Gripla - 20.12.2009, Síða 72

GRIPLA72
versities and elsewhere was on secular disciplines, law and medicine.
Although we can hardly claim any detailed similarity, the Italian urban
chronicles, for instance the works of the Florentines Villani and Compagni,
share some of the characteristics of the sagas, in their vivid representations
of men and actions and their relatively secular outlook. these authors also
serve as some of the main examples of representation in Phillips’s study of
representation and argument mentioned above.53 While these authors do
refer to divine intervention and miracles, and lament the struggles they
narrate to a greater extent than the saga writers, the main topic of their
narratives is the external world, human actions, success and failure, politi­
cal alliances, family and other networks, and competition. Like the sagas,
these chronicles are composed by men of action for men of action, and
their authors as well as their audience are people engaged in the external,
material world rather than the spiritual and supernatural one, merchants in
Italy, combined farmers and politicians in Iceland.
Conclusion
While taking medieval Scandinavia and particularly Iceland as models of
later european democracy seems to be methodologically doubtful, there is
a more solid basis for identifying a distinct cultural tradition expressed in
the saga literature, which in turn is related to the character of Icelandic
society, and to some extent also the other Scandinavian countries, notably
Norway. Taken as a whole, the kings’ sagas clearly differ from the main
european tradition in narrative style, composition and in their attitude to
politics and society. the retreat of the author, the use of irony and under­
statement, dramatic “representation”, the emphasis on political manoeu­
vring and the kings’ and leaders’ need for popular support are all character­
istic features. to some extent, these features can be understood against the
background of a competitive society without a clear hierarchy and a literary
audience dominated by practical men of action, a hypothesis that seems to
be confirmed by the comparison with the contemporary Italian towns.
53 Phillips, “Representation and Argument,” 51–55; Sverre Bagge, “Medieval and Renaissance
Historiography: Break or Continuity?” The Individual in European Culture, The European
Legacy, vol. 2 no. 8, ed. Sverre Bagge (1997): 1336–1371.