Literacy in Scandinavia: A passage from orality influenced by runes

Hugvísindasvið Literacy in Scandinavia A passage from orality influenced by runes Master‘s degree in Medieval Icelandic Studies Leiðbeinandi: Þórir Jónsson Hraundal Elena Miramontes Seijas September, 2014 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Máslvísindi Literacy in Scandinavia A passage from orality influenced by runes Master‘s degree in Medieval Icelandic Studies Elena Miramontes Seijas Kt.: 021187-4299 Leiðbeinandi: Þórir Jónsson Hraundal September, 2014 Abstract After reading the recent studies about the traces of orality and the beginning of literacy in the oldest Scandinavian texts we preserve, the first conclusion to be drawn is that the problem is far from being solved. Even though some medievalists believe that orality can not be proven by reading the primary sources we have, most general linguists accept that oral texts should preserve certain features indicating their preliterate origins. However, the first texts we find written in the Latin alphabet do not show most of those generally accepted oral features. Then, maybe we must accept that the texts we preserve were not composed in an oral society. Runes were used centuries before the arrival of the Latin alphabet and they were used for noting down poems and memorial messages. Those inscriptions show an evolution not only in the type of messages written, but also in the complexity of the poems carved. Thus, a study on the Scandinavian texts, taking into account the runic inscriptions, could help us understand better the history of the passage from orality to literacy in this region and the role that runes would have played in this process. Nýlegar rannsóknir á tengslum munnlegrar hefðar og upphafs ritunar eins og þetta tvennt birtist í elstu varðveittu textum sýna að enn er margt óljóst í þeim efnum. Þó svo að ýmsir miðaldafræðingar haldi því fram að textar sem bera merki munnlegrar hefðar gefi það til kynna með ákveðnum þáttum. Hins vegar sýna elstu textar sem ritaðir eru á latínu ekki slík merki um munnlega hefð. Þannig verðum við kannski að líta svo á að textarnir sem varðveist hafa hafi ekki verið ritaðir í sterkri munnlegri hefð. Rúnir höfðu verið ristar í nokkrar aldir áður en latneskt stafróf, og voru þær helst notaðar til að skrá kvæði og eftirmæli. Unnt er að greina þróun í þess háttar áletrunum í átt að sífellt flóknari textum. Til að skilja betur þá þróun sem átti sér stað frá munnlegri hefð til ritunar, er þess vegna æskilegt að taka rúnaáletranir til athugunar samhliða og kanna sérstaklega hvaða hlutverki þær gengdu í ferlinu. 1. Introduction One of the main peculiarities of the Scandinavian culture is the fact that the very first literary manifestations we preserve, especially those written after the conversion to Christianity, show some characteristics which are far from being prototypically oral. Many scholars have studied the oral origins of Scandinavian texts, trying to look for some hints that could be found in the versions we preserve, taking into account that they were written down centuries after the adoption of the alphabet: “εore than 40 years after the appearance of Albert Bέ δord’s The singer of Tales, and following a good deal of fieldwork and theoretical speculation, we may now be in a position to assess the contribution of theories of oral tradition to our understanding of those medieval texts for which an oral background is hypothesized. [...] The most important of recent research into oral tradition has thus involved comparing data from different societies, rather than formula countingέ” 1 Even though the previous quotation from Gísli Sígurðsson rejects the abundance of recent studies of oral texts basing on formulae, we can still find articles such as Lars δönnroth’s2, in which he mentions the usage of formulae and explains their specific characteristics in the Scandinavian texts. Also, Paul Acker 3 has recently described the different types of formulae used in Old English and Old Icelandic poetry. Nevertheless, both Acker and Lönnroth try to compare the Scandinavian tradition with some others, be it the Anglo-Saxon, the Yugoslav or the Homeric one. Aside from the focus on the general formal aspects of the poems we have, some scholars have studied the features of a certain genre, also trying to detect which ones can help us with the dating of the texts. So, Judy Quinn4 has studied the features of the Eddic poems, which have also been studied in many different articles describing in detail all the characteristics of each poem. Thus we find Gísli Sígurðsson5 or Ursula Dronke6 studying the Völuspá or Anders Hultgård 7 describing Vafþrúðnismál and Gísli Sígurðsson (2005); ‘τrality and literacy in the sagas of Icelanders’ν A companion to Old NorseIcelandic literature and culture, pp. 285-293; Ed. Rory McTurk; Malden: Blackwell Publishing; p. 291 2 Lönnroth, Lars (1971); ‘ώjálmar’s death-song and the delivery of Eddic poetry’ν Speculum 46, pp. 1-20 3 Acker, Paul (1997); “Revising oral theoryμ όormulaic composition in τld English and τld Icelandic verse”ν Garland Studies in Medieval Literature, v. 16 4 Quinn, Judy (2009); ‘The Endless Triangles of Eddic Tragedyμ Reading τddrunargrátr (The δament of τddrún)’ν Studi Anglo-Norreni in Onore di John S. McKinell, pp. 304-326; Ed. M. E. Ruggerini; Cagliari: CUEC 5 ύísli Sigurðsson (2013)ν “Vǫluspá as a product of oral traditionμ What does that entailς”ν The Nordic Apocalypse, Approaches to Vǫluspá and Nordic Days of Judgement; Ed. Terry Gunnell and Anette Lassen ; Turnhout: Brepols. 6 Dronke, Ursula (1λλ6)ν “Vǫluspá and Sybilline Traditions”ν Myth and Fiction in Early Norse Lands; Norfolk: Variorum; pp.3-21 1 1 comparing it with other Indo-European tradition, for example. The focus on one poem lets these authors interpret each composition in depth and provide arguments for their dating and their possible oral origins. However, comparative studies between the different poems are not to be done in these types of papers, so that the focus remains on the one poem which is being described. For wider studies regarding the whole Eddic corpus, for instance Margaret Clunies-Ross8 or Barne Fidjestøl9 can be read. Furthermore, there have recently appeared some hypotheses explaining how stories can change in oral societies through time (Ranković, 200710; 201311), or how the necessity of memorizing every detail when no writing system is known influences society and literature (Pernille Hermann, 200912; 201013). All these studies have to deal with many difficulties derived from the nature of the texts we preserve: we are trying to create a history of the Scandinavian literature from its very origins, but the compositions we have are late versions from texts which were probably composed in an oral heathen society and which possibly suffered some transformations to assure their endurance in Christian times. Because of this, we need to read carefully all the information we have and we must treat all previous studies with caution, for all of them have their weaknesses derived from our ignorance of the first steps of Scandinavian literature. Nevertheless, all hypotheses regarding different Scandinavian genres and texts can be combined, so that we can create a complete vision of the history of literature as it is perceived nowadays. Hultgård, Anders (2009); “The wisdom contest in Vafþrúðnismál”ν Analecta Septentrionalia, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 65; Eds. Wilhelm Heizmann, Klaus Böldl and Heinrich Beck; Berlin and New York: De Gruyter; pp. 531-39. 8 Clunies Ross, Margaret (2005); A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics; Cambridge: D.S. Brewer 9 Fidjestøl, Bjarne (1999); The Dating of Eddic Poetry: A Historical Survey and Methodological Investigation; Ed. Odd Einar Haugen; Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana 41; Copenhagen: Reitzel 10 Ranković, Slavica (200ι)ν “Who is speaking in traditional textsς τn the “distributed author” of the sagas of Icelanders and Serbian epic poetry”, New Literary History 38.2, pp. 293-307; Bergen: University of Bergen 11 Ranković, Slavica (2013)ν ‘The Performative σon-Canonicity of the Canonical: Íslendingasögur and their Traditional Referentiality’, The Performance of Christian and Pagan Storyworlds: Non-Canonical Chapters of the History of Nordic Medieval Literature (ed. Lars Boje Mortensen et al.); pp. 247-272; Brepols: Brepols Publishers 12 Hermann, Pernille (2009); ‘Concepts of memory and approaches to the past in εedieval Icelandic literature’, Scandinavian Studies, vol. 81, 3; pp. 287-308 13 Hermann, Pernille (2010); ‘Concepts of memory and approaches to the past in εedieval Icelandic literature’ν Scandinavian Studies, vol. 81, 3; pp. 287-308 7 2 The first Scandinavian texts we preserve written in the Latin alphabet are the works of Saxo Grammaticus, who wrote in the Latin language a history of Scandinavia, using the so-called ‘translatio imperii’ for changing the pagan myths and making them suitable for the new Christian vision of the world. We also have the First Grammatical Treatise, which is a study of the Old Icelandic grammar and which proposes different orthographic solutions for the notation of the Scandinavian phonemes in the recently adopted alphabet. Besides, we have different types of sagas, skaldic poems, Eddic poems and Snorri Sturluson’s worksέ Regarding the First Grammatical Treatise, we can think of the words used by the social anthropologist Jack Goody, who affirmed about grammarians that: “By turning an unconscious tendency into a conscious rule, they are over-generalizing and decontextualizing, they are giving the rule a normative pull. This process increases awareness of what one is doing and gives a reflexive quality to a rule that did not have itέ”14 This statement indicates that an author must have a good knowledge of the alphabet, of how sounds are pronounced not only in Scandinavian, but also in Latin and, in general, s/he must have achieved an advanced level mastering the use of the alphabet until s/he is able to be conscious of how his/her own language is constructed and, even more, of how it should be represented adapting the symbols used for other language’s phonemes. This situation requires a high level of literacy, and it is exactly what we find in the First Grammatical Treatise, which is also one of the first texts we preserve in the Old Icelandic language. The presence of this work at such an early step of the introduction of the Latin alphabet in the Scandinavian region means that this text and the following one were probably written by people from a society in which literacy had already become an important part of life, at least in certain social circles. However, this does not mean that all the texts we preserve were composed under such circumstances. Even though we can never be sure of the existence of literature before the arrival of literacy and the first written documentation, we know that this literature is possible and that illiterate people compose and transmit poems and stories orally. We also know that in most cultures, soon after the arrival of literacy, writers 14 Goody, Jack (1987), The Interface between Written and the Oral; Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press; p. 266 3 decided to immortalize the most famous oral compositions from their culture by writing them down. This implies that many of the first works we preserve in a language were composed years, even centuries before they were decided to be placed in parchment or other materials. It is fair to assume the possibility of a similar situation in Scandinavia, and that some of the first compositions we preserve in this region, especially those which deal with heathen rites, myths and folklore, were probably first created before the arrival of the Latin alphabet and culture. In accordance to this idea, we probably do not preserve the original versions, but the ones which were written down during the 12 th or 13th century, so they passed through a long period of oral transmission in which they were probably modified and adapted, following the ethic and moral criteria of each historical moment. Studies have been made demonstrating that in oral cultures it is possible to preserve texts for a long period of time. Non-written texts will always suffer transformations and even be reformulated by the person reciting it on order to make it fit the audience. However, even when oral texts suffer changes, they usually preserve certain features which make them recognizably of oral origins. We have examples such as the Iliad in Greece or the Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia. Both poems were transcribed after the invention of the writing system and preserve certain features that make them of obvious oral composition. This idea was clear for the Iliad since ancient times and so it was traditionally transmitted to us, thus inspiring the first studies on oral literature developed by Milman Parry 15. On the Epic of Gilgamesh, Andrew R. George assures: “The Babylonian ύligameš is one of several poetic narratives in literary Akkadian that appear fully developed as independent compositions in the Old Babylonian period [...] Like other mythological narratives in Akkadian the Epic of Gilgameš was captured in written form at a time when, under pressure from the new political masters, conventional forms were being abandonedέ” 16 Because of this, many scholars have studied the signs that may show the period in which each composition was first created, assuming the idea that every text can probably show some traces of previous periods of its own history. In any case, even 15 Parry, Milman (1971); The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry, Ed. by Adam Parry; Oxford: Oxford University Press 16 George, Andrew R. (2003); The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts; Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 21 4 when those texts can give us some hints of the evolution of literacy in Scandinavia, we must be aware of the fact that if authors decided to write them down it is because they were considered as main works of the Scandinavian culture, so they probably come from a period in which literature was already well developed. If this is true, the earliest compositions we have written in the Latin alphabet cannot show the earliest steps in the development of the Scandinavian culture and we must look for the very origins of the Nordic literacy in even earlier texts, probably in the runic inscriptions. The aim of this work is trying to find some explanation for the origins of Scandinavian literature and for its fast development right after the adoption of the Latin alphabet, paying attention to the origins of runes, their development and their slow extinction after the appearance of the new script. For this purpose, I will provide a brief summary of the main theories that general linguists have proposed on the matter: what is orality, how the pass to a literary culture usually takes place and how the writing system has an influence in people’s mind. After that, I will present the theories regarding the Scandinavian process of adoption of the first script system: when, how and why runes were created, how they spread, what types of texts we preserve using this script, when the Latin alphabet was adopted, what traces of orality we can still find in Medieval texts and what conclusions we can reach provided those data. 1.1. General theories about the appearance of writing systems Jack Goody wrote an extended history of the written systems in the world, according to which the origins of writing are traceable back to the first graphic arts17. These first iconographic systems would have developed into abstract and arbitrary systems which evolved and became more complicated when new necessities forced the perfection of the scripts and the invention of a simpler way of transmitting information. Finally, the alphabet was created, probably in North Canaan, between the influence of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and it expanded through Palestine and Phoenicia, where it was adapted to the Phoenician language. This script was the basis for the Aramaic and Hebrew scripts, but it was also the inspiration for the Greek alphabet 18. The invention of the syllabaries and the alphabet implied some immediate changes in the different societies and cultures. To begin with, these script systems were 17 18 Goody, Jack (1987), pp. 8 ff. Goody, Jack (1987), pp. 40-47 5 easy enough to be learned by everyone and this supposed the end of the scribe caste and the beginning of the basis for an ‘unrestricted literacy’ 19. On the other hand, the use of a writing system influenced the evolution of language and the creation of more complex messages. However, the actual expansion and the type of uses given to the writing vary widely from region to region. In some places, the uses of the script will remain restricted to certain purposes for a long time. 1.2έ εain features of the ‘orally based thought and expression’ Besides the differences between oral and written language, some studies demonstrate that there are also differences between the type of thoughts and expressions used by literate people and by analphabet ones. The following list was proposed by the historian and philosopher Walter Ong, describing the main features of language in an oral culture in contrast with the language used by literates 20: 1. It is additive rather than subordinate, governed by the pragmatics and the convenience of the speaker and it does not show the elaborate and fixed grammar from the written text. 2. Aggregative rather than analytic: there is a high reliance on formulas, epithets and antithetical terms which may help to the memorization of the message. Once a formula has been accepted it is best kept intact, so it will be correctly remembered. 3. Redundant or copious, to make sure that both the speaker and the hearer keep track of what is being told, even if their attention gets distracted for a moment. 4. Conservative or traditionalist: while writing is traditionalist by itself, thus freeing the mind of the memory work and enabling to turn to new speculations, oral cultures must be less original, and accept just minor variants of old stories, which are only changed after some disappointment with the results of a cult or because of some other important reasons. 5. Close to the human life-world: every statistics and facts are related to the human activity and there is no interest in preserving knowledge as an abstract corpus. 19 Goody, Jack (1987), p. 55 Ong, Walter J. (1982), Orality and Literacy. The Technologizing of the Word; London, New York: Routledge; pp. 36 ff. 20 6 6. Agonistically toned: proverbs and riddles are used to engage others in verbal and intellectual combat, the portrayal of physical violence is highly present in oral compositions but slowly disappears when literacy gets relevance. 7. Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced: even the individual’s reaction is not ‘subjective’, but encased in the communal reactionέ 8. Homeostatic: the society lives in the present but keeps an equilibrium telling old stories about memories which no longer have relevance. 9. Situational rather than abstract. 1.3. Does literacy make a real difference in how our minds work? UNESCO defines literacy as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society”21. This definition focuses on the ability for reading and writing, which may help widen our knowledge by having access to different scientific and literary works. However, many studies have been made demonstrating that literacy produces more changes in our minds. One important such study was made by the neuropsychologist Alexander Luria with illiterates, reflected in τng’s work 22. δuria’s work was briefly noted in the American Journal of Genetic Psychology, in 1934 but, due to political censorship, it was not completely published until 1976. Luria has made some experiments with absolute illiterates but also with some people who had received little formal education. What he discovered is that illiterates cannot categorize, but they relate objects to their practical uses23. With regard to this, Malinowsky also found out that the people he studied only named those objects, plants 21 UNESCO (2004); "The Plurality of Literacy and its implications for Policies and Programs". UNESCO Education Sector Position Paper; p. 13 22 Ong, Walter J. (1982), pp. 49-57 23 Luria, Aleksandr R. (1976); Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations, ed. Michael Cole, trans. by Martin Lopez-Morillas and Lynn Solotaroff; Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press; p. 67 7 and animals which had a practical use in their lives, other beings and things were not important for the tribe, so they need not to be properly named24. Luria also explained how illiterates do not operate with formal deductive procedures, so they do not know how to answer to syllogisms. The people he used for his study did not understand why to define terms, and when they felt they had to do it, they just gave a list of elements which belonged to the category of the word defined or turned back to a situational experience 25. Finally, they were not able to analyze themselves, but gave a series of external situations describing their ‘story’ or an evaluation of the groups or communities to which they belonged 26. Svante Fischer 27 mentions Atterstam’s work 28, in which he repeats δuria’s experiments, reaching similar conclusions as the ones found out by Luria: illiterates are not able of doing abstractions, they use less mnemonic strategies and are less receptive to new data. After the analysis of δuria’s work, τng concludes that literacy gives us the ability to analyze and to think formallyέ Illiterates, on the contrary, “cannot organize elaborate concatenations of causes in the analytic kind of linear sequences which can only be set up with the help of texts” 29. There are, however, ‘verbomotor cultures’, that is, “cultures in which, by contrast with high-technology cultures, courses of action and attitudes toward issues depend significantly more on effective use of words, and significantly less on non-verbal, often largely visual input for the ‘objective’ world of things” 30. This theory, which was partly derived from the studies on oral poetry made by Parry and Lord, led to the conclusion of some scholars that most cognitive activities are possible due to the presence of a writing system. Throughout his work, Goody defends εalinowsky, Bronislaw (1λ23)ν “The problem of meaning in primitive languages”, The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism, Ed. C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards, pp. 451-510; New York: Harcourt, Brace; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner; p. 502 25 Luria, Aleksandr R. (1976), pp. 86-90 26 Luria, Aleksandr R. (1976), pp. 148-150 27 Fischer, Svante (2005); Roman Imperialism and Runic Literacy. The Westernization of Northern Europe (150-800 AD); Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; pp. 27-28 28 Atterstam, I. (2004); Att lära sig läsa förändrar hjärnan. Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm) 29 Ong, Walter J. (1982), p. 57 30 Ong, Walter J. (1982), p. 66 24 8 that the script, decontextualized as it is, permitted the creation of lists, of words which are completely separated from the context of a normal discourse and which, when classified, allows the creation of abstract taxonomies. This classification is the first step to abstract generalities, for logical reasoning and for syllogisms 31. Furthermore, he also mentions that when stories are written down and contradictions appear, skepticism arises, leading to the origins of philosophy. Also, the awareness of contradictions was the necessary element for the development of history as different from myth, but this idea seems to forget that in ancient societies, history was just seen as the chronological succession of the myth. Myths dealt with gods and with the origins of our world, but they also explained some important facts that happened ages ago. Myths had to be exaggerated, because they had to be remembered and transmitted orally, so when stories can be written down, history can be narrated more objectively. This ancient idea of the mythical past as a part of history is obvious in Eddic poetry. Clunies Ross proposes five periods for the history of the world 32: the beginning in which giants governed everything, the mythical moment of the creation of the world and humankind, the mythic present, Ragnarök and the post-Ragnarök world. These five periods are clearly distinguishable in some Eddic poems such as Völuspá and Vafþrúðnismál33, which deal with the general wisdom of the main characters about the origins and the ending of the world, using the mythic present as a link between past and future. When the Latin alphabet arrives to Scandinavia, contradictions arise quickly, though they are motivated by the confrontation between the pagan gods and the Christian theology. Thus, historiographers such as Saxo Grammaticus try to re-interpret past and future in order to make them suitable for the new religion, and heathen myths become old stories, remnants from a distant past which could no longer exist in the new society. 31 Foley, William A. (1997); Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers; pp. 418-419 32 Clunies Ross, Margaret (1994); Prolongued Echoes. Old Norse Myths in Medieval Northern Society. I: The Myths; The Viking Collection, 7; Odense: Odense University Press; pp. 235-242 33 Larrington, Carolyne (2002); ‘Vafþrúðnismál and ύrímnismálμ Cosmic ώistory, Cosmic ύeography’, Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology, Ed. Paul Acker et al.; pp. 62-77; New York and London: Routledge; p. 63 9 1.4. Oral poetry: its main features and how it is transmitted ύregory σagy affirms that “the concept of ‘orality’ stems from ethnographic descriptions of ‘oral poetry’ in particular and of ‘oral traditions’ in general” 34. With this statement this scholar is making equivalence between oral tradition and poetry and thus, assuring that poetry is the first literary genre we can find in an oral society. According to this idea, oral cultures develop a series of common strategies that can be used for the composition and recitation of poetry, thus making it easier to remember poems. This is what the scholar Milman Parry discovered when he studied the oral literature sung by certain singers from former Yugoslavia. He was trying to prove that oral poetry could be preserved for a long period of time being transmitted from one generation to another, so he recorded and studied the performances and the methodology used by Yugoslavian singers, who could not write or read and learned and performed oral compositions35. Albert Lord36 continued Parry’s work. He describes in detail the process followed by Yugoslavian poets for learning how to compose and how to remember different poems. He reaches the conclusion that expert poets could remember the basic plot of any song after hearing it just once. For that, they would need a period of reflection after listening to the new song. Then, they could repeat the whole song, with the same incidents, in their own words. This is because the basic incidents and descriptions are found in almost every poem, so good poets are able to ‘decorate’ some episodes at a certain moment and at choosing when to mention something, when to omit it and when to ornamenting it. The main discovery of Parry has been the use of formulae, which he defines as “a group of words which is regularly employed under the same metrical conditions to express a given essential idea” 37. Their use implies, on the one hand, that poets who know many formulae may be able to use them to compose and improvise poems very swiftly. But they also mean that poems can be easier remembered due to the presence of Nagy, Gregory (2001); “τrality and literacy”, Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, Ed. T.O. Sloane; pp. 532-538; Oxford; p. 532 35 Parry, Milman (1971) 36 Lord, Albert B. (1960); The Singer of Tales, 2nd edition 2000; Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press 37 Parry, Milman (1971); p. 272 34 10 fixed formulae in very specific points of the poem, that the audience, who probably know the formulae by heart, can relax their attention when they hear one, because they already know what is going on. Besides, the formulae are sometimes repeated in the same poem, letting both the hearer and the poet remember previous facts, even if they paid no attention to that episode. Finally, reciting a long formula lets the poet relax his attention from what he is saying and focus on remembering what he is going to say next. So, as Lord demonstrates throughout his work 38, an oral poet must use formulae, because they are the essence of his poetry. This means that formulae can only be left when writing systems appear, because when the poet can write his poems, the ‘must’ disappears, he can finally compose something with a less fixed structure and the formulae become vestigial. From the already mentioned δord’s and Parry’s works, we can imply that ‘originality’ in oral traditions is not as we understand it nowadaysέ We cannot look for original ‘the song’ which gave birth to all the following versions, because it only existed for a brief moment, and started to be changed in the same moment when other poets began learning it or even when the same composer started to think on other possible versions of it. This idea connects with the theory proposed by Slavica Ranković on the ‘distributed author’ 39. According to her, every time that we are telling a story, we adapt it and mold it, so the story itself will progressively change and evolve over time. Thus, it is not just one person who creates the story, but all the people who tell it and who modify it to some extent. In another article, Slavica Ranković goes further and she assures that sagas would change each time, not only because of the aesthetic innovations introduced by the author, but also to introduce new ethic and moral values which would be more suitable for the audience, taking into account that narratives probably intended to have some didactic purposes and teach certain values to the young people listening to the story40. 38 Lord, Albert B. (1960) Ranković, Slavica (200ι) 40 Ranković, Slavica (2013) 39 11 1.5. Mnemonics: strategies from oral and literate cultures I have already described some of the main features of the oral cultures and poetry, as well as the basic strategies used for the composition and for the remembrance of poems and stories, also cited by Ong: the use of formulae, the redundancy, the agonistical tone or the presence of a hero who performs memorable deeds 41 are essential for remembering the story. He also mentions the presence of villains and heroes in all stories, and we can still perceive that in folktales and legends transmitted from generation to generation. In general, in all oral cultures the spoken word is seen as a powerful element in humans’ livesέ The anthropologist εalinowsky pointed out that among ‘primitive’ people, words were types of action and not just a means for transmitting thoughts 42. The word is usually conceived as a magical device, probably because people think of it as intimately related “at least unconsciously, with their sense of the word as necessarily spoken, sounded, and hence power-driven” 43. With the spoken word, we can praise or condemn, with just a word we can promise or swear and with the right words, humans can curse. Thus, according to Ong, when the written word arrives, it is soon associated with death: it assures the endurance of our deeds and our world, but it has no power if it is not read aloud and spoken, so the text itself is dead. This idea is transmitted by Plato, who talks of writing as a ‘terrible technology’ 44. However, we have the example of the Scandinavian Futhark, which was traditionally related with magic, maybe because it was not perceived as dead, but as the wonderful technique to make words endure forever. In any case, knowing how to write and read supposes the necessity of finding new methods for remembering compositions. The old oral strategies of composition are soon left, and we do not find formulae with the same profusion as before, so people must find other ways of memorizing texts and mnemonics becomes a new art to be performed in order to remember large amounts of data. 41 Ong, Walter J. (1982), p. 70 Malinowsky, Bronislaw (1923); pp. 451, 470-481 43 Ong, Walter J. (1982), p. 32 44 Ong, Walter J. (1982), pp. 81 and 93 42 12 2. Comparing different versions of the same story Even though we do not preserve much of the Old Norse literary corpus, we do find some coincidences in certain stories which can help us understand that, in fact some of the stories we preserve in manuscripts, especially the Eddic poems, were derived from a previous tradition. I have already mentioned some examples, but maybe the most famous one is the cycle of poems and stories dealing with the Nibelungs. We can find literary works narrating this story not only in Iceland and the Scandinavian world, but throughout the Germanic countries. In this regard, Joseph Harris, trying to demonstrate that Guðrúnarkviða II would be the same poem as Guðrúnarbrögð, mentions the allusions made to this last version of the poem in a Faroese ballad which also refers to the cycle of Nibelungs: Högnatáttur45. Other story which appears in different sources is the Jörmungandr, Þórr’s fishing expedition, which can be found not only in Eddic poems, but also in rune stones, though these ones do not describe the scene with words but with pictures. We can find images of Þórr fishing the εiðgarð’s snake in Ardre VIII (Ståna, Gotland, Sweden), Altuna (Uppland, Sweden) and Hørdum (Denmark) rune stones and on the Gosforth cross (Cumbria, England). Dumézil interpreted this story as the Indo-European monsterkilling myth46, in which the hero defeats a beast that is usually a dragon or a serpent. In any case, the myth is well attested throughout Scandinavia and it appeared to be popular, to the extant that it continued being used during Christian times, though it had probably been adapted to the new religion. 45 Harris, Joseph (2008); Speak Useful Words or Say Nothing: Old Norse Studies; Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library; p. 131 46 Dumèzil, Georges (1952); Les Dieux des Indo-Européens; Paris: Presses Universitaires de France; pp. 24-26 13 Illustration 1:Altuna stone (11th c.) Illustration 2: Gosforth cross (10th c.) Illustration 3: Ardre VIII rune stone (8th c.) Illustration 4: part of the second Gosforth cross (10th c.) These images show Þórr, identified by his hammer, on a boat, fishing. The stone which more clearly shows the serpent is the one found in Altuna and maybe the one in the Gosforth cross, in which we can see a lonely figure in the boat, taking something with his hands. It is not clear what is being fished in the marked in red figures in the Ardre rune stone and, actually, the same figures seem to appear at the bottom of the 14 same stone, clearly fishing fishes, as it happens in the second Gosforth cross. It looks as if Christianity had had any influence in the carving of fishes in these stone, especially in the cross, and that fishes were included, making the story become more close to the Gospels narrations of Jesus Christ. We find two carvings showing lonely figures in the boat, whereas in Ardre VIII and in the second Gosforth cross, there are two figures, probably representing Þórr accompanied by the giant Hymir, who is also depicted in Hymskviða and Gylfaginning. By comparing the two depictions of the story that we preserve, we can find out how the narrative techniques have changed between the composition of the Eddic poems and the creation of Snorri’s worksμ Engi á ǫngul, sá er ǫldom bergr, orms einbani, uxa hǫfði; gein við ǫngli, sú er goð fiá, umgiǫð neðan allra landa. Dró diarfliga dáðraccr Þórr orm eitrfán upp at borði; hamri kníði háfiall scarar, ofliótt, ofan úlfs hnitbróður. Hreingálcn hlumðo, enn hǫlcn þuto, fór in forna fold ǫll smana. Søcþiz síðn sá fiscr í mar. Óteitr iǫtunn, er þeir aptr rero, svá ar ár Hymir ecci mælti; veifði hann ræði veðrs annars til47 ‘όixed on the hook the shield of men, the serpent’s slayer, the ox’s headέ Gaped at the bait the foe of gods, the encircler beneath of every land. Drew up boldly the mighty Thor the worm with venom glistening, up to the side; with his hammer struck, on his foul head’s summit, like a rock towering, the wolf’s own brotherέ The icebergs resounded, the caverns howled, the old earth shrank together: at length the fish back into the ocean sank. 47 Hymskviða in Sæmundar Edda (1867); Ed. Bugge, Sophus; Christiania: P. T. Malling; st. 22-25 15 The Jötun was little glad, as they rowed back, so that the powerful Hýmir nothing spake, but the oar moved in another courseέ’48 Miðgarðsormr gein yfir uxahöfuðit, en öngullinn vá í góminn orminum. En er ormrinn kenndi þess, brá hann við svá hart, at báðir hnefar Þórs skullu út at borðinu. Þá varð Þórr reiðr ok færðist í ásmegin, spyrnði við fast, svá at hann hljóp báðum fótum gegnum skipit ok spyrnði við grunni, dró þá orminn upp at borði. En þat má segja, at engi hefir sá sét allógurligar sjónir, er eigi mátti þat sjá, er Þórr hvessti augun á orminn, en ormrinn starði neðan í mót ok blés eitrinu. Þá er sagt, at jötunninn Hymir gerðist litverpr, fölnaði ok hræddist, er hann sá orminn ok þat er særinn féll út ok inn of nökkvann. Ok í því bili, er Þórr greip hamarinn ok færði á loft, þá fálmaði jötunninn til agnsaxinu ok hjó vað Þórs á borði, en ormrinn sökkðist í sæinn. En Þórr kastaði hamrinum eftir honum, ok segja menn, at hann lysti af honum höfuðit við hrönnunum, en ek hygg hitt vera þér satt at segja, at Miðgarðsormr lifir enn ok liggr í umsjá. En Þór reiddi til hnefann ok setr við eyra Hymi, svá at hann steypðist fyrir borð, ok sér í iljar honum, en Þórr óð til lands.49 The Midgard Serpent snapped at the ox-head, and the hook caught in its jaw; but when the Serpent was aware of this, it dashed away so fiercely that both Thor's fists crashed against the gunwale. Then Thor was angered, and took upon him his divine strength, braced his feet so strongly that he plunged through the ship with both feet, and dashed his feet against the bottom; then he drew the Serpent up to the gunwale. And it may be said that no one has seen very fearful sights who might not see that: bow Thor flashed fiery glances at the Serpent, and the Serpent in turn stared up toward him from below and blew venom. Then, it is said, the giant Hymir grew pale, became yellow, and was sore afraid, when he saw the Serpent, and how the sea rushed out and in through the boat. In the very moment when Thor clutched his hammer and raised it on high, then the giant fumbled for his fish-knife and hacked off Thor's line at the gunwale, and the Serpent sank down into the sea. Thor hurled his hammer after it; and men say that he struck off its head against the bottom; but I think it were true to tell thee that the Midgard Serpent yet lives and lies in the encompassing sea. But 'Thor swung his fist and brought it against Hymir's ear, so that he plunged overboard, and Thor saw the soles of his feetέ And Thor waded to landέ’ 50 From these two versions of the same story, we can conclude that the narrative techniques of both authors are quite different. Even though the Eddic poem is unusual and uses complex expressions and kennings which are not normally used in other Eddic poems, the story narrated is quite simple. It is inserted in a poem in which this episode is but one of the different things happening to Þórr and the giant Hymir. Snorri does not focus on the giant, but on the episode itself: Gylfi has asked about it, and nothing else about the giant is told, because the author is only interested in Þórr fishing the serpent. Thorpe, Benjamin (trans.) (1866); “ώymskviða”ν The Poetic Edda; Lapeer, Michigan: The Northverge Foundation Press; st. 22-25 49 Gylfaginning in Edda Snorra Sturlusonar (1900); Ed. Finnur Jónsson; Reykjavík: S. Kristjánsson; 48 50 Brodeur, Arthur G. (trans.) (1916); “Gylfaginning”ν The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson; New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation; p. 70 48 16 Besides, it is clear that the author of the Eddic poem is not interested in describing with detail the reactions of each characterέ We only know of ώymir’s fear after the battle has taken place, and the battle itself is not too long and does not focus on Þórr and the serpent: the author wants us to feel how the whole world reacted when they were fighting and how dangerous this deed was for the entire world embraced by the snake. This has to do with one of the features of oral compositions mentioned by Walter Ong and which I have already mentioned above 51: the audience is empathetic to a communal reaction rather than to an individual’s reactionν that is, the audience wants to know how the whole community, in this case how the whole humanity suffered this event, rather than how Þórr, Hymir or the serpent felt or reacted. Snorri, on the contrary, focuses on how each of the characters reacted and describes in detail what each of them did or felt, including ώymir’s fearέ In summary, the episode of Þórr fishing the εiðgarð’s serpent is a clear example of how the narrative evolved in Scandinavia, but also of the probable oral origins of the Eddic poems. Eddic poetry shows some features from oral traditions, but it was written down in the thirteenth century, after the Snorra Edda was composed. However, the presence of this story in the runic sources implies that its origins may be old, so both the author of the Hymskviða and Snorri Sturlusson probably knew this ancient tradition, and probably some earlier compositions, before they narrated their own versions of the story. 3. Theories about orality and literacy in Scandinavia On Scandinavia’s particular situation, if we compare it to other European literatures, we find here a short corpus of texts written in the runic script before the arrival of Christianity and the Latin alphabet during the Middle Ages. So, we do not have the clues to reconstruct the whole process of adoption of script in society and literature, and we have to take into account not only the pass from orality to literacy in that concrete region, but also the influence that other countries and cultures would have had in Scandinavia until the adoption of the Latin script. We cannot forget that during medieval times orality and literacy had a close relation in almost every European country and that Scandinavians kept a relationship with different kingdoms, which influenced them to modify their social, political, religious and cultural systems. 51 cf p. 5 17 4. Some theories about the orality of Scandinavian texts Pernille Hermann has written on the preoccupation of Icelanders for keeping as many memories as possible from the past. According to her, Icelanders were conscious that memory is “an imperfect storehouse”, and that they wanted to preserve their cultural memory52. This can be seen through their literature and it partly explains the quick adoption of the alphabet, which could help them as a new and more perfect way of storing memories. Of course we have lost many materials which would have been useful for understanding better the evolution from orality to literacy, and Christianity forced some genres to change rapidly, to adapt every kind of literature to the new religion, to modify laws, to suppress some oral traditions and even to adapt genealogies, so they would demonstrate a more adequate origins for families and countries according to the new faith53. Nevertheless, we can infer some things from the texts we preserve. According to Mark C. Amodio54, “oral poetry is necessarily composed (and recomposed) under the exigencies of performance”, however we know that “the Scandinavian poetic genre of Skaldic verse, originating before the conversion to Christianity and the advent of manuscript literacy, includes a large amount of poetry which does not fit Amodio’s characterization at all” 55. Lars Lönnroth describes how Old Norse made a clear distinction between composing, which was called ‘yrkja’, and reciting, ‘flytja, færa fram, kveða’έ He also quotes the episode of Egill, who fell in disgrace with King Eirik Bloodaxe and had to compose a poem for him in order to regain his favor. He composed all night and “had so got it by heart that he could recite it in the morning” 56 (hafði fest svá at hann mátti kveða um morgininn 57). Skaldic poetry was more complicated to create than other 52 Hermann, Pernille (2009); p. 287 Quinn, Judy (2000); “όrom orality to literacy in εedieval Iceland”, Old Icelandic literature and society; Ed. Margaret Clunies Ross; pp. 30-60; Cambridge: Cambridge university Press; p. 30 54 Amodio, Mark C. (2004); Writing the Oral Tradition: Oral Poetics and Literate Culture in Medieval England; Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press; pp. 4, 5, 14 55 Hall, Alaric (2008); “The τrality of a Silent Ageμ The Place of τrality in εedieval Studies”ν Methods and the Medievalist: Current Approaches in Medieval Studies; Ed. Marko Lamberg et al.; pp. 270-290; Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing; p. 276 56 Lönnroth, Lars (1971); p. 3 57 Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar in Íslenzk fornirt II (1933); Ed. Sigurður Nordal; Reykjavík; 183 53 18 compositions, but still, if the language makes a clear distinction between the terms ‘composing’ and ‘reciting’, it is because both actions were perceived by the society as things markedly different, as two distinct actions which could be done regarding literature. Besides, if the author of Egils saga describes the process of composing the poem as a long process that should be meditated, it is because it was the normal procedure: we have to take into account that the author wants us to see Egill as an extraordinary poet, who was able even to compose and memorize the poem in such circumstances and in such a short period of time. On the other hand, the formulae used in Scandinavian and in all Germanic literature show some peculiarities. Lönnroth has affirmed that they are usually used whenever we can find differences in two versions of the same story 58, as if the author knew that the episode presented some problems and he decided not to choose among the possible options, but to use fixed expressions to remain neutral on the choice. To this Paul Acker adds that formulae in Scandinavian literature seem to be ‘syndetic formulas’ made with two terms, usually in the same part of speech, alliterating, sometimes rhyming and conjoined in one half line, maybe by prepositions. Semantically, both terms can be: - Synonimousμ reduplicative formulas (“lað ong longsum”μ ‘hateful and tedious’) - Contiguousμ metonymic formulas (“earm and eaxle”μ ‘arm and shoulder’) - Antonymousμ contrastive formulas (“ær oþþe sið”μ ‘before or after’) - Complementaryμ suppletive formulas (“wera ond wifa”μ ‘of men and women’) - Vaguely relatedμ enumerative formulas (“heah and horngeap”μ ‘high and horngabled’) 59 In summary, these formulae, as already mentioned, are too simple to derive from composition needs and, although they can respond to the custom of memorizing the compositions, they look more like a stylistic strategy than a necessity derived from orality. 58 59 Lönnroth, Lars (1971); pp. 2-3 Acker, Paul (1997); p. 4 19 5. The unclear origins of Runes When, where and how runes were created is not clear. However, most scholars usually agree on three points which are pointed out by Svante Fischer: runes were not created ex nihilo, but they had some other alphabet as a model; this model would have been of Mediterranean, or at least of European origins; and obviously, we must take into account the first inscription we preserve in order to discover where and when the runic script was first created 60. On alphabet borrowing, Isaac Gelb affirmed that: “Whatever its forerunners may be, must pass through the stages of logography, syllabography and alphabetography in this, and no other order. Therefore, no writing can start with a syllabic or alphabetic stage unless it is borrowed, directly or indirectly, from a system which has gone through all the previous stagesέ” 61 Ludvig Wimmer was one of the first runologists who proposed the Latin origin of runes in his work Die Runenschrift (1887). He considered that this script would have been created between the 2 nd and 3rd centuries after Christ by a man of a Germanic tribe from a territory near the Roman Empire. He excluded the possibility of an Etruscan or a Greek origin because the symbols from these alphabets which could have evolved into the runic script were much older than the first runic inscription 62. There are, however, different theories on the origins of runes: the Swedish scholar Otto von Friesen in his work Runorna (1933) raised the hypothesis that runes would have been developed from Greek cursive script which would reach Scandinavia through Goths in the Black Sea 63. The Norwegian linguist Marstrander indicated similarities between runic and Irish Ogham letters. Based on the Ogham epigraphist Steward Macalister, who considered the origin of Ogham in a North Italic alphabet, Marstrander explained this similarity as an evidence for a Celtic-North Etruscan source for runes64. 60 Fischer, Svante (2005); Roman Imperialism and Runic Literacy: the Westernization of Northern Europe (150-800 AD); Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; p. 44 61 Gelb, Isaac (1963); A study of Writing; Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; p. 201 62 Morris, Richard L. (1988); Runic and Mediterranean Epigraphy; Odense: Odense University Press; p. 10 63 Senner, Wayne M. (ed.) (1991); “The Runes”ν The Origins of Writing; Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press; p. 145 64 Stoklud, Marie (ed.) (2006); Runes and their Secrets: Studies in Runology; Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press; pp. 222 ff. 20 Erik Moltke went back to the Latin theory, assuring that runes were created in a region far from the Empire, so their creators were not directly influenced by Romans and they could modify the δatin alphabet, adapting it to the Scandinavian’s needs and including certain variations such as the lack of separation between words, the infrequent use of interpuncts or the failure to designate double consonants, among others65. The runologist Henrik Williams has pointed out that the derivation of runes from the Latin alphabet has two complications: on the one hand, not all runes look like rather looks like a ύreek omega [Ω] and Roman letters (for instance, the rune looks like nothing out of any Classical alphabet); besides, there is a deviation between the form of runes and their sound value (rune certainly looks like a Latin P or a Greek ‘rho’ [Ρ = /r/] but in fact denotes /w/) . According to him: 66 “All runologists have been forced to accept the invention of several new runes, or sometimes with the use of one letter for two different runesέ” 67 So, Williams accepts the Latin origin of runes, but he affirms that the Latin letters would have been mixed-up, maybe unintentionally but not arbitrarily, thus creating the graphemes we know68. Recently, Svante Fischer has proposed a theory according to which the origin of runes has to be found in Roman Empire and its more or less direct relationship with the Germanic world. His thesis is based not on linguistic but on historic evidence. He mentions the reality that when a literate society as the Roman Empire subordinates an illiterate one, in this case the Scandinavian world, this last one will evolve quickly so that it is in the same level as the literate one. However, this evolution does not mean that this change will be permanent, as he mentions in the next fragment: “Given that the ideological development of the preliterate society accelerates to keep up with that of the imperialist aggressor, the economic base does not dovetail the superstructure of the ruling literate elite culture. The preliterate economy lags behind the desires of its ruling elite. To reproduce an imperialist lifestyle, the literate elite will have to become a kleptocracy. It will destroy the preliterate economic base by means of disproportionate theft in order to retain the ideological attributes pertaining to imperialist ideology. In the aftermath, literacy may become superfluous. It runs the risk of becoming an unnecessary attribute of a redundant ideology. This means that literacy 65 Moltke, Erik (1992); Runes and their Origins: from Denmark and Elsewhere; Aarhus: Aarhus University Press; pp. 32 ff. 66 Williams, Henrik (1996); “The τrigin of the Runes”ν Amterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 45, pp. 211-218; p. 211 67 Williams, Henrik (1996); p. 212 68 Williams, Henrik (1996); p. 217 21 is not a given in history. Its continuity is never assured once imperialism has fizzled out, only to be replaced by kleptocracy.”69 So, according to Fischer, the Latin alphabet arrived to the Germanic world via the soldiers, noblemen and traders. But, when the Empire begins to break down, during the third century, the Romans stopped being seen as the elite and the Germanic and Scandinavian nationalistic proud incited the abandonment of the Latin alphabet and the creation of a new own, a native script more suitable for the Germanic languages. This new script was probably created as a reaction against the imperialist power and the texts written in it were never, at least in this first period, neither as perfected nor as extensive as the Latin ones. Thus, the runic script was at first part of a small elite: only the initiated knew how to use it. Because of this, this script would not transcend in the mind of the community, which would continue being illiterate. This means that the runic language would be seen as something mystic and magical, it would have been transmitted from one initiated to another, trying to keep it unchanged. Thus, the language preserved in runes would show us a static technolect, a restrictive field of language reserved for a few privileged and which would be almost immune to linguistic development 70. 5.1. The evolution of the runic script Svante Fischer provides a brief history of the runic inscriptions 71: the first inscriptions we preserve from their creation, whenever it took place, until the 8th century, are brief: we have either personal names in lances or spearheads, referring to the qualities of the object, or personal names ending in –o and carved on portable objects. As an example of the first type, we have KJ34 Mos runic inscription on a lance (Stenkyrka, Gotland, Sweden). There are several theories for its interpretation but due to lack of space I will just mention two here: it can be read as Gaois (‘barker’ 72) or as Gangis (‘who belongs to the armed quarrel’, that is, the name of the lance 73). As for the 69 Fischer, Svante (2005); p. 15 Fischer, Svante (2005); pp. 44 ff. 71 Fischer, Svante (2005); pp 58 ff. 72 Krause, Wolfgang (1971); Die Sprache der urnordischen Runenschriften; Heidelberg 73 Seebold, Elmar (1λλ1)ν “Die Stellung der englischen Runen im Rahmen der Überlieferung des älteren όuþark”; Old English Runes and their Continental Background; pp. 439-569; Ed. Bammesberger, Alfred; Heidelberg: C. Winter 70 22 second type of inscriptions, we preserve KJ9 Himlingøje (Denmark), which is read as Hariso, probably a masculine name carved in a silver bow fibula 74. After the very first level, when the use of runes starts to increase, around 3 rd century, some nominal sentences are introduced. At this stage we find, for instance the inscription ek Unwōd(iR) (KJ 12 Gårdlösa, in Skåne, Sweden), found on a silver fibula and probably carved during the third century; the text in this inscription is composed by a first singular person pronoun and a personal name, suggesting the omitted presence of a verbμ ‘I, the one free of rage’ 75. όollowing όischer’s assessment, the next step in the evolution of the script is the carving of subject-verb sentences. At this point, he assures that a technolect has finally been created and that this script could finally be used for recording complete messages. One example of this level is found in KJ13a Nøvling (Jutland, Denmark): Bīdawarijaz talgid(ē) (‘Bīdawarijaz (=defender of the oath) carved [this]’ 76). From the fourth century onwards, the vast majority of the inscriptions are found in Norway and Sweden and we can perceive a great innovation in terms of narrative, space and media. The knowledge of the script seems to spread and that implies a development from orality to literacy. At this stage we find complete sentences (subjectobject-verb level), and soon some metaphors are incorporated in the message. We find the first rune stones and complete unambiguous sentences, even including appositions. Form this period is the Norwegian Tune stone, which shows a long formula divided into the sides of the stone in which it is carved: ek WīwaR after Wōdurīdē witadahalaiban worahtō (r)[ūnōR]. (mē)R Wōdurīdē staina. þ(r)ijōR dohtriR dālidun arbij[a] ā(r)jōstēR arbijanō. ‘I, WīwaR (= the consecrated one, the consecrator), made [the runes] after WōdurīdaR, my lord. For me, WōdurīdaR, three daughters prepared the stone, [but] the most distinguished ones of the heirs [prepared] the funeral mealέ’77 We can also find some examples of alliteration, what suggests that some poetic texts are starting to be carved and, if that is so, the literate audience must have started to grow in number, so there were more people interested on reading and on preserving 74 Antonsen, Elmer H. (2002); Runes and Germanic Linguistics; Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter McKinnell, John et al. (2004); Runes, Magic and Religion. A Sourcebook; Wien: Fassbaender 76 Antonsen, Elemer H. (2002) 77 Sundqvist, Olof (2000); Freyr’s Offspring, Rulers and Religion in Ancient Svea Society; Uppsala: Uppsala Universtet 75 23 certain messages in the collective memory. In one of the golden horns of Gallehus (Jutland, Denmark) we find a good example of the alliteration: ek Hlewagastiz Holtijaz horna tawidō (‘I, ώlewagastiz (=protected guest), Holtijaz (=son of Holti), made the horn’ 78). During the fifth century, there are some texts using literary language and, during the sixth century, the division in the Germanic world becomes more prominent: while the Southern regions were entering the Merovingian period and went back into the usage of Latin, Scandinavia wanted to mark the difference with its neighbours and continued using runes and improving the region’s literature. So, when the late runic inscriptions were being carved, trade made possible a new contact with the imperialist ideas arising in the rest of Europe, which now went into the Scandinavian countries. These ideas allowed the entrance of missionaries in the region and opened the possibility of a later conversion into Christianity and a complete change of the social, political and economic structures of the North. 6. Literature in Scandinavia Continuing with the Scandinavian world, the main problem is trying to find which texts reflect the situation of the oral culture and how they do it. Because most of the literary texts we preserve come from the times when the Latin alphabet had already been adopted, we must assume that texts were ordered and rearranged by the writer. Besides, we usually do not preserve the original texts, but copies of them which could have been modified again according to the necessities of the copyist. However, we can not talk about orality and literacy in the Old Norse world without taking into account the variety of sources and literary genres we preserve: we can not generalize about the probable oral origins of the whole corpus, because some of the texts we preserve show different features from other ones. Thus, I am going to summarize the most important theories from scholars with regard to the different sources we preserve. 78 Antonsen, Elmer H. (2002) 24 6.1. Runic inscriptions The first texts carved in Scandinavia used the runic script and, as I have explained above, its exact origins are unknown, though scholars seem to agree on the fact that it is an adaptation of another alphabet, probably a Mediterranean one. The oldest inscriptions we have are from c. 150-700 AD, which is known as the early runic period, in which the carved messages are usually very brief, sometimes even consisting of one single word 79. Runic inscriptions are more numerous during the Viking Age (c. 750-110 AD) and from the Middle Ages (c. 1100-1500 AD) there are again inscriptions on loose objects, including Christian religious symbols, which are mostly found in Norway. Those brief inscriptions carved in objects, especially from the first times, probably had some kind of religious or magical purpose, but we also find some literary inscriptions which show some kind of poetry that is formally similar to the Eddic poems, though their content is closer to Skaldic poetry. The verses we find carved in runes are usually composed in ‘fornyrðislag’, though there are some very rare examples in the more complex ‘dróttkvætt’, forming Skaldic poems. This change in the type of verse can show us an evolution of literacy and literary composition, from the easiest type of verse, to the most complex. The most important example is the Karlevi Stone found in Öland, Sweden and dated to the late 10th century, which shows some words and expressions well known in Eddic and Skaldic poetry, as we can see in the next example: Folginn liggr, hinns fylgðu (flestr vissi þat) mestar dæðir, dolga Þrúðar draugr í þeimsi haugi; munat reið-Viðurr ráða rógstarkr í Danmörku Endils jörmungrundar örgrandari landi.80 Tree of Thrúd of hostilities, the man whom the greatest virtues accompanied - most men know that - lies buried in this mound; a more upright chariot-Vidur of wondrous-wide ground of Endil will not rule, strife-strong, land in Denmark. 81 Larsson, Patrick (2005); ‘Runes’, A companion to Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culture; pp. 403412; Ed. Rory McTurk; Malden: Blackwell Publishing; p. 403 80 Södergerg, Sven & Brate, Eirik (1900-6), Ölands runinskrifter granskade och tolkade (Sveriges runinskrifter 1); Stockholm DR411 81 Foote, Peter & Wilson, David M. (1989); The Viking Achievement. The Society and Culture of Early Medieval Scandinaviaν σew Yorkμ Stέ εartin’s Press, δondonμ Sidgwick and Jacksonν p. 329 79 25 In this inscription we can see the expression ‘jörmungrund’ (‘wondrous-wide ground’), which is recorded in the Eddic poem Grímnismál, where Óðinn’s ravens “fljúga hverjan dag / jörmungrund yfir” 82 (‘fly each day over earth’s wide surface’), but also in Beowulf, in line 859 (eormengrund). This coincidence, according to Patrick Larsson, seems to indicate that the early poetic language shares some similarities throughout the Germanic world and not only in the Scandinavian countries 83. The majority of the runic poems are simpler than this one and they are based on alliteration or initial rhyme, making it sometimes difficult to tell if they were intended to be poetry or prose. Thus, we can find some texts like the ones carved in the KJ71 By stone during the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century: ek irilaR hroRaR hroReR orte þat aRina ubt alaifu dagaR runoR markiþe ‘I earl ώrör, ώrör’s son, made this mound in memory of Alofέ Dagr engraved the runesέ’84 It is curious that some rune carvers are called ‘Skalds’, but their inscriptions do not show poetic purposes, so we can not be sure that the title they bore had to do with their proficiency as poets. Nevertheless, we find another title which can also be related to literary activities, ‘þulr’, which apparently was used to name ‘sages or poets’ in charge of guarding the memories of a certain family or region 85. However, we can trace the evolution from the simpler alliterative verses from the first inscriptions, passing through the more complex Skaldic poetry and ending with the typical rhyming from the later Skaldic poems. So, we find an example of early end rhyming used asides from alliteration on a rune stone from Vallentuna, in Uppland, Sweden (U 214), probably from the 12 th century: Hann druknaði á Holms hafi, skreið knǫrr hans í kaf, þrír einir kvámu af. ώe drowned in the ώolm’s seaέ ώis ship sank bodily, those who survived were only three.86 82 Grímnismál in Sæmundar Edda (1867); Ed. Bugge, Sophus; Christiania: P. T. Malling; st. 20 Larsson, Patrick (2005), p. 410 84 Owen, Francis (1928); ‘Alliteration in the Runic Inscriptions’ν Modern Philology v. 25, no 4; pp. 397408; p. 397 85 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 405 86 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 416 83 26 As an example of the Skaldic poetry, we can take a look at the text carved in the KJ101 Eggjum stone (Norway), from around the year 700: A: nis sōlu sōtt (o)k ni sakse stæinn skorinn. ni [læggi] mannR nækdan. ni sn[a]r[di]R ni wiltiR mænnR læggi [af]. B: Hinn war(p) nāsǣu mannR māde þæim kæi(p)a ī bormōþa hūni. huwaR ob kam hæriǭss hī ā land gotna. fiskR ōr f[ir]nᴀ(w)im suwimmande fo(g)l (ī) f[i]a[nda lid] galande. C: alu misyrki. Aμ ‘It is not hit by the sun and the stone is not cut by an iron knife. Nobody may lay [the stone] bare. No [men] who are driven into a corner nor misguided men may lay [the stone] asideέ’ Bμ ‘The man sprinkled this stone with corpse-sea (blood), rubbed with it the tholes in the drill-tired bear (ship). As who came the Army-god hither to the land of warriors? όish swimming from the stream of terror, bird screaming into the host of enemiesέ’ Cμ ‘magic against the wrong-doerέ’87 On the other hand, it is well known that Skaldic compositions have been widely used in sagas and other texts, creating what is usually called prosimetrum, or the mixture of prose and poetry. Even Snorri Sturluson admitted in his work that he used Skaldic poetry as a source of information, for poems were to be trusted and poets were responsible for guarding the memories from the past. Because of this, it is not uncommon to find some poems carved in runes which are to be also found in sagas, though not in the exact same words. For example, in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, Egill composes the following verses: Skalat maðr rúnar rísta, nema ráða vel kunni; þat verðr mǫrgum manni, es of myrkvan staf villisk.88 One should not carve runes unless one can interpret them well; it happens to many a man, that he makes a mistake with a dark (rune-)stave. 89 This same poem is to be compared with the runic stick from Trondheim, Norway, here interpreted by Knirk (1994)90: 87 Krause, Wolfgang (1971) Finnur Jónsson (1912-15); Den norskislandske skajldedigting, vols. A 1-2: Tekst efter händskrifterna; vols. B 1-2: Rettet tekst Copenhaguen and Christiania; B 1:51 89 Knirk, James Eέ (1λλ4)ν “Runes from Trondheim and a Stanza by Egill Skalla-ύrímsson”ν Studien zum Altergermanischen: Festschrift für Heinrich Beck, pp. 411-420; Ed. Heiko Uecker; Berlin: de Gruyter; p.412 90 Larsson; Patrick (2005); p. 415 88 27 Sá skyli ruúnar rísta, er ráða(?) vel kunni; þat verðr mǫrgum manni, at . . . He should carve runes who can understand(?) them well; it happens to many a man, that . . . (?) Other types of poems found in runes are love poetry, such as those found in Lödöse, Sweden and in Bergen, with almost identical form: Mun þu´ mik, man [ek] þik! Think of me, I think of you! Unn þu´ me´r, ann [ek] þe´r! 91 Love me, I love you!92 At the end of an inscription from Bälsta, Uppland, the words ‘í gráti’ may suggest the existence of a grátr-genre for the creation of mourning songs: Ok Gyríði gazt at veri. Því mun í gráti getit láta.93 Likewise Gyríðr loved her husband. So in mourning she will have it mentioned. 94 In some texts we find runes described as elements from divine origins, as it is suggested in Hávamál: Þat er þá reynt er þú at rúnom spyrr inom reginkunnom, þeim er gorðo ginregin oc fáði fimbulþulr.95 It is then tried and tested when you ask about the runes derived from the gods, the ones which the ruling powers made and the mighty sage [that is, Óðinn] painted. 96 We can also find this divine origin of runes in two runic inscriptions: the first one from Noleby and the second one from Sparlösa in Västergötland, Sweden (Vg 63, Vg 119), from the seventh and ninth centuries respectively: 91 Svärdström, Elisabeth (1982); Runfynden: Gamla Lödöse (Lödöse-Västsvensk medetidsstad 4:5); Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International; p.15 f. 92 Larsson; Patrick (2005); p. 416 93 Wessén, Elias and Jansson, Sven B. F. (1940-58); Upplands runinskrifter granskade och tolkade, vols. 1-4 (Sveriges runinskrifter 6-9); Stockholm; 226 94 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 417 95 Hávamál in Sæmundar Edda (1867); Ed. Bugge, Sophus; Christiania: P. T. Malling; st. 80 96 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 417 28 Runo fahi raginakundo toj[e'k]a. ... ... ... Hakoþuz. I prepare the suitable divine rune ... for Hakoþuz. 97 þat Sigmarr hæiti maguR Æiriks. Mæginiaru(?) <þuno> aft Æivisl. Ok rað runaR þaR rægi[n]kundu <iu> þar, svað AlrikR <lubu> faði. that Eiríkr's boy is called Sigmarr/celebrated-for-victories. Mighty battle(?) ... in memory of Eyvísl(?). And interpret the runes of divine origin there... , that Alríkr <lubu> coloured.98 Runes are also used as elements of protection, and an example of this is the following medieval runic inscription from Bergen, which also shows us that the magical aspect of runes remained even in later years, when Christianity was gaining power over heathenism: Ríst ek bótrúnar, ríst ek biargrúnar, einfalt við álfum tvífalt við trollum þrífalt við þursum. 99 I cut runes of help, I cut runes of protection, once against the elves, twice against the trolls, thrice against the ogres. 100 But runes are also valuable for the historic and cultural information they give us. The best known inscription is the one arisen in Jelling, for the praise of the Danish king Haraldr Blátönn and claiming that he had Christianized all of the Danes: haraltr kunukR baþ kaurua kubl þausi aft kurm faþur sin auk aft Þaurui muþur sina sa haraltr ias saR uan tanmaurk ala auk Nuruiak auk t[a]ni [karþi] kristna101 King Harald [Haraltr] commanded this monument to be made in memory of Gorm [Kurm], his father, and in memory of Thorvi (Thyre) [Þaurui], his mother - that Harald [Haraltr] who had won the whole of Denmark for himself, and Norway, and made the Danes Christian. In some other inscriptions, men are praised for their courage, their generosity or their eloquence, thus showing us what the most appreciated values were in the Scandinavian society during pagan times but also after the arrival of Christianity. 97 Jungner, Hugo and Svärdström, Elisabeth (1940-7); Västergötlands runinskrifter granskade och tolkade (Sveriges runinskrifter 5); Stockholm; p. 63. 98 Jungner, Hugo and Svärdström, Elisabeth (1940-7); p. 119 99 Liestøl, Aslak, Krause, Wolfang and Helgase, Jón (1962); Drottkvætt-vers fra Bryggenμ Bergen’ν Maal og minne; pp. 98-108; pp. 41 f. 100 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 418 101 Jacobsen, Lis and Moltke, Erik (1941-2); Danmarks Runindskrifter, with the assistance of Anders Bæksted and Karl Martin Nielsen; Copenhaguen; p. 42 29 Courageous behavior in battle is shown in the Hällestad stone, raised in memory of a man who did not flee at Uppsala: A Æskel satti sten þænsi æftiR Toka Gorms sun, seR hullan drottin. SaR flo ægi at Upsalum B sattu drængiaR æftiR sin broþur sten a biargi støþan runum. ÞeR C Gorms Toka gingu næstiR.102 A Áskell placed this stone in memory of Tóki Gormr's son, to him a faithful lord. He did not flee at Uppsala. B Valiant men placed in memory of their brother the stone on the hill, steadied by runes. They C went closest to Gormr's Tóki. Women are also commemorated, though not as frequently as men and the best qualities they must have are usually related with the good house-keeping, as it was natural in medieval times. An example of this is the Hassmyra stone from Västmanland, Sweden: Kemr hýfreyja til Hǫsumýra eigi betri, en býi ráðr.103 There will come to Hǫsumýrar no better housewife, who will arrange the estate.104 The sagas mention events in which the lögsögumaðr recites the laws, but we do not preserve detailed records of legal matters in runic inscriptions, with the exception of a few inscriptions, such as the iron ring from Forsa in Hälsingland, Sweden, and the inscription from Oklunda, in Östergötland, making reference to a man seeking for refuge in a pre-Christian sanctuary105. Finally, one of the main themes that we can find in inscriptions is the travels of Vikings. We find runes carved in many different points of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, but runic inscriptions in Scandinavia also give us a clue of the vision that Scandinavians had about those travels, as we can see on the Turinge rune stone: Brøðr vaRu 102 Jacobsen, Lis and Moltke, Erik (1941-2); p. 295 Jonsson, Sven B. F. (1964); Vatsmanlands runinskrifter granskade och tolkade (Sveriges runinskrifter 13); Stockholm; p. 24 104 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 423 105 Larsson, Patrick (2005); p. 423 103 30 þæiR bæstra manna, a landi ok i liði uti, heldu sina huskarla ve[l]. Hann fioll i orrustu austr i Garðum, liðs forungi, landmanna bæstr.106 These brothers were the best of men in the land and abroad in the retinue, held their housecarls well. He fell in battle in the east in Garðar, commander of the retinue, the best of landholders. 6.2. Skaldic poetry Though I have already attended to the Skaldic poetry found in rune stones, I will now pay attention to the poetry found in other sources, especially in sagas, where they are commonly mixed with prose. However, first we need to look briefly at the main characteristics of this kind of poetry. I have already mentioned the evolution from the alliterative verse to the end rhyming one, but one of its most important features is the use of kennings. These are a type of metaphorical words or phrases used as an allusion of a simpler idea and to know their meaning, we must try to know the meaning of one part and connect each part with the meaning of the previous one. One example of kenning may be: ýstéttar funa kleifar107 This needs an explanation: ‘Ýr’ means ‘yew tree’, with which we can make a bow; ‘stétt’ is the ‘pavement’, so ‘ýstétt’ is the ‘pavement of the bow’, which is the ‘hand’ν ‘funa ýstétt’ is the ‘fire of the hand’, that is, the ‘gold’ν ‘kleif funa ýstéttar’ means ‘cliff of the gold’ and is used to signify ‘woman’έ In kennings it is difficult to substitute one word with another one without changing the metrics of the verse, so there had to be some formulaic kennings or expressions in order to help poets using them with some fluency. However, these 106 Brate. Eirik and Wessén, Elias (1924-36); Södermanlands runinskrifter granskade och tolkade (Sveriges runinskrifter 3); Stockholm; p. 338 107 Snorri Sturluson, Óláfs saga helga, Heimskringla, in Islenzk fornritafélag (1945); Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson; Norway; 182, song 133 31 formulae seem to be far from having the mnemonic functions from the oral poetry formulae: in oral poetry, formulae use to be simple, so they help poets easily filling some gaps in their compositions. These formulae are easy to understand and to memorize, so poets do not need much effort to properly use them when they improvise. In comparison, kennings are complicated expressions which need to be decoded by the audience and which are not just used as ‘verse fillers’ or as strategies for remembering what is to follow in the poem. The use of Skaldic compositions attends to many different purposes, depending on the intentions the author had when he included them in his story but, as already mentioned, one of the main aspects of these poems is that they served as a source of information. Sagas and even historical works and works written in Latin, if they were supposed to be reliable, had to trust on the information contained in poems, although not all the authors quote the verses from which the information was extracted. Snorri Sturluson commented on the reliability of poems in the prologue of his Heimskringla: En kvæðin þykja mér síst úr stað færð ef þau eru rétt kveðin og röksamlega upp tekin. “But the songs seem to me most reliable if they are sung correctly, and judiciously interpreted.”108 But there are many other uses for these poems: we may find them inserted as a part of a dialogue, or as markers of a point of inflection or to raise the tension in the story. This is the case of the following poem, from Óláfs saga Helga, with which Þormóðr replies to the doctor who is asking why he is so pale, and which prolongs the suffering of the hero and the developing of this episode: Undrask ǫglis landa eik, hví vér róm bleikir. Fár verðr fagr af s rum. Fannk ǫrva drif, svanni. Mik fló malmr enn kløkkvi, magni keyrðr, í gǫgnum. hvasst beit hjarta et næsta hættligt járn, es vættik.109 "Thou wonderest, sweet sprig, at me, A man so hideous to see: Deep wounds but rarely mend the face, The crippling blow gives little grace. 108 Laing, Samuel (trans.) (1844); Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the kings of Norway; London: Norræna Society; prologue 109 Snorri Sturluson, Óláfs saga helga, Heimskringla, in Islenzk fornritafélag (1945); Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson; Norway; 234, song 161 32 The arrow-drift o'ertook me, girl, -A fine-ground arrow in the whirl Went through me, and I feel the dart Sits, lovely girl, too near my heart."110 Sometimes, the complexity of Skaldic poetry enabled it to convey as a sort of cryptic message which had to be undeciphered to be understood. The best example of this is found in Gísla saga Súrssonar, where Gísli recites a poem that then has to be interpreted by his sister: Teina sák í túni tál-gríms vinar fálu, Gaus þess's geig of veittak gunnbliks þáamiklu; nú hefir gnýstærir geira grímu Þrótt of sóttan þann lét sundr of lendan landkostuð ábranda.111 I sam the shoots reach up through the thawed earth on the grim giant-Thor's mound; I slew that Gaut of battle-gleam. Thrott's helmet has silenced the spear-rattler, given one, greedy for land, a plot of his own, forever. 112 Sagas let us know when poems were actually recited in daily life, so we find out that they could be recited in parties and weddings as entertainment. The best known example is the wedding feast at Þorgils saga, where men start to compose poems for entertainment but the game soon gets serious and ends up with Þórðr and his company leaving the place. The following fragment is just the beginning of this confrontation: “ώvaðan kennir þef þennaς Þórðr andar nú handanέ” Ok verðr at hlátr mikill; ok er næst görr at þessu gyss mikill. Ok er því léttir, þá kveðr Þórðr í mót: “Andi er Ingimundar ekki góðr á bekkinnέ” Ok af þessum áköstum tekr heldr at grána gamanit, ok koma kviðlingar við svá. Þá var þetta kveðit til Þórðar: “Rýrir í barka ríkismanni; glitar skallinn við á goða yðrumέ” 110 Laing, Samuel (trans.) (1844); Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the kings of Norway; London: Norræna Society; saga of Olaf Haraldson, p. 247 111 Gísla saga Súrssonar (1903); Ed. Finnur Jónsson; Halle a S.: M. Niemeyer; p. 10 112 Regal, Martin (trans.) (2000); Gisla saga and Eyrbyggja saga (intro. by Vésteinn Ólasons); New York: Penguin Books; p. 32 33 “Whence comes this stinkς” “Þórð is breathing at tableέ” There was loud laughter, followed by considerable delight at this mockery. When this let up Þórð versified in return: “Ingimund’s breath Brings no boon to the benchέ” And from these taunts the game began to grow serious, and lampoons were then delivered. This verse was aimed at Þórð: Whistling in the windpipe Marks the mighty man. Your goði’s skull Shines badly above. 113 But Skaldic poetry in sagas is also used in the presence of the Norwegian king. Sagas usually present Icelanders as travelers who want to gain the favor of the king and recite poems praising him to win not only his favor, but also some kind of reward. This custom is reflected, though in a humorous tone, in Hreiðarr’s þattr, in which Hreiðarr asks the king for permission to recite him a poem. The author does not give us the poem, but he describes it and so he does with the king’s reaction, which reflects one of the features of poems: they can act as premonitions: Hreiðarr var nú þar nakkvara stund með Magnúsi konungi. Ok eitthvert sinn kømr hann at máli við konung ok mæltiμ “Þat vilda ek, konungr, at þú veittir mér þat er ek mun biðja þikέ” “ώvat er þatς” spyrr konungrέ “Þat, herra,” segir ώreiðarr, “at þér hlýddið kvæði er ek hefi ort um yðrέ” “ώví skal eigi þatς” spyrr konungr. Nú kveðr Hreiðarr kvæðit, ok er þat allundarligt, fyrst kynligast en því betra er síðarr er. Ok er lokit er kvæði mælti konungrμ “Þetta kvæði sýnisk mér undarligt ok þó gott at nestlokumέ En kvæðit mun vera með þeim hætti sem ævi þín; hon hefir fyrst verit með kynligu móti ok einr nligu, en hon mun þó vera því betr er meirr líðr á. Hér eptir skal ek ok velja kvæðislauninέ”114 Hreiðarr now spent some time with King Magnús. One time he came to speak with him and said: "I wish you to grant me what I am about to request." "What is it?" asked the king. "To listen to a poem that I have composed about you, sire," said Hreiðarr. 'Why not?" said the king. Hreiðarr began to recite, and it was a very strange production, strangest at first but better as it progressed. When the poem was finished, the king said: "That strikes me as a strange composition, but not bad as you got to the end. The performance is probably in line with your own life. It began in an odd and outlandish way but will get better and better as time goes on. That will also determine my choice of your poet's reward.115 In conclusion, it is obvious that Skaldic poems plaid an important role in the Scandinavian literature since it first started to be written down, and they kept being used after the conversion to Christianity, incorporating references to Biblical texts and thus 113 Þorgils saga ok Hafliða (1945); Ed. & trans. Halldór Hermannsson; Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press; p. 10 114 Morkinskinna I in Íslenzka fornritafélag (2011); Ed. Ármann Jakobsson & Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson; Reykjavík; p. 26 115 Andersson, Theodore M. & Gade, Kari Ellen (trans.) (2000); Morkinskinna. The earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings; Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press; p. 24 34 mixing the entertainment from sagas with the erudite knowledge required for composing and understanding the poems. The main question is whether the poems were composed along with the rest of the saga or if they were incorporated to the narration and adapted to the context. As I have already explained in the previous section, we preserve various examples of poems carved in rune stones which were then included in sagas with some modifications. However, we can not exclude the possibility that some other poems were created specifically for the sagas in which they appear. Whatever the situation may be, the abundance of poetry not only in sagas, but also in historical works, show that there was a strong tradition of highly developed poetry in Scandinavia by the time when Latin script arrived. Besides, the evolution in the form of the poems observed in runic inscriptions, demonstrates that the Skaldic poetry had a long story of evolution even before the adoption of literacy in the region. According to this, it seems like the only trace of orality in Skaldic compositions lies in the reliability that authors and erudite people recognize in poems, which may be similar to the Greek idea of poetry as a sort of ‘memorial’έ 6.3. The Sagas Sagas have been objects of the study of scholars during a long time. The first theories tried to demonstrate the oral origins of these texts, which was mixed with the literacy of Latinists when they wrote down the oral narrations they were transcribing. Those theories parted from the idea that oral texts could be exactly transmitted from one generation to another and that they would transmit not only all the truth about the past, but also an accurate description of the culture and society from pagan times. One of the points in which many scholars agree is that, as ύísli Sígurðsson affirms, “an oral performer would hardly use the same words when reciting his or her repertoire to a scribe as he or she would in real-life setting” 116. Besides, we cannot be sure that everything transmitted orally was, as mentioned above, necessarily true: humans always choose what to say and modify the information according to their purpose. Furthermore, oral compositions are usually not completely accurate: the customs transmitted by the tradition are often preserved for a long time in the story, leading to anachronisms and to 116 Gísli Sígurðsson (2005); p. 290 35 strange explanations included by poets when those usages are no longer understood. This is, for example, what we find in the Homeric Iliad, when the author is describing the war chariots used by noblemen in battle but then makes the characters use them just for approaching the battlefield and then leave them: the author lives in an era where these chariots are no longer used, so he does not know how they were used 117. In this regard, the Homerist Pierre Carlier assures that: “El público que escuchaba la Ilíada y la Odisea sabía que algunos usos de la ‘edad de los héroes’ diferían de los de su propio tiempo. Asimismo, los aedos vigilaban para no cometer anacronismos flagrantes; sin embargo, no podían abstraerse totalmente de la civilización material que les era familiar, a la que se debían referir para ser comprendidosέ”118 “The public who listened to the Iliad and the Odyssey knew that some uses of the ‘age of heroes’ were different from the ones at their timeέ όurthermore, aoidoi (= poets) were cautious to avoid making blatant anachronisms; nonetheless, they could not completely abstract themselves from the material civilization familiar to them, the one they had to refer to in order to being understoodέ” Because of these reasons, scholars seemed to stop looking for hints of orality on sagas, thinking that they could not be found, but in recent times this problem is being investigated again, trying to find any clues which would help solving it. We preserve different types of sagas, usually classified according to the main theme they narrateέ Some of the first ones are the ‘founding’ sagas and narratives. Here I will refer not only to the ‘Íslendingasögur’, which deal with the lives of the first Icelanders, from their settlement in the island or even from before that moment, but I will also take into account those works such as the Íslendingabók and the Landnamabók, which describe how the settlement took place and how the new country of Iceland was formed and how it was organized politically, socially and religiously, specially from the conversion to Christianity. Pernille Hermann, paraphrasing the Egyptologist Jan Assmann119, mentions two functions of these ‘founding narratives’μ they serve to explain how, when and why the ‘world’, the region was created, giving to its origins the character of “necessary, unchangeable and divinely sanctioned”έ Besides, they serve to distinguish the present from the past, thus indicating that the present has 117 Carlier, Pierre (1999, trad. 2005); Homère; trad. to Spanish Alfredo Iglesias Diéguez; Madrid, Akal; p. 198 118 Carlier, Pierre (1999, trad. 2005); p. 197 119 Assmann, Jan (2005; first published 1992); Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühenHochkulturen; München: C. H. Beck; pp. 75-78 36 changed and is, to some extent, different from what it was 120. From this, Pernille Hermann concludes that these narrations create some kind of myth for the foundation process, changing the reality and making up an idealized past which is seen with nostalgia from the contemporary time of the composition. In general, we can not rely completely on sagas. We must realize that they have been copied by an author who has probably modified them and adapted them to his purposes and to the new Christian era. Besides, the original copies have been lost, so we preserve copies made from them which could well have been modified again. Nevertheles, we can be sure that during the Middle Ages sagas were supposed to tell the truth. We preserve some examples referring to the importance of telling the truth. In Njáls saga, lying about the burning of σjál’s house supposes the death of the liar, whereas Haraldr Harðráði awards the poet who narrated his own story in an accurate way, even asking for the sources of information the poet had to be able to compose such a good story. But there were also untrustworthy sagas, the ‘lygisögur’, which were good just for entertainment, as it is told in Þorgils saga: En þessari sögu var skemt Sverri konungi; ok kallaði hann slíkar lygisögur skemtiligastar. These sagas delighted King Sverri who said such lying stories were very enjoyable. 121 To be able to compose a historically reliable story, composers had to narrate events from a recent past so, even if they did not witness the events themselves, they could find some eyewitnesses or some learned men who could know the facts. Afterwards, these stories probably remained loyal to the first version, though of course each story-teller would create his own version of it. A good example of this is the description that Snorri makes of Ari, referring to how he had a good memory and knew many learned men who remembered most of the facts he relates: Því var eigi undarlegt að Ari prestur væri sannfróður að fornum tíðindum, bæði hér og utanlands, að hann var sjálfur námgjarn og vitur og minnigur en hafði numið að gömlum mönnum fróðum. 122 120 Hermann, Pernille (2010); pp. 287-288 Þorgils saga ok Hafliða (1945); Ed. & trans. Halldór Hermannsson; Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press; p. 10 122 Snorri Sturluson, Óláfs saga helga, Heimskringla, in Islenzk fornritafélag (1945); Ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson; Norway; prologus 121 37 So it is not wonderful that Are had good information about ancient events both here in Iceland, and abroad, being a man anxious for information, intelligent and of excellent memory, and having besides learned much from old intelligent persons. 123 This preoccupation for the reliability of the sources and for selecting carefully the information used, shows a scientific mind and a methodology of composition which is far from the first steps of, for instance, the Greek historiography. This may have been an influence from European literary traditions, which reached Iceland and all the Scandinavian countries via Christianity and the trade with different regions and which Snorri and Ari undoubtfully knew, but it is anyway very distant from a historiographical work composed in an oral culture. However, the reliance on the memory, on poems and on the words spoken by learned and illustrious men, implies that the development of literacy was already not fully complete when these works were composed. With regards to the sagas’ length, ώeusler affirmed that these texts would have been written with the purpose of being read, so their length would be exactly the same as the orally transmitted story. But, as Andersson argues, this would mean that in most cases people would reunite just for listening to a brief story 124. So, sagas were probably longer that those that we preserve, and we must again assume that they were rearranged by the writers, so some passages could have been eliminated and some others included in the versions we have. In general, it seems like sagas respond to the necessity of knowing the past of the country and its people; that is why we find the sagas about the early Icelanders, as well as contemporary sagas, narrating the memorable events from the recent past. This necessity seems to show the preoccupation for keeping the memories alive, which is typical of those cultures which are starting their progress to literacy, even though the form and the methodology used by the authors imply that the progress to literacy was already advanced. Because of this, we soon find out that the interest of recording old myths and legends and of creating new fictional sagas with the only purpose of entertainment originated the appearance of legendary sagas and translated romances. 123 Laing, Samuel (trans.) (1844); Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the kings of Norway; London: Norræna Society; prologue 124 Andersson, Theodore M. (2008); ‘όrom tradition to literature in the sagas’, Oral art forms and their passage into writing; Ed. Else Mundal & Jonas Wellendorf; Copenhaguen: Museum Tusculanum Press; p. 10 38 The interesting part of the collection of historic events in sagas and other sources is the early attempt to separate myth from history, seeing the former one as a collection of unreliable stories, a change which usually takes place in an advanced stage of literacy and scientific thought. Maybe Christianity had influenced literature by the time when sagas were composed. We must remember that one of the first texts to be written down was Saxo Grammaticus’ adaptation of myths demonstrating their falsehood in comparison with the new religion. Another attempt to demonstrate the validity of Christianity is Snorri’s one, though he tries to reconcile the new religion with the old heathen myths, implying that, as occurred in Greece, old myths (either pagan or Christian) described the prehistory of world and our history was a continuation of it. The best known example of it is his description of the god’s origins as chieftains came from Troy: Eftir þat fór hann norðr, þar sem nú heitir Svíþjóð. Þar var sá konungr, er Gylfi er nefndr. En er hann spyrr til ferðar þeira Ásíamanna, er er æsir váru kallaðir, fór hann í móti þeim ok bauð, at Óðinn skyldi slíkt vald hafa í hans ríki, sem hann vildi sjálfr. 125 After that he went northward, where the land is called Sweden; the king there was named Gylfi. When the king learned of the coming of those men of Asia, who were called Æsir, he went to meet them, and made offer to them that Odin should have such power in his realm as he himself wielded. 126 We cannot forget that Snorri writes this in a prologue of a work in which he is going to explain the old myths to young poets, so they can understand the ancient poems and compose new ones. However, it seems clear that myths and recent history are not to be mixed in the same story, if possible. Sagas, like Skaldic poetry, must be reliable stories to keep the memories from the past, the sources of information of the author must be also reliable and trustworthy, because of this both types of texts are closely related and they are usually mixed in stories. It looks like only when romances reach Scandinavia, when the political and social circumstances have changed and people needed some source of entertainment, when they wanted to remember the national heroes from the legendary past, and when historic memories are safe in manuscripts, then legendary sagas and other ‘lygisögur’ can finally be enjoyed. 125 Edda Snorra Sturlusonar (1900); Ed. Finnur Jónsson; Reykjavík: S. Kristjánsson; prologue, 5 Brodeur, Arthur G. (trans.) (1916); The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson; New York: The AmericanScandinavian Foundation; prologue 5 126 39 6.4. Eddic poetry The compositions collected in the Poetic Edda form a series of poems which have traditionally been considered as the first ones to be composed from those that we preserve. They are simpler to compose and understand than the Skaldic poetry and some of them show a fixed structure and some formulae that resemble those from the Homeric works or from the Yugoslavian songs studied by Parry. As an example of the Homeric formulae, we can find the epithets referring to Achilles, or the repetition of the same sentence whenever a hero is falling death: ᾽ἀ οῖ φη π α ὠ ὺ Ἀχ ο 127 among them arose and spoke swift-footed Achilles 128 ὸ ᾽ ἀπα β ο π ο φη π α ὠ ὺ Ἀχ 129 In answer to him spoke swift-footed Achilles130 ο πη ὲπ ,ἀ βη ὲ χ ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐ ῷ.131 and he fell with a thud, and upon him his armour clanged.132 ο πη ὲπ ,ἀ βη ὲ χ ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐ ῷ.133 and he fell with a thud, and upon him his armour clanged.134 These formulae seem to be similar to the ones found, for instance in Vafþrúðnismál, in which the author repeats the same structure any time a character starts to speak: Vafþrvðnir qvaþ/Óðinn qvaþ Vafþrvðnir said/ Óðinn said Terry Gunnell defines Eddic poetry as a series of poems anonymously transmitted “which deal with the myths or heroic world of the Scandinavian 127 Homer, Iliad in Homeri Opera in Five Volumes (1920); Ed. Munro, David B. & Allen, Thomas W.; Oxford: Oxford University Press; I, 58 128 Murray, A. T. (trans.) (1924), The Iliad with an English translation, Cambridge MA.: Harvard University Press; I, 58 129 Homer, Iliad (1920); I, 84 130 Murray, A. T. (trans.) (1924); I, 84 131 Homer, Iliad (1920); V, 42 132 Murray, A. T. (trans.) (1924); V, 42 133 Homer, Iliad (1920); V, 533 134 Murray, A. T. (trans.) (1924); V, 533 40 countries”έ 135 The ones we preserve show the form of such poems when they were copied down, in the thirteenth century. However, they must be younger versions of a previous tradition, because the same content is mentioned in Old English poems such as Beowulf and in stones carved before that era. Judy Quinn proposes three main features for the Eddic poems 136: 1. Similarities with tragedy which arise from the impulse of individual desire and loyalty. This is probably an innovation from an old tradition, showing a development from the continental roots of the story. 2. Poets dealing with dynastic history did not always create a linear chronology, but used changes in the rhythm, analepsis or circling back of motifs for giving the poem the Eddic aesthetics. 3. Eddic poems are a modulation between modes of discourse (narrative, dialogue, lament, audience address...) Even though an influence from Christian literature on the Eddic poems has been proposed, this theory seems unlikely, due to the relation of the poems with rites and knowledge from the heathen past. On the other hand, the possibility or not of the oral transmission of these poems until they were written down in the thirteenth century has also been discussed. Some have claimed that there is no evidence for saying that the original authors and their audiences depended on writing. In fact, we know that in ancient times, and throughout the Middle Ages, texts were usually not meant to be read silently as we do in modern times. However, Olsen and Steffeson have proposed that many texts would have been preserved through runic inscriptions, and that even the longest sagas could have been preserved on wooden rune-staves.137 Following this idea, Kellogg has claimed that the Eddic poems may be analogous to those studied by Parry and Lord, but the Eddic works are considerably shorter and more tightly structured than the Homeric ones or other typical oral Gunnell, Terry (2004); ‘Eddic Poetry’ν A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, pp. 82-100; Ed. Rory McTurk; Oxford: Blacwell Publishing; p. 82 136 Quinn, Judy (2009); p. 326 137 Harris, Joseph (1985); p. 114 135 41 compositions. Most of the compositions in the Edda narrate one single episode. Even in the case of the heroic poems, the same story is referred by a series of works which have been chronologically ordered by the writer to complete with them the whole heroic cycle. Aside from that, the vocabulary of the Edda is richer than what is usually found in oral poetry, with some unusual expressions 138. The formulas used are especially found in verbal contests, like the one described in Vafþrúðnismál: Vafþrvðnir qvaþ: «Segþv mer, Gagnraþr, allz þv a gólfi vill þins vm freista frama: hve sa hestr heitir, er hverian dregr dag of drottma/go?» Oþinn qvaþ: «Scinfaxi heitir, er inn scíra dregr dag vm drottma/go; hesta beztr þyccir hann meþ Hreíðgotom, ey lysir ma/n af mari.» Vafþrvðnir qvaþ: «Segdv þat, Gagnraþr, allz þv a gólfi vill þins vm freista frama: hve sa iór heitir, er a/stan dregr nott of nyt regin?» Oþinn qvaþ: «Hrímfaxi heitir, er hveria dregr nott of nyt regin; meldropa fellir hann morgin hvern, þaðan komr da/gg vm dala.»139 Vafthruthnir spake: "Speak forth now, Gagnrath, | if there from the floor Thou wouldst thy wisdom make known: What name has the steed | that each morn anew The day for mankind doth draw?" Othin spake: "Skinfaxi is he, | the steed who for men The glittering day doth draw; The best of horses | to heroes he seems, And brightly his mane doth burn." Vafthruthnir spake: "Speak forth now, Gagnrath, | if there from the floor 138 139 Lönnroth, Lars (1971); p. 2 Vafþrúðnismál in Sæmundar Edda (1867); Ed. Bugge, Sophus; Christiania: P. T. Malling; st. 11-14 42 Thou wouldst thy wisdom make known: What name has the steed | that from East anew Brings night for the noble gods?" Othin spake: "Hrimfaxi name they | the steed that anew Brings night for the noble gods; Each morning foam | from his bit there falls, And thence come the dews in the dales."140 In this case, both characters open their interventions with the same formulae, both of them follow the same structure in their interventions and even repeat the same words. Besides, also the names given by Óðinn, Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi, are composed names sharing the same second element and almost all the verses show certain parallelisms. These formulae seem to respond to a strategy for facilitating their memorization rather than to necessities derived from their improvisation. They are ornaments and show a use of formulae that “makes a very conscious, deliberate and artistic impression” 141. Actually, poets can play with those formulae and with the incorrect use of them to create a parody of poetry itself, as it occurs in Harbarðsljóð, where Óðinn, pretending to be a ferry-man, shows a perfect use of the metres, but modifies the prototypical themes from this kind of contests and eliminates some of the formulae to play with Þórr, who can barely construct a good verse and does not know how to respond when the formulae are not used and breaks the metrical form: Þorr qvaþ: «Ec drap Þiaza enn þrvðmoþga iotvn, vpp ec varp a/gom Allvalda sonar a þann inn heiða himin; þav ero merki mest minna verca, þa/ er allir menn siþan vm se. Hvat vanntv meþan, Hárbarðr?» Hárbarðr qvaþ: «Miclar manvelar ec hafða viþ myrcriþor, þa er ec velta þer fra verom; harþan iotvn ec hvgða Hlebarð vera, gaf hann mer gambantein, en ec velta hann or viti.» 140 Belows, Henry Adam (trans.) (1973); Vafthruthnismol; The Poetic Edda: translated from the Icelandic with an introduction and Notes; New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, reprinted Lewiston, New York: Edwin Melton Press; st. 11-14 141 Lönnroth, Lars (1971), p. 2 43 Þorr qvaþ: «Illom hvga la/naþir þv þa goþar giafar.»142 Thor spake: "Thjazi I felled, | the giant fierce, And I hurled the eyes | of Alvaldi's son To the heavens hot above; Of my deeds the mightiest | marks are these, That all men since can see. What, Harbarth, didst thou the while?" Harbarth spoke: "Much love-craft I wrought | with them who ride by night, When I stole them by stealth from their husbands; A giant hard | was Hlebarth, methinks: His wand he gave me as gift, And I stole his wits away." Thor spake: "Thou didst repay good gifts with evil mind."143 In this case, the convention would dictate that Harbarð ended his intervention with the same question asked by Þórrμ “What, Þórr, didst thou the whileς” but, provided that he does not say it, Þórr decides to go back to prose and improvise a vulgar answer, thus showing his poor knowledge of poetry. This is one example to demonstrate that formulae in Eddic poetry are not as absolutely necessary as in other oral compositions; however an extensive study needs to be done in this respect to demonstrate the validity of this statement. 7. Conclusion Throughout this paper I have summarized the main theories regarding orality and literacy both in general linguistics and dealing with the Scandinavian situation in particular. The first problem we find in Scandinavia is that, with the exception of runic inscriptions, our first sources have been influenced by the presence of Christianity and that we do not preserve the original versions of texts, which have probably been modified by copyists. However, those first texts can still give us some hints about the previous situation of literature in the region. 142 Harbarðsljóð in Sæmundar Edda (1867); Ed. Bugge, Sophus; Christiania: P. T. Malling; st. 19-21 Belows, Henry Adam (trans.) (1973); Harbarthsljoth; The Poetic Edda: translated from the Icelandic with an introduction and Notes; New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation, reprinted Lewiston, New York: Edwin Melton Press; st. 19-21 143 44 The second aspect that calls on attention is that the first works written down after the arrival of the Latin alphabet are historiographical texts composed from an advanced scientific point of view. We also find the First Grammatical Treatise, which shows a complex study on the grammar and phonology of Icelandic. Both types of texts would be very difficult to find in a society which has just come out of a situation of complete orality. Aside from these first compositions, we soon find sagas, written in prosimetrum style, mixing prose with complex Skaldic poetry. This situation is atypical from what we should find if we accept the main theories about orality and the idea that Iceland and Scandinavia were just coming into literacy. From these data, we could imply that the arrival of the Latin alphabet and its adoption and adaptation to the Nordic languages may not have been the only means that the Scandinavian peoples had to let them run out of an oral tradition. We know that in many other cultures, a long process of adaptation to the writing system was necessary before complex poems, historiographical works and linguistic treatises appeared. In those cultures a long period of time was necessary until people got used to the abstract system that is writing to the point that they began thinking on how their own language was structured and used. And, though the arrival of Christianity could have accelerated this process, the awareness of contradictions between history and mythology, developing a scientific historiography usually needs a long period of time, too. However, we know that Scandinavia had access to its own script system centuries before the conversion to Christianity. The origins of runes are unclear, so we cannot know if they derive from the Latin alphabet or from a different one, but their existence could have influenced a change in the form of literary compositions. If we accept this, we could use runic inscriptions for tracing an evolution in the Scandinavian development towards literacy. This path would have started at the moment when the first runic inscriptions appeared. Thus, by the time when the Northern peoples adopted the Latin alphabet, they would have already developed a characteristic and unique literary culture. The first runic inscriptions that we preserve show short texts, which then start to grow in extension and number. Inscriptions from later stages preserve some poems, 45 which at first are simple and start to be more complicated in the last runic periods, showing a development of literary techniques. When Christianity arrives, bringing a new alphabet, texts are suddenly more extensive and complex. The arrival of the Latin culture and its literature would probably have influenced the authors of the time. However, they probably were already masters at composing poems and narrations according to the Scandinavian style. So, the opening to a new culture would not imply a starting point for a literate tradition, but the enrichment of the one they already had. The fact that we preserve some descriptions on how a poem is noted down when first composed and how it has to be memorized before its recitation implies that runes were probably used in this process before Latin arrived. Why then do we not preserve these poems and compositions? Maybe the answer is the cost and the effort needed for carving runes in stones. Due to it, only pictures depicting stories, short inscriptions and memorial poems would have been carved in stones, whereas longer compositions, meant to be memorized, could have been carved in weaker materials which we do not preserve. In any case, it seems that the situation we find with the arrival of Christianity does not show the first state of literacy in Scandinavia. This seems to be clear after the analysis of the Eddic poems which, even though they were written down in the thirteenth century, still preserve some features characteristic from oral tradition. 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(2006); Runes and their Secrets: Studies in Runology; Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press UNESCO (2004); "The Plurality of Literacy and its implications for Policies and Programs"; UNESCO Education Sector Position Paper Williams, ώenrik (1λλ6)ν “The τrigin of the Runes”ν Amterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 45, pp. 211-218 53 Index 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. General theories about the appearance of writing systems ............................................... 5 1έ2έ εain features of the ‘orally based thought and expression’ ............................................. 6 1.3. Does literacy make a real difference in how our minds work? ......................................... 7 1.4. Oral poetry: its main features and how it is transmitted ................................................. 10 1.5. Mnemonics: strategies from oral and literate cultures .................................................... 12 2. Comparing different versions of the same story .............................................................. 13 3. Theories about orality and literacy in Scandinavia.......................................................... 17 4. Some theories about the orality of Scandinavian texts..................................................... 18 6. The unclear origins of Runes ............................................................................................ 20 6.1. The evolution of the runic script ................................................................................... 22 7. Literature in Scandinavia ................................................................................................. 24 7.1. Runic inscriptions......................................................................................................... 25 7.2. Skaldic poetry .............................................................................................................. 31 7.3. The sagas ..................................................................................................................... 35 7.4. Eddic poetry ................................................................................................................. 40 8. Conclusions........................................................................................................................ 44 References ............................................................................................................................. 47 Primary sources ................................................................................................................ 47 Secondary sources ............................................................................................................. 49 54