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The Vanishing Volcanoes: Fragments of Fourteenth-century Icelandic Folklore [1]

2007; Routledge; Volume: 118; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00155870601096257

1469-8315

Oren Falk,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

Abstract The entire corpus of Icelandic Family Sagas contains no express reference to volcanic fires. This article explores the reasons behind this puzzling absence in a genre whose realism is rightly celebrated. I propose to read a unique, oblique reference in Grettis saga as possible evidence of a submerged vernacular theory. Acknowledgements This paper began its life as a footnote in my dissertation (Falk 2002 Falk, Oren. "The Cultural Construction of Violence in Medieval Western Scandinavia." Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 2002. [Google Scholar], 187, note 110). Earlier versions were presented at the First North-American Interdisciplinary Conference on Medieval Icelandic Studies, Cornell University (20 May 2006), and at the Thirteenth International Saga Conference, York, UK (8 August 2006). The author is grateful to participants at both conferences for their helpful comments. Thanks also to colleagues María Cristina García, Ian C. McDougall and Tom Hill for their help with preparatory research. Abbreviations [H] Hauksbók. [K] Konungsbók. ÍF Íslenzk fornrit. [S] Sturlubók (in references to Landnámabók); Staðarhólsbók (in references to Grágás); Skálholtsbók (in references to Eiríks saga rauða). Notes [1] Except as otherwise noted, all translations are mine. Icelandic personal and place names are only translated occasionally, as required by the discussion. Scandinavian names have been alphabetised in accordance with Icelandic convention: patronyms have not been transposed; ð and d appear together, as do long and short vowels; þ, æ, and ö/ø follow z. Icelanders' names simplified in foreign publications have been restored to their native forms, with the exception of Guðbrandur Vigfússon (see Cleasby and Vigfusson 1957 Cleasby, Richard, and Gudbrand Vigfusson. An Icelandic–English Dictionary, 2nd ed., rev. William A. Craigie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. Reprint 1993. [Google Scholar]). [2] Thus Taylor, for example, sensibly remarks (with reference to some extravagant blasons populaires): "It is difficult to know to what extent such epigrams were popular. Many, I suspect, are no more than semi-literary witticisms which enjoyed only a short life" (1931, 102). A similar caution underlies Buc Buc, Philippe. 2001. The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]'s assault on the category of medieval ritual (2001, esp. chaps 1–4). [3] The landnám tephra was first described by Sigurður Þórarinsson (1944, 55 and passim); see also Grönvold et al. (1995 Grönvold, Karl, Níels Óskarsson, Sigfús J., Johnsen, Henrik B., Clausen, Claus U., Hammer, Gerald Bond and Edouard, Bard. 1995. Ash Layers from Iceland in the Greenland GRIP Ice Core Correlated with Oceanic and Land Sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 135: 149–56. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 150–3). [4] Information is sparse for the early period, but Falk (2002 Falk, Oren. "The Cultural Construction of Violence in Medieval Western Scandinavia." Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 2002. [Google Scholar], 227–8 [Table 5.1]) enumerates five or six eruptions c. 870–1104 (to which must be added at least one more, Katla c. 920; Dugmore et al. 2000 Dugmore, Andrew J., Newton, Anthony J., Larsen, Guðrún and Cook, Gordon T. 2000. Tephrochronology, Environmental Change and the Norse Settlement of Iceland. Environmental Archaeology, 5: 21–34. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 25), and approximately thirty more by the end of the fifteenth century. [5] It may be significant that the common noun hrip denotes a loosely woven, sieve-like basket, and the verb at hripa means "to leak" or flow profusely (Cleasby and Vigfusson 1957 Cleasby, Richard, and Gudbrand Vigfusson. An Icelandic–English Dictionary, 2nd ed., rev. William A. Craigie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. Reprint 1993. [Google Scholar], s.v.). [6] Jakob Benediktsson describes the manuscript tradition in detail (ÍF 1, l-cvi). My references are to two of five main manuscripts that survived into modern times: Sturlubók [S], compiled c. 1275–80, and Hauksbók [H], from the first decade of the fourteenth century. [7] Landnámabók Landnámabók. In Íslendingabók, Landnámabók, ÍF 1, ed. Jakob Benediktsson. 29–397. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1986. [Google Scholar]'s purpose and ideology have been much debated. I follow Sveinbjörn Rafnsson (1974 Sveinbjörn Rafnsson. Studier i Landnámabók: Kritiska bidrag till den isländska fristatstidens historia. Bibliotheca historica Lundensis, 31. Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1974. [Google Scholar], 166–203). Adolf Friðriksson and Orri Vésteinsson (2003 Friðriksson, Adolf and Vésteinsson, Orri. 2003. "Creating a Past: A Historiography of the Settlement of Iceland". In Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, Edited by: Barrett, James H. 139–61. Turnhout: Brepols. Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 5.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) propose a divergent, but no less sceptical, view. [8] Compare Jóhannes Áskelsson (1955 Jóhannes, Áskelsson. 1955. Þar var bærinn, sem nú er borgin. Náttúrufræðingurinn, 25: 122–32. [Google Scholar]); he notes volcanic rock from an eruption in historical times superimposed over the older, pre-landnám lava deposits at the site. For borg, see Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, ed. Arnamagnæan Commission. Copenhagen: The Arnamagnæan Commission, 1989– (In addition to a vol. of indices, three alphabetical vols have been published so far, covering the entries 'a, á' to 'emprurr'). [Google Scholar] (1989–), s.v.; for hraun, see Cleasby and Vigfusson (1957 Cleasby, Richard, and Gudbrand Vigfusson. An Icelandic–English Dictionary, 2nd ed., rev. William A. Craigie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. Reprint 1993. [Google Scholar]), s.v. Other place-name aetiologies cited above are probably also folk etymologies: Galtarhamarr may mean "hogback-shaped crag" (compare Cleasby and Vigfusson 1957 Cleasby, Richard, and Gudbrand Vigfusson. An Icelandic–English Dictionary, 2nd ed., rev. William A. Craigie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. Reprint 1993. [Google Scholar], sub gltr), Dgurðarnes probably means "the headland over which the sun is at breakfast time," and Kambsnes likely describes a headland topped by a sharp, serrated ridge (Franzen 1964 Franzen, Gösta. Laxdælabygdens ortnamn / The Place-Names of the Laxdæla Region. Acta Academiæ Regiæ Gustavi Adolphi, 42. Uppsala and Copenhagen: A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln and Ejnar Munksgaard, 1964. [Google Scholar], 56 and 23). [9] Compare Grove (1988 Grove, Jean M. 1988. The Little Ice Age, London and New York: Methuen. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 29): "[T]he long outlet glacier in the south west of Mýrdalsjökull, Sólheimajökull … is drained by one of the most dangerous rivers in Iceland, known as the Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi. It has another name, Fúlilækur, which means stinking river, attributable to the smell of hydrogen sulphide emanating from it." [10] One other episode (Landnámabók chap. 279 [H], ÍF 1, 323) has been interpreted as alluding to a jökulhlaup (Þorvaldur Thoroddsen 1905 Þorvaldur Thoroddsen. Landskjálftar á Íslandi. 2 vols. Hið íslenzka Bókmentafélag. Copenhagen: S.L. Möller, 1899–1905 [vol. 1: Jarðskjálftar á Suðurlandi. 1–199. 1899; vol. 2: Landskjálftar á Íslandi. 200–69. 1905]. [Google Scholar], 236), but this reading is extremely speculative. Elsewhere, mention of a farm site "where there is now a field of burnt lava" (Landnámabók chap. 302 [H], ÍF 1, 345) apparently refers to old basalt exposed through soil erosion rather than to a recent flow; see Sigurður Þórarinsson (1977 Sigurður, Þórarinsson "Jarðvísindi og landnáma." In Sjötíu ritgerðir helgaðar Jakobi Benediktssyni 20. júli 1977, ed. Einar G. Pétursson and Jónas Kristjánsson. 2 vols. vol. 2, 665–76. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 12. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, 1977. [Google Scholar], 669–70). [11] Many excellent introductions to saga literature are available nowadays; Clover and Lindow (2005 Clover, Carol J., and John Lindow, eds. Old Norse–Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. Islandica, 45. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. Reissued with a Preface by Theodore M. Andersson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005). [Google Scholar]) is perhaps the most accessible. For disputes over genre classification, see Lönnroth (1975 Lönnroth, Lars. 1975. The Concept of Genre in Saga Literature. Scandinavian Studies, 47: 419–26. [Google Scholar]), Harris (1975 Harris, Joseph. 1975. Genre in the Saga Literature: A Squib. Scandinavian Studies, 47: 427–36. [Google Scholar]), and Andersson (1975 Andersson, T. M. 1975. Splitting the Saga. Scandinavian Studies, 47: 437–41. [Google Scholar]). [12] As Cleasby and Vigfusson dryly remark (1957, sub hraun): "The whole of Icel[and] may be said to be a burnt-out lava field." Kristni saga is thought to have been written in the second quarter of the thirteenth century (ÍF 15 part 1, cliv). [13] "Þau eru fjöll … þess lands, er ór sèr verpa ægiligum eldi með grimmasta grjótkasti, svá at þat brak ok bresti heyrir um allt landit, svá vítt sem menn kalla fjórtán tylftir umbergis at sigla rèttleiði fyrir hvert nes; kann þessi ógn at fylgja svá mikit myrkr forviðris, at um hásumar um miðdegi sèr eigi handa grein. Þat fylgir þessum fádæmum, at í sjálfu hafinu, viku sjáfar suðr undan landinu, hefir upp komit af eldsganginum stórt fjall, en annat sökk niðr í staðinn, þat er upp kom í fyrstu með sömu grein. Keldur vellandi ok brennustein fær þar ínóg." This mid-fourteenth-century saga by abbot Arngrímr Brandsson, originally perhaps in Latin, was part of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to canonise Guðmundr Arason, bishop of the northern Icelandic see of Hólar in the early thirteenth century. [14] In a similar vein, compare St Þorlákr's miraculous healing of a badly burned horse that had been carelessly ridden into a geothermal area (jarðhitar, "earth-heat"; Þorláks saga A Þorláks saga A. In Biskupa sögur II, ÍF 16, ed. Ásdís Egilsdóttir. 45–99. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2002. [Google Scholar] chaps 33–53, ÍF 16, 90; jarðhiti, an infrequent word, occurs also in Grettis saga Grettis saga. In Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, Bandamanna saga, Odds þáttr Ófeigssonar, ÍF 7, ed. Guðni Jónsson. 1–290. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1936. [Google Scholar] chap. 61, ÍF 7, 199). [15] Grettis saga has traditionally been dated to the early fourteenth century (ÍF 7, lxviii–lxx). Its earliest manuscripts, however, are from the last quarter of the fifteenth century, and the saga's most recent editor suggests it may be not much older than these, although he tends to place its composition shortly before 1400 (Örnólfur Thorsson 1994 Thorsson, Örnólfur "Farið á hriflingabjörgum í Grettlu." In Strengleikar slegnir Robert Cook, ed. Margrét Eggertsdóttir, Sverrir Tómasson, Valgerður Brynjólfsdóttir and Örnólfur Thorsson. 79–83. Reykjavík: Menningar- og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen, 1994. [Google Scholar], xxxvii–xxxix). [16] See, for example, Njáls saga Njáls saga. In Brennu-Njáls saga, ÍF 12, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1954. [Google Scholar] chap. 78 (ÍF 12, 193); Egils saga Egils saga. In Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, ÍF 2, ed. Sigurður Nordal. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1933. [Google Scholar] chap. 85 (ÍF 2, 297–8); Þorskfirðinga saga Þorskfirðinga saga. In Harðar saga, Bárðar saga, Þorskfirðinga saga, Flóamanna saga, Þórarins þáttr nefjólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Egils þáttr Síðu-Hallssonar, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr tjaldstœðings, Þorsteins þáttr forvitna, Bergbúa þáttr, Kumlbúa þáttr, Stjörnu-Odda draumr, ÍF 13, ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. 173–227. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1991. [Google Scholar] chap. 3 (ÍF 13, 183); Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 2, 1–71. [Google Scholar] chap. 4 (in Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda, ed. Guðni Jónsson. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1954. [Google Scholar] vol. 2, 14–23); and possibly also Hrómundar saga Gripssonar Hrómundar saga Gripssonar. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 2, 405–22. [Google Scholar] chap. 4 (in Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 2, 410–11). See also Boberg (1966 Boberg, Inger M. Motif-Index of Early Icelandic Literature. Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, 27. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1966. [Google Scholar], N532). The same phenomenon is known in later Icelandic folklore as málmeldur, "metal-fire," or vafurlogi, "flickering flame" (Jón Árnason 1954 Jón Árnason. Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og ævintýri, ed. Árni Böðvarsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. 6 vols. rev. ed. Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan þjóðsaga, 1954–61. [Google Scholar]–61, vol. 1, 266–9; vol. 3, 221–2, 349, and 351–2; vol. 4, 43). Analogues occur in continental Scandinavian folklore (for example, Kristensen 1892 Kristensen, Evald Tang. Danske Sagn, som de har lydt i Folkemunde. 6 vols. Århus and Silkeborg: Århus Folkeblads Trykkeri, Jacob Zeuners Trykkeri and Silkeborgs ny Bogtrykkeri [Kr. Johansen], 1892–1901. [Google Scholar]–1901, vol. 3, 419–25 and 453) and elsewhere throughout the world (Thompson 1955 Thompson, Stith. 1955–58. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. rev. and enlarged ed. 6 vols. [Google Scholar]–58, N532 and N564). [17] Not counting occurrences in Landnámabók, I find in the Family Sagas six mentions of icebergs in Icelandic waters (Eyrbyggja saga chaps 57 and 61, ÍF 4, 158 and 165; Laxdœla saga Laxdœla saga. In Laxdœla saga, Halldórs þættir Snorrasonar, Stúfs þáttr, ÍF 5, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson. 1–248. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1934. [Google Scholar] chap. 66, ÍF 5, 196–7; Fóstbrœðra saga Fóstbrœðra saga., In Vestfirðinga sgur, ÍF 6, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson. 119–276. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1943. [Google Scholar] chaps 4–5, ÍF 6, 136–9; Vatnsdœla saga Vatnsdœla saga. In Vatnsdœla saga, Hallfreðar saga, Kormáks saga, Hrómundar þáttr halta, Hrafns þáttr Guðrúnarsonar, ÍF 8, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson. 1–131. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1939. [Google Scholar] chap. 15, ÍF 8, 42; Bárðar saga chap. 5, ÍF 13, 114; see also Landnámabók chap. 5, ÍF 1, 38–9), four mentions of skriður–"land-," "rock-," or "snow-slides"—( Hrafnkels saga Hrafnkels saga. In Austfirðinga sgur, ÍF 11, ed. Jón Jóhannesson. 95–133. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1950. [Google Scholar] chap. 1, ÍF 11, 97–8 [ = Landnámabók chaps 283 (S) and 244 (H), ÍF 1, 299]; Eiríks saga rauða chap. 2, ÍF 4, 197–8 [H] and 405 [S]; Gísla saga Gísla saga Súrssonar., In Vestfirðinga sgur, ÍF 6, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson. 1–118. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1943. [Google Scholar] chap. 18, ÍF 6, 59–60; Vatnsdœla saga chap. 36, ÍF 8, 96; and cf. Bárðar saga chap. 16, ÍF 13, 156–7; see also Landnámabók chaps 289 [S], 250 and 295 [H], ÍF 1, 303–5 and 339), and one or two references to bears in Iceland (Vatnsdœla saga chaps 15–16, ÍF 8, 42–4; implicitly, perhaps also Eyrbyggja saga chap. 58, ÍF 4, 161; cf. Grœnlendinga þáttr Grœnlendinga þáttr. In Eyrbyggja saga, Brands þáttr rva, Eiríks saga rauða, Grœnlendinga saga, Grœnlendinga þáttr, ÍF 4, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, rev. Ólafur Halldórsson. 271–92. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1935; rev. 1985. [Google Scholar] chaps 1 and 6, ÍF 4, 275 and 290–1; Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka. In Vestfirðinga sgur, ÍF 6, ed. Björn K. Þórólfsson and Guðni Jónsson. 359–68. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1943. [Google Scholar] chap. 1, ÍF 6, 361–4; see also Landnámabók chaps 179 and 259 [S], 146 and 223 [H], ÍF 1, 219 and 285–7). [18] See Ogilvie and Gísli Pálsson (2006 Ogilvie, Astrid, and Gísli Pálsson. "Weather and Witchcraft in the Sagas of Icelanders." Thirteenth International Saga Conference preprint, 2006 [accessed 1 July 2006]. Available from http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.www/sagaconf/ogilvie.htm; INTERNET. [Google Scholar]). The inspired translation of gerningaveðr is theirs. [19] Compare also Eyrbyggja saga Eyrbyggja saga. In Eyrbyggja saga, Brands þáttr rva, Eiríks saga rauða, Grœnlendinga saga, Grœnlendinga þáttr, ÍF 4, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, rev. Ólafur Halldórsson. 1–186. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1935; rev. 1985. [Google Scholar] chaps 51–4 (ÍF 4, 140–50); Grœnlendinga þáttr chap. 2 (ÍF 4, 277–8); Grettis saga chaps 79–82 (ÍF 7, 251–61); Harðar saga Harðar saga. In Harðar saga, Bárðar saga, Þorskfirðinga saga, Flóamanna saga, Þórarins þáttr nefjólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Egils þáttr Síðu-Hallssonar, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr tjaldstœðings, Þorsteins þáttr forvitna, Bergbúa þáttr, Kumlbúa þáttr, Stjörnu-Odda draumr, ÍF 13, ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. 1–97. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1991. [Google Scholar] chap. 15 (ÍF 13, 40); and Flóamanna saga Flóamanna saga. In Harðar saga, Bárðar saga, Þorskfirðinga saga, Flóamanna saga, Þórarins þáttr nefjólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Egils þáttr Síðu-Hallssonar, Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar, Þorsteins þáttr tjaldstœðings, Þorsteins þáttr forvitna, Bergbúa þáttr, Kumlbúa þáttr, Stjörnu-Odda draumr, ÍF 13, ed. Þórhallur Vilmundarson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. 229–327. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1991. [Google Scholar] chap. 22 (ÍF 13, 284–5). [20] "Þat er mælt. at engi scolo verða vaða verc." Grágás, the laws presumed to have been in effect in medieval Iceland prior to its incorporation into the Norwegian realm in the 1260s, are known principally from two lavish mid-thirteenth-century manuscripts, Staðarhólsbók [S] and Konungsbók [K]. Both manuscripts probably postdate, or nearly so, the abolition of the laws they contain (if, indeed, these were ever in effect). See Fix (1993 Fix, Hans. 1993. "Grágás". In Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, Edited by: Pulsiano, Phillip, Wolf, Kirsten, Acker, Paul and Fry, Donald K. 234–5. New York and London: Garland. [Google Scholar]) and, on the provision against accidents, Miller (1990 Miller, William Ian. 1990. Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 61–8). [21] This tells how two of the saga's protagonists break into an undead king's mound in Sweden; to protect himself, the mound-dweller causes a tremor and blows out their torches. Bárðar saga chap. 21 (ÍF 13, 169) locates a somewhat similar event in a rather fairytale Greenland. [22] See also the effects on the landscape of a duel between two shape-shifters in Landnámabók: "It was as if the earth had been overturned" (chaps 350 [S] and 309 [H], ÍF 1, 356). [23] A more detailed treatment of this issue by the author is in progress. [24] I follow Nordal's NordalSigurður "Three Essays on Völuspá." Trans. B.S. Benedikz and J.S. McKinnell. Saga-Book of the Viking Society 18, nos 1–2 (1970–1): 79–135. [Google Scholar] stanza numbering (1984, 72–3, 81–2, and 110–11); for his dating and interpretation, see also Nordal (1970–1, 106 and 111–12; 1978–9, 115 and 122–3). Sigurður Sigurður, Þórarinsson. 1944. Tefrokronologiska Studier på Island: Þjórsárdalur och dess Förödelse, Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard. [Google Scholar] Þórarinsson tentatively endorses Nordal's readings (1968, 21–2), and Dronke Dronke, Ursula, ed. 1997. The Poetic Edda. Vol. 2, Mythological Poems, Oxford: Clarendon. and trans[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] echoes them (1997, 63, 140 and 151); contrast, however, Hermann Pálsson (1996 Pálsson, Hermann, ed. 1996. Vluspá: The Sybil's Prophecy, Edinburgh: Lockharton Press. [Google Scholar], 33–5). Like the description of cosmic calamity in "Vluspá," the thirteenth-century Völsunga saga's Völsunga saga. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 1, 107–218. [Google Scholar] account of Brynhildr's flame-wall in chap. 27 may draw on Icelandic familiarity with volcanicity. See also Sigurðr's first sighting of Brynhildr's abode in chap. 20 (in Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 1, 176 and 156). [25] Guðmundur Finnbogason compares these verses with first-hand accounts of various Katla eruptions, arguing that "it is entirely unlikely that anyone might describe a volcanic eruption in a glacier so well as is done in Hallmundarkviða, other than someone who had himself been eye- and ear-witness to such an event" (1935, 172; cf. 173–4). [26] See Gregory's Dialogi Book 4 chap. 31.2-4 (Grégoire le grand 1978 Grégoire le grand [Pope Gregory I], Dialogues, ed. Adalbert de Vogüé, trans. Paul Antin. 3 vols. Sources chrétiennes, 251, 260 and 265. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1978–80. [Google Scholar]–80, vol. 3, 104–6); cf. Tertullian's De Paenitentia Tertullian, De Paenitentia, ed. J.G.Ph. Borleffs. In Opera. 319–41. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 2. 2 parts. Turnhout: Brepols, 1954. [Google Scholar] chap. 12:1-4 (1954, vol. 1, 339). The (possibly twelfth-century) ON translation of the Dialogues seems to have been avidly read in Iceland (Boyer 1993 Boyer, Régis. 1993. "Gregory, St.: Dialogues". In Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, Edited by: Phillip, Pulsiano, Kirsten, Wolf, Paul, Acker and Donald K., Fry. New York and London: Garland. 241. [Google Scholar]; Wolf 2001 Wolf, Kirsten. 2001. "Gregory's Influence on Old Norse-Icelandic Religious Literature". In Rome and the North: The Early Reception of Gregory the Great in Germanic Europe, Edited by: Bremmer, Rolf H. Jr, Dekker, Kees and Johnson, David F. 255–74. Paris, Leuven and Sterling, VA: Peeters. Mediaevalia Groningana New Series, 4. [Google Scholar], 266–9). For the relevant passage, see Book 4 chap. 30 (Unger 1877 Unger, C.R., ed. 1877. Heilagra Manna Søgur: Fortællinger og Legender fra hellige Mænd og Kvinder, 2 vols, Christiania: B.M. Bentzen. [Google Scholar], vol. 1, 245). [27] "Per idem tempus perhendinavit in Anglia apud Hertlepol Orchadiæ episcopus Willelmus, vir honestus et litterarum amator, qui multa miranda de insulis retulit Norwagiæ subjectis, quorum aliqua hic insero memoriæ causa. Dixit quod in Yslandia aliquo loco ardet mare spatio unius miliaris, et relinquit post se scoriam nigram et sordidam. Alibi erumpit ignis e terra in certo tempore, septennio vel quinquennio, ac ex inopinato comburit villas et omnia reperta, nec potest extingui aut fugari, nisi per aquam benedictam manu sacerdotali consecratam. Quodque mirabilius est, dixit quod audiri possunt in illo igne sensibiles vagitus animarum ibidem tortarum." The identification of Iceland's volcanoes with the fires of hell, first attested in the Liber miraculorum (c. 1178–80) of Herbert of Clairvaux, earlier abbot of Mores, and later archbishop in Sardinia (Sigurður Þórarinsson 1952 Sigurður, Þórarinsson. 1952. Herbert múnkur og Heklufell. Náttúrufræðingurinn, 22: 49–61. [Google Scholar]; 1968 Sigurður, Þórarinsson. 1968. Heklueldar, Reykjavík: Sögufélagið. [Google Scholar], 27–8), seems to have originated in a Danish Cistercian context (Einar Már Jónsson 1997 Einar Már Jónsson. "'Nul ne peut le contester.' Le volcanisme islandais et la preuve de l'existence de l'enfer dans le Miroir royal." In Hugur. Mélanges d'histoire, de literature et de mythologie offerts à Régis Boyer pour son 65e anniversaire, ed. Claude Lecouteux and Olivier Gouchet. Voix germaniques. 245–57. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1997. [Google Scholar], 253–7). Compare also the ON translation of Honorius Augustodunensis Honorius Augustodunensis. Elucidarius in Old Norse Translation, ed. Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Kaaren Grimstad. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 36. Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 1989. [Google Scholar]'s Elucidarius Book 3 chaps. 13–14 (1989, 122–3). [28] "Enn nu má eingi dyliast vid sá er siá má firi augum sier. firi þui at slijkir hlutir eru oss sagdir frá pijslum heluijtis sem nu má siá j þeiri ey er ijsland heitir." Konungs skuggsjá (also entitled in the manuscripts Speculum regale) is a didactic text, probably written in Norway in the 1250s (Holm-Olsen 1993 Holm-Olsen, Ludvig. 1993. "Konungs skuggsjá". In Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, Edited by: Pulsiano, Phillip, Wolf, Kirsten, Acker, Paul and Fry, Donald K. 366–7. New York and London: Garland. [Google Scholar]). Despite its title, it contains more practical advice for courtiers and members of the urban elite than for royalty. [29] See, for example, a bovine holiday snapshot captioned "The Holsteins visit the Grand Canyon," or a cowboy standing over a fallen body, peppering it with trivia questions ("OK, stranger … What's the circumference of the Earth? Who wrote 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'? … What's the average rainfall of the Amazon Basin?"), who is reprimanded by a bystander: "Bart, you fool! You can't shoot first and ask questions later!" (Larson 1989 Larson, Gary. 1989. The PreHistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit, Kansas City: Andrew and McMeel. [Google Scholar], 150 and 240). [30] Compare Hofmeister (1995 Hofmeister, Wernfried. 1995. Sprichwortartige Mikrotexte als literarische Medien, dargestellt an der hochdeutschen politischen Lyrik des Mittelalters, Bochum: Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer. Studien zur Phraseologie und Parömiologie, 5 [Google Scholar], 90–2 and 493). Hofmeister also sidesteps the insoluble problem of demarcating genre boundaries between proverbs proper and other types of pithy sayings ("Das alte Problem der Ziehung von Gattungsgrenzen zwischen Sprichwörtern, geflügelten Worten, Maximen, Gemeinplätzen, Sentenzen etc. verliert … seine Schärfe"; 1992, 54). I borrow from Hofmeister the term "proverbial micro-context" ("sprichwortartige Mikrokontext"), although I use it in a different manner than does he. [31] He notes further that thirty proverbs and twenty-six idioms are put into Grettir's own mouth in direct speech (Örnólfur Thorsson 1994, 79, note 2). I have not been able to consult Örnólfur's MA dissertation, Orð af orði: hefð og nýmæli í Grettlu (Reykjavík: Námsritgerð [M.A.] við Háskóla Íslands, 1993); presumably, this is what Richard L. Harris refers to in noting that "at Háskóli Íslands there is a thesis by Örnólfur Thorsson devoted to [the proverbs of Grettis saga]"; see his online Concordance to the Proverbs and Proverbial Materials in the Old Icelandic Sagas, sub Grettis saga, available from ⟨http://www.usask.ca/english/icelanders/proverbs_GRS.html⟩. [32] On this problematic genre classification, see Cardew (2004 Cardew, Phil. 2004. "The Question of Genre in the Late Íslendinga sögur: A Case Study of Þorskfirðinga saga". In Sagas, Saints and Settlements, Edited by: Williams, Gareth and Bibire, Paul. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 13–27. The Northern World, 11. [Google Scholar]). The two sagas discussed below are, in their present forms, fourteenth century (ÍF 13, xcviii–xcix and cxxx–cxxxi). [33] Both archaeological and literary evidence attest to cooking in pots suspended over fires; see, for example, Fóstbrœðra saga chap. 23 (ÍF 6, 245–6), and kettle finds in Graham-Campbell (1980 Graham-Campbell, James. 1980. Viking Artefacts: A Select Catalogue, London: British Museum Publication. [Google Scholar], 199–200 [Figs. 44–5]). Suspending a kettle from a tripod makes much better sense, of course, and a third pole would have helped strengthen my proposed reading of the scenario. Of thirteen manuscripts I have been able to consult (available from ⟨http://saga.library.cornell.edu/saganet/⟩, all seventeenth-century or later, and only four employed by the editors of the ÍF critical edition), nine have tvær or a similar verbal form, but four use Roman numerals, ij. We may perhaps imagine an original third minim to have been lost in copying. [34] Compare also cognate episodes involving giants' and dragons' treasure hoards in Yngvars saga víðförla Yngvars saga víðförla. In Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 2, 423–59. [Google Scholar] chaps 5, 6 and 11 (in Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda vol. 2, 435–6, 442 and 454–5). [35] For (super)natural forces Christianised through an interpretation as heathen or demonic power, see, for example, the account in Kristni saga chap. 8 (ÍF 15 part 2, 19) and Njáls saga chap. 101 (ÍF 12, 259) of the narrow escape the missionary Þangbrandr has from a sinkhole (which Nordal associates with a jökulhlaup; see Nordal 1928, endorsed by Sigurður Þórarinsson 1968 Sigurður, Þórarinsson. 1968. Heklueldar, Reykjavík: Sögufélagið. [Google Scholar], 21). [36] Hugo von Trimberg Hugo von Trimberg. Der Renner, ed. Gustav Ehrismann, postscript Günther Schweikle. 4 vols. Deutsche Neudrucke, Texte der Mittelalter. Tübingen: Litterarischen Verein in Stuttgart, 1908–11. Reprint (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970). [Google Scholar] had greater success at such harmonisation; see his Der Renner (c. 1300) ll. 5045–7: "Swelch schaz begraben ist in der erden, / Der sol dem endekriste werden / Swenne er kumt, alsô hœre ich sagen" [Such treasure as is buried in the earth, it shall belong to the Antichrist when he comes, so I have heard said] (1970, vol. 1, 209). Note the concluding proverbial tag. [37] See, for example, Grágás Grágás: efter det Arnamagnæanske Haandskrift Nr. 334 fol., Staðarhólsbók. 1879. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. ed. Vilhjálmur Finsen [Google Scholar] §171 [K] (1852 part 2, 75); Egils saga chaps 58 and 85 (ÍF 2, 174 and 297–8); Eiríks saga rauða chap. 5 (ÍF 4, 213 [H] and 416 [S]); Grettis saga chap. 18 (ÍF 7, 60); Bandamanna saga Bandamanna saga. 1936. Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, Bandamanna saga, Odds þáttr Ófeigssonar, Edited by: Guðni, Jónsson. 291–363. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag. ÍF 7, [Google Scholar] chaps 10 and 12 (ÍF 7, 352 and 361); Vatnsdœla saga chap. 28 (ÍF 8, 75); Þorsteins þáttr tjaldstœðings chap. 2 (ÍF 13, 431). Antipathy to the burial of treasure may be due to the pagan associations of this practice, if Snorri's mythography can be trusted on this point; see Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga saga. In Heimskringla I, ÍF 26, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson. 9–83. Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1941. [Google Scholar]'s Ynglinga saga chap. 8 (in Heimskringla, ÍF 26, 20; compare Matthías Þórðarson 1928 Matthías Þórðarson. "Um dauða Skalla-Gríms og hversu hann var heygður (Egils-saga, lviii. kap.)." In Festskrift til Finnur Jónsson, 29. maj 1928, ed. Joh[annes] Brøndum-Nielsen, Elof Hellquist, O.F. Hultman, Sigurður Nordal and Magnus Olsen. 95–112. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaards Forlag, 1928. [Google Scholar], 109–10).