Saga - 2018, Page 85

Abstract
sverrir jakobsson
THE PAINFUL REFORMATION
Cultural Memory in Jón Egilsson’s Bishops’ Annals
The first steps in the shaping of the cultural memory of the Reformation are dis-
cussed here with an examination of cultural memory in the Bishops’ Annals of Jón
Egilsson (1548–1636). The concept of cultural memory is used here to refer to the
ideas of a particular group on history as opposed to the actual memories of indi-
viduals. The Bishops’ Annals is an important milestone in Icelandic literature as
it marks a return to annal writing after an interval of 170 years. They are interest-
ing as a subject for investigation of cultural memory as Jón Egilsson did not have
many written sources at his disposal and did not base his account on such docu-
ments from the past. His work was based on his own memories and, in particular,
the memories of others. The traumatic event in Jón’s account concerns the events
of the Reformation, which concluded when he was child. Jón’s sources were peo-
ple close to him, his elders and relatives. Many of his contemporaries shared his
view of the history of Skálholt and the Reformation, but his writings also con-
tributed to establishing that view. Jón Egilsson’s Bishops’ Annals are a historical
work written for a power institution, i.e. the Lutheran Church, confirming the
identity of the people of the bishopric as loyal royalists and supporters of the
Reformation. Meanwhile, his work is also characterised by loyalty to the pre-
Reformation Church and the Bishops of the time, who were closely linked to the
writer’s family. This creates a certain tension within the work but also reflects atti-
tudes in the community, as the general public in the Skálholt diocese was not crit-
ical of the previous church arrangement in Iceland or interested in making radical
changes to it. Jón Egilsson had, like many of his contemporaries, an ambivalent
view of the Reformation. His solution is in line with the individual-based
historical writing that was prevalent at the time, and which he introduces himself
at the beginning of the work, where conflict and reconstruction, heroism and
weakness are linked to the qualities of individuals rather than the interests of
power institutions. Jóns Egilsson’s Bishops’ Annals are a good source for the
author’s own attitude to the traumatic event of Reformation being implemented
by force in Iceland. Jón Egilsson supported the conclusion but not the execution
in itself, and his annal writing shows this. According to him, the heroes of the
Reformation were those who came along after the event and began to adapt the
Icelandic Church to the changed circumstances, while he had little positive to say
about the men who had worked with the Danes against the previous bishops.
Jón’s view became influential, influencing Icelandic writers of church history into
the 20th century.
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