Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 35
35A MutAtInG PeRIPHeRy
level of articulation and the scope of construction vary widely), and they
relate to a world of other states. Both points are relevant to the Icelandic
“re-formation.” To quote Jesse Byock (2000, 66): “Although it would be
going too far to assume that the settlers and their descendants knew exact
ly what they wanted, available evidence does suggest that the early
Icelanders knew quite well what they did not want.” What they did not
want was what they saw happening to others, and the desire to avoid it led
to a limited but operative consensus on what should be done. Comparative
reflections will help to clarify what this mix of negative and positive goals
amounted to. But to begin with, let us return to Nordal’s reflections on the
origins of the Icelandic polity. What remains important and merits closer
examination is a very distinctive analysis of the relationship between
viking ethos and Icelandic culture, viking expansion and Icelandic state
building. nordal begins by noting that viking assaults and conquests
lacked the religious (and, as we might now say, civilizational) dimensions
characteristic of Islamic expansion as well as of the crusades (Sigurður
Nordal 1942, 76). Nor were they backed up by centralized power struc
tures of the kind that sustained nomad expansion across eurasia. the
viking pattern enabled an exceptionally large number of people to “exer
cise independent leadership, assuming responsibility at their own risk”
(Ibid., 76).
There was, in short, no civilizational or imperial dynamic at work in
viking expansion.2 But in Nordal’s view, this does not mean that it had no
cultural meaning or potential. He argues that visions of a “more aristo
cratic (höfðinglegra) life” than the Vikings could lead at home went beyond
mere plundering and could translate into more lasting achievements (Ibid.,
76). obviously, this meant – in the first instance – a quest for more stable
forms of power and wealth. But further aspirations, which Nordal links to
his key philosophical concept of þroski (I will, for present purposes, leave it
untranslated), led to efforts to gain access to a more advanced civilization,
including its intellectual and aesthetic spheres. the question to be raised at
this point is whether such ambitions could, in another context, become a
2 the only exception (a very inconsequential one) is Canute’s shortlived early eleventhcent
ury attempt to build a north Sea empire. “viking empire” is therefore strictly speaking a
misnomer; and if it can now be used as a book title (Forte et al. 2006), that says more about
the current marketability of empires and vikings than about anything else.