Gripla - 20.12.2009, Page 172

GRIPLA172
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (c. 1136). A great many
other historical works appear to have been known to Icelandic writers
(Lehmann 1937, 40–41; Sverrir tómasson 2006, 93–98). Such an interest
in non-Scandinavian history mirrors the dominance of historical writing in
the vernacular about Scandinavian subjects, whether set in Iceland or in the
wider Scandinavian world. In fact one could say that much vernacular writ­
ing has a predominantly historical orientation, with Iceland and Icelandic
society as the anchor point: fornaldarsögur set in prehistory, Íslendinga
sögur in the recent past of Icelandic society, samtíðarsögur in near­contem­
porary Icelandic society, konunga sögur in Norwegian and wider
Scandinavian history, riddara sögur in the legendary history of courtly soci­
eties of southern europe and other exotic places. Within ecclesiastical
genres, hagiography had a predominantly historical orientation as well.
This was a genre vigorously pursued in Iceland as in other parts of medie­
val europe, and its influence is felt in the many existing prose translations
of the lives of foreign saints (usually from Latin) as well as in the lives of
Icelandic saints, both in Latin and the vernacular. To this we must add the
many poetic versions of saints’ lives and lives of the apostles, ranging from
the twelfth-century Plácitusdrápa to the fourteenth­century Kátrínardrápa
and Pétrsdrápa, all based on vernacular prose translations (Louis­jensen
1998, CvII; Louis­jensen and Wills 2007; Wolf 2007 and Ian McDougall
2007).
Another general area in which there is evidence for substantial Icelandic
interest, as reflected in the number and variety of works translated, and
one covered in more detail in this volume by Rudolf Simek, is geography,
including astronomy and astrology. Although much that has survived from
these fields is fragmentary and in many cases obtained indirectly through
encyclopedias and florilegia (Clunies Ross and Simek 1993), the range of
extant material reveals a predilection for information about the physical
world. This interest is manifest beyond translation, and was clearly stimu­
lated by reports from individuals travelling to foreign destinations, includ­
ing pilgrim experiences and itineraries (Lönnroth 1990). there is a pro­
nounced taste for the exotic in medieval Icelandic literature, revealed
through the many narratives set outside Scandinavia, whether west, south
or east.
of equal significance, though the evidence is of a negative kind, are