Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 154

GRIPLA154
declare a symbolic sovereignty over Iceland as one of the skattlǫnd and to
use such a claim as an argument for sustaining status on the continental
geopolitical stage than to keep garrisons and implement administration
which would probably “eat” all possible surpluses.
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This economy-determined prolonged political decentralization, which
resulted in parallel ecclesiastic decentralization, possibly contributed to the
survival of ancient tradition and to the development of the vernacular lit­
erature. All pre­Christian societies had rich oral traditions but in most
cases these were effectively erased by the Church which ideologically sup­
ported authoritative monarchy but demanded strict adherence to its uni­
versalistic doctrine. the pagan past must have been forbidden and conse­
quently forgotten except for the elements that were effectively
Christianized. In striving towards this, the Church was strongly supported
by co-operating kings who, in turn, depended on the ideological and
bureaucratic support of the clergy. In Iceland, remembrance of the pagan
past survived (in a surely contaminated form) because there was no power
strong enough to erase it effectively. As a compromise, the pagan ideology
there was superficially Christianized when recorded by the monks and
priests who mixed the folk tradition with Christian motives. This ideo­
logical compromise helped to keep cohesive a society endangered by the
hardships of economic crises. the unusual political organization contrib­
uted to the development of the unusual literary tradition, without which
the pan-Scandinavian identity would surely look very different to how it
does today.
the differentiated interdependencies of economic, political and ideo­
logical factors have to be considered when discussing the commonalities of
the whole “Nordic world” and also the regional specificities of each of its
parts. In the context of this discussion one might also refer to the Swedish
phenomenon of the carving of rune stones that appeared suddenly and
flourished after ca. 990, lasting until the early 12th century. Although these
carvings show direct continuity of the vernacular (linguistic and artistic)
traditions, the majority of them explicitly endorse Christian values. I think
that it is possible to discuss and compare the rune stones with Icelandic
literature and to look for common reasons behind both phenomena. the