Lögberg-Heimskringla - 17.11.1989, Síða 4

4 • Lögbeig - Heimskringla • Föstudagur 17. nóvember 1989
Vilhjálmur Arnason Gives Beck Lecture
By W.D. Valgardson
On June 23, Vilhjálmur Árnason,
professor of Philosophy at tlie University
of Iceland, gave a lecture on “Morality and
Social Structure in the Icelandic Sagas”.
This is the first time we have chanced
having a Beck lecture during the summer
and were quite prepared for a turnout of
no more than six or seven people. Instead,
there was standing room only. Many of
the people who attended had not been to
the lectures during the winter. We are
now hoping that the winter and summer
groups will merge and, therefore, increase
the overall audience. This turnout has
also encouraged us to continue with plans
for the Icelandic summer school in 1990.
Although we have not been able to finalize
plans, we hope to offer three courses, one
each in the Icelandic language, literature
and film. If possible, we would like to
include a mini-festival of Icelandic film.
Professor Ámason gave a public lec-
ture (all Richard and Margaret Beck lec-
tures are free) in which he first explained
that “the events described in the Icelandic
family sagas are set in the period between
the late ninth century, the time of the
settlement of Iceland, and the early elev-
enth century, the first decades after the
institution of Christianity. Most of the
sagas were written in the thirteenth cen-
tury. The Icelandic sagas describe con-
flicts between individuals, the reasons for
the disputes and their resolutionand
that “As a rule the actíon proceeds in a
pattem of a series of ldllings, structured
by the duty to exact revenge for death or
offence inflicted on oneself, a friend, or a
family member. This pattern is shot
through with ethical threads because
fimdamental values and interests are at
stake both for individuals and the commu-
nity.”
In settíng out the pattems of the sagas
so clearly, Professor Árnason made what
is quite esoteric material understandable
to the non-specialist. (I am a non-special-
ist. Like most of the audience, any knowl-
edge I have of the sagas comes from a
casual reading, not from academic study.)
However, the next day I also attended a
symposium for Medievalists at Dr. John
Tucker’s home. Here, the audience had
already read the paper and had come
ready with questíons. Professor Árnason
held his own here as well. It was fascinat-
ing for someone like myself to listen to a
group of highly educated specialists (one
member is not only a medievalist but
concentrates on medieval gardens and, if
I remember correctly, partícularly, Islamic
medieval gardens) raise questions, make
challenges, provide additíonal informa-
tíon, referring as they did so familiarly to
writing and characters which for me are
but names. This then is a second aspect of
the Beck lectures. They bring specialists
not only to the general public but, at the
same time, make it possible for academics
to hear about Icelandic language, litera-
ture, history and culture.
In his paper, Professor Árnason ex-
plained that there are two basic approaches
to saga morality, the romantíc and the
humanistic. He then argued that these
interpretations do not provide an ade-
quate base for understanding the moral-
ity of the sagas because they do not recog-
nize the social roots of the morality.
“According to the romantic view...
the sagas are regarded as stories of indi-
vidual heroes whose values and virtues
are of Nordic heathen origin, fundamen-
tally different from Christían ideals.”
Morality is largely determined by per-
sonal qualities. The ways these qualities
humanistíc theorists study morality in the
individual, they fail to properly explain
saga morality.
Iceland had no official institutíons.
Therefore, the ties that bound the individ-
ual to family, fiiends and alliances were of
vital importance. The Icelandic free state
had laws but no organizatíon to carry out
sentences. It would be as if, today, the
courts sentenced someone for murder,
then the killer walked out of the court-
are used to fulfil the duty of vengeance is
how characters are judged. Honour and
pride are central to saga society. “The
Icelandic word drengskapur (manliness)
probably signifies best the excellence of
the heroic character.” A person who has
drengskaþur is someone who can be de-
pended upon no matter what happens.
This is very different from the kind of
person who is only good because he is
afraid. That kind of person can never be
relied on. In the romantic view Gísli
Súrsson of Gísla saga Súrssonar was a
true hero.
Hermann Pálsson, however, holds the
humanistic view of saga morality. He
thinkstheromanticsarewrong. Hethinks
the sagas are Christian lessons about how
people who are too proud and arrogant
are defeated. According to Pálsson, the
sagas don’t glorify the pagan heroes, but
show that vengeance is a cruel, criminal
act which deserves to be punished. Ac-
cording to this, Gísli Súrsson is a mur-
derer who deserves to be defeated.
Professor Ámasonpoints outthat one
can reconcile these two points of view by
pointing out that they are not interpreting
the same thing. The romantic point of
view is describing the moral reality of the
sagas as it appears in the deeds of the
characters. The humanistíc view is trying
to demonstratetheethicalintentíon ofthe
author, an author who was raised in a
Christían society three hundred years
after the described events tookplace. How-
ever, such a reconciliatíon doesn’t fiilly
work because it does not take into ac-
count the common presuppositíons of
these interpretatíons.
Prof. Árnason believes that if we are
to understand the dutíes, virtuesand moral
principles at work in the sagas, we need to
understand the social context of medieval
Iceland. We need to study not individual
moral beliefs but, rather, the ethical order
of the society. Because the romantic and
room. Sentence was passed but nothing
was done. Therefore, it would be up to the
family and friends to carry out the sen-
tence. This type of system does not create
or enforce justice so much as it provides
vengeance.
Prof. Ámason summarized the main
argument of Jesse Byock’s book Feud in
the Icelandic Sagas. Byock argued that the
original system of decision making and
conflict solving functioned as a “system of
advocacy” which kept society functioning.
This sy stem kept individual violence down
and gave the goðar a lot of power. This
view shows some of the most cherished
heroes of the sagas such as Gísli Súrsson,
Gunnar á Hlíðarenda in Njáls Saga and
GrettirÁsmundarson in Gretti/s Saga as
inept individuals, misplaced vikings who
haven’t adapted to an agrarian society.
The problem with Byock’s view, Árnason
states, is that it does away with morality
and reduces it to a function of social proc-
esses. While I found this interesting in
understanding some aspects of saga he-
roes, especially the discussion of hóf
(moderation), vinfengi (friendship) and
góðgimi (benevolence) and ójafnaður
Cimmoderation and overbearingness), I
found Byock’s view to distort the overall
meaning of the sagas for, in Byock’s view
of socialfy expedient behaviour, Mörður
Valgarðsson comes out a more worthy
man than Njál.
There always were material interests
behind saga-feuds, both those of the farm-
ers and the chieftans. But as Vésteinn
Ólason has pointed out, the farmer is much
more interested in gettíng revenge than
getting his money back. This is because
his honour is at stake. Moral duties in the
sagas were unconditíonal. People found
themselves faced with betrajnng every-
thing they believed in or accepting death.
Strong characters with a sense of self-
respect and honour have absolute limits
as to what they can and cannot do.
I came away from this lecture with a
much better sense of morality in the sagas
- a greater awareness that the morality of
the sagas’ times and the morality of when
the sagas were written were two different
matters. I also came away with a deeper
understanding of how different points of
view (mine, I realized has always been the
romantíc point of view) radically change
how one looks at the people in the sagas.
However, afterwards I mentioned to Dr.
Árnason that what really matters is how
the sagas have affected generatíons of
Icelanders and Icelandic-Canadians. The
saga heroes have provided role models
for many of us. I was thinldng at the time
of a trip I had made to Macbeth’s on Lake
Winnipeg. On the retum trip there was a
very bad storm and five of us were in the
pitch black in high waves in an open boat.
I said to Geordie Simundson from Pine
Dock that perhaps we should put on our
life jackets and he said, “Yes, that would
be a considerate thing to do. If we are
swamped, it will make finding our bodies
much easier.” There was no bravado in
that. Just a statement of fact. I felt reas-
ured by that acceptance of whatever fate
would bring and I also felt close to the
past, as if it were not so far away after all.
At the end of his talk Dr. Árnason
concluded that a social analyses of the
sagas does not need to reduce them to
accounts of social processes where moral
virtues have no place. Moral structure
and social stucture have to be understood
together. Any one point of view of such
complex works as the sagas are certain to
distort the overall meaning of the books.
At the end of the evening, I thought to
myself as I walked home that I was glad
Dr. Ámason is trying to bring various
views of the sagas together to create a
more whole, realistíc view of saga society.
This reconciliatíon of views allows me to
accept that Mörður may have been the
smarter politícian and have better adapted
to an agrarian society but that Njál and
Eyvindurwould be better companions and
tme friends.
f Lögberg-Heimskringla
wishes to
Donald L.
Bjomson
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