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certain way of thinking which is very outdated but is, however, still quite
persistent among the general public, if not among scholars. It is character
ised by the use of the concepts of purity and influence. they can be
expressed by the following propositions: “the culture of medieval Iceland
is the purest conserved manifestation of Germanic culture” and “it is not
yet under the influence of Christian European culture with its basis in
Latinity.”
the reason for this persistence is linked to a very strong desire in sev
eral countries of northern europe at certain times in their respective his
tories for an identity which was distinct from the rest of Eu ro pean culture.
That is why medieval Icelandic studies flourished in Germany, Eng land
and Scandinavia – and finally in Iceland itself, each of these scholarly tra di
tions giving the study of medieval Icelandic culture its special twist, linked
to the ideo lo gical purposes it was meant to serve.3
Let us take one example, that of the socalled “Icelandic school” in saga
studies. this school evolved among Icelandic scholars in the first half of
the 20th century, a period in which the country was progressively gaining
its independence from Den mark. Scholars such as Björn M. ólsen, Sig
urður Nordal and Einar Ól. Sveins son were eminent representatives of this
approach to the sagas. they emphasized the originality of Icelandic culture,
i.e. the fact that – though Germanic and Scandinavian in its origins – it
was also the original creation of the people living in Iceland at the time.4
The rise of the Icelandic school was of great cultural significance for the
people of Iceland while they were taking their last steps on the road to
independence. It also opened the way for a re-examination of the relation
ship between its medieval culture and what was going on in the rest of
Europe at the same time. By viewing the society of 13th-century Iceland as
the centre of production of this culture, it opened up the pos si bility of
3 for Germany and Britain, see among others klaus von See, Barbar, Germane, Arier : Die
Suche nach der Identität der Deutschen (Heidelberg: Winter, 1994) and Andrew Wawn, The
Vikings and the Victorians: Inventing the Old North in Nineteenthcentury Britain (Cambridge:
D. S. Brewer, 2000). For the Scandinavian countries, see The Waking of Angantyr: the
Scandinavian past in European culture, ed. e. Roesdahl and P. MeulengrachtSørensen
(Aarhus: Aarhus universitetsforlag, 1996).
4 jesse L. Byock, „Þjóðernishyggja nútímans og íslendingasögurnar,“ Tímarit Máls og menn
ingar (1993:1): 36–50. The best recent representative of the Icelandic school’s view of
Icelandic literary history can be seen in jónas kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas. Iceland’s
Medieval Literature, tr. P. foote (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1988).
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