Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 139

RÉGIS BOYER
PAGANISM AND LITERATURE:
THE SO-CALLED ‘PAGAN SURVIVALS’ IN THE
SAMTÍÐARSÖGUR
Since the general theme of this Conference deals with ‘The Sagas
and Medieval Icelandic Society’, the precise subject I have chosen to
develop here may seem puzzling at first view: one is not obliged to
see immediately the link between Medieval Icelandic Society, its re-
flection or embodiment or direct translation into the saga world, and
the pagan survivals such as they appear in the samtíðarsögur.
Before investigating the matter more accurately, and elucidating the
puzzle, I have to explain why I chose, and limited my researches to the
samtíðarsögur, here below understood as the whole Sturlunga Saga and
most of the Biskupa Sögur.1 According to the classification proposed by
Sigurður Nordal in Nordisk Kultur VIII B (1953), the difference be-
tween the samtíðarsögur and all other sorts of sagas comes from the
distance in time which separates the presumed author of the work and
the facts, more or less historical, that he relates. In the case of the ís-
lendingasögur or family sagas, this distance is usually three or more
centuries (two and a half at the very least). In the samtíðarsögur, this
distance is often much less significant, and in some cases, such as Sturla
Þórðarson’s íslendinga Saga, it is non-existent since here the author is
also one of the personalities in the saga. On the other hand, the purpose
of the authors of the samtíðarsögur is visibly to write history, in the
meaning the word had in the Middle Ages, that is a kind of chronicle of
the events they had themselves experienced or learnt about from reliable
witnesses. It follows that the image of society given by the samtíðar-
sögur has every chance of being far closer to reality than that which we
find in all other kinds of sagas. Also, it seems highly probable that a
1 The references will be to: Biskupa Sögur. Guðni Jónsson bjó til prentunar.
Reykjavík, 1953. 4 vol.; Sturlunga Saga. Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason,
Kxistján Eldjárn. Reykjavík, 1946. 2 vol. AIl the sagas will be quoted by their tiUes
and number of chapter in these editions.