Fornaldarsögur: An Attempt Of Interpretation

(Based On Örvar-Odds saga)

Alexey Eremenko

Moscow State University

 

Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda (‘legendary sagas’) belong to the main types of Icelandic sagas. They were recorded later than the classical types – sagas of Icelanders and Kings’ sagas: the main corpus of these texts dates from 13-15th cent. Fornaldarsögur describe the events that were supposed to happen before the settlement of Iceland. Those ‘Ancient times’ (forn öld) were a legendary age, the saga authors possessed almost no reliable information on it. Therefore, the legendary sagas turned out to be much less realistic than the sagas of Icelanders, telling about magic, supernatural creatures and exotic countries and often deriving plots and motifs from folklore tradition [Glazyrina]. The prevailing notion still is that the Fornaldarsögur are a product of degradation of the medieval Icelandic literary tradition. According to this point of view the legendary sagas are inferior to earlier types of sagas both in form and substance. It was long held that they are but an unstructured heap of adventure episodes, aimed only to entertain the listener. In the last decades this notion is finally being reconsidered, but this task is still incomplete.

The thesis of this paper is that the Fornaldarsögur are based on elaborate ethical problems. This thesis will be tested on the material of one of the biggest and most well-known FornaldarsagaÖrvar-Odds saga (here quoted after edition: Örvar–Odds saga // Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda / Utg. av Guðni Jónsson, Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík, 1944. B.1. S. 283–399).

The long tale of Odd’s life is framed by a story which has an apparent parallel in the old Russian story about death of Prince Oleg [Tale of Bygone Years 28 <separate entry after year 912>. Also see Melnikova]. Early in life Odd is foretold death from his horse Faxi [Ö.O. 289]. Odd kills the horse and buries it [Ö.O. 289], but in the end dies from the bite of the snake that took abode in the skull of the dead animal [Ö.O. 390].

When analyzed from the traditional point of view on the Fornaldarsögur, the story about the prophecy has no connection with the rest of the text. The main characters involved here don’t appear in other episodes (except for Odd, of course). About half of the saga is devoted to Odd’s feud with Ogmund, the rest is given to description of various other adventures of Odd, not related to each other. But in truth all the events of the saga are interconnected, and this connection has to do with the ethical problematic of the saga, which consists in the following. Odd is wrestling with fate [Van den Toorn 57]. He’s strong both physically and mentally, and doesn’t want to concede before anything, including fate itself [Van den Toorn 58]. But during the course of his life Odd faces situation where he’s helpless, above all death of his kinsmen and foster-brothers. Odd is given thrice the lifespan of common man [Ö.O. 289], and during that time he acquires many foster-brothers – however, most of them die [Ö.O. 312, 322, 330, etc.] with Odd unable to do anything about it. Most of those ‘disjointed’ adventures, therefore, describe blows of fate that Odd is suffering.

The deaths of foster-brothers sometimes play another role, acting as a payment that Odd has to make for challenging fate. The main of such challenges (denial of prophecy notwithstanding) is Odd’s desire to murder his enemy Ogmund. Ogmund was created by sorcerers of the Bjarms for the purpose of avenging on Odd for his viking raid to Bjarmaland [Ö.O. 345–346]. But Ogmund, upon attempting to fulfill this task once [Ö.O. 320], grew weary of it and began trying to resolve the conflict peacefully [Ö.O. 353]. Odd, however, wanted to avenge the first foster-brother that Ogmund murdered [Ö.O. 355] and didn’t stop attempting to kill his enemy, which every time ended in death of someone dear to Odd. In addition, Odd knew another prophecy, according to which no human being was able to kill Ogmund [Ö.O. 347]. But still he didn’t abandon his attempts all through the saga. Only in the very end of the story Odd admitted that he’s unable to kill Ogmund, and accepted the latter’s apologies as well as wergild for the dead foster-brother.

Örvar-Odds saga is not simply a life record of one of the ancestors of the first Icelandic settlers. This is a story of a man who challenged fate. The authors of the Icelandic sagas (Fornaldarsögur in particular), who worked long after the acceptance of Christianity, had an important problem to be dealt with: on one hand, they were writing about heathens, who are viewed negatively in Christian ethical coordinates. On the other, they were referring to their own ancestors, and in the society that placed so much value on patrimonial relations it was almost impossible to view them in a bad light. A solution was found in the concept of ‘noble heathen’ [Lönnroth] – a character that wasn’t yet a Christian, but has already broken up with the pagan religion.

Örvar-Odds saga subjects this conception to critical analysis. Odd is a ‘noble heathen’, in a sense that he abandoned the false religion. The saga even describes Odd’s baptism, which, however, doesn’t make any impact on his world-view: Odd, like other Scandinavians of heathen times [Ólafs saga helga CCXV], trusts only in his own power and might [Ö.O. 383]. Such beliefs were to be found in pagan Scandinavia, but for the Christian authors of the saga the denial of higher powers are unacceptable. Pride and arrogance lead Odd through a sequence of personal tragedies, and only humility allows him to achieve inner peace. The Christian idea of humility is thus combined here with the traditional Germanic concept of fate. Örvar-Odds saga, just as the other fornaldarsögur, is the product of interaction and intermingling of many cultural layers belonging to various periods of Scandinavian history. In the case of Odd that results in a Weltanschauung dilemma which constitutes the main theme of the saga and provides integrity to the whole text.

 

[1] Glazyrina G.V. Èñëàíäñêèå âèêèíãñêèå ñàãè î Ñåâåðíîé Ðóñè. Ì., 1996.

[2] Tale of Bygone Years (Ïîâåñòü âðåìåííûõ ëåò) / Ïåð. Ëèõà÷åâ Ä.Ñ. ÑÏá., 1997. 2–å èçä.

[3] Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda / Utg. av Guðni Jónsson, Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík, 1944. B.1–3.

[4] Lönnroth, L. The Noble Heathen: A Theme in the Sagas // Scandinavian Studies, 41. 1969. P.1–29.

[5] Melnikova E. The death in the horse’s skull: The interaction of Old Russian and Old Norse literary traditions // Gudar jorden: Festskrift till Lars Lönnroth / S. Hansson, M. Malm. Stockholm, 2000. S. 152–168.

[6] Van den Toorn, M.C. Über die Ethic in den Fornaldarsagas // Acta Philologica Scandinavica. 1963–64. B. 26. S. 19–66.

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