Gripla - 20.12.2009, Qupperneq 30

GRIPLA30
was inevitable (but it should not be mistaken for a complete substitution).
It is not obvious, at least not to the present writer, that later scholarship
has come up with a better answer to the Irish question.
To conclude, Dawson’s interpretation of the Icelandic sequel to the
Celtic-Nordic encounter is best summarized in his own words. It places a
stronger emphasis on eddic poetry than on the sagas (the unstated premise
is that oral traditions behind the Older Edda underwent a fundamental
reinterpretation in Iceland), and the main thesis has to do with paradigms
of the human condition. For Dawson, the Eddic spirit transfigures the
heroic ideal and brings the tragic vision of life to unequalled perfection:
“the eddic conception of life is no doubt harsh and barbaric, but it is also
heroic in the fullest sense of the word. Indeed, it is something more than
heroic, for the noble viragos and bloodthirsty heroes of the edda possess a
spiritual quality that is lacking in the Homeric world. The Eddic poems
have more in common with the spirit of Aeschylus than with that of
Homer, though there is a characteristic difference in their religious atti­
tude. their heroes do not, like the Greeks, pursue victory or prosperity as
ends in themselves. they look beyond the immediate issue to an ultimate
test to which success is irrelevant. Defeat, not victory, is the mark of the
hero… There is no attempt, as in the Greek way of life, to justify the ways
of gods to man, and to see in their acts the vindication of eternal justice.
for the gods are caught in the same toils of fate as men… they have become
themselves the participants in the heroic drama. they carry on a perpetual
warfare with the powers of chaos, in which they are not destined to con­
quer” (Ibid., 213).
the Völuspá is, unsurprisingly, cited as a prime source. But Dawson
seems puzzled by some of its themes and inclined to argue that they are
neither Celtic nor nordic, neither Scandinavian nor Christian. “Above all,
it is strange to find in the Volospa (sic) an idea which seems to us so diffi­
cult and recondite as that of the eternal Return” (Ibid., 213). Be that as it
may, the poem is for him the apogee of pre­Christian nordic spirituality.
At this point, however, the latent thrust of Dawson’s analysis comes to the
fore: the perfection of Celtic­nordic culture turns out to be a prelude to
Christianity, and a proper understanding of its message makes it possible
to grasp the conversion of Iceland as “not merely a matter of political expe­
diency; it was the acceptance of a higher spiritual ideal” (Ibid., 216).