Gripla - 20.12.2009, Qupperneq 225

225
mental change of perspective is a shift towards relational conceptions of
power: the focus is now on structures, constellations or apparatuses rather
than on subjective capacities or dispositions.”27
Within this sociological hermeneutical frame, sœmd tends to be regard­
ed primarily as a social asset or commodity that people acquired in their
interaction with other people or which was assigned to them by other
social actors. Byock calls it an “honorable recompense” paid to a third party
for intervening in the affairs of others.28 In a similar vein, William Ian
Miller analyzes the “economy of honor” and refers to it as “a precious com­
modity in very short supply,” even though it was, as cited earlier, “at stake
in virtually every social interaction.”29 Preben Meulengracht Sørensen has
a similar idea about sœmd as a limited social good.30 this objectification or
commodification of sœmd implies that one person’s honour cannot increase
except at the cost of somebody else’s honour.
As Helgi Þorláksson has argued and substantiated with convincing
counterexamples, this position is not tenable.31 Helgi makes a distinction
between personal and social honour and maintains that much depends on
making this distinction clear. He argues that only the latter can be regarded
as goods in short supply, continually competed for by those who were in
positions of power or had ambition to gain them.32 Helgi describes per­
sonal honour in terms of improving oneself, showing greatness of mind
and readiness to defend oneself against attacks. “this personal honour
would not be increased by attacking others,” Helgi writes, invoking some
of the themes of the romantic reading.33 I believe that Helgi is right in
rejecting the reduction of sœmd to a social commodity and thus depriving
it, in effect, of important moral features.
27 jóhann Páll Árnason, Civilizations in Dispute. Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions
(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 202.
28 jesse Byock, Medieval Iceland (Berkeley: university of California Press, 1988).
29 William Ian Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking. Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland
(Chicago, London: university of Chicago Press), 30 and 29.
30 Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, Fortælling og ære. Studier i islændingesagaerne (Aarhus:
Aarhus universitetsforlag, 1993).
31 Helgi Þorláksson, “virtir menn og vel metnir,“ Sæmdarmenn. Um heiður á þjóðveldisöld, ed.
by Helgi Þorláksson et. al. (Reykjavík: Hugvísindastofnun Háskóla íslands, 2001), 15–22,
especially 17–19.
32 Ibid., 20–21.
33 Ibid., 21.
An etHoS In tRAnSfoRMAtIon