Tag Archives: Iceland

Eastern Vikings Conference Results

Posted on by
Reply

The Legends of the Eastern Vikings Sigfús Blöndal memorial conference was held at Laugarvatn on the 21st to 22nd of October. Sigfús Blöndal wrote one of the defining accounts of the Vikings in the east over 50 years ago, but a lot has happened in the field since and at Laugarvatn some of the world’s leading scholars in the field presented their findings. Happily, the papers will be published in a book that should be out next year.

Meanwhile, Sverrir Jakobsson’s The Varangians: In God’s Holy Fire presents an updated account of recent scholarship. And while we wait for the book, here is a radio interview with Þórir Jónsson Hraundal about the conference.

Samfélagið – Flatnefja gæludýr, meðafli og væringjar | RÚV Útvarp (ruv.is)

 

New Podcast Available! Who Were the Rus?

Posted on by
Reply

Who were the Rus? Host Valur Gunnarsson speaks with Dr. Sverrir Jakobsson, one of the worlds’ leading authorities, about all things Rus. Where did they come from, and how did they impact the Middle Ages as well as the world we know today? (In English)

Part 2 of the Legends of the Eastern Vikings Podcast.

Spotify – Legends of the Eastern Vikings: Who were the Varangians and the Rus, with Dr. Sverrir Jakobsson – Legends of the Eastern Vikings | Podcast on Spotify

(see also the Podcast Page for Part 1)

Do the Sagas Belong in Iceland or Denmark?

Posted on by
Reply

This year marks 50 years since the Danes returned many of the Saga manuscripts, including the famed Flateyjarbók, to Iceland. Surprisingly, it also marks the first time in 50 years that possession of the manuscripts has come up for debate.

On June 3rd, the Historian’s Association of Iceland held a conference about the manuscripts in Reykjavik. The tone was set at the beginning when Minister of Education Lilja Alfreðsdóttir stated that discussions were being held with the Danes for the return of further manuscripts. This is partly because the Danes are felt not to be honouring the spirit of the agreement from 1971 regarding manuscript scholarship. As an example, they no longer pay the wages of the one Icelandic chair at the University of Copenhagen, this burden now being shouldered by the Icelandic government.

It is true that much has changed since in 50 years. At the time, the study of Saga manuscripts was centred on Copenhagen but has now almost entirely moved to Iceland which, thanks to new transport and technology, is no longer the outpost it once was. Meanwhile, research in the field in Denmark has lapsed due to decreased interest. In addition, the long-awaited House of Icelandic Studies in Reykjavik is nearing completion, which means that the country will finally have the appropriate showcase for the Sagas.

Perhaps surprisingly, all the Icelandic scholars present agreed that the remaining manuscripts should remain in Copenhagen. And yet, there was considerable dispute among them. Some felt that the debate was settled long ago and therefore it was meaningless to bring it up again. Furthermore, it is in the interest of scholarship to have Saga manuscripts available in other countries. Sweden and Britain have their own Icelandic manuscript collections and others can be found further afield.

Others felt that dialogue with the Danes was all for the good. Even if the results would be the same, with the collection remaining divided between Reykjavik and Copenhagen, the debate was likely to rekindle interest in the Sagas. As Saga scholar Gísli Sigurðsson said, in 1971 people took interest in the Sagas for granted as they had been kept in the public eye partially because of the debate with the Danes. These days, more effort must be made to attract public attention.

And public attention was truly attracted, as the debate continued that evening on the much-watched daily newsmagazine Kastljós on Icelandic public television.

The Icelandic Sagas are some of the best available sources on the Eastern Vikings in existence, as well as the Viking Age in general. The Saga collection in Árnastofnun encompasses some 1.666 manuscripts and manuscript parts, whereas the Danes have retained 700 manuscripts, including the famous Heimskringla, the story of the Norwegian Kings, by Snorri Sturluson.

For the broadcast in Icelandic:

https://www.ruv.is/sjonvarp/spila/kastljos/27725/95ersb

For the manuscript collection (Icelandic, English, Danish):

https://handrit.is/en/

Björk’s Viking Film Cometh

Posted on by
Reply

So the good news is that the Norseman, Robert Eggers’ 10th Century Icelandic=set epic starring Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, and Björk, of course, has got a release date. The bad news is that we have to wait almost a whole other year, as it won’t be out until April 8 next year. Well, at least the cinemas should be open by then and one should no longer have to navigate the rigours of eating popcorn with a mask. And seeing Björk play a Slavic shaman will surely be worth any wait.

From Iceland — A Conversation With Björk

Icelandic Fans of the Eastern Romans

Posted on by
Reply

Among the many interesting points raised in Sverrir Jakobsson’s recent podcast on the Varangians is how they have been viewed by posterity. The Varangian Guard was know for its loyalty to the Eastern Emperor, who was not always on good terms with the West, not least after the sacking of Constantinople by Western crusaders in 1204.

In the Icelandic Sagas, however, the view on the Byzantine Empire seems overwhelmingly positive, despite the Great Schism having taken place a couple of centuries earlier, in 1054. In a previous paper entitled “The Schism That Never Was.” (see link below), Sverrir says, as the title implies, that the Schism may not have had as great an effect on contemporaries as often supposed, the real break coming in 1204.

For the Saga heroes, to have served the Byzantines always engenders respect. In fact, to have done so means that the hero is not called upon to prove himself further with great deeds, this seen to already having been done. This view is in opposition to other contemporary Western literature, which tends to have a negative view of the Eastern Romans. In Nordic sources, this only becomes apparent in Sweden in the 14th century. In that sense, he says, Icelanders were more Catholic than the pope, seeing all Christians as belonging to the same group.

It was only centuries later that the Varangians Swedish roots were emphasised in Russia. The Empress Catherine the Great, herself of Germanic stock, even wrote a paly about them and found obvious allusions to herself in noble foreigners ruling Russia. The Scottish poet Walter Scott sees them as English heroes, as later on the Varangian Guard were mainly composed of Englishmen, whereas the Icelandic poet Einar Benediktsson sees them as modernisers and proto-businessmen, an image of Viking-bankers that Icelandic oligarchs would attempt to project. As Sverrir says, the view of the Varangians is usually based on present needs rather than medieval sources.

(article in English)

The Schism that never was: Old Norse views on Byzantium and Russia – Medievalists.net

(podcast in Icelandic)

New Russia/Ukraine Book at Number 1 in Iceland

Posted on by
Reply

The latest work by your humble editor, Bjarmalönd, which is about Russia, Ukraine and surrounding countries, is now out. Written over a 20 year period starting as a Russian Studies student at the University of Helsinki and concluding in Chernobyl during Covid, it is part travelogue, part bildungsroman with a lot of history thrown in for good measure. While the book primarily deals with the post-Soviet sphere in the 21st century, it does go back to the 9th to explore the common origins of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. And perhaps how different takes on the origin story still influences people today.

Bjarmalönd is currently at number 1 on the Icelandic non-fiction charts and can be bought here in ebook and hardcopy (Icelandic only).

Bjarmalönd – Forlagið bókabúð (forlagid.is)

Second Day of Summer

Posted on by
Reply

Today is World Book Day (almost) everywhere except in Britain, which feels it must go its own way and celebrate books on March 4th. Ironic, considering that the day was chosen since it was the day that Shakespeare died, as well as the Spanish Miguel Cervantes.

More interesting for Norse scholars is the fact that yesterday marked the first day of summer in Iceland, this then being the second. The first day of summer is the first Thursday after April 18th, this year landing on the 22nd. True, it does not always feel very summery on this day, and has been known to snow. In fact, if there was frost the night before as did sometimes happen, it was said that summer and winter froze together, and this would auger a good summer for farming.

Choosing this day as the official start of summer (and it is in fact a public holiday in Iceland since 1971) makes sense if one keeps in mind that the year was divided in two equal halves. At this time, Harpa would begin, the first of the summer months. The tradition of the first day of summer has been documented as early as the 12th Century in Iceland. In Norway and Sweden, summer was said to begin on April 14th and lasting until October 14th.

We do not know if the old Rus celebrated the first day of summer or when. Present day Russians, like many nations, divide the year into four seasons. This then puts the beginning of spring on March 1st, a day when it is distinctly un-summery in most of Russia. And yet people congratulate each other on the onset of a new spring and, perhaps, on having survived another winter.

Vísindavefurinn: Hvenær er sumardagurinn fyrsti og er hann vel valinn sem upphaf sumarsins? (visindavefur.is)

Why the first day of Russian spring doesn’t feel like spring at all – Russia Beyond (rbth.com)

The Old Germanic Easter

Posted on by
Reply

Easter is, of course, a Christian holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The timing was borrowed from Judaism, as Jesus was said to be crucified during Passover, originally meant to celebrate the first lambs of spring and later the first crops. The Christians borrowed much of the spring motif for their own celebration, which was transported to the north with the advent of Christianity after the year 1000.

But some scholars maintain that Germanic tribes previously had their own Easter traditions. Eostre was the goddess of spring, of morning, of rebirth and of children. This spring goddess once changed her pet bird into a rabbit who would then give children multi-coloured eggs as a symbol of life. Both Easter in English and Ostern in German take their name from Eostre. Both are related to east or ost, which is where the sun rises, symbolising the dawn and a new beginning. Spring is also connected to other goddesses, such as the Slavic Lada and the Nordic Freyja.

The rabbit symbolises fertility but otherwise seems unconnected to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Eostre was first mentioned by the English monk Bede around the year 700 and some scholars claim her to be his invention. However, Germanic-Romano inscriptions were discovered in 1958 near Morken-Harff, Germany which seem to substantiate the venerable Bede.

In Nordic languages, the festival derives from the Romano-Greek Pascha and it is now known as påske or páskar. Eggs were not supposed to be eaten during Lent, and in Eastern Europe pancake week is celebrated at the end of February when the last eggs before Easter are consumed.

Easter happily coincides with the laying of eggs and taxes were even collected in eggs at this time of year. This led to a surplus of eggs which were sometimes redistributed to the poor. In Norway, girls of marriage age would put an egg next to their breast and hand it to their chosen suitor. In some cases, the suitor would even be allowed to retrieve it himself.

Chocolate eggs first became known in Iceland in the early 20th Century, a custom imported from Denmark. The custom is still upheld, the eggs being filled with sweets as well as a proverb, the latter a custom going back to the 17th Century.

The Icelandic Asatru association does not commemorate Easter but will be celebrating the beginning of summer on April 22nd, which is a school holiday. This is the first day of Harpa, the first month of summer, harking back to the time when there were six summer months and six winter months. Neither is very descriptive of Icelandic seasons.

Sources: Vísindavefurinn: Hvaðan koma páskasiðirnir um kanínur, hænur, egg og annað slíkt? (visindavefur.is)

Ēostre – Wikipedia

 

The Volcano Erupts!

Posted on by
Reply

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you volcano news, as we have just had one in Iceland. The current eruption started on the evening of March 19th in Geldingadalur, which roughly translates to Eunuch Valley, although it probably refers to horses rather than people. The Reykjanes peninsula is the youngest part of Iceland and it has five live volcano zones. At one end is the international airport and at the other is the capital city of Reykjavik.

The eruption may have little to do with Eastern Vikings, but it does actually connect to Viking history. The last series of eruptions here began in around 950 CE, so roughly a century after settlement of Iceland began. It lasted for around 300 years. Among the largest eruptions was one that took place at around the year 1000 and is called the “Christianisation Eruption,” as it happened at the same time that Iceland was becoming Christian. Some pagans took this as proof that the gods did not approve of the new custom, as it was called, but the Christians pointed out that many eruptions had taken place before, and so could hardly be traced to the anger of the gods.

The largest eruption took place in 1226, six years after the Saga writer Snorri Sturluson returned from Norway and so is mentioned in annals. It is said that the there was a winter of sand falling from the sky. The eruptions finally ended in around 1240, the year before Snorri died. Since that year also marked the end of the Kyivan Rus with the Mongols sacking Kyiv, as well as the last Viking raids around Scotland, one can say that the Viking Age was bookended by volcanic eruptions.

There has not been another eruption on the peninsula for 781 years, that is, until last night. Time will tell if we will get another sandfall winter or 300 years of eruptions, but as for now, it doesn’t look too bad.

If you want to see the eruption live, it is being streamed by Icelandic National Television: https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/20/beint-vefstreymi-fra-eldstodvunum

Did the Viking Age Begin Because of a Volcano?

Posted on by
Reply

Why did the Viking Age begin? Surely, it must be the most enticing mystery of many regarding the Vikings. They seem to appear, fully formed, in the historical record with the raid on Lindisfarne in 793. And yet much must have taken place earlier for these remote people to suddenly emerge out of Scandinavia and ransack the known world, as well as parts unknown.

This is one of the subjects renowned archaeologist Neil Price addresses in Children of Ash and Elm, recently reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. He traces the story back to the fifth and sixth centuries and the power vacuum and general instability after the end of the Western Roman Empire. This might seem intuitive, but Price goes farther and says that two volcanic eruptions in the sixth century led to winters lasting for years, dust blotting out the sun and the population of Scandinavia perhaps being halved. Due to all this, violence became common and those who wielded it most successfully created competing kingdoms. These were then exported to the outside world, with trade in iron and animal skins but also with raids and conquest.

According to this, it might seem that Ragnarök had already taken place by the time of the Vikings, the old Gods were dead and the new ones emerging in Iðavellir turned out to be just as fierce, if not more so. Dr. Price might not agree with the latter analogy but his thesis is interesting, not least for the times we find ourselves in as we in Iceland await a volcanic eruption and the world in general is starting to feel the effects of climate change. Hopefully that doesn’t mean we have to start going all Viking again.

The review by Jane Kershaw is available to read here: A reassessment of the Vikings and their world | The TLS (the-tls.co.uk)

The book is available here: The Children of Ash and Elm (penguin.co.uk)