Viking and Medieval Scandinavia

This article explores the history of two texts in the fourteenth-century saga compilation Flateyjarbók: Hversu Noregr byggðist and the first chapter of Ættartölur, which together represent a variant of the origin myth Frá Fornjóti ok hans ættmönnum. The article identifies key sources for the intricate genealogies which are used to connect the legendary brothers Nórr and Górr, the first of whom is the creator and eponym of Norway, to prominent figures from Norwegian history, such as the purported unifier Haraldr hárfagri. Based on these sources, it is argued that a thirteenth-century core of this myth was extensively expanded in a co-ordinated effort in the fourteenth century. This expansion emphasized the role of female dynasts in connecting the primordial dynasty of Nórr to the Norwegian ruling line, which traced its patrilineal descent from the Swedish Ynglingr dynasty. It also wove various key Icelandic progenitors into the offspring of Nórr, giving them a distinguished pedigree among the Norwegian regional aristocracy. It is argued that the emphasis on female dynasts is likely to reflect Norwegian political developments in the first half of the fourteenth century, and several possible dates for the expansion are proposed on this basis. An appendix lists the dynasts found in the tradition and identifies their proposed sources.

This article lays out methods of analysing the combination of prose and verse in the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Icelanders) using a database that categorizes the prosimetric features of the corpus. The article gives an overview of the design of the database and explains how it achieves two major research goals. The first is to facilitate quantitative analysis of patterns observed across the prosimetric sagas. The second is to provide a foundation for qualitative investigation of the corpus as a whole by enabling the classification and possible correlation of prosimetric aspects in the Íslendingasögur.

The case of the False Olaf has received comparatively little attention. In 1402, a Prussian peasant was brought to Scandinavia, heralded by his supporters as King Óláfr Hákonarson (known in modern Danish as Oluf II, or in Norwegian as Olav IV). The real King Óláfr had died in 1387, and the imposter seems to have capitalized on a popular belief that Queen Margaret, the King’s mother, had him killed. In this article I begin by introducing the sources for the False Olaf affair. I consider the case alongside international analogues, and I build on earlier theories concerning the sorts of actors who probably organized the imposture. Previous assertions that the False Olaf was mentally ill are shown to be unnecessary. I underline the relative amateurishness of the scheme to suggest that it belongs to a broader genre of hapless intervention that occurs when mercantile interests (or the interests of capital) fail to grasp properly the workings of governments.

This paper argues that several hitherto unexplained problems in Ohthere’s Old English account of his sailing voyage from northern Norway to the White Sea in the late ninth century can be solved by applying nautical experience, by critical reading based on philological considerations, and also by common sense. Answers are presented to the questions why Ohthere twice had to wait so that he could sail downwind, why he did not dare to sail beyond the settlements of the Beormas, how he got into contact with them, and how he could detect that the Beormas and the Terfinnas nearly spoke the same language. The most important point is a simple emendation of the reading order of clauses in a complex passage, which not only removes the impossible concept of Ohthere and his crew killing sixty big whales in two days: but it also leads to the conclusion that he was in the White Sea with a small crew on a vessel that could only be sailed, not rowed. The 1997 detection of rock carvings near the southern coast of the Kola Peninsula underpins Ohthere’s statement that he sailed there ‘for the walruses’; these petroglyphs thus also provide support for the emendation of the text. The old theory that Ohthere was actually an exile from Norway is revived by new linguistic arguments and leads to a reasoned proposal for the Northman’s meeting place with King Alfred.

This article focuses on the writing of Þórðar saga kakala by an unnamed author in c. 1275 and its connections to its literary- and political-historical contexts. In extant form Þórðar saga kakala covers the years of Icelandic history between 1242–1249/50 and 1254–1256, with a special focus on the figure of Þórðr kakali Sighvatsson (c. 1210–1256) who — for a short period during the Sturlunga Age — controlled all Iceland unopposed. Because of the subject matter of Þórðar saga kakala, including the characters featured therein, the origins of Þórðar saga kakala cannot be discussed apart from the high political history of 1270s Iceland. At this time, royal office was being shared between two old rivals, the southern bishop was attempting to wrest control of church estates from their lay owners, and the Norwegian king was implementing legislative reform on Iceland. In addition to political history, literary history must also be covered: it is essential for understanding the reception of Þórðar saga kakala, and serves to illuminate its origins further. Chief, in this regard, is the saga’s relationships with the writings of Sturla Þórðarson (d. 1284) about contemporary political history: Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar (covers 1204–1263; written c. 1264–1265) and Íslendinga saga (covers 1183–1264; written c. 1277–1284). By closely reading Þórðar saga kakala through historical-critical and intertextual lenses, this article nuances the picture of the political history of 1270s Iceland provided in the sources (chiefly Árna saga biskups and the annals), whilst also detailing an instrumental episode in the formative history of the Sturlunga saga compilation through which Þórðar saga kakala comes down to us today.

Material study of the Old Norse mythological corpus has emphasized the role objects play in illuminating the ideologies, beliefs, and cultures of medieval Scandinavians. In interrogating the agency of physical matter in myth, material study attempts to bridge temporal distances between text and audience by establishing a thick description of material. While such studies have tended to focus upon fabricated material, this article makes the case for further study of the body as physical object. It argues that foregrounding the material body demonstrates the permeable boundaries between what medieval Scandinavians understood as human and non-human. To demonstrate the fluidity of this boundary, this article addresses three myths concerned with biological material: the dismemberment of Ymir, the binding of Fenrir, and the pledge of Óðinn. Among the topics discussed are the relationship of the body to the physical world, the impression of uncanniness that surrounds the broken body, and the material agency encountered in instances of corporeal disruption.

The article argues that the Old Norse notion of Hvítramannaland/Írland it mikla is by no means a wholesale borrowing from Irish voyage narratives, as has been argued in recent scholarship. Rather, it is a fictional space that combines widespread ideas of stranger-kings and lost islands with the notion of Ireland as a strange, forbidding but also marvellously paradoxical location from which most would be advised to keep a safe distance.