Gripla - 01.01.1975, Page 182

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GRIPLA
I want to repeat: I am not able to cite any other culture with a
literary development comparable to the Icelandic one.
This now leads us to the final question: what is the essential im-
pulse which led to the further development of such traditions in such
an uncommon way?
3. TRADITIONS OF THE ‘LANDNÁM’-TIME AND
SAGA-LITERATURE
The most important innovation within old Icelandic literature are the
íslendingasogur, stories about events concerned with the original dis-
covery and settlement of the country, the establishment of the alþingi,
conflicts between individual families, and about Christianization; in
short, about the beginning of Icelandic history. It is irrelevant to our
discussion whether the events told in the íslendingasogur are historical
reality or—more or less—fictions. We may suppose that the content
of a major part of the íslendingaspgur was considered historical reality,
at least at the time when these sagas were composed, as is attested by
Sturla Þórðarson.
These events and the creation of new social, legal and political
order signify not only the beginning of Icelandic history in a chrono-
logical sense. About 870, when the first settlers came to Iceland, the
island was empty except for a few Irish monks. The settling meant a
completly new start, not only as regards the material conditions which
the sagas mention repeatedly—think of the chapter 29 of the Egils
saga which describes the planning of Skallagrím’s farms according to
questions of economy. The possibility to create everything anew out
of their own vigour must have further strengthened the already clear
striving for independence of the new colonists. Innovations had to
take place not only in the personal sphere but more so in social inter-
course. The hierarchical order of Norway had lost its validity; news
forms had to be developed.
Repeatedly one can observe in various literatures of the world how
—at a certain moment in literature—a distinct turning back occurs
towards the time of the beginning of the state or nation. This can
happen in many different ways. In Ancient Rome, to use a very ob-
vious example, the historiographer was thought of as especially digni-