Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 238
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is the spirit of the unique political structure of the Icelandic free State.68
The political structure provided space for fundamental choices between
resorting either to violent, or to consensual means in the handling of con
flicts. This resulted in a transvaluation of values, where honour became
gradually more linked to peaceful settlements.
The main lessons about virtues I draw from this moral-political reading
of Njála are the following. (i) The virtues that are necessary to uphold the
morality of unconditional honour, which are partly sustained by the social
structure of the free State, must be rechannelled and harnessed for peace
and social order. (ii) The virtues of those wise and benevolent men whose
efforts aim at seeking peace and reconciliations, e.g. by giving good advice
and acting as intermediaries in conflicts, are by themselves doomed to fail
ure in the social structure of the free State. (iii) At the heart of saga moral
ity there is a conflict between the unconditional morality of personal hon
our and the social need for peace which promotes more conciliatory values.
It is my contention that the uniqueness of saga morality resides more in
these characteristics than in the virtues of individual greatmindedness that
are found in some form or other in all heroic societies.
RefeRenCeS
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, transl. by M. Ostwald. Indianapolis: The Boobs-
Merrill Company, 1962.
BrennuNjáls saga, ed. by einar ól. Sveinsson. íslensk fornrit XII. Reykjavík:
Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1954. In english: Njal’s Saga, translation by C. f.
Bayerschmidt and L. M. Hollander. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1998.
Byock, jesse. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. Berkeley: university of California Press,
1982.
Byock, jesse. Medieval Iceland. Berkeley: university of California Press, 1988.
Byock, jesse. Viking Age Iceland. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
foucault, Michel. The Use of Pleasure. The History of Sexuality, vol. 2. english
translation Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
Gaskins, Richard. ”félagsvísindamannasaga,” Skírnir 171 (1997): 237–259.
Gísla saga Súrssonar, Vestfirðingasögur, ed. by Björn k. Þórólfsson and Guðni
jónsson. íslensk fornrit vI . Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1943, 3–118.
In english: The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw, transl. by George Johnston with Notes
and Introduction by Peter foote. toronto: university of toronto Press,
1963.
68 Byock, Viking Age Iceland, 209.