e D a r k R e g io n a n d o f th e P a r a d is e T e r ­ r e s tr ia l, w h e r e th e su n sh in es a t th e tim e o f o u r m id n ig h t ( C h a p . x x x m ) .

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

54

a part of their action in these remote places or mention them without describing their inhabitants or natural— perhaps better unnatural— scenery.*3 A very curious thing is the influence of classical ideas on Germanic ones. It is not only that Christian concepts prevail in these sagas, and the warriors now call on Christ instead of Odin; but actually, some of the native words have acquired a Latin meaning. A good instance of this is the genuine Icelandic word homingja, which originally meant a sort of guardian spirit attendant on a man, and by a slight extension, his fortune. In this latter sense it had a certain similarity with the Latin concept of Fortune, a goddess who survived from classical antiquity in Christianity, since the doctrine of free will left room for a certain amount of unpredictable causation in human affairs. The lady was frequently represented in Christian medieval art with a wheel, as symbol of her mutability; it was well known that the rotations of this wheel caused the sudden changes in human destiny, such as the falls of princes and the rise of new favorites. And in time the Icelandic hamingja was identified with this lady and given a wheel of her own.44 Thus a character in the H alf thins saga Parkasonar45 speaks of the “ turning wheel of hamingja f ; a knight in the Adonius saga makes the melancholy confession (after being de­ feated) : '‘Now I have experienced how unstable is Fortune, and how ready to turn her wheel” ;4β Núdus, in tht H jálmþérs saga ok Ölvers“ trusts in his own strength and in “ Ham ingja.” Even the sagas about Huld, which attempt to preserve the early point of view, refer con­ stantly to this newly created goddess, Hamingja. In the Nichulás saga Leikgra, too, the Icelandic fylgjnr appear as Christianized spirits. And yet there is just as much evidence of belief in the “ science” of astrology, which regarded the stars, not fortune or guardian spirits, as determinants in human affairs. In both the Adonius saga and the Sigrgarðs saga ok Valbrands, the constellation 43 e.g., Heðins saga ok Hloðvers, Kåra saga Kárasonar, Adonius saga. Asmundar saga, Vilhjalm s ok Valtara, Hcrcúlíanus saga. Hermóðs saga ok Háðvarar, Úlfs saga ok Önundar, Porsteins saga Bœjarmagns, Hreiðmars saga ok Farbata. 44 For a discussion of Fortune, see H. R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna , Harvard University Press, 1927.

45 Sagan 4« Fol.

af Háljdáni Barkasyni,

71 a.

ed. porleifr Jónsson, Reykjavik, 1889. ” FSN ,

III, 358.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

55

o f planets is consulted for a time auspicious to the begetting of a hero. Both of them remind one of medieval romances like the Dit de VEmperur Constant, which likewise began with an anxious consulta­ tion of the stars, or the story of the fated birth of Judas which appears in the GySinga saga. The Latin heritage in Icelandic literature is not so much a matter of plots as general setting of the action. The world and its people, dis­ tant countries and rivers, the properties of stones and animals, the relation of the earth to the sky, had been described in “ learned” Ice­ landic works of Latin inspiration, and from these, details were freely borrowed. Few of the stories are Roman, except of course in such obvious cases as the Trojumanna saga and the Rómverja saga. The heritage from Greece, however, is somewhat different, as we shall see. II. GREEK ROMANCE

A t first sight, it may appear strange to bring into juxtaposition such disparate forms of literature as Icelandic saga and Greek romance. What, indeed, is there in common between the grim realism of the Njals saga and the refined erotic fantasies of Achilles Tatios or even of Prodromos? Y et we must remember that even the N jåls saga tells us, in Chapter X X X II, how a man named Kolskeggr crossed Russia and settled in Byzantium, where he married and became leader of the Varangjan guard of Scandinavian mercenaries. Bolli Bollason of the Laxdcela saga (Chapters L X X III and L X X V I I ) returned home by way of Russia after doing Varangjan service, and impressed the people at home with his gorgeous weapons and cloth­ ing. porkell pjóstarsson, according to the Hrafnkels saga, lived for a time in Constantinople and belonged to the imperial court (see Chap­ ter I X ). It is well known that the brother of Grettir the Strong jour­ neyed to the same city to take revenge on porbjörn for Grettir’s death; both men became members of the Guard while they were there (Chapter L X X X V I ) . In the Viga-Styrs saga ok Heiðarvíga likewise (Chapter X I ) , a certain Thorstein pursues Gestr pórhallsson to Byzantium; and another character named BartSi, after casually di­ vorcing his wife for a petty quarrel, journeys to the same city, joins the Guard, and finally dies defending Greece from an invading army (Chapter X L I ) .

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V ery famous was the sojourn of Prince Harald HarðrátSi in Byzantium. The Morkinskinna1 tells how he served the Greek Em ­ peror until the Queen, Zoe, accused him of seducing her niece Maria. The Emperor sent men to look for him in Maria's “ sjávarlopt” or house built over the sea, but she let him escape through a trapdoor, and he swam back to land. Nevertheless, after other slanders, Harald was cast into prison, where he killed a huge serpent. He escaped— according to this chronicle, from which the Flatcyjarbók borrows the tale— and eloped with Maria, but sent her home again in ignominy when he reached the Black Sea. But the Varangjans, gossiping among themselves, said “ that Queen poe [ = Z o e ] had slandered him so much to the K ing" because “ she herself, the Queen, wanted to have h im !” Just as romantic is the account by William of Malmes­ bury,2 according to which Harald carried off a noble Greek lady, and in consequence was condemned to fight a lion, which he killed. Saxo's account, on the other hand, mentions only homicide, prison, and fight with a dragon, omitting the tender affair with Maria, which seems to be unhistorical. (It furnished an episode for the Grettis saga, however, where the imprisonment, the secret love affair, and the escape through the floor of the sjávarlopt are transferred to Thorstein, Grettir’s brother.) Yet despite the fictitious character of these narratives about the dashing Prince Harald, we have good evidence from another source that he really did serve the Greek Emperor Michael, 1034-38, and that he returned home in the time of Constantine Monomachos (called “ Munac” in the Morkinskinna). This is proved by a document apparently written in the twelfth cen­ tury and preserved in a manuscript of the fifteenth century in Mos­ cow, which the Russian scholar, Professor Vassilevsky, studied and published (in excerpt) in 1881.3 Here the author of a book of coun­ sels for a young emperor advises his pupil against the conferring of 1 E d . C . R . U n g e r , C h r is tia n ia , 1867.

2 D e Gestis Regum Anglorum, B k . I l l ; R o lls S e r ie s , I I , 3 1 8 : “ H a r o ld u s H a r v a g r a , fr a t e r O la v i, qui e tia m im p e ra to ri C o n sta n tin o p o lita n o du du m ju v e n is m ilit a v e r a t ; c u ju s ju s s o p ro stu p ro illu s tr is fœ m in æ le o n i o b je c tu s, b e llu a m im m an em n u d o la c e rto ru m n isu s u ffo c a v it .” 3 Soviety i Razkazy visantiiskago Boiarina X I . Vieka. P o neizdannoi Grecheskoi Rukopisei X V . Vieka. T h o r o u g h ly d iscu sse d w it h a d d itio n a l in fo rm a tio n b y G u s ta v S to r m , “ H a r a ld o g V æ r in g e r n e i de g r æ s k e K e is e r e s T je n e s t e .” Historisk Tidsskrift, S e r ie s 2, V o l. I V , C h r is tia n ia , 1884, 354-86.

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

57

too much favor on foreigners, and as a pertinent case he cites “ Araltes,” none other than Harald, brother of K ing Julavos of Varangia ( ’Ιουλαβος = 01a f !) , who served the Emperor Michael and was raised to the rank of “ Spatharokandidatos.” “ But after the death of Emperor Michael, and of the next Emperor, his nephew, he [Araltes] wished to fare home in the time of Emperor Monomachos; this was not granted him, and he was hindered therefrom, but he escaped in secret and became K ing in his own land, in place of his brother Julavos.” Apparently the tempestuous career of Harald was remembered at the Greek court; and whether or not the Empress Zoe threw longing glances at him in rivalry with her niece Maria, there was something exciting and secret about his departure. A ll of this goes to prove that Norse and Icelandic visitors in Byzantium did have an opportunity to learn something about Greek romance if they chose. If these tall Northerners of the Yarangjan guard listened when stories were read aloud in court, what would they hear? The type had been established in late classical antiquity; medieval Greek continued the tradition most faithfully in the Sophis­ tic romances, and more freely in the popular ones which drew on marchen and folklore. The most usual plot was built on a simple formula: take two or more persons who belong together (fo r in­ stance, a pair of lovers, parents and children, or several groups of each), separate them violently, subject them to all sorts of hair raising adventures by land and sea, reunite them at the end, cause them to recognize one another, and so let all end happily. There were many ways of causing separation. Children might be exposed at birth by their own parents, for one reason or another, as in Daplmis and Chloe by Longus. and Thcagenes and Chariclea by Heliodorus. Eloping lovers might be separated by pursuing relatives, or shipwreck and storm. Pirates were also very useful for the purpose, or invading armies, or the amorous interest of a conquering general in the heroine. (L ike­ wise, the interest of the general’s wife in the hero.) The course of events might be enlivened by the temporary reunion of two lovers, only to be followed by a second cruel separation. And frequently one or another heartbroken lover came across another one, a stranger, in similar lamentable case. There usually followed a long autobiograph­ ical narrative on each side, multiple groans and tears, and attempts at mutual consolation. Since the prevailing style dictated that the

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story must be begun in the middle, these lachrymose autobiographies were necessary to inform the reader of preceding action; if the situ­ ation was complicated enough, it was even possible to have one auto­ biography quoted within the frame of another. Sometimes it was the reminiscent narrative that brought about the discovery of relationship between two people: in that case the auditor would exclaim: “ Then you are my long-lost son (or daughter, or lover, or wife, as you please) !” and fall on the other’s neck ecstatically. These “ recogni­ tions” were the most characteristic feature of the romances: and of course they were borrowed from Greek drama. A t one of these typical scenes in Theagencs and Chariclea, an onlooker named Nausicles “ wondered what this could be which had the air of a recognition on the stage.” Even the characters were aware of their literary origin. This classical tradition was carefully, all too carefully imitated in Byzantium. A typical instance is the novel Rhodanthe and Dosicles by Theodore Prodromos, who flourished in the twelfth century,4 under the Emperors John and Manuel Komnenos ( 1 1 18-1180). The plot can be briefly summarized, and it will serve as example for the whole genre. Barbarian pirates, making a raid on the city of Rhodes, carry off Rhodanthe and Dosicles. The two are separated; Dosicles is consoled by a fellow captive Cratandros, who urges him to recount his tale of woe, but Dosicles (with a self-restraint unusual in a Greek hero) asks Cratandros to discourse first. Cratandros, it seems, had eloped with a girl named Chrysochroe, but they were pursued and the girl was killed by a stone aimed at Cratandros. Therefore he is now alone and heartbroken and does not care very greatly about his captivity. Next day Dosicles tells his tale, revealing a most astonishing mem ory: he is able to recall verbatim all of his soliloquies and rhapsodies on the beauty of Rhodanthe before he persuaded her to elope with him. Meantime Gobruas, one of the barbarian chieftains, has fallen in love with Rhodanthe, and Dosicles, who pretends to be her brother, has difficulty in saving her from him. The barbarians are now attacked and their town is captured by a new foe, Bruaxes, who thus falls heir to the Greek prisoners. He sends them hom e; but Rhodanthe, on the ship of female slaves, is wrecked and barely escapes with her life. 4 E d . R . H e r c h e r , Scriptores Erotici Graeci, L e ip z ig , 185g, I I , 28 7-434; see K a r l K r u m b a c h e r, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur, M u n ic h , 1891, 359 ff.

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She is picked up by a ship belonging to Craton, the father of her fellow prisoner, the melancholy Cratandros. In Craton’s household she tells her tale, and Craton sets out to rescue his son and Dosicles. He arrives just in time to save the youths (by a long and typically Greek disputation) from being sacrificed to the gods. A t the house of Craton, the fathers of Rhodanthe and Dosicles find their lost children, being guided thither by the Delphic oracle (a useful device for the solution of a difficult plot). There is much rejoicing at this reunion, and only Cratandros is left as melancholy as ever in the feast of autobiography which closes the story. This plot was very closely imitated by Nicetas Eugenianos in his Drosilla and Charicles/ who, however, contrived to make it still more absurd. Thus when Charicles, having been captured by the Parthians and separated from Drosilla, meets a sympathetic fellow prisoner, Cleander, and exchanges autobiographies with him, he and Cleander are both able to recall word for word all the letters they sent to their respective ladies, the serenades they sang, and the soliloquies they indulged in ! A fter all these long speeches and ejaculations, the abrupt suicide of Cleander at the end. when he hears of the death of his mistress, is almost comic. Only Drosilla and Charicles are vouchsafed a reunion with each other and their relatives. The summary prefixed to this romance might serve for others; it contains the formula for a ll: Αυτοί) Αροσιλλτ;? άλλα και Χαρικλέος φυγή πλάνη κλυδωμ£9 άρπαγαΐ β ία ι λ^σταί φνλακαί πειραται λιμαγχόναι μίλαθρα δεινά καί κατε(οφωμενα εν ηλίιρ λάμποντι μεστά του σκοπούς κλοιό? σίδηρους εσφυρηλατημενος, χωρισμός οίκτρος δυστυχής εκατερων, πλην άλλα και νυμφώνες όψε καί γάροι.6

This is the unfailing formula for Greek romance, except that blood relatives are sometimes substituted for separated lovers. 5 E d . H e r c h e r , I I , 436 ff. « “ T h e flig h t and w a n d e r in g o f D r o s illa an d C h a r i c le s ; the w a v e s o f th e sea, th e fo r c e fu l se iz u re s, th e ro b b e rs, g u a r d s , p ira te s, a n d e x t r e m e p a in o f h u n g e r ; th e d r e a d fu l h o u s e -ro o fs d a rk e n e d in th e lig h t o f th e su n a n d fu ll o f g l o o m ; th e c o lla r w r o u g h t o f i r o n ; th e p iteou s and u n fo rtu n a te se p a ra tio n o f th e tw o , and b e sid es th e ir b r id a l c h a m b e r a n d n u p tia ls a t la s t."

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Tw o items of this formula appear over and over in the lygisögnr: the recognition scene and the autobiographical narrative. In fact the latter was so common that the Icelanders invented a special name for it: the crfisaga, or life-history. It would be a wearisome task to list all the instances of this; a few will suffice. In the Flores saga Komings. the three sons of Flores, Felix, Fénix, and A jax, aré ship­ wrecked, together w'ith their mother Elina. The three boys are saved, however: Felix is carried ashore to England, Fénix is lifted out of the sea by a vulture, and A ja x is rescued by a marine giantess {margygi). Later the three young men appear in the army of Sintram of Fenedi (a character borrowed from the piðreks saga), who is wooing their half-sister by force. They go by the names of Únús, Sekúndús, and Tertíús, and are ignorant of their relationship to one another and to Flores, against whom they are fighting. In the course of the battle they are captured and they amuse themselves by relating their œfisögnr. Each one begins by saying that his mother was Elina and that his first memory was a shipwreck. Thus their identity is revealed to one another, and to King Flores, who has come to listen to their conversation. There is a reunion and reconciliation with their father, somewhat delayed by the defiant obstinacy of the three brothers. The Blómstrvalla saga. which like the Flores saga is indebted to the piðreks saga for characters and incidents, tells of two brothers, Aki and Etgarf'r of Italy, who are carried off hv a dragon while they are on their way to be dubbed bv Ermenrekr of Rome. One of them is dropped, and befriended by a giant’s daughter; the other is carried to “ Cazdidonia.” Years later they meet as hostile combatants in Africa. When each is induced to recount his crfisaga, they discover that they are brothers, though they had changed so much that they could not at first recognize each other. In the Egils saga ok Asniumlar, two princesses are carried off to Jotunheim, where two giants plan to marry them. Egill and Ásmundr set out to rescue them, and on the wav they are entertained in the cave o f a friendly giantess, Arinnefja. While their food is cooking, she suggests that they relate their œfisögur. It appears that Egill has lost a hand in an earlier adventure when he defended a giantess from attack; Arinnefja now recognizes him and points out in her story

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that she was that giantess. Moreover, she has saved his hand, and is able to attach it to the stump by means of magic herbs. The longer Saga of Huld contains a number of complicated ctfisögur. One of them is related by Arius, friend and counsellor of Hergeir of Serkland, whose story is extremely involved, and contains a second crfisaga within the frame of the chief one. A t the end, it appears that Arius is a cousin of Hergeir, the patient listener. On another occasion, a warrior named Hildibrandr listens to an auto­ biography by a mysterious husbandman Svipr, which largely concerns the family feuds of Hildibrandr himself.7 Even more numerous are the crfisögur which explain preceding action without causing a recognition. In the Grims saga Loðinkinna8 the hero unspells a giantess who turns out to be a princess once betrothed to him, who had mysteriously disappeared. He recognizes her at once, of course; but her narrative is necessary to explain how she came to assume her new and unprepossessing shape. Several sagas conclude with a similar crfisaga by someone who has just been unspelied : at the end of the H jólmþcrs saga, a young man who explains how he and his two sisters had been changed into a monstrous thrall, a giantess, and a “ fingálkin,” respectively, by a wicked stepmother. In the I Hugo saga Gríðarfóstra the story is told bv an unspelled giantess who had likewise been the victim of her stepmother; in both the Kára saga Kárasonar and the Sigitrðar saga ok Signýjar, a youth and maiden who have been kept prisoners by giants in a cave relate their life histories to their rescuers. The unspelled princes in the Hreiðmars saga ck Farbata9 and the Játmundar saga L jú fa (which are variants of the same plot), and the Gibbons saga ok Gregu, tell of their mis­ fortunes at the end. Skellinefja, in the porsteins saga Vikingssonar, tells of hers before she is unspelled. In the Rémundar saga Keisarar sonar, the mysterious A^íÖförull suddenly reveals himself as a prince of India, and explains the events that made him assume his disguise. So does Johannes of India at the end of the Dinns saga Drambláta. The sole survivor of a battle in the tJlfs saga sterka ok Önundar, although sorely wounded, has breath enough to declaim a long œfisaga explaining the cause of the massacre. 7 T h e s e a u to b io g ra p h ie s a r e m e r c ile s s ly lo n g . T h a t o f A r iu s e x te n d s fro m p. 39 to 90, w it h th e q u o ted œfisaga on pp. 4 1 - 5 2 ; S v ip r d is c o u r se s fro m p. 128 to 1 8 1 ! 8 F S N , I I , 163-73. 0 H a n d r it B ó k m e n ta f., V ið b æ t ir B 1 7 .

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The situations which evoke autobiographical narrative are obvi­ ously somewhat different from the Greek. Most usual arc the rescue from a giant or the unspelling from a monstrous shape, both of which are naturally appropriate occasions for an explanation. Less usual is the typically Greek situation in which fellow prisoners exchange narratives. Vet the use of the convention reminds one irresistibly of Greek romance, despite all differences. In each language a special formula was used to introduce the autobiography: an Icelander would begin in the third person, saying, “ So-and-So was the name of a king” (concerning his fa th e r); a Greek would say “ I am the son o f So-and-So, from such a city. . . .” The literary device was unques­ tionably popular in the late sagas : so much so, indeed, that it was sometimes employed in defiance of probability. Thus at the end o f the Asmundar saga Vikings ,10 when the hero has returned incognito to the court where he was once betrayed, he invites the villain who had schemed against him to exchange œfisögur with him. For no good reason, the villain thereupon reveals to everyone the treason he had done on Asmundr, and the latter discloses his identity in reply. In the Albanus saga Vigrallissonar 11 a group of prisoners decide to exchange reminiscences, quite in the manner of Greek romance, but the whole arrangement is supei fluous, since the speakers are well known to one another, and not strangers. Another fumbling attempt at a Greek plot is to be found in the Sigrgarffs saga ok Valbrands. when the two children of Florida are stolen from her, with the obvious intent of having them restored later, after a traditional recognition scene; but one of them is completely lost, and we never hear of him again. Even these unsuccessful efforts testify to the popularity of the device, however. Ts it necessary to assume, one may ask, that the Greek influence reached the sagas directly from Byzantium, or could there have been an intermediary between them? As a matter of fact, there is much to be said for the latter possibility. A number of Greek stories following the course of typical romances were translated into Latin and circu­ lated in this form in western Europe. W e have seen how frequently the Icelanders drew on Latin originals: therefore they might well use Latin translations from the Greek. One widely diffused story that is 10 E d . E in a r p ó r ð a r s o n , R e y k ja v ik , 1866.

n A r n . M a g . 588 C , 4to.

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beyond doubt a Greek romance in structure, the L ife of Saint Eusta­ chius, was translated into Icelandic in the Hcilagra manna sögur. It tells of a family— husband, wife, and two sons— who are separated by a series of calamities, but reunited when they meet at an inn and exchange autobiographies. A somewhat similar story was widely known in the vernacular languages on the theme of the Man Tried by Fate ( who is ultimately reunited with the members of his scattered fam ily) : three typical instances are the Middle English Ysumbras, the French Guillaume d’ Angletcrre. and the German Wilhelm von Wenden. One of these last or more probably the Eustachius legend itself, mav have influenced the Flores saga; but the latter is even closer to Greek romance in that it places the autobiography in the mouths of prisoners. T w o other Greek romances, more remote from the sagas, were known in L a tin : Apollonius o f Tyre and the Clemen­ tine Recognitions.12 In the latter, a scattered family is brought to­ gether as its members recount their autobiographies to St. Peter, and he realizes that the various fragments are parts of a single whole. Y et none of these Greek romances in Latin offers a close enough parallel with any saga to prove direct relationship. There are, on the other hand, small episodes and details in Icelandic stories elsewhere which point to a direct relation with Byzantium. A jusily famous scene in the Friðþjófs saga, which would appear on the surface to represent native Icelandic art at its best, turns out to be a borrowing from a Greek source. It is told in Chapter X II how F riðþjófr, a retainer of K ing Hringr, has always loved the latter’s young w ife Ingibjorg. The K ing suspects this, and one day tests the young man’s loyalty as follow s: he contrives to be alone with Friðþiófr in the forest, and in perfect good faith lies down to sleep, leaving him to keep guard. As F riðþ jófr sits beside him, he is tempted, but he “ drew his sword out of its sheath and cast it far from him.” Soon after, the K ing awakened, and said, “ Is it not true, FrtSþjófr, that many thoughts came to thy mind, but thou didst decide thee happily? Now thou shalt be held here in great honor amongst us.M The source of this dramatic little scene is in the first book of The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. There the authoress tells how 12 T h e Apollonius of Tyre w a s tra n sla te d in Ic e la n d ic — alb e it la te , and a p p a re n tly fro m a G e r m a n o r D a n is h o r ig in a l. ( S e e M S . R a s k 3 1, fo l. Ó4b-86b.) I do n ot k n o w o f a n y I c e la n d ic v e r s io n o f th e Clementine Recognitions.

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Nicephorus Briennius had been defeated by her father Alexius in battle and how the captor had taken his distinguished prisoner back to Constantinople alone. On the wav Alexius suggested that the two of them dismount and rest in the grass of the forest. Alexius slept, but Briennius could n o t: “ But lying there he raised his eyes and saw the sword hanging from the branches, and as he did not see arfvbody about just then, he shook off his despondency, and conceived a daring plan and plotted to kill mv father.” But he was moved by the magna­ nimity of Alexius, and spared him. This he himself told to Anna, on her own authority.18 W e have already seen how the gossip current in Byzantium about Harald H a r P r á ð i was used to provide an episode for the closing chapters of the Grcttis saga. A . H. Krappe has pointed out the Greek source of an episode of the piðrckssaga, originally told by Parthenius, about a man who neglects his wife for hunting.14 A complete romance which has a number of parallels in Icelandic is Lybistros and Rodamne,15 a typical Byzantine tale about a prince who dreams that he sees a beautiful princess, Rodamne of Tndia. in the palace of Eros, and is so smitten by the sight that he cannot rest until he has won her. He makes the long journey to Tndia, finds that the young lady dwells in an ’ Α ρ γυ ρ ό κ α σ τρ ο v which rivals the sun in splendor, and finally wins her in a joust. It appears that she too had dreamed about him, and has been in love with him ever since. But soon after the marriage, she is carried off by the defeated rival, Berderichos of Egypt, with the assistance of a witch, and she has to be rescued by her husband and the long-suffering companion who has heard the first part of the story as an autobiographical narrative. It happens that both the falling in love through a dream and the rescue of a stolen bride are favorite themes in the lygisögur. The former appears to be Oriental,18 but it was used elsewhere in Greek also. The earliest western European version is contained in the Dipnosopliistac of Athenaeus Naucratitcs (fl. in the time of Emperor Commodus). Here we find the story of Zariadres, King of the land above the 13 The A lexiad o f A n n a C o m n e n a, tr a n sla te d b y E liz a b e t h A . S . D a w e s , L o n d o n , 1928, 20. 14 S e e Romania , L V , 260-3. 15 ΤΑ κατά Αύβιστρου καί ?οδάμνηρ, ed. W . W a g n e r , Trois Poem es Grecs, B e r lin , 1881. 16 cf. th e O r ie n ta l a n a lo g u e s c ite d b y B r o b e r g in th e p re fa c e to h is e d itio n o f th e Rémundar saga . T h e r e a re s e v e r a l fro m th e Arabian N ights .

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Caspian Gates, who beheld Odatis, Princess of the Marathi, in a dream; and she him likewise. When the young man went on the quest to find her, her father refused to accept him as son-in-law because, having no sons of his own, he did not wish to marry her to a foreigner, but to keep her at home.17 Zariadres eloped with her, however, and carried her away in his chariot. The story is explicitly said to be current among the barbarians of Asia ( παpa τοΐτ την 'Ασίαν οίκουσι β α ρ β ά ρ ο υ ) f from whom the Greeks heard it. The quest for a dream-princess is the main theme of another Byzantine romance, Belthandros and Chrysantza .18 Belthandros, like Lybistros, is granted a vision of a distant princess of Antioch while he is in a castle of E ro s ; he dreams that he gives a scepter to her, as token that she is most beautiful, and she dreams that she has received it of him. Even­ tually, Belthandros finds her in Antioch, and in due time elopes with her. The two motifs, love for a princess one has never seen, and a long quest to find her, were very popular in the lygisögur. The Rémundar saga Keisarasonar is built on them : they appear also in the Dinus saga Dramblåt a (where a magic apple causes the hero’s sudden pas­ sion), the Gibbons saga ok Grcgu, and the Vergilhis saga (a transla­ tion from the Dutch). In two other sagas it is an image of the fair unknown which causes the hero’s love: these are the pjalar-Jóns saga19 and the Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns.'10 The closest analogue to the Rcmundar saga is, to be sure, a French prose romance, Arthur of Little Britain ,21 from the lost verse source of which the saga may be imitated. In both the hero falls in love with a princess of India whom he sees in a dream, in both he seeks her and wins her in her native country (which is obviously, in both cases, the India of Prester John!). But this is also true of the Lybistros and Rodamne, in which the heroine is likewise a princess of India. This important Greek analogue has hitherto been overlooked. It contains, moreover, the 17 T h is is th e re a so n g iv e n b y K i n g K a s t ú s in th e Flores saga, and th e P r in c e s s E lin a d u tifu lly e c h o e s : “ e k v il e k k i i a n n a t la n d g ip t a z ” (p . 1 2 7 ; c f. a ls o p. 1 4 1 ) . T h e G r e e k is. ούσνν€τ ίθςτο o 'Ομάρτης δία τ0€ΐναιάρρένων παίδων έρημοί'ήθ€\€ν yap αύτην δούναι

évl των περί αύτόν οΙκ(ίων. 18 E d . É m ile L e g r a n d , Bibliotheque Grecque Vtilgaire, P a r is , 1880, I, 125-68. 19 E d . R e y k j a v ik , 1907 (ö n n u r ú t g a f a ) . 20 S w e d is h tr a n sla tio n w a s p u b lish ed , S to c k h o lm , 1819. 21 E n g lis h tr a n sla tio n b y L o r d B e r n e rs , The History of the Valiant Knight Arthur of Little Britain, ed. L o n d o n , 1814.

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motif of the abduction of a bride and her rescue by the bridegroom, which appears in many Icelandic sagas.22 Lybistros and Rodamne illustrates an occasional parallelism in detail which may be found between Byzantine and Icelandic romance. When the hero and heroine are reunited at the end. there is great joy in their Indian city. Argvrokastron. and the festive sotftid o f various musical instruments— organ, tympani. bugle, and sestra— is particularly mentioned: 3 7 4 9 y iV c r a i τόση ταραχή μέχρι νίφων άνέβη,

όργανα, σ ιΐσ τρ α , τύμπανα, βούκινα, /ic'Aos απαν * ♦ . .

This type of sentence is to be found in medieval romances o f various languages, but it is particularly interesting that it is almost precisely reproduced in several of the sagas. The musicians of India in the Rrmttndar saga play for the Princess on the organ, tympani, and pipes ;23 in the Mirmans Sana,24 the Princess o f Sicily is likewise pre­ ceded by musicians; they appear at the feast of the Emperor Pippin in the Færings saga:* they greet guests o f the Emperor o f Constan­ tinople in the Kannuls saga Kcisarasonar2tt and in the Nichtdás saga Leikara 27 The similarity of all these sentences to one another, and to the Greek, is very striking. And the luxuriant descriptions o f a hero­ ine’s beauty, or of the splendor of a palace, or o f rich trappings and adornments, such as may be found in the Mirmans saga or the Rlnmstrvalla saga, recall like passages in Byzantine romance. The description of the palace of TIugon of Constantinople, although de­ rived directly from a French chanson de geste. the Pélerinage de Charlemagne. was elaborated in many sagas in truly Byzantine style, 22 e g., the Sålus saga ok Nikanårs . ed. in Fjorår Riddarasögur, R e y k ja v ik , 18 5 2 : Dåmusta saga S Pekings ( M S - K a l l 6 13 , R o y a l L ib r a r y , C o p e n h a g e n ) ; Nichulás saga Leikara, Sigurðar saga ok Signýjar, Jarlmanns saga ok Hermanns, a n d m a n y o th e rs. 23 p. 1 2 2 : “ S u m ir lé k u o r g a n , a fir ir te m p a n istria , su m ir p ip u ð u .” 24 E d . E u g e n K o lb in g , Riddarasögur. S tr a s s b u r g , 1872, 1 7 6 : “ f jö ld i le ik a r a fó r u f y r i r hen n i b æ ð i h ö r p u r o k g i g j u r o k a lls k y n s s t r e in g le ik a r .” 25 E d . G . C e d e rsc h iö ld . Fom sögur Suðrlanda , 9 7 : “ p a r m a tti þ a h e y r a a llz k y n s sk e m ta n o k s tre n g le ik a , h o r p v r o k g ig iv r , fið lu r o k p s a lte riu m .” 26 E d . C o p e n h a g e n , 1859, 7 : “ su m ir lé k u h ö rp u r, sim p h ó n o k p s a lte riu m o k a ls k o n a r s t r e n g le ik a / ’ 2T M S . N y k g l. S m l. 33 1, 8vo, fo l. 1 4 7 b : “ su m ir su n gu , a ð r ir d a n su ð u , su m ir b á so n ð u sim p h o n , p s a lltm u tw , h p rp u r, g ig ju r , o r g a n u m .” T h e Andra saga Jarls , E lis saga, a n d Hjálmþérs saga ok ö lv érs a ls o c o n ta in su c h se n ten ces.

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as we shall see later; and it is moreover quite possible that the French poem contained some genuine information about Constantinople which the Icelanders were able to supplement with their own.28 If India was a popular place for the localization of a romance, with its strange folk, abundant treasures, and weird monsters, Byzantium was still more alluring to the romancers. The splendor of the city was apparently a byw’ord in Iceland. Whatever was rich and strange, whatever was fantastic, opulent and colorful, found a fitting home in the Byzantium of the Icelanders' imagination. Even foreign romances like the Parthenopeus de Blois (translated into Icelandic as the Partalopa saga), spoke of the city as a fairyland on earth, where a wandering knight could encounter a supernatural lady-love, living in the midst of untold luxury and beauty, who remained invisible to him by day but solaced him by night in the manner of Eros with Psyche. It is no wonder, apparently, that the gorgeous city should have captivated the imagination of western Europe during the Crusades and afterwards; but that Ice­ land in particular should have been so captivated, more than any other country, is most curious. Even the Icelandic annals bear witness to this preoccupation, for they often synchronize events at home with those on the distant Bosphorus: the fslendingabok tells us in speaking of the death of Bishop Gizurr, that “ later that same summer [there died] Alexius K ing of the Greeks; he had sat on the throne in MiktagarSr for thirty-eight winters;” 29 the Landnamabok dates the settling of Iceland by the reigns of “ Leo and Alexander his son over M iklagarSr” ;80 the Annales Reseniani, Henrik Höyer s Annals, Gottskalks Annals, the Biskupa sögnr, and the Lögmanns Annáll refer particularly to the reign of “ K iralax” Kurios A le x is)81 (10811 1 18). The affairs of another “ K irialax” are discussed at some length in the Játvarðar saga Konungs helga,32 This concern with the affairs of the Greek Empire in Iceland surely brings together the very ends o f the earth, for no contrast could have been greater than that between the brilliant, decadent, semi-Oriental city which was heir to late Greek culture, and the rugged, straightforward, simple culture of 28 S e e C h a p . v i i . 82 E d . C o p e n h a g e n , 1852. 29 íslendinga sögur, C o p e n h a g e n , 1847, I, 18. 80 ibid,, I , 24 /. 81 Islandske Annaler, ed. G u s ta v S to r m , C h r is t ia n ia , 1888.

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Iceland. But when we recall the political and commercial relations between the two countries, it is less surprising to find the remote descendants of heroes and heroines of Greek romance— the sighing, shipwrecked, reunited, eternally autobiographical lovers— reappear­ ing in medieval Icelandic sagas.

CHAPTER IV

THE ROAD TO THE EAST E H A V E seen how lively was the literary interest of Ice­ landers in the Grecian Empire of the Middle Ages, which they reached by way of Russia or the Mediterranean. But Byzantium was not only interesting for its own sake; it was also the portal of the East. Sigurd Jórsalafari, for instance, continued his journey to Jerusalem in order to visit sacred shrines; others pene­ trated as far east as Arabia, or Sarkland (a word also used for A frica ). One of the most famous of these expeditions was made in the eleventh century under the royal viking of Sweden, Yngvar VVSförull. He traveled all the way down the Volga River to the Caspian Sea, but he died after reaching Sarkland, in the year 1041. The expe­ dition was long celebrated in the North, as was natural; many runic inscriptions in stone commemorate it, and it was made the subject of an admiring saga, the Yngvars saga Víðförla .1 According to this account, Y n gvar’s journey was beset by dragons, serpents, and mon­ sters of all kinds. Even though we discount these diverting features of eleventh century travel, we can well believe that the journey was exciting enough; that Yngvar probably went to reestablish trade rela­ tions frith the people beyond the Caspian need not detract from the romantic nature of his undertaking. And the expedition indicates one route by which Oriental stories may have reached Iceland. The Oriental material in the sagas is not always easy to detect. The setting may be so changed that one would never suspect that the story originated in distant tropics, for the authors seldom trouble to use an Eastern city for the background of an Eastern tale. A t most they may place it in Byzantium; but they are just as apt to domesticate it completely and attribute it to Iceland. This happens even in the family sagas dealing with historical personages. A very good example of

W

1 E d . E m il O ls o n , C o p e n h a g e n , 1912. F o r th e h is to ric a l se ttin g , see T . D . K e n d r ic k ,

A History of the Vikings, L o n d o n , 1930, 16 3 ; an d F . B ra u n , “ D a s h isto ris c h e R u ss la n d im n o rd isc h en S c h r ifttu m ,” Festschrift Flügen Moyk, H a lle , 1924, 165.

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this has been pointed out by Jan de Vries in the Ljosvetninga saga,2 where the enmity between two brothers, Guftmundr and Einarr, is explained in the following manner: once, when the foster-father of Guðmundr was troubled by mosquitoes in his sleep, Einarr said to his brother, who was trying to chase them away with his hand : “ Take your axe and strike them dead on the man’s skull!” O f course the foster-father awoke wounded, and said reproachfully to Guðmundr: “ I am pained that you should be trying to kill m e!” GuSmundr then realized ( rather late, it would seem!) that he had received evil counsel from his brother, and thus he became alienated from him. This inci­ dent is paralleled in many tales, including a number of Indian ones, in which a well-meaning but stupid person tries to brush flies away by painful means. Sometimes there is an obvious moral attached: better an intelligent enemy than a stupid friend. Perhaps this Oriental fable reached Iceland by way of some western European collection; but in any case, it was freely handled by the author who decided to incor­ porate it in a native, local saga. He transformed it from a pointless jest to a serious delineation of character. A s de Vries says, quite justly, “ Even where we establish the dependence of Icelandic litera­ ture for its material upon the types and motifs of western Europe, we must admiringly acknowledge that it uses this material, as does all real art, in order to treat it in a completely individual manner for the expression of [native] thought and feeling.” 3 This is certainly true of an Oriental episode in Chapter xn of the rölsunga saga, the test applied by a prince in order to see which of two captive women is a princess and which a serving-maid. A. H. Krappe has pointed out that this was imported from the East, but so modified as to fit into the action of the saga.4 In the variant from Palestine which he quotes, a wise vizier proves the superiority of gentle heredity over education or wealth by the same sort of test. Another instance of Oriental material used in a Northern setting is the jornaldarsaga about F riðþ jófr the Fair. The closest parallels to this, as C. N. Gould has proved, are the Byzantine-Oriental romance of Floris and Blanchefleur, and Arabic tales which treat o f 2eare, B on n . 1872, T. 183 ff. C f. a lso m y a r tic le on ‘T h e P o u n d o f F le s h S t o r y in th e N o r t h ," J E G P , X X X , 19 3 1, 348-60.

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vulgar Dinus saga seems to be a combination of the Haughty Princess (as exemplified in Dolopathos) and the story of Fortunatus. The debt of Icelandic sagas to the Orient is not always easy to recognize. In the case of translations, to be sure, we know where we stand. The Salomons saga ok M arkolfs, the Vergiltus saga (infpart), and the Barlaams saga ok Josaphats. are faithful reproductions of stories known to come from the East. But in the case o f isolated motives we cannot be so sure. Sometimes the borrowing was indirect, through Greek romance or Latin adaptation, or even, it may be, through Russian ballad. Sometimes the foreign material was so changed that its origin was obscured. Fabliaux in particular, we have seen, were often modified so that they no longer served, as had once been the intent, to illustrate the wickedness of woman. But despite the large number of disputable cases, it is evident that much Oriental material did reach Iceland in the latter Middle Ages. It formed the most exotic, the most incongruous, and the most un-Icelandic ele­ ments in the multicolored patchwork of the lygisögur. No one can conceive of a more violent contrast than the restraint and nobility of tone of any truly Icelandic saga— even of a “ romantic” one like the Völsunga saga— and the Dinus saga Drambláta, with its struggle for erotic domination by means of vulgar tricks, talismans to produce lust, and the abject humiliation of man by woman or woman by man. The latter saga is a monument to the indiscriminate hospitality o f Icelandic literature to foreign contributions. It is also a witness to the unfortunate change in taste which resulted from that same over-eager hospitality.

CHAPTER V

RECURRENT LITERARY THEMES H E fabric o f the lygisögur is shot through with a number of conventional literary themes, not only those which we can rec­ ognize and identify as Greek, Oriental, or French, but others so general, so popular over the whole earth, that it is impossible to assign them to any one nation. They belong to the international treas­ ury o f fiction. Some of them have had a single origin at a given time and place, but have since become so widely diffused and so often adapted to the needs of various story-tellers that it is impossible to trace their beginnings; others may have originated more than once and quite independently in various parts of the globe. Wherever family life brings with it a conflict of the generations, a rivalry between father and sons for the domination over the clan, a certain type of story involving parricide is likely to result; wherever it is customary to steal one's bride or avenge a kinsman’s death, or marry daughters off to strangers (that is, to members of another clan), these situations will be reflected in native fiction. Unkind step­ mothers, amorous stepmothers, and devoted brothers and sisters are not confined to one part of the globe; they are as common in fiction as they are or have been apparently in real life. Now the lygisögur, as we have seen, are nothing if not conventional; therefore it is not surprising that many of them are in substance little more than mosaics of these stereotyped, international literary themes. Sometimes the whole career of the hero is merely a tissue of such banal adventures that it is impossible to talk about “ sources” for any of them. It is as if the authors had before them an index of these adventures and used them quite mechanically. Nevertheless, it is often amusing to see how the themes were combined and adapted. T o do this we may take the life of any typical hero and see what haps and mishaps might befall him. Let us call our hero Helgi, and examine the index for the materials at our disposal for his œfisaga. T o begin with, it is always effective to have your hero start his career with a certain handicap, so as to enhance the glory of his later

T

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achievements. He may be born in exile, or exposed soon after his birth, or he may be the youngest child, scorned and neglected by his elders. This type of beginning has always been popular, in fairy­ tales as well as more ambitious literature. If Helgi is to be exposed, this may come about for various reasons. The earlier sagasf reveal that exposure of children was practised in Iceland for several causes: in the Gunnlaugs saga, H elga’s father determines before her birth to have her exposed because of an ominous dream concerning her future; and Finnbogi of the Finnboga saga hins Rantma1 is exposed because his father was annoyed at the behavior o f his w ife and an older child. (T he mother’s protests reveal, however, that it was con­ sidered rather scandalous for a rich man to abandon a child that he could well afford to rear.) In the Jonisrikinga saga,2 an infant is abandoned because he is the fruit of an incestuous relationship be­ tween a brother and sister, a motive which recalls the origin and exposure of Pope Gregory in the romances written about him in French, German, and English. In the Harffar saga Grtmkelssonar a man named Torfi orders the exposure of his sister’s child because she had died in giving it birth. Here the motive is grief, presumably. It may be remarked in passing that the situation is faintly reminiscent of the system of matriarchy, under which a woman and her children are cared for by her brother, not by her husband; and the impression is further carried out by a proverb quoted by one of the characters: "the saying is true that men resemble most their mother’s brothers."9 Similarly Hervor, in the Hcrvarar saga ok H eiðrcks ,4 narrowly escapes the same fate, because her mother’s kinsmen are afraid she may resemble her all too turbulent father. A s for the foreign fictitious sagas, they also use the exposure of a hero occasionally. In the Ala FIckks saga, King RikarÖr orders his wife to have their child put to death if it should be a boy, merely because his g ift of foresight enables him to know that his son would have a very hard life if allowed to live.5 In the Gyflinga saga, Judas is exposed because of an ominous dream of his mother, but he survives, grows up and, like Oedipus, kills his father and marries his mother unwittingly. 1 E d . H . G e r in g , H a lle a / S ., 1879. 2 E d . G . C e d e rs c h iö ld , L u n d , 1875. 3 tslendiga s'ógur, C o p e n h a g e n , 1847, I I , m o ð u r b r æ ð r u m y rÖ i m en n lík a s t ir .”

29:

"p ó tt

4 F S N , I , 3 13 . 5 ß rei Lygisögur, 85. a lm æ lit sa n n a ð ist, þ a t a t

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This tragic tale of Christ's betrayer was borrowed from the Aurea Legenda. In the Armanns saga ok Dalmanns,6 an illegitimate son of Armann is ordered exposed by the girl's angry father; and in the Samsons saga Fríða ,7 K ing GoSmundur of Glæsisvellir— an old acquaintance borrowed from the pages of Saxo Grammaticus— has his own child by one of the diminutive Smámeyjar (Little Maids) exposed because, being illegitimate, it would have to become a thrall if it lived. And yet it does live, of course, as do all the other children here listed: otherwise there would be no story. I f our hypothetical hero Helgi is not subjected to exposure, he may at least be promised as a sacrifice to a god or a supernatural creature (as was V ikarr in the H álfs saga, or the hero's son in the Sigrgarðs saga ok Valbrands, or Vilhjálm r S jó < 5in the saga named from him ). O r if he escapes this, he may, like the popular Sigurd of the Völsung line, be born or reared in exile. This happens to the boys in the Bærings saga, the Flores saga, the Adóníus saga, the pjalar-Jons saga, and Heðins saga ok Hlöðzærs (which somewhat resembles Genevieve o f Brabant). Finally, Helgi may begin by giving the im­ pression of being a slow-witted fool who can do nothing but sit speechless by the fire. This unpromising sort of childhood was attributed to historical persons in the family sagas, and it was popu­ lar afterwards as a foil to the mighty exploits to be recounted later. O ffa of the Angles, famous in Danish and Old English tradition, was supposed to have been slow-witted, indolent, and dumb as a youth, but he cast aside all his weakness when his father's realm was threatened by a foe, and appeared suddenly as the victorious cham­ pion o f his people. In the fornaldar saga about Ketill Hængr, he too is a slothful boy at first, but when he does suddenly arouse himself, he goes out and casually kills a dragon, which he refers to deprecatinglv as a “ salmon" (hængr) ; hence his own surname. V igaGlumr is the same sort of person, in the saga named from him: for years he seems to be an indolent and useless son, but a feud with some neighbors arouses him to violent activity. Precisely the same situation goads another ne'er-do-well, K róka-Refr, into activity.8 In 6 P u b . H r a p p s e y , 17 8 2 ; a ls o A k u r e y r i, 1858. 7 Samson F ríði og Kvintalín Kvennaþjófur, R e y k j a v ik , 1905, 30. 8 K etils saga Hæng s, F S N , I I , 13 9 -6 0 ; Víga-Glúm s saga, tslenzkar fornsögur, I ; K róka-R efs saga, ed. P . P å ls s o n , C o p e n h a g e n , 1883.

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the Ans saga Bogsvcigis 9 the hero, the youngest o f several children, is not only inactive as a child, hut rough and untamed as a youth, so that people mock at him when he does go out in the world seeking adventure. The same is true of Kolviðir in the Kjalnesinga saga. These instances reveal the kinship of such situations to the enfances of heroes in folk-tales, where the youngest of three sons, a Dümm­ ling, often turns out to be more fortunate and more powerful than his wiser brothers. If we decide to use this motif in describing our hero, we are probably drawing ultimately on marchen material for the purpose. It is not surprising, therefore, to find backward youths figuring in two lygisögur which are really nothing but thinly disguised märelten: the A ja x saga Keisarasonar (which is actually labeled an œfcntyri in the text), and the Vigkccns saga Kúahirðis.10 In the former, A ja x is the youngest, least favored son of a king who desires to get the W ater of Life, yet never supposes that the third boy can accomplish what the others failed to; in the latter, Vígkænn is a neglected peasant youth who lies at home by the fire for many years, but nevertheless contrives to win a princess for his bride. A number of the conventional sagas repeat the situation; for instance, the Atla saga Ótryggssonar,u which says: “ [A tli] lay always in the kitchen, and this was a great annoyance to his parents; he never wished to work at anything” ; the Kara saga Kárasonar,12 in which we read: ‘‘ [K ari] grew up, and kept lying in the kitchen; he was often under men’s feet. He matured very rapidly, but no one could speak of his strength, because he never tested it, and folk made much scorn of him.” This is also true of Herculianus, who is only aroused by the vehement reproaches of his mother; of Marus Heimski, youngest son of a J a rl; of Sigurd poguli, a backward child who appears at first to lack even the power of speech; of T rvggvi in the Sigurðar saga ok Signyjar, whose favorite bed is in the ashes by the kitchen fire; and of Andri the Jarl.13 Perhaps this literary tradition caused the tremen-• • F S X . n , 293 - 321 . 10 A ja x saga , ed. E . p o r ð a r s o n in Fjorår Riddarasögur, R e y k ja v ik , 18 5 2 ; Vigkccns saga , pub. R e y k j a v ik , 1886. 11 E d . p ó r le if r Jó n sso n , S e y ð is fir ð i, 1886. 12 R e y k ja v ik . 1886. 18 Herculianus saga , M S . A m . M a g . 93a, 4 to ; Mårus saga Heim ska , H a n d r it Ð ó k m e n ta f., 203. 8 v o ; Sigurðar saga þögula, ed . 18 8 3 ; Sigurðar saga ok Signýjar , M S . N y k g l. S m l., 4 to ; Andra saga Jarls, R e y k j a v ik , 1895.

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dous exaggeration of the supposed stupidity of Ambales, and the multiplication of mad pranks ascribed to him, in the Ambales saga. Needless to say, all these youths throw off their lassitude or stupidity in time to make a triumphant entry upon their careers. A fter arousing our hero to action, there are many things which we may have befall him. In fact, one means of arousing him would be to use a very popular character, namely, an amorous stepmother. Such ladies occur very often in the lygisögur, and to the credit of Icelandic heroes be it said that they always reject advances made to them by a father's second wife. They sometimes knock out her front teeth in an excess of virtuous indignation— which would at least have the advantage of arousing them from previous inertness. Amorcus stepmothers have been famous in several literatures. One of the Sanscrit Jätakas tells about one of them who, being rejected, later accused and persecuted her stepson;14 Phædra behaves in the same manner to Hippolytus, and Cnemon’s wicked stepmother towards him, in the Æthiopica of Heliodorus. An amorous stepmother nearly causes the death of the young prince in the frame story of The Seven Sages of Rome, and she does cause the death of Irish Mael Fothartig, son of Ronan.13 It is difficult to say whence this stock character was imported into the Icelandic sagas. Certainly she was not native to them, hut once established, she was frequently copied and imitated. In the H rolfs saga Kraka, which contains much romance along with older, genuinely Scandinavian material, the stepmother of Björn H ringr’s son is a Finnish woman (in itself a bad sign, since Finns were notori­ ously skilled in m agic). When Björn rejects her advances with an emphatic box on the ear, she “ strikes him with a wolfskin glove and says that he should become a fierce, grim bear.” If like causes like, one would rather expect him to become a wolf, and in some folk-tales children are changed into wolves by their stepmothers.16 In the Hjálmþérs saga ok Ölvérs, the stepmother Lúdá makes a shameless and voluptuous plea which resembles the language of Greek romances, but which sounds quaintly inappropriate in Icelandic: “ M y sweet love,” she says, “ I can tell thee of a truth that thy father has not yet 14 M a h ä p a d u m a -J ä ta k a (n o . 4 7 2 ). S e e H e in r ic h G ü n te r, Buddha in der abend­ ländischen Legende}, L e ip z ig , 1922, 136. 15 R u d o lf T h u rn e y s e n , Sagen aus dem alten Irland , B e r lin , 1901, 105 ff. 19 S e e K ä t e M ü lle r - L is o w s k i, Irische Volksmärchen, Jen a, 1923, N o . 21.

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despoiled me, because he is decrepit and lacking in nature, and avails nought to such pastime. But I have a very parched life and great natural powers in my feminine limbs, so that it is a great loss to the world that so lusty a body should embrace so old a man as thy father is. . . . Rather might we temper our two young bodies accord­ ing to the natural desire of the flesh, so that they might fairly wax fruitful, and we might easily settle the old man so that he would cause us no trouble.” A fter this speech— which proves conclusively that she is no native Icelander, even without the assurance of the saga that she comes from Bláland ('Africa')— Hjálmþer gives her a blow which causes her nose to bleed. “ W e shall meet again,” she replies omi­ nously, and departs.17 There are amorous stepmothers in the Mirmans saga, in the H ermods saga ok Háðrarar 18 (where the rejected Queen, like the one in the H rólfs saga, changes her stepson's shape: “ I lay this on thee, Hermoftr, that thou shalt be a bear by day, but by night thou shalt have thine own nature back again : this spell shall last three years, and therewith thou shalt depart from this land to a little island at the extreme south of India. . . . ” : in the Hrciftmars saga ok Farbata19 (where she receives a well deserved blow on the nose, but retaliates with a complicated and powerful curse; the same person acts succes­ sively as stepmother to two different heroes in this saga!) ; in the Jåtmundar saga L júfa 20 (which resembles the preceding one in sev­ eral parts of the plot^ ; in the Ülfhams saga21 (in which the step­ mother first kills her husband because she is bored at being married to a werwolf, then urges her stepson to marry her— in vain— and finally puts a curse on him) ; and in the Olfars saga Sterka .22 In the last mentioned saga, the stepmother had begun to prefer Grim to her husband before her marriage: the son had been sent to woo her for his father, and “ it is said that he could scarcely protect himself from her forwardness while he was journeying home.” She too makes a persuasive, un-Icelandic speech to Grim: “ Now I throw myself on thy mercy,” she says; “ wilt thou receive my friendship? I have pre­ served my maidenhood for thee, since thy father is benumbed with i t F S N , I I I , 360. 18 H a n d r it B ó k m e n ta f., 203, 8 v o. 19 tbid ., V ið b æ t ir B 1 7 . 20 ibid., V ið b æ t ir B 23.

M S . K a l i 613 , 4to. 22 ibid., 614 , 4to ( a n d o t h e r s ) .

RECURRENT LITERARY THEMES

IOI

age and avails not to cohabitation, and it is a hard fate for a young maid to lie by him.” Grim slaps her on both cheeks and throws her out of his bed, but she retaliates with a powerful curse. L ife was not always easy for stepsons. Even if the stepmother is not amorous, she may be wicked and vindictive without cause. In this case she is just as apt to change stepchildren into wild animals, and a girl will be her victim almost as often as a boy. In fairy-tales, too, stepmothers are wicked by nature and do not require the pangs of rejected love as m otivation; therefore the following group of sagas resembles them more closely than the ones already discussed. Lofthcena, in the Grims saga Loðinkinna ,23 is transformed into an ugly troll by her stepmother, a witch from Finnmark; Signv, in the Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra ,24 reveals in her ccfisaga that the same thing had been done to her by a stepmother of the same name, Grimhildr. The maiden unspelled by Hjámlþér in the Hjáltnþcrs saga ok Ölvcrs had suffered similar mis­ treatment. In the Sigrgards saga Frakna, no less than three girls are transformed by their father's second w ife; and the two children of the K ing of Risaland, in the Voldemars saga27' are imprisoned in a tower by their new mother, who transforms herself into a dragon to guard them more effectively. W ith her, personal beauty was less important than hatred for her husband's children. The stepmother in Friðberts saga ok Kristólím r6 is annoyed because Fribbertr will not marry her sister, but replies curtly: “ I never intended to marry a troll” ; therefore she declares that he is the one who shall become a troll, and he does. A wicked stepmother is responsible for the changed shape of the werwolf who plays so large a part in the W il­ kins saga, but her motive is not given. The saga faintly resembles the Old French Guillaume de Palerne. The stepmother uses wolf-gloves, like the lady in the H rólfs saga. Finally, a brother and sister named Herlogi and Ingebjorg are changed into trolls by a murderous step­ mother in the Sigurðar saga ok Signýjar, This they recount in their œfisaga to the persons who unspell them. The wicked stepmother who transforms her stepchildren is not uncommon in folk-tales. A typical Icelandic instance is Sigurd the King's Son, in which a stepson is changed into a dog, and may not 28 F S N , I I , 163-73. 24 ibid,, I I I , 50 5-14.

25 Fjórar Riddarasögur, ed. H . E rle n d so n , 1852. 28 H a n d r it B ó k m e n ta f., V ið b æ t ir B24.

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be released until a princess will consent to live with him for three years, observing certain tabus.27 In another,28 a brother and sister are driven away from home by their new mother, and forced to live in trees. In an Irish folk-tale, some children are changed into wolves by their stepmother,29 and there is a curious analogue in another Irish tale, connected with the Arthurian cycle but of modern date, in which the four sons of a king of India are changed into dogs in like man­ ner.30 The Irish analogues of Arthur and Gorlagon, collected by Pro­ fessor Kittredge, indicate that the werwolf story was popular in Ireland as part of a different plot.-Perhaps it was combined with the Wicked Stepmother in Ireland, and thence imported into Iceland. In the course of his career, a hero like our Helgi will probably encounter many monsters, dragons, and trolls, but none will be as deadly as his stepmother, whether amorous or not. When he has successfully eluded her, he may wish to take revenge on her for his father, since it sometimes happens that the old King has been done to death by his dangerous second spouse. This occurs in a few cases, but not often. Revenge for a dead relative appears very seldom in the lygisörjur compared with the older sagas, where it was a motive of overwhelming frequency and importance. Only in the Ambales saga does it loom large in the action, and there the plot is taken from an earlier source. On the other hand, trouble with a stepmother, or with a lady about to become one, drives two heroes to a most heinous crime, parricide, in the Mirmans saga and the Haralds saga Hringsbana. According to Icelandic ideas, this was the worst thing that could happen; a warning to all stepsons. And now the hero is free to embark on his adventures. There was an effective and solemn formula for having him do this, called heitstrenging. Some evening after dinner, when all of the court is assem­ bled, Helgi may arise and make a public statement, accompanied by an oath, that he will depart forthwith on an adventure, and not return until he has accomplished it. This statement was the hcitstrenging; the verb denoting the action was heitstrengja. Similar oaths, state­ ments, or boasts are common in French romance, especially in the Arthurian cycle. In the Ectors saga, the entire story is made up of 27 C a r l A n d e rs e n , Islandske Folkesagn, C o p e n h a g e n , 18 77, 377. 28 ibid., 410. 80 “ T h e C r o p -e a r e d D o g ,” Irish T exts Society, X , 1908.

29 S e e n ote 16.

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all the adventures resulting from a series of rash oaths by Ector and his six companions. In the Hardar saga GrUnkclssonar, Hróarr the Jarl’s son rises on the first eve of Yuletide and sa ys: “ Herewith I place my foot on the stock and take a vow to break open the burial mound of the viking Sóti before next Y ule.” The phrase, a^so

Karlamagnus saga ok Kappa hans, ed. C. R. Unger, Christiania, i860. This is a cyclic romance containing versions of a number of separate Old French chansons de geste. For a discussion of the rela­ tions of the various parts to their sources, see G. Storm, Sagnkredsene om Karl den Store, Christiania, 1874, and Leach, AngeiHn Britain, 238-55. The only Carolingian sagas not included in the Karlamagnus saga are Elis saga ok Rósamundu, Mágus saga, and Flóvents saga. The second recension of the Karlamagnus saga contains an impor­ tant romance, the Landres þáttr, added from an English source

APPENDIX

183

(according to the saga itself) which was brought from Scotland to Norway by Bjarni Erlingsson, a royal ambassador. The closest par­ allels to the Landres þáttr are the French Doon de la Roche, and a Spanish story, Enrrique F i de Oliva, derived from the French (see F. W o lf, Über die neuesten Leistungen der Franzosen für die Herausgabe ihrer National-Heldengedichte, Vienna, 1833, 98-123). In both the French and Spanish, we have a conventional story of an innocent w ife who is calumniated and persecuted by an ambitious villain, humiliated by her husband, but restored to honor years later by her son. The Old Norse version departs from these in that it makes the villain a rejected lover, and provides the heroine with a second champion in addition to her son. The changes are due to the influence of a second type of plot on the simple one contained in Doon de la R oche; probably the combination had been made in the English original of the saga. For a general discussion of the relation of the Landres þáttr to other tales of persecuted wives, see M. Schlauch, Chaucer s Constance and Accused Queens, New York,

1927, 95 #· For the section of the saga which reproduces the Pélerinage de Charlemagne, see E. Koschwitz, Karls Reise, Leipzig, 1900, Intro­ duction; idem, Sechs Bearbeitungen von Karls des Grossen Reise, Heilbronn, 1879, 134 ff. Landres pättr. See Karlamagnus saga. Mágus saga, or Bragða-Mágus saga. There are two recensions of this saga, the earlier published by G. Cederschiöld, Fornsögur Suðrlanda, 1-42; the latter, Bragða-Mágus saga, by Gunnlaugur póríSarson, Copenhagen, 1858; also as Mågus saga Jarls, by Pall Eggert ólason, Reykjavik, 1916. The narrative is not a translation, but a very free adaptation, of material found in the French Quatre Fils d'Aim on, Maugis d' Aigremont, and Renaud de Montauban. For discussion, see F. A. W ulff, Recherches sur les Sagas de Mågus et de Geirard et leurs Rapports aux Épopées frangaises, Lund, 1873 ; H. Suchier, '‘Die Quellen der Mágus-saga,” Germania, X X I, 1876, 18-27; F· Jónsson, Den oldnorske og oldislandske Litteraturs H is­ torie, 2nd ed., I ll, 101 /. Separate incidents have been discussed

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recently by W . W . Lawrence, Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies, New Y ork, 1931, 44 f., and M. Schlauch, “ Widsith, Víthförull and Some other Analogues/' P M L A , X L V I, 1931, 975 ff. Merlínus Spå, translated by Gunnlaugr Múnkr from the Latin prose of Geoffrey of Monmouth into Icelandic verse. It is a faithful rendering, contained in the Hauksbók, but separate from the Breta sögur. See Leach, Angevin Britain, 137-9. Möttuls saga, a fairly free translation of Le Mantel Mautaille, a short French romance centering about a chastity test introduced at K ing Arthur's court. See G. Cederschiöld, Versions Nordiques du Mantel Mautaille, Lund, 1877, an(i G. Brynjulfsson, Saga af Tristram ok Isond samt Möttuls saga, Copenhagen, 1878. According to Leach, Angevin Britain, 231, some slight changes in names in the saga point to an Anglo-Norman variant as direct source. Pamphilus saga ok Galathea, ed. E. Kolbing, Germania, X X III, 1878, 129-41. The Old Norse corresponds to the first 490 lines of the Latin poem edited by A . Baudoin, Pamphile ou ΓA rt d’etre atme, Paris, 1874. The Latin original, almost exclusively dialogue, ap­ proaches drama, fabliau, didactic poetry, and handbooks of love in the style of O vid’s, rather than romance; but it is important for the propagation of the romantic point of view in the North. According to Joseph de Morawski, Pamphile et Galatée, Paris, 1917, 50 n., the close translation was probably made by a student as an exercise. (D e Morawski mistakenly refers to the editor of the saga as Koerting instead of Kolbing, p. 50.) Parcevals saga, ed. E. Kolbing in Riddarasögur, Strassburg, 1872. This, together with the Valvers þáttr in the same volume, covers in substance the unfinished Conte del Graal of Chretien de Troyes, ed. A lfons Hilka, Christian von Troyes’ sämtliche erhaltene Werke, V (Perceval), Halle a/S., 1932. For a discussion o f the relation of the Old Norse to the French, see Kölbing's articles in Germania, X I V ( = Neue Reihe I I), 129-81, and ibid., X V ( = N e u e Reihe I I I ) , 89 ff. The saga tends in general to simplify, to diminish the mystery surrounding certain passages in Chrétien such as the description of

APPENDIX

185

the H oly Grail, to emphasize action rather than religious mysticism, and to provide explanations wherever possible. The object called grad in Old French is described as “ því likast sem textus væri; en þeir i völsku måli kalla braull; en ver megum kalla ganganda greiSa” (p. 30), an explanation which does not, it must be admitted, add very much to our knowledge. When Perceval confesses to the hermit on Good Friday, after vainly seeking to find the Grail Castle a second time, the hermit gives the following additional explanation: “ pat er einn heilagi hlutr, er hinn riki maSr lætr bera fyrir ser til hugganar ok upphalds sålu sinnar ok lif s; er pessi hinn heilagi hlutr andligr, en ekki líkamligr,, (p. 52). Instead of continuing his quest, Perceval now returns to his lady and marries her. Here the saga abruptly ends; Perceval never returns to the Grail Castle. (See Valvers þáttr.) Partalópa saga, ed. Oskar Klockhoff, Uppsala, 1877, based on the French romance Partonopeus de Blots. See E. Kolbing, Über die nordischen Gestdtungen der Partonopeus-Sage, Breslau, 1873; idem, “ Über die verschiedenen Gestaltungen der Partonopeus-Saga,,, Germonistische Studien, II, 1875, 55-114 and 312-16; idem, Beiträge zur Geschichte der rom. Poesie, Breslau, 1876 ( Über die englischen Ver­ sionen der Partonopeus Saga) ; A. T. Bödtker, Partenopeus de Blots, Étude Comparative, Christiania, 1904. Kolbing comes to the conclu­ sion that there must have been an earlier Norse translation than this extant one, probably made in the time of Håkon hinn gamli. Only the later translation passed to Iceland and survived there, but the earlier one was the basis of the Danish poem Persenober og Konstanianobis (ed. C. J. Brandt, Romantisk Digting fra Middelalderen, Copen­ hagen, 1869-70). Klockhoff points out (Introduction, x) that there are traces of an older form of the Partalopa saga in certain passages of MS. Holm, chart, fol. 46, Royal Library, Stockholm, indicating a divergent account of some episodes.* *Reinalds saga is lost, but we can infer its existence from the rtmnr based on it, and the saga in turn was probably derived from a lost French romance. See E. Kolbing, Beiträge zur Geschichte der rom. Poesie, 223 ff. The plot follows that of Flores ok Blankiflúr

ι8 6

ROMANCE IN ICELAND

quite closely. When the heroine, Rosa, is sold to a merchant by Reinaldr’s mother, she raises a storm by runes cut in the boat's side— a curious and interesting touch most certainly added in the North. Rosa has a number of adventures, and is forced to resist the amorous overtures of many individuals, but in the end Reinaldr finds her, after a quest as long and difficult as Flores*. Romveriasaga, ed. Rudolf Meissner, Palaestra, L X X X V III, Ber­ lin, 1910. This is of course not a romance, but an Icelandic version of the work of two Latin authors: the Bellum Jugurthinum and CatHina of Sallust, and the Pharsalia of Lucan. It is interesting to notice that here as in the Brcta sögur, Scandinavian gods are sometimes substituted for Roman ones: Jupiter becomes purr, and the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus is p orsh o f; Saturnus becomes Njqrdr, and to the name Apollo is added the explanation: “ pat kollum vær sólarguð.” Particularly interesting is the adaptation of Roman concepts of the supernatural to Scandinavian: a witch is trollkona, a priest blótmaðr, a corpse (used for magic) is a draugr. Strengleikar is the name given to twenty-one short romances based on French lais, eleven of them being translations of the poems of Marie de France. Four of the strengleikar have no existing proto­ types in Romance literature: they are Gurun, Strandar L jóð, Ricar hinn gamli, and an unnamed lai about two lovers of Placentia, in Italy. The texts are edited by R. Keyser and C. R. Unger, Strengleikar eða Ljúðabók, Christiania, 1850; they are discussed by R. Meissner, Die Strengleikar, Halle a/S., 1902, and Leach, Angevin Britain, Chap­ ter V III. There is a modern Norwegian translation of the lays by H. Winter-Hjelm, Strcnglegc eller Sangenes Bog, Christiania, 1850. Tristrams saga ok Isondar, ed. G. Brynjulfsson, Copenhagen, 1878, and E. Kolbing, Heilbronn, 1878. The Old Norse version is of capital importance for the study of comparative literature of the Middle Ages, since it enables us to piece out the fragments of the original poem of Thomas of Britain. The translation, or rather adaptation, was made in 1226 by the same “ brótSir Robert” who translated the Elis saga for Håkon V (1217-6 3 ). Although it is a somewhat dry, condensed version, it apparently follows the outline of

APPENDIX

187

the original quite faithfully, and was used by Bedier, together with other derived versions, in reconstructing the lost parts of Thomas’s poem; see his Roman de Tristan, Paris (Société des andens textes franqais), 1902. For discussion, see Kölbing’s preface, which com­ pares the saga in detail with the Middle H igh German poem of Gott­ fried von Strassburg; also Leach, Angevin Britain, Chapter V I I I ; and R. S. Loomis, The Romance o f Tristram and Ysolt, New York, 1931, Introduction. Trojumanna saga, ed. in Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, Copenhagen, 1848, and by Finnur Jónsson, Hauksbók, Copenhagen, 1892-96. The saga is derived from the Latin of Dares Phrvgius and Dictys Cretensis. For the relation of the saga and other medieval vernacular versions to these originals, see M ary Elizabeth Barnicle, The Seege or Batayle of Troye, London (E arly English T ext Society), 1927, lxv ff., and 222 n. Valvers þáttr recounts the adventures of Gavain at the Chateau Merveilleux, following Chretien de Troyes’ Conte del Graal. See Parcevals saga. Virgiliits saga. The extant translation of this fantastic romance from the Dutch was made in the seventeenth century, and therefore falls outside the scope of this book; but according to Kolbing, Beiträge, 22θ ff. the Virgiiius rhnur point to an earlier, superior saga now lost. The Hmur are printed, op. cit., 234-40.

INDEX ( F o r b ib lio g r a p h ic a l d e ta ils c o n c e rn in g a n y b o o k o r a r tic le cited in th is v o lu m e , see th e first fo o tn o te in w h ic h it is m en tioned. T h is is g e n e r a lly on th e first p a g e en tered in th e in d e x . E n t r ie s a r e m a d e u n d er b o th a u th o r a n d title .) A A a r n e , A n t t i : Verzeichnis der Märchen­ typen, 15

Aberglaube in den Islendinga Sögur, Der, 13 A c c u s e d Q u e e n , 154, 155 A d a m o f B re m e n , 25 A d o n is . 24, 26 Adóníus saga, 42, 47, 54, 88, 97 A d u lte r o u s Q u ee n , 72, 73, 83, 84, 85 Æfisaga , 6o, 6 1, 62, 64, 95, ι ο ί Æ o lu s , 122 Æ s ir , 28 Æ s o p , 73 Æ thiopica , 57, 99, 144 Æventýr, 10, 92 A f a n a s ie v : Skazki , 78 A h ik a r , 72 Aided A enfir A ife, 116 Aided Cheltchair , 127 Aided Chonlaeich, 127 Aided Guill meic Carbada, 126 Aided Meidbe , 127 A ja x saga, 53, 98 A k ir the W ise , 72, 73

A la F lekks saga, 52, 96, 125, 131, 136, i5 3 Albanus saga Vigvallissonar, 62, 106, 128, 133 A le x a n d e r th e G re a t, 45, 48, 79, 91» *44 A le x a n d e r , e m p e ro r o f G re e c e , 67 A le x a n d e r o f N e c k h a m : D e naturis re­

rum , 129 Alexanders saga, 7, 49, 179 Alexandreis, 49, 179 A lexiad, 63 A le x iu s , e m p e ro r o f G re e c e , 64, 67

A lfar , 135, Ι72 A lfkona, H 5 , 1 3 6 ,1 7 2 Alfrœ ði Islenzk , 42, 44 , 77 A ll's W ell that Ends W ell, 163 A lög , 39, 40, 125, 126, 127, 129, 13 °, 131.

Amaliu saga Keisaradóttur, 107, 1 4 5 ,1 5 5 , 164

Ambales saga, 90, 99, 102, 154 A m b ig u o u s oath , 86, 87

Am icus saga ok Am ilius , 179 A m is and Amiloun, 179 Amóratis saga Konungs, 7 1 , 106 A n d e rs e n , C a r l : Islandske Folkesagn, 103, 136

Andra saga Jarls, 66, 98, 105, 106, 109, n o , 142, 145 A n d r e w s , A . L e R o y : The Lygisögur , 12 Anecdota graeca , 74 Angevin Britain, 15 1, 1 7 1 , 179, 180, 182, 184, 186, 187 A n n a C o m n e n a : Alexiad, 63 Annates Reseniani, 67 A ns saga Bogsveigis, 98, 114 , 145, 171 Antiquitates Judaicae, 7 Antonius saga, 179 A p o llo , 158 Apollonius of Tyre, 63 A p u le iu s : The Golden Ass, 121, 144 A r a b ia , 4, 69 Arabian Nights, 64, 92, 148, 174 A r is to tle , 45 Arkhangel’skiia Byliny , 165 Armanns saga ok Dalmanns, 97, 105 A r n e , T . J . : La Suede et VOrient, 4 A r o n H jo r le ifs s o n , 9 A r t h u r , 149, 170, 184 Arthur and Gorlagon, 83, 84, 85, 102 Arthur of Little Britain, 65, 161, 162 A r t h u r ia n ro m a n ce , 5, 10, 83, 102, 150, 161, 162 A s h w in , E . A . : tr. Compendium maleficarum , 121 A sm o d e u s, 72 Asmundar saga Kappabana, 117 , 131 Asmundar saga Vikings, 62, 106, 156

Asmundar saga, Vilhjálms, ok Valtara,

132. 133, 134. 135. 139, 142, M 3 . 146,

45 . 54. 103. 1 14. 122, 131, 136, 153 A starte , 24

147. 153, 172

A s t r o lo g y , 54, 55, 74, 88, 89,

159

190

INDEX

A t h e n a e u s : Dipnosophistae, 64 A tla saga ótryggssonar, 98 A t t is , 24, 26

Aurea Le genda, 97 A ust fir ðinga sögur, 25, 37, 138 A u t o b io g r a p h y : Æfisaga A v a llo n , 51 B B a a l, 24 B a b y lo n as sn a k e k in gd o m , 76, 77, 78 Bærings saga, 66, 97, 109, 155, 167 B a ld r , 24, 26, 124 B a lla d s , D a n is h , 80 B a lla d s , N o r se, 78, 80 B a lla d s , R u ssia n , 79, 80, 82, 91, 94, 112, 116, 164 B a lla d s , S w e d ish , 78, 80 Balor with the E v il Eye , 26, Ι 39 Barlaam and Joasaph, 74 Barlaams saga ok Josaphats, 74, 75, 89,

94 , 179 B a rn ic le , E . : The Seege or Batayle of Troye, 187 B a u d o in , A . : Pamphile, 184 B é d ie r, J . : Roman de Tristan, 187 Beiträge zur . . . rom. Poesie, 123, 171, 181, 187 Belle Helene de Constantinople, La, 155 Belthandros and Chrysantza, 65, 163 Benoit de Sainte-Maure, 170 Beowulf, 108, 109, n o , 112, 155, 159 Bcouwlf and Epic Tradition, 109 Beowulf: Another Analogue, i n B ergen , 9 B e r n e r s : Arthur of Little Britain, 65 B é r o u l : Tristan, 152 B e r s e r k r , 12, 40, 44, 105, 106, 107, 140 Beryn, Tale of, 74 B e s tia rie s , 46, 47, 167 B ever s saga, 167, 179 Biskupa sögur, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 67 B f amar saga Hitdælakappa, 3 7 B ja r n h a r ð r th e S a x o n , 8 B ja r n v a r ð r V ilr á ð s s o n , 8 Blómstrvalla saga, 43, 45, 60, 66, 1 5 0 ,15 3 , 165 B lo o d -b ro th e rh o o d , 83 B Ιό thus, 23, 120 Bocca della veritå, 87 B ö d tk e r , A . T . : Partenopeus de Biois,

i 85

B o e r, E . C . : ed. Bjarnar saga Hitdæla­ kappa, 37 Boeve de Haumtone, 179 B o is s o n a d e : Anecdota Graeca, 74 B o lo g n a , 9, 10 B o o r , H . d e : Der Zwerg, 146 Båsa saga, 27, 82, 106, 147, 168 % Bragða-Mágus saga, 28, 144, 180, 183 B r a n d r Jó n sso n , 7, 179 B ra n d t, C . J . : Lucidarius, 4 9 ; P erse­ nober og Konstanianobis, 185 B ra u n , F . : Das historische Russland, 69 Breta sögur , ι8ο, 184, 186 B rid e , su b stitu te d , see S u b s titu te d b rid e B rie m , O . B . : Germanische und russische Heldendichtung, 8 2 ; Bylina o Vasilii Buslaieve, 82 Brislech mor Maige Muirtheimne, 126 B rita in , 4 B r o b e r g , S . : ed. Rémundar saga, 64, 129 B r ø g g e r , A . W . : D et norske Folk, 121 Bruiden Da-Chocae, 126 B ru n e t, C . : ed. Dolopathos , 93 B r y n ju lfs s o n , G .: ed. Tristrams saga ok Isonadar, 184, 186 Βύα saga, 171 B u c ep h a lu s, 45 E u d d h a , 5, 74, 75

Buddha in der gende?, 99 B ugge,

abendländischen

S o p h u s : Kong

L e­

David og S o l­

fager, 80 B u r ia l m ound, 32, 108, 109, ι ι 2, 113 , 124, 141, 142, 143 B u r n in g o f dead, 140 B u rr is s , E . E . : Tabu, Spirits, and Magic,

120 B ylim o Vasilii Buslaieve, 82 B y lin y , see B a lla d s , R u ss ia n B y z a n tiu m , 4, 5, 9, 18, 29, 38, 49, 50, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 66, 67, 69, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 92, 124, 15 1, 153, 157, 158, 159, 163, 165, 1 7 1 , 175 C

Callimachos and Chrysorrhoe, 7 1 , 104, 163

Callimachus, 81 C am p b e ll, J. F . : Popular Tales of the W est Highlands, 139 C a m p b e ll, K i l l i s : Seven Sages of Rome,

86

INDEX Canterbury Tales, 74 C a r b u n c le s fo r illu m in a tio n , 43, 157, 161, 163 C e d e r sc h iö ld , G . : ed. Bærings sagat 155, 1 6 7 ; ed. Bevers saga, 1 7 9 ; ed. Clåri saga, 92, 18 0 ; ed. E rex saga, 1 8 1 ; ed. Flóvents saga, 1 8 1 ; ed. Fornsögur Suðrlanda, 66, 75, 77* 163, 155, 179, 1 8 1 ; ed. J omsvikinga saga, 9 6 ; Mantel mautaillé, 184 Celtic M yth, 1 6 1 C h a d w ic k , Η . Μ . : Cult of 0 thin, 19, 22 C h a m b e r s, R . W . : Beowulf, A n Introduc­ tion, 109 C h a n g e o f sh ap e, 32, 35, ι ο ί , 119 , 122, 124, 125, 126, 129, 130, 13 1, 133, 134 Chansons de geste, 5, 66, 123, 157, 168 C h a rle m a g n e , 66, 123, 124, 137, 157, 161, 164, 168 C h a s t it y te st, 86, 87, 156, 184 C h a u c e r : Man of Law 's Tale, 154 Chaucer's Constance, 154 C h e s t, L o v e r s in, 88 C h r e t ie n d e T r o y e s , 169, 170, 18 2; Cliges, 8 1 ; Conte del Graal, 165, 184, 18 7 ; Erec et Enide, 1 8 1 ; Yvain, 10, 46, 165, 167, 182 C ir c u la r p a la c e , 157, 160, 163 C ir c u la r tem p le, 24 Clåri saga, 92, 180 Clementine Recognitions, 63 Cliges, 81 Collection de Romans Grecs , 71 C o m b a t o f b ro th e rs , 117 , 118, 130 C o m n e n a , A n n a , see A n n a C o m n e n a Compendium Maleficarum, 121 C o n c h o b a r, 127 C o n s ta n tin e M o n o m a c h o s, 56, 57 C o n sta n tin o p le , see B y z a n tiu m Conte del Graal, 165, 184, 187 C o r p s e , liv in g , 108, 109, 113 Crop-eared Dog, The, 102 C r u e l p rin c e ss, see P r in c e s s , c ru e l Cuchulain of Muirthemne, 121 C u c h u lla in , 116 , 126, 127, 128 Cult of Othin, 19

Cura Pastoralis, 7 C u r e o f d ise a se, 6 i, 78, 134, 135, 136, 137, M5 C y c lo p s , 44, 45

19 1 D

Dåmusta saga S Pekings, 66, 80, 137, 156 Dänisches Heidentum, 140 Danmarks gamle Heltedigtning, 21 Dansk og norsk Nationalværk, 51, 53 Daphnis and Chloe, 57 D a r e s P h r y g iu s , 1 8 7 ; D e excidio Trojae, 47 D a w e s , E l iz a b e t h : tr . Alexiad, 64

De De De De De De De

A rte Amandi, 7 Bello Judaico, 7 Epistola Presbyteri Johannis, 52 Excidio Trojae, 47 Gestis Regum Anglorum, 56 Imagine Mundi, 50 Naturis Rerum, 129

D e a d , r e v iv a l of, 138, 139, 144 D e h m e r, H e i n z : Primitives Erzdhlungs gut, 13 D et norske Folk, 121 D ic k s o n , A . : Valentine and Orson, 155 D ic t y s C re te n sis , 187 D ie tr ic h v o n B e rn , 118 Digenis Akritas, 163 Dinus saga Drambláta, 48, 53, 61, 65, 75, 93, 94, 124, 163 Dipnosophistae, 64 D it de I'Empereur Constant, 55, 89 Dolopathos, 93, 94 Doon de la Roche, 183 D r a g o n , 106, 107, n o , h i , 112, 155 Draugr, 108, 109, 113 , 119 , 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 186 Drauma-Jóns saga, 71, 72 D re a m s, 64, 65, 7 1 , 72, 73, 92, 96, 136, 143 D rei Lygisögur, 52, 96, 146, 173 D r in k , m a g ic , 93, 134, 146, 171 Droplaugar sona saga, 3, 13, 120, 121

Dularfolk, 44 Dümmling, 97, 98 D w a r fs , 29, 35 , 44, 48, 127, 145, 146, 153, 172 E E a r t h ly P a r a d is e , 49, 50, S i, 52, 53 Echtra Nerai, 126 Ectors saga, 42, 47, 102, 106, 164, 167

Edda, Poetic, 23, 3 1, 32, 34, 35 , 45 ,

Mo,

144

Edda, Prose, 28, 30, 34, 3 5 ,1 3 9 Egils saga Einhenda ok Asmuudar, 27, 28, 37, 6 0 ,9 2 ,1 0 6 , 107, 1 2 3 ,1 3 7 , 141, 145

INDEX

192

E gils saga Skallagrímssonar, 3, 13, 106,

136 E in a r p ó r ð a r s o n : ed. A ja x saga, 9 8 ; ed. Åsmundar saga Vikings, 6 2 ; ed. S i­ gurd ar saga þögula, 2 7 ; ed. Fjorår Riddarasögur, 53 Eireks saga Vid for la, 49 E lie de Sainte Giile, 180, 181 E lis saga ok Rósamundu, 180, 181, 182, 186 E lo p e m e n t, 79, 81, 86 Elucidarius, 49, 50 Enrrique F i de Oliva, 183 Epic Songs of Russia, 79, 9 1, 165 Erec et Enide, 181 E r ex saga, 181 E r fu r t , 6, I I E rl of Toulouse, 154 E rle n d ss o n , see H a u k r E r le n d ss o n E rle n d ss o n , H . : Fjorår Riddarasögur, 53, ι ο ί E r m a n a r ic le ge n d , 150, 155 Ernestus saga ok Veztelus, 45, 53 E r o s and P s y c h e , 67 Etymologies , 8 E u fe m ia , 10 E u g e n ia n o s, N i c e t a s : Drosilla and Chartcles, 59 E u h e m e rism , 18, 28 E u sta c h iu s, S t., 63, 155 E x c h a n g e d le tte r, 89, 90, 154 Exempla, 10 E x p o s u r e o f c h ild re n , 57, 96, 97 E x t e r n a l soul, 15, 146, 147 E y j ó l f r S æ m u n d arso n , 6, 9 Eyrbyggia saga, 13, 141

Finnboga saga, 96 F in n u r J ó n s s o n : ed. Breta sogur, 180 ; Den oldnorske og oldislandske Littera­ turs H istorie , 38, 18 3 ; ed. Trojumamna saga, 187 Fjorår Riddarasögur, 53, 66, 98, ι ο ί , 105 Flateyjarbók, 23, 56, 7 3 ,1 5 9 , 16 1, 1 6 2 ,1 6 3 F la v iu s Jo sep h u s, see Josephu^, F la v iu s Fled Brier end, 157, 158, 162, 163 Fled Brier end ocus Longes Mac n-Duil Dermait, 127 Fljótsdœla hin meiri, 13, 14, 104 Floire et B lanceflor, 181 Flo ovent, 181 F lorent et Octavian, 155 Flores saga Konungs, 60, 63, 65, 97, 106 i n , 112 , 156

Flores saga ok Blankiflúr, 163, 1 7 1 , 181 Floris and Blanchefleur, 7 1 Flóvents saga, 18 1, 182 Fomaldarsögur, 12, 15, 16 Fornmanna sögur, 159, 161 Fom sögur Suðrlanda, 66, 75, 155, 179, 181, 183 F o r tu n a tu s, 93, 94 F o r tu n e , 54

Fóstbrœðra saga, 23, 13 1, 135 F r a z e r , J. G . : Golden Bough, 22, 34, 138 F r e d e r ic k , B ish o p o f S a x o n y , 5 F r e y ja , 29, 35 F r e y r , 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 33, 36, 103 F r ig g a , 18, 29, 35 Friðberts saga ok Kristólínu , ι ο ί , 106 F r ið r ik s s o n , H . : ed. fo r d s saga Hreðu, 131

F riðþjófs saga, 22, 26, 33, 34, 37, 63, 121, 122

F

Fabliaux , 85, 86, 87, 94 Faillsigud Täna Bo Cuailnge , 128 F a i r y m istress, 67, 114 , 167 Faithful John , 79, 92 F a it h le s s fo llo w e r , 76, 91, 109, n o , h i , 112 , 113 Falentins og Ur sins saga, 166 F a th e r - s o n com b at, 113 , 114, 115, n 6 Faustus saga, 137 Faustus saga ok Ermenu, 43, 81, 106 F e r t ilit y c u lt, 24, 26 Fertrams saga ok Platós , 45, 53, 106, 123, 129, 164 Filipó rimur, 106, 122, 153 Filipó saga, 106, 135, 1 7 1

Fylgjur, 54, 135, 136, 147 G

Gabs, 159, 160 G a r d a r ik , see R u ss ia G a u tie r de C h a tillo n : Alexandreis, 49 Gautreks saga, 20, 2 1, 22 Gets, 126, 127, 128, 147 Gemma animae, 50 Genevieve of Brabant, 97 G e o ffr e y o f M on m o u th , 47, 48, 18 4 ; H is­ toric regnum Britanniae, 180 G e r in g , H u g o : ed. Drauma-Jóns saga, 7 1 ; ed. Finnboga saga, 9 6 ; Islensk Æventýri, 6, 10

INDEX Germanische und russische Heldendich­ tung, 82 Geschichte der isländischen Geographie, 45

Gesta Romanorum, 85, 129 Gests of King Alexander of Maccdon, 49,

193

Guðmundar saga Rika, 24 G u ð m u n d r Ä r a s o n , 179 G u ð m u n d u r p ó r lá k s s o n : Gyðinga saga, 7, 89, 182 Gyðinga saga, 7, 47, 55, 89, 96, 182 Η

179 G ia n t c a p to r, 14, 15, 16, 60 G ia n ts , 2 1, 28, 30, 32, 35 , 36, 40, 48, 74 , 1 19, 122, 123, 129, 145, 146, 165, 172 Gibbons saga ok Gregu , 10, 43, 6 1, 65, 92, 93, 103, 106, 107, 1 15, 148, 167 G ilfe r d in g , A . F . : Onezhskiia Byliny, 91 G isla so n , K o n r a d , see K o n r a d G isla so n G is li F in n a so n , 6 G iz u r r , 67 G læ s is v e llir , 30, 3 1, 97 Gloriant, 92 Goddess Fortuna, T he , 54 Golden A ss, T he, 12 1, 144 Golden Bough, T he, 22, 34, 138 G o lla n c z , L : Hamlet in Iceland, 90 Gottesurteil im Tristan , Das , 86 G o tt fr ie d von S tr a s s b u r g , 153, 187 Gottskalks Annals, 67 G o u ld , C . N . : The F riðþjófs saga, 26 G r a il, 167, 185 G rä s s e , J. G . T . : Gesta Romanorum, 85 G r e e k ro m a n c e , 56 # ., 99, 16 1, 162, 163,

H a c k m a n , O s k a r : Die Polyphemsage, 78 H æ n ir , 35 H a g o f s la u g h te r , 139 H å k o n V , 186 H å k o n M a g n u sso n , 10 Hálfdánar saga Brönufóstra, 1 5 ,1 0 6 , 1 15, 128, 133 Hálfdáns saga Barkasonar, 54, 1 1 7 , 130 Hálfdáns saga Ey steins sonar, 130 H álfs saga ok Hálfsrekka, 2 1, 72, 9 7 H a lld o r H e r m a n n s s o n : Islandica, n o ; Sœmund Sigfusson , 6 H a m e liu s , P a u l : Travels of S ir John Mandeville, 51 Hamhleypur, 124 Homing ja, 54 Hamlet, 89, 90 Hamrammr, 13, 147 H a p g o o d , I s a b e l : Epic Songs of Russia,

170, 173 G r e g o r y , L a d y A . : Cuchulain, 121 G r e g o r y , P o p e , 96 Grettis saga, 55, 56, 64, 86, 109, n o , 129,

M S. 1 5 1, 153 H a r p ie s , 45

14 1, 143 G r ig o r ie v , A . D . : ArkhangeVskiia B y ­ liny, 165 G r im m : Märchen , 92 Grims saga Lodinkinna, 15, 6 1, 101 Grims saga Skeljungsbana, 143 G u a z z o , F . M . : Compendium Maleficarum, 121 G u e r s a r d , M . F . : ed. Floovent, 181 Guillaume d'Angleterre, 63 Guillaume de Palerne, ι ο ί G u n n la u g r M u n k r , 6, 7 ; tr . Merlinus Spå, 18 4 ; Jóns saga hins helga, 8 Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungu, 37, 38, 39, 40, 96, 150, 173 G u n n la u g u r p ó r ð a r s o n : ed . BragðaMågus saga, 28, 18 3 ; ed. KonråBs saga K eisarasonar, 75 G ü n te r, H e in r ic h : Buddha , 99 Gurun, 186

79, 9 1, 165 H a r a ld H a r ð r á ð i, 56, 57, 64 Haralds saga Hringsbana, 102, 116 , 122,

HarBar saga Grimkelssonar, 22, 96, 103, 113 , 123, 131 H a r tla n d , E . S . : The Legend of Perseus . 104 H a u le r E r le n d s s o n : Hauksbók, 50 Hauksbók, so , ι8 ο, 184, 187

Hectors saga, see Ectors saga Heilagra manna sögur, 63 Heimskringla, 27, 159 Heitstrenging, 25, 102, 103 H e l, 19, 30, 36, 1 1 7

Heldensagen des Saxo, Die, 86 H e lg a s o n , J ó n , see J o n H e lg a s o n H e lio d o r u s : Æ thiopica ( = Theagenes and Chariclea), 57, 99, 144 Henrik Høyers Annals, 67 H e r c h e r , R . : Script ores Erotici Graeci, 58, 59

Hercúlíanus saga, 54, 98, 106 Hermanns saga ok Jacobs, 106 H e rm a n n sso n , see H a lld o r H e rm a n n s so n HermóBs saga ok HáBvarar, 54, 100, 143

194

INDEX

Heroic Ballads of Russia , 79, 116 Heroides, 7 H e rrm a n n , P . : D ie Heldensagen des Saxo, 86 Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, 22, 23, 25, 30, 96, 103, 13 1, 143

Herzog Ernst, 53 Heðins saga ok Hlöðvers, 48, 54, 97, 106, 155, 164

Hilde, 139 H ild e b ra n d a n d H a th u b ra n d , 113 , n 6 H ilk a , A l f o n s : ed. Perceval , 184 Histoire du Chevalier Berinus , 74 Historia Regum Britanniae, 180

Historia Scholastica, 7 Hjálm þérs saga ok ölvers, 27, 43, 54, 61, 66 , 99 , ι ο ί , I 3 I, i 33 , 171 H ó la r , 6, 7 H o ld e , 36

Holder, A .: ed. Saxo Grammaticus, 19, 85, 104 Holmgang, 12, 40, 105 Holmström, 167 Homer, 48 Honorius of A u tu n : D e Imagine Mundi, 50

Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, 25, 55 Hreiðmars saga ok Farbata, 54, 100, 106, i l 2. 132

Hrings saga ok Hringvarðar, 104, 106 Firings saga ok Skjalldar, 40, 106 Hrings saga ok Tryggva, 38, 39, 40, 106, 133, 150

Hróa þáttr Heimska, 73 H rolfs saga Gautrekssonar, 106, 107, 123, 156

H rolfs saga Kraka, 22, 34, 92, 93, 99, 100, ι ο ί , 1 1 5, 139, 147, 174

Hrómundar saga Greipssonar, 122, 124, 141. 156, 171

H rosvitha: Callimachus, 81 Hugon of Constantinople, 6 6 ,15 9 , 163 Huld, 19, 123, 124 Huldar saga ( lo n g e r ) , 3 1, 34, 54, 6 1, 103 Huldar saga ( s h o r t e r ) , 31, 33, 34, 54, 106 Huldufolk, 36 Hungrvaka, 8 Huon de Bordeaux , 76, 77, 168

I Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra, 6 1, ι ο ί , 133, 155 Imthechta Tuaithe Luchra, 72, 127, 164 In d ia , 5, 3 1, 44 , 50, S i. 5* , S3 , 6 1, 64, 65, 66, 67, 74, 103, 1 15, 136 Indisch Exem pel, En, 70 In g u n n , 6 I re la n d , 4 Irische Heldensage , Die, 72, 116 , 127 Irische Volksmärchen, 99, 165 I s id o re o f S e v ille , 8, 42, 47 Islandica , n o Islandske Annaler, 67 Islandske Folkesagn, 102, 136 Isleifr Gizurarson, 6, 8 Islendinga sögur, 12, 22, 23, 67, 96, 104, 1 14, 123, 131 Islendingabók, 67 Islenzk Æ ventýri, 6, 10 Islenzkar fornsögur, 24, 25, 97 I vents saga, 182 J e J a c k so n , J . H . : ed. Sigurðar saga Fóts, 163 J a c o b s, J o s e p h : Bar laam and Joasaph, 74 J a g ic , V . : Die christlich-mythologische Schicht, 79 J a k o b se n , J . : ed. Austfirðinga sögur, 25, 37 , 138 Jarlmanns saga ok Hermans, 65, 66, 106, 152, 153, 164 Jätakas, 99 Játmundar saga Ljúfa, 43, 53, 61, 100, n o , 112 , 132 Játvarðar saga Konungs, 67 J e ru sa le m , 4, 9, 69 J ir ic z e k , O . L . : ed. Bósa saga, 2 7 ; Zur mittelisL Volkskunde, 92 Jo h n o f D a m a s cu s, 74 Jökla þáttr Búasonar, 104 J ómsvikinga saga, 7 1 , 96, 115 Jó n H a lld ó rs s o n , 9, 10, 4 6 ; tr. Clári saga, 180 J ó n H e lg a s o n : ed. Hervarar saga, 23 J ó n H e lg i, 6, 7, 8, 10, η J ó n o f Ire la n d , 8 J ó n p o r k e ls s o n : Om Digtningen paa Island, 6, 9 Jons saga helga , 8 Jons saga helga hin elzta, 7 Jons saga Leikara, 92

INDEX J ó n s son, F in n u r : see F in n u r J ó n sso n J o se p h u s, 7, 182 Ju d a s, 96 Jus pritnæ noctis, 12 7

195

K o m n e n i, e m p re ss o f G re e c e , 58 Kong David og Solfager, 80

Kong Olger Danskes Kronike, 51 K o n r a d G is la s o n : ed. Fóstbræðra saga, 23, 135

K K a a lu n d , K . : A lfraeði Islenzk , 42, 7 7 ; ed. Fljótsdœla hin meiri, 1 4 ; ed. K i rialax sago, 163 K a h le , B . : Kristni saga, 6 K a r a r a ø a Kérasonar, 53, 54, 6 1, 98, 106, 136, 145, 152, 154, 156, 163, 167

Karlamagnus saga, 124, 154, 158, 182 K arls Reise , 183 Kemp Owyne, 16, 133 K e n d r ic k , T . D . : A History of the V i­ kings, 69, 1 13 K e r s b e r g e n , A . C . : Litteraire Motieven in de N jála , 37 K etils saga Hœngs , I5, 20, 97, 106, 107 K e y s e r , R . : ed. Barlaams saga ok J6saphats, 74, 1 7 9 ; ed. Strengleikar , 167, 1 86 K m