The Terminology of Ruling in The Vinland Sagas

The terminology of ruling in the Vinland sagas:

            The objective of this paper is to examine what terminology is used to describe rulers – both worldly, religious and divine in the Vinland sagas – Grænlendingasaga[1] and Eiríks saga rauða[2]. Since my intention is not to find out about what “really” happened or who was who, but hopefully to gain some insight on how the writers of the Vínland Sagas related to their leaders and God and/or how they imagined their ancestors’ relationship to those, the factuality of the sagas contents is not an issue so much as their content is the premise for the study.

            In order to gain a clear overview I will start with making the appropriate statistics for both sagas. I will then be able to see which different terms and denominations are the most commonly used, in what context they can be found and if there is anything else in particular that catches the eye. I also intend to further examine each of the vocabulary-statistics by asking the same set of questions and to follow Halldórsson by also asking: “[…] why any particular saga may have been written.”[3]

A short introduction of the two sagas in question seems in order, they are also made available as an attachment with the statistically relevant words highlighted.

            Eiríks saga rauða is known to us from Hauksbók or AM 544 4to from the 14th century and from Skálholtsbók or AM 577 4to from the 15th century. It is somewhat longer than Grænlendingesaga. While Grænlendingasaga is known to us from Flateyjarbók, existant only in one manuscript and described as “ a calfskin codex, Gks. 1005 fol., written in 1387-94 for Jón Hákonarson by the priest Jón Þórðarson and Magnus Þórhallson”[4] But let us take a look at the statistical material now.

Initial statistics for the Vinland sagas:

Summarizing statistics:

1) Worldly leadership in the Vínland sagas

How are worldy leaders called in Eiríks saga rauða?

            The word ”konungr” is with its 14 appearances the most commonly used of the terms in question in ES[5]. However, it is not an unproblematic term for us readers. ”Konungr” is used on a multitude of personae, and as Régis Boyer correctly states, it has nothing to do with our idea of the word ”king”[6]. These kings were not, as kings often are romanticizingly imagined, sitting in their thrones, ruling over large kingdoms. They were more like powerful travelling chieftains constantly surrounded by a larger group of their closest friends and allies, who helped them to control loosely cohesive areas of differing size, means and strategical importance[7]. Their only means of keeping these areas united under their rule was a constant demonstration of power and exchange of gifts for their loyalty. This was valid for all sorts of kings and the Norse would therefore give them this fellow name.

The same can be said about the Norwegian jarls. In fact no obvious difference can be found in ES. In theory a jarl[8] should – in rank – be under the king but above other vassals, but in chapter 1 of ES, we can read that “Þorsteinn gerðist herkonungr. Hann réðst til lags með Sigurði jarli inum ríka, syni Eysteins glumru.” [9] suggesting that Jarl Sigurd was the more important figure of the two, otherwise one would expect the jarl riding with him. Also the jarls of Lade competed with other princely lineages for the crown of Norway, several Norwegian kings supposedly stem from their lineage.

In the saga Leifr Eiríksson, son of the condemned but very rich murderer and outcast Eiríkr Þorvaldsson and grandson of the murderer and fugitive Þorvaldur Ásvaldsson gets to know the Norwegian king on one of his travels and becomes part of his court. The Norwegian king Óláfr Tryggvason is mentioned four times and given as the source of Leifs conversion and his attempt to Christianize Greenland. Halldórsson believes this to be unlikely and proposes Óláfr helgi Haraldsson instead[10]. Leifr knows how to properly address the king and how to behave to his liking. This shows that he has knowledge of the European concept of kingship and courtly manners, despite literally coming from the farthest corner of the known world and from a not too flattering line of provenance at that, I will come back to this at a later point.

Just the opposite can be said of Vífill, whom the saga attests a noble lineage, but who got taken as a captive in the west and is a thrall until freed by Aud.

When Torstein – Eiriks youngest son – comes back with his men from their failed attempt to go to Vinland, he has to remind his father that being a good host is being like a good chieftain. Eirik quickly agrees with his son. I suspect the author wishes to ennoble this rather unusual family.

How are worldy leaders called in Grænlendingasaga?

GS does not tell of kings, but of jarls. More specifically of one Eiríkr jarl, who hosts Bjarni Herjólfsson and takes him into his service. I find it somewhat unclear whom the writer was thinking of, and will therefore elaborate a little bit on the question.

Is the author entitling Eiríkr rauði with the title of jarl, maybe implicating Eiríkr rauði to be jarl of Greenland or is he talking about for instance Eiríkr Hákonarson, bastard son of Hákon Sigurðsson[11]?

”[…] pushed by competition among complex chieftainships and emergent secondary states, and fueled by growing wealth and population at home, this rapid expansion appeared destined to complete the circumpolar circuit […]”[12] Though economically motivated exploration and expansion as McGovern and Wallace[13] propose is a much more likely basis for Eiríks and others emmigration from Norway/ Iceland to Greenland and further west, I find it unlikely that the writer would give him such a high title. Eventhough he is rich and the leader of the first settlement project in Greenland, he is said to be a murderer and an outcast and first his son’s marriage to Guðriðr puts his family back on the map of the social elite[14]. To entitle him jarl seems a little farfetched and nothing else suggests he is of noble lineage, as most jarl-families would point to some mythical origin.

From the little information we get from GS it is not possible to deduce which family of jarls this Eiríkr belongs to, but I remembered there being a jarl mentioned in ES and hoped he might clarify the question.

In ES we hear speak of Sigurðr jarl, whom I at first thought to be of the Ladejarls[15], but then his name would be Sigurðr Hákonarson, while this sagas Sigurðr is said to be the son of Eysteins Glumra, and hence from a different family of jarls. A family who holds land everywhere from Møre to Oppland and Hedemark as well as the Orkneys[16]. The Orkneys being a logical point of contact for westward travelling seafarers of the time. Anyways the coherence I was looking for was not there after all.

I therefore believe that this is merely an unclearly formulated passage in the text. That it really tells of the two different persons one being Eiríkr jarl, possibly of the Ladejarls, and the other one being Eiríkr rauði outlaw and founder of the first Norse colony on Greenland.

We also find the term höfðing in chapter 7, but it conveys almost no useful information for our purpose. It is said about one ”mikill ok vænn”[17] Skræling. Karlsefni therefore assumes him to be their chieftain. This is seemingly irrelevant for this assignment as he is the leader of the outsiders group. I do however believe it to be an indication of the author’s own prejudices, as it can be seen in connection with the Germanic belief that chieftains and later kings have divine blood in their veins giving them special powers and enhancing their positive qualities and abilities therefore making them the best of their people.

How do they compare?

On the one hand ES is clearly concerned with the establishment of kingdom(s) in Norway. GS on the other hand doesn’t pay any attention to this, but to a much smaller degree points to the far spread establishment of earldoms around the Norse colonies. I have therefore come to think that the authors must have had quite different agendas, and that the two sagas must have originated in different environments, be they spacial, social or both. This would effectively explain their dissimilar focus on worldly leadership. We should also consider the possibility that GS simply is not written for the purpose of anything else than the telling of the Vínland voyages, as Halldórsson proposes. Such an event seems to me too big to be told as just a good story. Though considering that they had been almost forgotten in the centuries that followed we can not dismiss the possibility completely either. So far I do believe that reducing the saga to a mere fairytale would be a mistake. Maybe looking at both their views on spiritual leadership will clarify this question somewhat?

2) Spiritual leadership in the Vínland sagas

How are spiritual leaders called in Eiríks saga rauða and Grænlendingasaga? How do they compare?

Since the only kind of spiritual leader found in both sagas are bishops, I will discuss the issue as one question for both sagas.

Both sagas make a point of Þorfinnr Karlsefni and his wife Guðríðr being the ancestors of three bishops. In ES they appear as follows: bishop Þorlák, bishop Bjarnar and bishop Brandr, while it is Brandr, Þorlák and Bjarnar in GS[18]. They also have silghtly different familiy trees. Both seem to agree that Þorlák is one of Snorri Karlsefnissons grandchildren, while Brandr is one of his great-grandchildren.

But the sagas seem to disagree on the account of Bjarnar’s pedigree. In ES he is said to be bishop Þorláks great-grandson, while in GS he is said to be one of Þorfinnr Karlsefnis great-grandchildren. Also notable is that both use Karlsefnisson as Snorres last name. This is somewhat unusual given that Karlsefni is his fathers epithet, and that the namegiving traditions where based on firstname and patronym[19].

As Ólafur Halldórsson points out Guðríðr is prophesized a bright future for her descendants in both sagas. He interprets this as an attempt to launch Bjørn Gilsson as Hólars first saint, an attempt that failed and was eradicated from history, when the failure became apparent[20]. This is certainly a possibility, but I find his ”evidence” a bit meager.

In the thirteenth century the church reformations that had taken place from the beginning of the high Middle Ages onwards – initially much to the distress of the bishops themselves, who saw their power and autonomy threatened[21] – had successfully linked them directly to the Papal see in Rome by means their position within the churches’ hierarchy and their education.

Therefore we must see the bishops emphasized role not as a means of showing that even in these farthest corners of the Christian world, one was at the same intellectual level as the rest of Europe and knew the European codes of conduct, but as an indicator that these forms and thoughts were already thouroughly incorporated into the intellectual cultural goods of the Icelandic elite.[22] By the time we can assume that the sagas were finally written down, they were well established within this newer more linear church structure and “Christian European literary culture was not just present in Iceland, but in fact the dominant norm […]”[23]

3) Divinity in the Vínland sagas

How is the Divine portrayed in Eiríks saga rauða?

I will try to use some tools of literary analysis in order to shed some light on the vocabulary used by the two sagas on this subject.

On the one hand ”guð” is the dominant name used in ES for the Christian God, appearing a total of four times and suggesting a uniform understanding of the monotheistic concept of divinity. The Trinity of God was not a big focus in Germanic Christian writing. Especially the Northern Germanic peoples had been Christianized comparably late, and according to their lawtexts clinged to many of their old beliefs, superstitions and traditions and therefore were ”prone” to confuse trinity with polytheism. It therefore seems only proper to emphasize Gods unity more than his Trinity. The only other name given to God is here Kristr, and it is a heathen that uses Kristr instead of guð. Placing it somewhat within the frame of his attributed polytheistic understanding of divinity. This does not necessarily reflect reality but indicates how the author imagines this to be.

On the other hand and in contrast to Grænlendingesaga, which I will discuss in a short while, ES mentions Thor as a representative of the Old Norse pantheon. Thor is given not one but three different names: a) rauðskeggjaði – a common attribute given to Thor[24], Þór and fulltrúann[25]. The latter indicates Eiríks relationship to the god. Giving Thor many names is also coherent with him being part of a multitude of Gods. Not that the Christian God does not have many names himself – the 9th century Heliand brilliantly defies that notion – but they are not used in the saga.

If we consider the information given in the saga concerning the namegiving in Eirík’s family as a premise, it is reasonable to assume that Thor was his family’s favourite God. This is not an unknown phenomenon, but rather the norm when we look at the families’ namegiving tradition in Old Norse sources.

Kirsten Wolf, comparing the accounts of settlement in Vínland with the immigration of Icelanders to Canada in the 1870’s, finds a convincing parallel in the way people expressed themselves literally and says that there is ”the urge to assert unity in a time of initial conflict and, […] a type of re-engagement with the past through the nurturing of a cultural myth [...]” in order to build a ”bridge between cultures now […] severed”[26]. ES’s description of the divine can be understood in that way. As building a bridge between the polytheistic and heroic past and the monotheistic and chaotic state in the present of the author. Not least are the heroes mainly heathen but the ancestors of a total of three Icelandic bishops.

Another reason for this could be the medieval belief that everything goes to hell – literally. Many were convinced that history was continuing in a constant downwards spiral, where Man started in Paradise and is doomed to live under ever worsening conditions until Judgement day comes.

How is divinity portrayed in Grænlendingasaga?

In GS God only appears in a poetic little prayer said by one “southern islander”[27]for protection on their sea voyage, since these always were a hazardous affair.

He first calls God “the tester of monks” indicating the constant temptations everyone – but the monastic clergy in the highest possible degree – were supposed to protect themselves from. That neither monks nor nuns nor other celibate clergymen were always able to resist temptation is well known throughout both the Medieval and the Early Modern world[28] and can be explained among other things by the fact that a lot of them never were following any vocation, but being put in cloisters by their families, as orphans, as punishment, etc. Of course even the actually devout were not safe from getting tempted as almost everything was not only sinful but as is the nature of man so much more tempting when forbidden.

We must therefore assume that the seclusion, personal poverty and strictly governed days, often marked by self-denial and penance, sometimes to the extreme, were not the idea of what life should be like for everyone submitted to these principles. God is therefore seen to constantly test the faith and obedience of his most devout servants.

This could of course be the prayer of seafarers in the early days of a Christian Scandinavia, but then one might expect to find it elsewhere. After so many years of oral transmission it is also rather unlikely to be the exact wording of a potential Hebridian servant or slave on a sea voyage in the North Atlantic West. More likely it seems to me that the author himself is shining through here, or that he is making a general observation on the subject.

In the next verse he calls God “foldar hallar dróttinn[29]” which is somewhat peculiar, as dróttinn is not only a Germanic chieftain, but one leading a war-force of some sort, of course God leads the celestial forces of his angels. The picture of God seen as a chieftain or king is not uncommon in Germanic iconography. And even after a successful conversion the way of expressing ideas within a society would not be immediately overthrown rather than adapted to the new needs[30]. Which is what I believe is the case here. The author wishes to express a certain fellow-germanic cultural unity and simply uses an archaism in order to bridge the gap.

How do they compare?

One could argue that while the author of ES is trying to express religious unity over the stretch of time from around 1000-1200, the author of GS tries to express cultural unity across the stretch of space Hebrides/ Norway/ Iceland/ Greenlandand/ Vínland and religion – Old Norse vs. Christian. Many scholars believe that the sagas are a means of procuring legitimacy for the elite’s claims to power and property when Iceland unstable, and sometimes they could contain genuine traditions[31]. Though Andersson has successfully suggested a course closer to that of Wolf, that of reconciliation in times of need.[32]

Conclusions:

The Vinland sagas differ greatly in their emphasis on and use of terms for different kinds of rulers. Though both describe the supposedly same events[33], they describe the underlying structures necessary for the westward expansion very differently, though they both seem to agree on the importance of bishops.

Eiríks saga rauða focusses much more on King and God(s), on powerstructures in general, than does Grænlendingasaga – one might say it cares for the proper form, the divine order with God and King at the top of a descending pyramid, emphasizing the different rulers roles in the events that take place[34].

The Grænlendinga saga, focusses less on King and God, but more on their followers – the jarls and the bishops. It uses less than 1/3 of the total amount of terms considering the ruling compared to Eiríks saga rauða, though it is only about 1/5 shorter. King and God are completely missing, only in a little poem I find the allegorical ” munka reyni” and ” Foldar hallar dróttinn”. It is notable that the king’s role has been substituted completely by the jarls. All in all it must be considered to much less political than Eiríks saga rauða.

Literature:

Articles:

- Andersson, T. M.:“Review” in Speculum, Vol. 52, No. 1 Cambridge, 1977

- Boyer, Régis: ”Review: Viking empires” in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 60e Année, No. 5 Paris, 2005

- Frakes, Jerold C.: ”Vínland and the Discourse of Eurocentrism” in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 100, No. 2, Chicago, 2001

- Halldórsson, Ólafur:”The Vinland Sagas” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland, Reykjavík, 2001

- McGovern, Thomas H.: “The archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic.” in Annual Reviews of Anthropology 19, Palo Alto, 1990

- Oakley, Francis: ”Celestial Hierarchies Revisited: Walter Ullmann’s Vision of Medieval Politics” in Past & Present, No. 60, Oxford, 1973

- Reuter, Timothy: ”Introduction to the 2002 Edition” in Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, New York, 2002

- Semmingsen, Ingrid (ed.): ”Fråtsing, drikk og usedelighet i klostrene” in Norges kulturhistorie, bind 2, Oslo, 1979

- Smith, Kevin P.: “Landnám: The Settlement of Iceland in Archaeological and Historical Perspective” in World Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 3, Colonization of Islands, Oxfordshire, 1995

- Wallace, Birgitta Linderoth: ”An Archaeologist’s Interpretation of the Vinland Sagas” in: William W. Fitzhugh & Elisabeth I. Ward (ed.s): The North Atlantic Saga, Washington and London, 2000

- Wolf, Kirsten: ”The Recovery of Vínland in Western Icelandic Literature.” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland. A Conference on the written and archaeological sources for the Norse ettlements in the North-Atlantic region and exploration of America. Reykjavík 9-11 August 1999, Reykjavík, 2001

Books:

- Davidson, H.R. Ellis: Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Middlesex, 1990

- Grabar, André: Christian Iconography: a Study of its Origins, Princeton, 1968

- Konstam, Angus: Historical Atlas of the Viking World, London, 2005

Dictionary:

- Arthur, Ross G.: English – Old Norse Dictionary, Cambridge, Ontario, 2002

Websites:

http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Eir%C3%ADks_saga_rau%C3%B0a

http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Grænlendinga_saga

http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Olav_den_helliges_saga

http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Kildeindex#F

http://www.jstor.org

[1] Meaning: saga of the Greenlanders, abbreviated GS

[2] Meaning: saga of Eirik the Red, abbreviated ES

[3] Halldórsson, Ólafur:”The Vinland Sagas” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland, Reykjavík, 2001, p.39

[4] Et kalveskinds codex, Gml. kgl. sml. 1005 fol., skrevet i 1387-94 for Jón Hákonarson af præsten Jón Þórðarson og Magnus Þórhallson. See: http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Kildeindex#F

[5] Add ”herkonungr” and it appears 16 times in a history of roughly 22 pages length. ”Herkonungr” is seemingly only a variation of the same understanding of the word, but emphasizing the aspect of military leadership.

[6] Boyer, Régis: ”Review: Viking empires” in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 60e Année, No. 5 Paris, 2005, p. 1073

[7] Wallace, Birgitta Linderoth: ”An Archaeologist’s Interpretation of the Vinland Sagas” in: William W. Fitzhugh & Elisabeth I. Ward (ed.s): The North Atlantic Saga, Washington and London, 2000, p. 226

[8] English: earl

[9] http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Grænlendinga_saga meaning:“ Torstein made himself war-force king. He rode together with Sigurd jarl the mighty, son of Eystein Glumra” – my translation

[10] Halldórsson, Ólafur:”The Vinland Sagas” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland, Reykjavík, 2001, p.46

[11] also known as Hákon jarl inn ríki meaning Jarl Hakon the mighty – my translation

[12] McGovern, Thomas H.: “The archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic.” in Annual Reviews of Anthropology 19, Palo Alto, 1990, p. 331

[13] McGovern see above and Wallace, Birgitta Linderoth: ”An Archaeologist’s Interpretation of the Vinland Sagas” in: William W. Fitzhugh & Elisabeth I. Ward (ed.s): The North Atlantic Saga, Washington and London, 2000, p.226

[14] Konstam, Angus: Historical Atlas of the Viking World, London, 2005, p.111

[15] This would have made a nice little line of the ladejarls: Sigur, Hákon and Eiríkr.

[16] See: Olav den helliges saga, kapittel 96. http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Olav_den_helliges_saga

[17] Meaning ”big and beautiful” – my translation, see: Grænlendingasaga, Chapter 7 http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Grænlendinga_saga

[18] And according to Halldórsson it is Bjarnar, Þorlák, Brandr in Stúrluboks geneology, see: Halldórsson, Ólafur:”The Vinland Sagas” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland, Reykjavík, 2001, p.43

[19] Meaning that the surname derives from the father’s first name.

[20] Halldórsson Halldórsson, Ólafur:”The Vinland Sagas” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland, Reykjavík, 2001, p.47

[21] Reuter, Timothy: ”Introduction to the 2002 Edition” in Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, New York, 2002, p. xii and xv

[22] Frakes, Jerold C.: ”Vínland and the Discourse of Eurocentrism” in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 100, No. 2, Chicago, 2001, p. 166

[23] Frakes, Jerold C.: ”Vínland and the Discourse of Eurocentrism” in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 100, No. 2, Chicago, 2001, p. 161

[24] Davidson, H.R. Ellis: Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, repr. Middlesex, 1990, p. 85

[25] Translations given in the statistics above

[26] Wolf, Kirsten: ”The Recovery of Vínland in Western Icelandic Literature.” in: Andrew Wawn and Þórunn Sigurðardóttir (ed.s): Approaches to Vínland. A Conference on the written and archaeological sources for the Norse ettlements in the North-Atlantic region and exploration of America. Reykjavík 9-11 August 1999, Reykjavík, 2001, p. 209

[27] Suðrey being the Old Norse name for the Hebrides

[28] Semmingsen, Ingrid (ed.): ”Fråtsing, drikk og usedelighet i klostrene” in Norges kulturhistorie, bind 2, Oslo, 1979, p. 41

[29] translation given in the statistics above

[30] Grabar, André: Christian Iconography: a Study of its Origins, Princeton, 1968, p. xliii

[31] Smith, Kevin P.: “Landnám: The Settlement of Iceland in Archaeological and Historical Perspective” in World Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 3, Colonization of Islands, Oxfordshire, 1995, p. 320 and 322

[32] Andersson, T. M.:“Review” in Speculum, Vol. 52, No. 1 Cambridge, 1977, p.164

[33] Though differing greatly in more than just the vocabulary used, also the general storyline on a number of events does not match.

[34] Oakley, Francis: ”Celestial Hierarchies Revisited: Walter Ullmann’s Vision of Medieval Politics” in Past & Present, No. 60, Oxford, 1973, p.7-8