Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Page 106

88
TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
It would be tempting if time al-
lowed to dwell on constitutional
similarities between Anglo-Saxon
England and the Icelandic common-
wealth,—not so much in the hope
of finding parallel institutions but
for the light which Icelandic insti-
tutions and linguistic relics which
survived longer in Iceland than in
other Germanic countries might
throw on some of the more obscure
passages in English laws and diplo-
matic. I find it difficult for ex-
ample to believe that the passage
in the laws of the Kentish King,
Wihtred,47 dating from ca. 695, de-
fining the way in which a gesi may
clear himself, is not to be elucidated
in the light of what the sagas of the
Norwegians kings tell of the gesiir
at the courts of the Norwegian kings
and that the word is not errone-
ously translated as “stranger”. Simi-
larly when in the will of Æthelric,
dated ca. 995, it is stated that a
yearly rent is paid mid healfum
punde 7 mid anre garan,48 it seems
to me that gare can only be the Old
Norse gæra, whether this be a direct
borrowing by the Anglo-Saxons
from Old Norse or the words are a
common derivative from an Old
Germanic *garjon. But as there is
a time and place for everything
there will no doubt occur a time
and place for the treatment of such
abstruse but fascinating topics. Here
it is obviously the time and place
for me to end.
FOOTNOTES
1. One of the latest and best surveys
is Einar Ól. Sveinsson, fslenzkar
bókmenntir í fornöld, I, Reykjavik,
1962.
2. Egils saga (ÍF. II, 1933), ch. 17. The
edition of the Icelandic sagas which
I have used (unless otherwise stated)
is íslenzk fornrit abbr. ÍF). Reyk-
javik, 1933-. Reference is made to
chapters rather than pages, for the
benefit of those using other editions.
3. Gísla saga Súrssonar (ÍF, VI, 1943),
chs. 5, 8.
4. Laxdæla saga (ÍF, V, 1934), ch. 43.
5. Heiðarvíga saga (ÍF, III, 1938), ch. 13.
6. Halldórs þáilr Snorrasonar II (ÍF,
V), ch. 2.
7. E. Emerton, The Letters of Saint
Boniface, New York, 1940, p. 179,
8. William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum
in D. Whitelock, English Hisiorical
Documenis, I, London, 1955, pp. 280-
281.
9. Flaleyjarbók, Christiania, 1860-1868,
1, 107.
10. Egils saga, chs. 50-55.
11. Ibid, ch. 55.
12. Grágás, Copenhagen, 1879, II, 436.
13. Heimskringla, ed. F. Jónsson, Copen-
hagen, 1911, pp. 303-304.
14. Cf. Diplomalarium Islandicum, Co-
penhagen and Reykjavik, 1857-, X,
1-2. Giraldus Cambrensis is the first
British writer to mention Icelandic
falcons. It has been conjectured that
he may have been acquainted with
Páll Jónsson (bishop of Skálholt
1195-1211) when the latter was a stu-
dent in England ca._ 1180 (Björn
Þórðarson, fslenzkir fálkar (Safn til
sögu fslands, Sec. Ser. I, 5), Reyk-
javik, 1957, pp. 33-34). It is known
that Bishop Páll sent falcons as gifts
to his friends abroad (Biskupa sögur,
Copenhagen, 1858-1878, I, 143).
15. T. J. Oleson, “Polar Bears in the
Middle Ages” Canadian Hislorical
Review, XXXI (1950), 47-55.
16. Biskupa sögur, II, p. 143.
17. Diplomalarium Norvegicum, O s 1 O
1849-, XIX, 191-192. Another oddity
or mystery is the presence of walrus
skulls buried in the churchyard of
the episcopal church of Garðar in
Greenland. Some were found in the
church itself. Was some veneration
attached to the skulls of these mar-
vellous and precious beasts? (Poul
Norlund, Norse ruins at Gardar
(Meddelelser om Gronland, LXXVI,
No. 1, Copenhagen, 1930, pp. 137-138).