Gripla - 20.12.2009, Page 29

29A MutAtInG PeRIPHeRy
arose in the ninth century a mixed Celtic-Nordic culture which reacted
upon the parent cultures, both in Ireland and in Scandinavia” (Ibid., 211).
At first sight, the cultural growth that took place in this part of the north­
ern periphery seems marked by a paradox: on the one hand, the contact
with Christian Ireland appears as an essential precondition, but on the
other hand, the signal achievement of the Northwest was the sublimation
of the traditional viking spirit into an original culture.
Before considering the transfiguration of this paradox in Icelandic lit­
erature (as interpreted by Dawson), let us note that this line of argument
focuses attention on two issues that still haunt discussions about the
viking Age and its sequel, but have proved very difficult to tackle in pre­
cise terms, let alone to resolve. First, Dawson stresses the emergence of a
new Geschichtsregion (to use the term favoured by German historians, who
have done most to develop comparative approaches to this problematic) in
the Northwest Atlantic; it included newly settled territories as well as
zones of contact (both through more peaceful exchange) with Anglo-Saxon
and Celtic societies. there can be no doubt about the significance of this
regional configuration, but sources are so fragmentary that attempts to
trace its internal connections can easily take a speculative turn (for an
intriguing recent contribution, see Helgi Guðmundsson 1997). the second
issue is best seen as a particular aspect of the first, but has had a life of its
own. The question of Gaelic and more specifically Irish influence on
nordic culture in general and Icelandic literature in particular is notori­
ously intractable (for a recent, comprehensive and cautious discussion, see
Gísli Sigurðsson 1988). Dawson’s statements on this are not as clear as we
might desire, but may be worth closer scrutiny. He begins with a very gen­
eral claim about the influence of the Irish literary tradition on the younger
Icelandic one, but cites no concrete examples, and goes on to contrast the
“fantastic rhetoric” of Irish narratives with the sobriety and “psychological
truth of the Icelandic saga” (Dawson 1974, 212). The former is, in a sense,
pre-medieval, whereas the latter is proto-modern. The underlying sugges­
tion is – although Dawson never says it in so many words – that Irish lit­
erary culture acted as a catalyst rather than a model: the contact triggered
the crystallization of a very different imaginary. A second and much closer
encounter with Christianity then led to the introduction of literacy, and in
this case, a much more far-reaching adaptation to new modes of thought