Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 154

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GRIPLA
mark at the beginning of the Xllth century23 and where, for the rest,
the quotation from Þórðr Andréasson finds an exact equivalent: ‘Eya,
huad sorigen du est tung!’24 Thus, the dansar are an ideal example of
this confusion or fusion which occurred in Iceland during the Sturl-
ung Age, between local traditions, pagan remnants and foreign in-
fluences.
Let us take another point: let us look at the custom of fósír (the
fostering of a child): this practice was universal in Iceland in the
Sturlunga Age, the case of Snorri Sturluson’s fostering by Jón Lofts-
son that proved to be the only means of soothing Hvamm-Sturla’s
anger being the most expressive (Sturlu Saga, ch. 34). It seems clear
nowadays that this is an import from Ireland rather than a typical
Germanic heritage.25
Finally, I shall give one instance of ‘superimposition’. The role of
fate and the consultation of its edicts by means of the drawing of lots,
whatever their nature, is well established amongst religious features
typical of the Germanic peoples, being already witnessed by Tacitus.26
The practice has not yet disappeared in the Sturlung Age and the
samtíðarsögur give numerous instances (see Sturlu Saga, ch. 23, Is-
lendinga Saga, ch. 162). íslendinga Saga, ch. 100 gives interesting de-
tails: dice (teningar) were used and the text quotes the usual expres-
sion kasta daus ok ás, which is an obvious translation of the French
feter deux et as, to denote a very bad result. It was a term of trictrac
(Icelandic kvátra, itself coming from the French quatre pronounced
/kwatre/ at that time because it was played on a small table divided
into four parts).
To sum up: in this field of cults and institutions, the general im-
pression is that of a constant effort to substitute possibly ancient
practices by new features, borrowed either from Ireland or from the
whole Westem world. Of the cult practices and of their embodiment
in social institutions, there is very little left in the samtíðarsögur. In
any case, any clear awareness of the original religious meaning of
23 J. de Vries: Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, Berlin, 2 ed. 1967, § 162.
24 Danmarks gamie foikeviser, number 37.
25 See K. Gjerset: History of lceland, London, 1923, p. 92; ÍF III, p. 7, note 1;
O. Loyer: Les chrétientés celtiques, Paris, 1965, p. 67.
20 Germania X; see also R. Boyer: L’Islandais des sagas, Paris, 1967, ch. 1.