Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2018, Síða 6

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6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • September 15 2018
Sunday. August 12, 2018 –
Reykjavík, Iceland
August. Tourist season in Iceland.
While most people who visit the
country do so to see the blooming
cultural capital at the edge of Europe, as
well as to trek the dreamland’s fjords
and admire its waterfalls, there are about
four hundred of us all over the capital
area who are flocking over to Háskóli
Íslands, the University of Iceland, for a
long-awaited event in the world of saga
scholarship.
I am referring to the 17th
Fornsagnaþing, the Saga Conference, an
event that takes place every three years
at various, appointed places. But this
year’s conference is so special because
the participants are brought back to the
land of the sagas – and the theme, rightly
so, is about the Íslendinga sögur. Only
twice before has the conference been to
Iceland: once in Reykjavík (1973) and
once in Akureyri (1994).
The conference is appropriately
called a þing because it is not only an
assembly of great thinkers in the field,
but the Icelandic word indicates that
we are scholars from all over the world
coming together to a special place
to share and discuss what is now an
immensely diverse field of knowledge:
from literature, archaeology, history,
and philology, to media, memory
studies, post-war cultural receptions,
and the modern dissemination of myth.
Everyone is warmly welcomed
with wine in Veröld, the new university
building for the language scholars – a
welcome that is eagerly accepted in the
midst of what has been a very cold and
wet summer in Iceland. We are each
given bags for the conference with a
quote from Grettis saga: “Orða sinna á
hverr ráð” – “Each has power over their
own words.” Tomorrow, those words
will be wielded.
August 13-17, 2018 – “Nothing
comes into being in a vacuum”
The President of Iceland, Guðni
Th. Jóhannesson, opens the conference
with a gentle reminder to the audience
that “scholars may not live solely in
ivory towers, if we can put it like that;
they must also go out into the bustle
of the street and make their learning
accessible to the public.” In keeping
with his theme of openness and
diversity, the president, also a historian,
says – alternating between English and
Icelandic – that “we should be aware
that our origin was many-sided and that
this applies also to our saga heritage,
with its special features but also its
international finish. Nothing comes
into being in a vacuum.” He continues:
“‘The historians concentrate on the
Norwegian origin of the first settlers
in Iceland and try to keep those from
other cultures out of the limelight,’
wrote Bergsveinn Birgisson in his book
Leitin að svarta víkingnum (The Quest
for the Black Viking). Yes, ladies and
gentlemen, if we want to use our saga
heritage to fuel Nordic nationalism,
then we must draw attention to all of
this, the plurality of our roots and our
multi-cultural mix and the pitfalls to
avoid; let us stress the importance
of tolerance and humanity instead of
intransigence and prejudice.”
A side note
There is unsurprisingly a strong
Winnipeg connection in Reykjavík at this
historical point in time not only through
the conference but also through another
cultural event. At the Fornsagnaþing,
I am with four other scholars familiar
to the Icelandic scholarly community
in Winnipeg: Ryan Eric Johnson,
Andrew McGillivray, Katelin Parsons,
and Christopher Crocker. Ryan will be
presenting on “Saga Origins in Medieval
Icelandic Translation Culture;” Andy
on “Throat Biting and Magic in Egils
saga Skalla-Grímssonar;” Katie on
“The Manuscript Transmission of
Saga Literature in Icelandic Immigrant
Communities in North America;”
and Chris on “Historical and Cultural
Discourses in Modern Newfoundland
and Labrador.” I also have the pleasure
to be able to attend a performance by
Esprit de Choeur Women’s Choir, a
Winnipeg-based choir, at the Harpa
Concert Hall. I was lucky enough to
have been invited by my friend, who
is part of the choir; and seeing nothing
but an astoundingly breathtaking
performance – in English, French, and
Icelandic – I feel very honoured to be
witnessing such a historic event that
further strengthens the already compact
ties of Canada and Iceland.
Reykholt
The crisp, cold morning air breezing
through Reykholt as soon as one gets
off the bus invites us, the guests of
Snorri Sturluson, for a coffee break
before a full day of conferences begins.
We are in Iceland, after all, and coffee
breaks are an inescapable and necessary
ritual.
I begin matters in Reykholt today
by attending the first presentation at the
Reykholtskirkja, which is certainly no
small landmark. From there, I proceed
towards Declan Taggart’s presentation
on “The Science of Conceptualizing
Old Gods” at Gamla kirkjan beside
Reykholtskirkja. It would be interesting
to speculate what Snorri Sturluson
would have said about a scholarly
occasion like this happening on historic
and religious grounds. Indeed, it may be
said that he himself lived in such a time
when many such cultural elements were
engaged in a vibrant interplay.
Simon Halink’s presentation,
“Traitor or Hero? On the Afterlife
of Snorri Sturluson in the Cultural
Memory of Modern Scandinavia,”
reflects not only on the perceptions
around Snorri of people from previous
centuries, but also on how we see him
today: perhaps a romanticised myth-
maker, maybe a tragic political farmer
who was assasinated at home. “Eigi
skal höggva” – “Do not strike!” The
intellectual choice is ours.
Þingvellir
A group of us travel to Þingvellir
from Reykholt while the rest go back
to Reykjavík. We stop by Uxahryggir
where we are offered shots of schnapps
to keep us warm and going. I remain
with Robin Waugh and George Clark
throughout the rest of the trip today;
they are two gentlemen I met at the
Congress of the Association for the
Advancement of Scandinavian Studies
in Canada in Regina just this past May.
The three of us are among the few in
the conference who also do research on
Old English literature, specifically as it
relates to saga literature.
We finally arrive at Þingvellir,
where Helgi Þorláksson shares a brief
history of the place and what it signifies
for the Icelandic nation. As a group, we
hike down the bottom of the cliffs and
eventually towards the area argued to be
the location of the Lögberg. Here, we get
to experience the acoustics between the
ridges as it must have been experienced
by those gathering for the Alþingi
centuries ago, sitting by the banks of the
cliffs and listening to a declaration of
medieval law as well as a short sketch
of Egils saga. The plates in Þingvellir
move ever so slightly as time passes, we
are reminded. Nothing will ever be as it
was in the land of unpredictable change.
Reykjavík
The next few days spent in Reykjavík
are no less memorable. How can anyone
who was present at the special Freyr
panel ever forget the exciting intellectual
debates amongst Jens Peter Schjødt,
Stefan Brink, Terry Gunnell, Rudolf
Simek, and Olof Sundqvist, especially
when they are challenged with frequent
critical interjections by none other
than Margaret Clunies Ross? And
speaking of memory, Pernille Hermann
also presents to us the cutting-edge
project that includes the publication of
the Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic
Memory Studies, surely adding another
dimension to the already broadly-
encompassing field of medieval studies.
“In this special moment”
The conference comes to a close,
and the scholars gather for dinner. It
dawns on me that George Clark and I
are among the youngest members of the
Saga Conference in attendance. In fact,
George and Lars Lönnroth are the only
people in this year’s Fornsagnaþing to
have been present at the very first one
back in 1971. Much has changed since
then, and many more have come to join.
The Fornsagnaþing concludes with
an outstanding poetry performance by
Eirik Westcoat and a few witty closing
comments by Gísli Sigurðsson, who
studied at the University of Manitoba
in the early 1980s. There is a dance, a
joyful celebration of the past few days.
The world is a small place, it is often
said. But it seems to have become even
smaller with conferences such as these.
Indeed, the Fornsagnaþing is not simply
a conference; it is a þing, a gathering of
people – strangers and acquaintances
alike – taking place in the þorp of
Reykjavík. As an Airbnb friend I had
recently met told me over coffee, “We
are in this special moment, in this special
place. And that is no coincidence.”
The next Saga Conference will take
place in Helsinki in 2021.
The President of Iceland’s complete
speech at this year’s conference can be
read at forseti.is and more news about
the conference (in Icelandic) can be
found at www.ruv.is and www.visir.is.
FORNSAGNAÞINGIÐ: AN ASSEMBLY FOR THE DECADE
Brynjarr Eyjólfsson
Reykjavík, Iceland
PHOTO: BRYNJARR EYJÓLFSSON
Fornsagnaþingið at Þingvellir