Gripla - 20.12.2008, Blaðsíða 148

GRIPLA146
Enda fengu þeir enn meiri villudóm ok blótuðu menn þá er ríkir ok
rammir váru í þessum heimi síðan er þeir vóru dauðir, ok hugðu þat
at þeir myndu orka jafnmiklu dauðir sem þá er þeir vóru kvikir...68
Snorri himself would not have had to search far for euhemeristic learning
as it is found in Skjöldunga saga, or more accurately in Upphaf allra
frásagna, a leftover of the now lost original, and has been linked to Oddi
around 1200:69
Óðinn ok hans synir váru stórum vitrir ok fjǫlkunnigir, fagrir at
álitum ok sterkir at afli. Margir aðrir í þeira ætt váru miklir
afburðarmenn með ýmisligum algerleik ok nǫkkura af þeim tóku
menn til at blóta ok kǫlluðu goð sín.70
Saxo’s Gesta Danorum and Historia Norwegiæ, both from around 1200,
also display euhemeristic ideas. The sources do not allow us to reach much
further back, but it should be clear – this point cannot be overemphasized
– that dating the arrival in Iceland of these inextricably Christian intellec-
tual concepts is inseparable from dating the arrival of Christianity itself.
Genealogies offer a somewhat special case. Ari fróði, a most Christian
author, ends Íslendingabók with his own genealogy stretching back to
Freyr, Njörður, and Yngvi.71 Other genealogies, found in various sources,
reach even further back, in the extreme back to Óðinn to Troy to Saturn
to Adam. The immanent question: Are these euhemerized genealogies of
pagan origin, and thus pagan remnants excused through euhemerism, or
does their origin lie with the same Christian authors that euhemerized
them? Anthony Faulkes has argued the latter, and quite convincingly.72
His argument is mainly twofold. First, we simply lack sources to back
up a claim of pagan origin. The three oldest langfeðgatöl are Ynglingatal,
68 The text is normalized. Hauksbók efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675,
4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter, ed. Finnur Jónsson (Copenhagen: Kongelige nordiske
oldskrift-selskab, 1892–1896), 158.
69 Bjarni Guðnason, Um Skjǫldunga sögu (Reykjavík: Menningarsjóður, 1963), 272–283.
70 Skjǫldunga saga, ed. Bjarni Guðnason, Íslenzk fornrit 35 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka forn-
ritafélag, 1982), 39.
71 Íslendingabók, ed. Jakob Benediktsson, Íslenzk fornrit 1 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka forn-
ritafélag, 1968), 27–28.
72 Faulkes, “Descent from the gods.”