Gripla - 20.12.2009, Síða 132

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ing it in a profoundly logocentric perspective. This is what makes the
Icelandic view of civilisation so distinctly European, while also so remark­
ably northern. Beyond the logos of the literati and the lawmen, vagrants and
babblers live another life altogether.
In this study I wanted to show how the idea of civilisation, and its
expression in distinct political and other institutions, may be understood in
terms of an absolute canon of civilisation, first established in a set of ur­
texts, which transcends lesser cultural differences – provided people are
still recognisable as civilised. In a logo-centric Europe, textualisation was a
prime feature in the politics of recognition. this also applies to Iceland,
providing the ur­texts of the early nordic civilisation.
RefeRenCeS
Adam of Bremen. 1968. De hamburgske ærkebispers historie og Nordens beskrivelse,
transl. by C.L. Henrichsen, 2nd ed. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger.
Adams, jonathan and katherine Holmen, eds. 2004. Scandinavia and Europe
800–1350. Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence. turnhout: Brepols.
Andersen, Øivind. 1989. “the Significance of Writing in early Greece – a criti­
cal appraisal.” karen Schousboe and Mogens trolle Larsen, eds. Literacy and
Society. Copenhagen: Center for Research in the Humanities.
Ardener, Edwin. 1989. The Voice of Prophecy and Other Essays. Oxford: Blackwell.
Aristotle’s Politics. 1943. Transl. by Benjamin Jowett. New York: The Modern
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Arngrímur jónsson. 1968. Brevis commentarius de Islandia (1593). Preface by jakob
Benediktsson with an English Summary. Íslenzk rit í frumgerð 2. Reykjavík:
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Arngrímur jónsson. 1985. Crymogæa (1609). Þættir úr sögu Íslands, ed. and transl.
jakob Benediktsson. Reykjavík: Sögufélagið.
Bagge, Sverre. 2004. “on the far edge of Dry Land: Scandinavian and european
Culture in the Middle Ages.” jonathan Adams and katherine Holmen, eds.
Scandinavia and Europe 800–1350. Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence. turnhout:
Brepols.
Bloch, Maurice. 1989. “Literacy and enlightenment.” karen Schousboe and
Mogens trolle Larsen, eds. Literacy and Society. Copenhagen: Center for
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