Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 110
GRIPLA110
sation nor barbarians were native terms in medieval Iceland, but I shall use
them to sum up the perceived contrast between self and others at the
time.
Antique civilisation: the prototype effect
In starting my discussion with a brief look on the antique origins of per
ceived civilisation as against perceived barbarism, I do not pretend to cover
the ground so well researched by classical scholars. My aim is solely to
establish a few salient points that have a bearing on the Icelandic case, on
the general principle that the classical world came to be seen as the cradle
of european civilisation itself and the beginnings of a distinctly european
way of thinking. While it is hard to tell what the Icelanders thought about
the yet indistinct ‘Europe’, we do know that learned Icelanders were versed
in classical readings. to give just one example at this stage, the author of
the remarkable First Grammatical Treatise wrote (c. 1140): “Because lan
guages differ from each other – which previously parted or branched off
from one and the same tongue – different letters are needed in each, and
not the same in all, just as the Greeks do not write Greek with Latin let
ters, and Latinists (do) not (write) Latin with Greek letters, nor (do) the
Hebrews (write) Hebrew with Greek or Latin letters, but each nation
writes its language with letters of its own” (The First Grammatical Treatise
1972, 206–207).1 The distinction between languages here is made on the
basis of a sense of original (linguistic) unity. Already at this stage, learned
Icelanders saw themselves in the mirror of a larger and literate world.
There were many known languages – and cultures – but they were united
in civilisation through writing. In the vernacular, writing implicitly reflect
ed an extensive Norse and pre-Christian tradition, while Latin carried the
load of a long European tradition, a tradition that was not simply borne by
Christendom and the Latin alphabet but went beyond it to Greek legend
and myth (Bagge 2004; Eldevik 2004). This is where the barbarians first
appeared.
1 “En af því at tungurnar eru úlíkar hver annarri, þær þegar er ór einni ok hinni sǫmu tungu
hafa gengiz eða greinz, þá þarf úlíka stafi í at hafa, en eigi ena sǫmu alla í ǫllum, sem eigi
ríta Grikkir latínu stǫfum girzkuna ok eigi latínumenn girzkum stǫfum latínu, né enn heldr
ebreskir menn ebreskuna hvárki girzkum stǫfum né latínu, heldr rítar sínum stǫfum hver
þióð sína tungu.” [Spelling normalized by editor]