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PAGANISM AND LITERATURE
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ch. 28, which ridicules Kálfr Guttormsson. In spite of the probably
extremely ancient Northem origins of this genre, D. Strömbáck and
Stefán Einarsson19 have established that it was also probably a foreign
custom originating in the south-west of France20 and that it may have
undergone a strong revival in the XlIth-XIIIth centuries through the
influence of the courtly literature which, it must be remembered, re-
introduced to Europe the fashion of masks and disguises.21 According
to this theory, we would here be faced with an interesting phenom-
enon of revival through foreign influences.
The second type of dans is simpler. It is also satirical but we are
not obliged to consider that it implied mimic, disguise or special
attire. It would be represented by the dansagerðir made by Kolbeinn
ungi’s followers against Þórðr kakali in Þórðar Saga Kakala, ch. 39,
or by those directed against Loftr Pálsson, or even by the visa 18 of
íslendinga Saga: Loftr er í eyjum / bítr lundabein, and so on. K. Lie-
st0l and D. Strömbáck agree in giving this genre also a foreign origin22
and therefore we may count this as a case of an Icelandic adaptation
of a foreign model.
As for the third type, the most interesting for us, it is represented
in Sturlunga by one verse only: Mínar eru sorgir þungar sem blý (ís-
lendinga Saga, ch. 200) sung by Þórðr Andréasson the very day of his
death, and, also by the famous vísa 74 in the same saga, sung by
Þórir jökull when dying (Upp skalt á kjöl klífa / köld er sjávar drífa
. . .). Elsewhere, the texts speak, without further detail, of dansleikar
(Þorgils Saga ok Hafliða, ch. 10, where the association dans-leikr is
interesting), hringleikr (Sturlu Saga, ch. 20), dans sleginn í stofu (ís-
lendinga Saga, ch. 76) and, in Jóns Saga Helga I, ch. 24, of man-
söngr: in all cases, the text allows us to think that we are in presence
of real dance in the present meaning of the word, accompanied by
music, and erotic, elegiac, or lyrical song. This is, no doubt, the
French carole which was well-known in aristocratic circles in Den-
19 D. Strömback: Cult remnants in dramatic dances, in Arv 4, 1948; S. Einars-
son: Horse dance in the Sturlunga Saga, in Folkloristica, Uppsala, 1960.
20 It is also attested by Tacitus: Germania XXIV.
21 See for instance F. Heer: Medeltiden, Stockholm, 1966, p. 105.
22 K. Liestpl: Dei eldste islendske dansekvæde in Arv 1, 1945; see note 19.