Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 200
GRIPLA200
new and better understanding has been emerging of the connections
between the exceptional wealth of Iceland’s medieval literature and its par
ticipation in the culture of the Medieval West. these connections can be
expressed in terms of otherness and integration as well as in terms of iden
tity formation. The Icelanders were aware that their pagan heritage was
different. However, they integrated this otherness into an image of them
selves as a Christian people that they constructed through their literary
production.
Before elaborating on this, let us look at how the older conception may
have originated.2 Many factors of the history of Europe explain how we
have perceived the mystery of Iceland’s cultural ‘miracle’ over the last two
hundred years or so. One of them may be that we do not measure suffi
ciently the length of time and the degree of historical change that has
occurred since this Icelandic miracle took place. eight centuries ago,
Europe was an area where states were weak but the Church was both uni
fied and comparatively strong as an organisation. though it might be said
that there is a parallel in the direction in which Europe is evolving today,
with the weakening of states and the strengthening of a common in sti-
tution, the European Union, the period in between was quite dif fer ent.
Indeed, in the period separating the Middle Ages and our era, states grew
stronger, as did the idea of nationhood. In addition, the Reformation cre
ated a cultural divide across europe. We have every reason to believe that
both these factors have distorted our per ceptions of northern europe and
its medieval culture, as we will see in greater detail shortly.
Another explanation is that when scholars started to think about
Medieval Iceland in the 18th and 19th centuries, they perceived it in the
following terms: Iceland was the repository of a culture common to all the
Nordic – or even Germanic – peoples. It was maintained and preserved in
Iceland, unadulterated by influence from southern europe. We have here a
2 For a recent overview of the history of the reception of medieval Icelandic culture and lit
erature over the last centuries, see Andrew Wawn’s and Jón Karl Helgason’s contributions
to the Companion to OldNorse Icelandic Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005),
64–81 and 320–337. See also Margaret Clunies Ross’s cogent remarks in her “Medieval
Iceland and the european Middle Ages,” International Scandinavian and Medieval Studies
in Memory of Gerd Wolfgang Weber, ed. by M. Dallapiazza, o. Hansen, P. Meulengracht
Sørensen and y. S. Bonnetain (trieste: edizioni Parnaso, 2000), 111–120; The Manuscripts
of Iceland, ed. by Gísli Sigurðsson and vésteinn ólason (Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon
Institute, 2004), 101–169.