Gripla - 20.12.2009, Side 11

11IntRoDuCtIon
The chieftains’ power rested on religion but it also had rational secular
objectives which were put into practice with a varying degree of success.
The social structure that was formed before the Conversion laid the foun­
dation for the special character of Icelandic society which endured for three
hundred years, until the Commonwealth came to an end. Although Iceland
was itself without a king, it is important to appreciate the extent to which
monarchy was a central concept in the world view of Icelandic society.
this comes out very clearly in the literature.
In the next article, Sverre Bagge questions whether or not there are
legitimate arguments for talking about a particular nordic civilisation in
the Middle Ages and he suggests that this can be justified on two possible
counts: first, the literature of the Icelanders, and second, the ‘Scandinavian
model’ with equality, democracy, welfare and freedom. Bagge believes that
it is difficult to adduce sufficiently strong arguments to support the idea
that later developments in Scandinavian society towards this model were
rooted in medieval culture. After discussing the literature (especially the
sagas) and comparing it with literature produced by other nations in the
Middle Ages, Bagge concludes that “there is more to suggest a distinct
cultural tradition, expressed in saga literature, which in turn is related to
the character of Icelandic society, to some extent also to the other
Scandinavian countries, notably Norway.”
Gunnar Karlsson examines whether the Icelandic political community,
prior to the country’s submission to the Norwegian crown, was “of its own
special kind, rather than just a variant of a medieval european political
system.” After a short but comprehensive description of various problems
and arguments, Gunnar builds on his own extensive research in coming to
some conclusions. His verdict is that Icelandic society probably was differ­
ent but that this was not on account of “the inventiveness or the ideals of
the people of Iceland”. Rather, it was caused primarily by the country’s
physical remove from royal power: the Atlantic Ocean protected the soci­
ety that formed after the settlement of the country. Gunnar thus makes
less than Sigurður nordal and jóhann Páll Árnason of the likelihood that
the social system was the result of the systematic intentions of those who
created it.
In an article which brings together many of the subjects and themes of
this collection of essays, Richard Gaskins takes his lead from jóhann Páll