Gripla - 20.12.2009, Side 31

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Dawson’s Iceland is, in short, the place where the internal evolution of
paganism made it most ready for Christianization. In this scenario, there is
– in contrast to toynbee – no Kulturkampf and no capitulation, only a
mature surrender to superior truth. But Dawson’s claim that the conver­
sion was in the spirit of Völuspá can also be contrasted with Halldór
Laxness’s observation that it reflected the spirit of Hávamál (Laxness 1946,
34). Of the three, Laxness was probably closest to the view that seems
most compatible with contemporary scholarship: that the Icelandic way of
embracing Christianity was a judiciously balanced compromise with a
changed environment. As such, it obviously did not preclude further accul­
turation.
The view from Thule: Re-formative dynamics in Iceland
So far, I have discussed interpretations that began with a focus on the
Nordic region as a whole and its interaction with the European world into
which it was in the end integrated. From such points of view, Iceland
appears as the periphery of a periphery, but not only in the sense that it
was located on the outer fringe: its history and culture brought the periph­
eral condition of a much larger area to more articulate expression than
elsewhere. At this point, it seems appropriate to turn the perspective
around and consider Iceland as a starting­point for reflections that may
then throw light on the problematic of a larger historical region. This
approach will be explored through a brief and very selective reflection on
Sigurður nordal’s Íslenzk menning, which has – to the best of my knowl­
edge – never been subjected to the close reading that it merits (I intend to
continue that part of the discussion in another paper).
But before tackling interpretive problems, a few words should be said
about the historical setting. the patterns of continuity and discontinuity in
Icelandic history – from the settlement to the acceptance of Norwegian
sovereignty – differ from those of the nordic kingdoms during the same
period, and this point is crucial to the following discussion. There were no
less than five major landmarks or turning­points in the history of the
Icelandic Freestate. The first was the settlement itself: a fragment of
nordic society, or perhaps more precisely several nordic societies, as they
had developed during the Viking Age, was transplanted to a new environ­
A MutAtInG PeRIPHeRy