Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 222
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invites him to go against received opinion (the famous example of Síðu
Hallur in Njáls saga). But there is an important difference between the
positions of kristján and Þorsteinn. kristján’s reading is characteristically
romantic in the sense that he admires the individual qualities of the saga
characters and nostalgically inquires about ways to make their virtues –
especially that of stórmennska, which he takes to be the Icelandic equivalent
to the Greek megalopsychia – more viable in a contemporary context.
Þorsteinn, on the other hand, who maintans that the Icelandic medieval
society “was in all essentials the same as that of the rest of medieval Europe,
with frequent feuds between clans,” defends two contentions that draw him
closer to what I call the humanist position.18 first, he talks about many acts
that in romantic vocabulary would be regarded as tragic result of the duty of
vengeance, such as flosi’s action in the burning of njáll, as “an heinous
crime by the laws of his society as well as by his Christian faith.”19 Secondly,
as mentioned before, he takes the fundamental moral conceptions of the
sagas to be largely shared by contemporary Icelanders, who are often moti
vated by a conception of their honour, independent of received opinion.
the major spokesman for the humanist position, Hermann Pálsson,
invites us to concentrate on the moral ideas of the text rather than the
qualities of individuals.20 If we do so we will see, he argues, that the sagas
are to be understood as Christian lessons about the deserving defeat of
those who show excessive pride and arrogance. The sagas were not written
in order to glorify the so called pagan heroes but rather to preach peace and
moderation in the spirit of medieval Christianity. they have the conscious
moral objective of teaching people what to aim for and what to avoid in
their own lives. The duty of vengeance, which according to the romantic
view is a major vehicle of the heroic virtues, becomes a cruel criminal act
from the humanistic perspective. From this viewpoint, Gísli Súrsson is a
coldblooded criminal who murders his brother-in-law and therefore justly
deserves his defeat.21
It follows from the humanistic reading that the value orientation and
18 Ibid., xii.
19 Ibid., xxi.
20 Hermann Pálsson, Úr hugmyndaheimi Hrafnkelssögu og Grettlu (Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður,
1981), 15.
21 Hermann Pálsson, “Icelandic Sagas and Medieval ethics,” Medieval Scandinavia 7 (1974):
64–65.