Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2005, Page 294
The Celtic Element in the Icelandic Population
and the Position of Women
Grethe Jacobsen
Preface:'
This article was written in 1980 and submitted to Medieval Scandin-
avia, which, alas, ceased publication before the article was printed. As
my research subsequently has taken a different path, I have decided to
present it here as it was written originally in 1979/80, with only a few
editorial corrections.
During the intervening two-and-a-half decades, the literature on
women in Old Norse society has increased greatly and I refer the readers
to the work of Jenny Jochens1 2 for references to this literature. She is
also, to my knowledge, the only scholar who has dealt explicitly with
the issue of Celtic foremothers of the Icelanders and the evidence of the
Landnamabok in two recent articles, using immigration models and
personal as well as nick names used in the Norse literature including the
Landnamabok to discuss the issue of the origin of the settlers.3
The conclusions I reach in the article are based on e-silentio evid-
ence, that is, on what is not mentioned in the Landnamabok. Recently,
however, the first results from the deCode project which analyzes the
1 The article evolved out of a seminar in quantitative methods, taught by Professor Peter
H. Smith in 1979 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With a delay of twenty-five
years I want to express my gratitude to Professor Smith for help and encouragement back
then. A warm note of thanks is also due professor (emerita) Jenny Jochens who during the
last decade has repeatedly urged me to publish the article and was instrumental in draw-
ing the article to the attention of the editors of the Opuscula series and who has also pro-
vided me with references to recent genetic research (se note 4).
2 Jenny Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society (Ithaca and London, 1995) and works cited
below.
3 Eadem, “Vikings Westward to Vinland: The Problem of Women,” in Cold Council:
Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology, A Collection of Essays, edited by Sarah
M. Anderson with Karen Swenson (New York and London, 2002) pp. 129-58; eadem,
“Race and Ethnicity in the Old Norse World,” Viator, 30 (1999) pp. 79-103.