Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.01.1996, Qupperneq 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 26. janúar 1996 • 5
lcelandic Sagas and Urban Development in Reykjavík
Continued from last week
by Jón Karl Helgason
Reykjavík, lceland
This general image of the
saga heroes is being con-
firmed by street names
such as Gunnarsbraut and
Skarphéðinsgata. The citizens
of Reykjavík had no option
except to ‘follow the footsteps’
of their heroic ancestors. Such
a statement is particularly
appropriate in the case of Njáls
saga, as the arrangement of the
relevant streets reflects aspects
of the saga. Bjarnarstígur, for
instance, keeps a low profile
behind Kárastígur, just as
Björn Kaðalsson from Mörk
shielded himself behind Kári
Sölmundarson in a well known
scene in the saga (ch. 150;
Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, a
long-term inhabitant of
Bjarnarstígur, pointed this
affinity out to me a few years
ago). Similarly, Njálsgata and
Bergþórugata lie side by side,
mirroring Njáll and his wife
Bergþóra in their bedstead
while their farm of Bergþór-
shvoll is burned to ashes (ch.
129). Furthermore, Skarphéð-
insgata is like a branch which
extends the area between
Njálsgata and Bergþórugata,
reminding us that Skarphéðinn
was the son of Bergþóra and
Njáll. From a broader perspec-
tive, the street-pattern even
allows us to trace the plot of
Njáls saga on the map of
Reykjavík. We may start from
the south end of Gunnarsbraut,
representative for the story of
Gunnar (ch. 1-77); then we fol-
low Njálsgata or Bergþórugata
towards the west in the direc-
tion of the burning (ch. 78-
132); and finally our walk ends
in the area of Kárastígur and
Bjarnarstígur, represenfing the
scene involving Kári and Bjöm
in the last section of the saga
(ch. 150).
— m—
Most Icelanders believ-
ed the testimony of
the sagas far into the
twentieth century. It did not
matter that these texts were
written a few hundred years
after the events which they
describe took place. There are
several explanations for this
firm trust. Professor Björn M.
Ólsen, who dared to raise
doubts about the historicity of
the sagas in the first two
decades of this century, high-
lighted that most Icelanders
had lived close to sites men-
tioned in one saga or another.
In his opinion, the verisimili-
tude of the setting had proba-
bly influenced Icelanders to
assume a verisimilitude for the
plot of the relevant saga and
even the saga genre as a whole.
In this context it is also
appropriate to remember quite
a few nineteenth and twentieth
century Icelanders who man-
aged archaeological research
inspired by the testimony of
the sagas. Particularly promi-
Part of the Njáls saga tour in Reykjavík.
Map drawn by Bjarni Hinriksson.
nent was the approach of
Sigurður Vigfússon, taken
under the authority of The
Icelandic Archaeological
Society in the 1880s and 1890s.
This work not only resulted in
the publication of a number of
articles on the issue, but also in
a scientific investigation of
white mysterious chemicals
that were found at the site of
Bergþórshvoll. With reference
to the saga’s testimony of the
burning, in which a few
women of Bergþórshvoll try to
put out the fire with whey (ch.
129), these white chemicals
were supposed by the Danish
chemist Vilhelm Storch to be
“remains of Bergþóra’s ‘skyr’
(whey), or in other words pre-
served remains of milk prod-
ucts that had been prepared at
Bergþórshvoll the year in
which Njáll and his sons were
burnt, according to the saga”.
The purpose of this investiga-
tion, like most of the archaeo-
logical research inspired by the
sagas, was to verify “scientifi-
cally” individual points of the
narrative, or, in other words, to
read Njáls saga from the “origi-
nal”; the landscape against
which the saga events are
played out.
With street names, such as
Njálsgata and Bergþórugata, an
attempt is made to recreate this
original setting of Njáls saga
within the city. Clearly, the
agenda was to maintain a cer-
tain continuity between tradi-
tional rural settings and values,
and the modern urban ones.
But at the same time, the street
names can be seen as a sign of
the changing attitudes towards
the nature of the sagas, as rep-
resented by Björn M. Ólsen
and his students, men such as
saga scholar Sigurður Nordal,
who rejected any “natural”
connection between the text of
the sagas and historical reality.
Instead Nordal emphasized the
role of a creative author in the
making of individual sagas.
From that perspective, the
man-made saga-environment
in Reykjavík complied with the
new definition of the sagas as
man-made narrative structures.
This analogy between the saga
scholarship and the rewriting
of the sagas on the city map is
particularly appropriate since
Sigurður Nordal was a leading
member of the Reykjavík nam-
ing committee, which was
appointed in 1935.
In many respects, the em-
phasis of Nordal and his fol-
lowers on the sagas as non-his-
torical works written by cre-
ative authors was a logical step
in the development of Ice-
landic nationalism in the twen-
tieth century (Iceland split ties
with Denmark in 1944).
According to historian Jesse L.
Byock: “The literary basis of
the sagas equipped Iceland
with a cultural heritage worthy
of its status as an independent
nation”. One of the great obsta-
cles in articulating this new
concept, however, was the
mystery surrounding the iden-
tity of the saga authors; for the
most part they are anonymous.
This was indeed a serious
problem, as these authors were
expected to succeed the
acclaimed saga heroes in terms
of importance. Discussing the
consequences of this develop-
ment, Nordal wrote in 1940:
“As for national pride, one can
say that the injury possibly
inflicted upon the fame of
fighters and strong men will be
mended by new heroes, who
hitherto have been kept in the
background: the saga authors.
Is that such a bad substitu-
tion?” In answering that ques-
tion, it might be said that it
was a “bad substitution” as
long as these authors contin-
ued to be anonymous. Literary
scholar Astráður Eysteinsson
has recently raised this point,
suggesting that the term for the
genre of the family sagas
(“íslendingasögur”) has served
soniewhat as a qualifying label
in the absence of authors’
names, but he also hints that
Snorri Sturluson, one of the
few known authors of Ice-
landic saga writing, was seen
as representative for all the
unknown ones
This note leads us back to
the Reykjavík city map. The
weakness in linking street
names like Gunnarsbraut and
Skarphéðinsgata with the ideas
of Sigurður Norda! is that
these names celebrate the
“fighters and strong men”,
whom he wanted to replace
with the “saga authors”. In
response, one can point out
that there were certain difficul-
ties involved in naming a street
after the anonymous author of
Njáls saga, for instance. But
the final touch came with the
naming of Snorrabraut. Ori-
ginally, that street formed a
part of Hringbraut, a long cir-
cular avenue intended to
envelop the centre of Reykja-
vílí. As early as 1936, the city
had crossed over the eastern
borders represented by Hring-
braut. However, it was not
until 1948 that the Reykjavík
planning committee asked the
naming committee to propose
new names for different parts
of Hringbraut. In its written
response from February 20, the
naming committee suggested
that “the most eastern part of
Hringbraut should be named
Snorrabraut, since neighbour-
hoods with names of ancient
individuals are on both sides of
it.”
With the naming of Snorra-
braut, committee-member
Sigurður Nordal was able to
secure Snorri Sturluson a seat
of honour in the company of
saga heroes. Nordal himself
had been instrumental in rein-
forcing Snorri’s reputation in
the twentieth century, initially
with his book on Snorri from
1920, and later in his 1933
introduction to Egils saga
Skallagrímssonar, where he
argued for Snorri’s authorship.
Unimportant as it may seem,
the naming of Snorrabraut per-
manently changed the gravity
of street names in this area.
Before 1948 Njálsgata and
Gunnarsbraut had connected
the saga streets, but since then
the neighbourhood has been
united by Snorri, symbolising
the role of an individual author
as the creator and the unifying
principle of Icelandic saga liter-
ature.
— IV —
n this article I set out to
identily the intersections of
rural and urban community
in Iceland, as they were formed
on the Reykjavík street map.
As to be expected, these are the
intersections of divine nature
Continued on page 6
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