‘Noble Heathen’ In The
Fornaldarsögur
(On The Material Of
Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar)
Alexey Eremenko
Lars
Lönnroth had once suggested a concept of the
‘noble heathen’, which seems to offer great prospects of the Saga Studies. Lönnroth traced a certain typological similarity for a
number of saga characters, which allowed him to prove the existence of a
certain character type that he labeled ‘noble heathen’ (Lönnroth). Lönnroth outlined the following criteria here: (a) the
‘noble heathen’ is a dignified and wise man with a composed and decent manner
of behavior; (b) he shows no sympathy for the pagan religion; (c) he’s too
flawless to be the main hero of the saga. The purpose of this character is to
set up an ethical model, be a moral
exempla majorum.
Lönnroth based his
studies on Íslendingasögur,
but his conclusions can be applied to another major saga type – the Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda
(legendary sagas), regardless of the huge differences between them and the
Sagas of Icelanders. The legendary sagas were recorded in a later period than
the Íslendingasögur (late 13-15th cent.) and
describe the forn öld –
‘ancient times’ before the settlement of
The
character of the saga that fulfills all the requirements is earl Skuli. First, although the story is set in
pre-Christian times, the earl never shows any adherence to pagan faith, neither
expressly nor by implication. That feature is quite common for the most
Icelanders and Norwegians of the Fornaldarsögur,
and Skuli makes no exception.
Skuli’s behavior is
indeed quite composed and decent, which can be seen from the story of the saga.
The plot can be summarized as follows. Eystein, father
of Halfdan (the main protagonist), attacked the lands
of earl Skuli. Earl was seriously ill at the time and
sent his sword-arm Kol to lead the battle while being
disguised as Skuli. The defenders were defeated, Kol slain and buried as earl. Halfdan’s
father took Aldeigjuborg, murdered its ruler and
forced Isgerd, wife of the latter, into marriage with
himself. Ingigerd was the mother of Ingigerd, Skuli’s
foster-daughter.
Later
Halfdan’s father was murdered by two strangers. Halfdan set out to find the murderers, but his ship got
assaulted by vikings during
his travels. A certain man leading a host of warriors came to save him and
afterwards sent the sorely wounded Halfdan to a
healer. Later this man turned out to be earl Skuli,
who together with Ingigerd had murdered Halfdan’s father. Skuli came
under attack again, and Halfdan was faced with a
choice, deciding, whose side to take in this battle. In the end he accepted Skuli’s peace offer and helped him, which also gave him Ingigerd’s hand.
Skuli committed a murder when
avenging on Eystein, but this vengeance for the
authors and audience of the saga must in all probability have seemed justified
ethically. After that Skuli showed magnanimity and
peaceful intentions, saving Halfdan’s life in a dire
situation. The last move also proved his wisdom and far-sightedness, since that
eventually led to Halfdan saving earl and his men in
a crucial moment.
Skuli thus possesses several very
important virtues – magnanimity, wisdom and peacefulness. Therefore he’s really
an exempla majorum,
and, moreover, not just for the audience, but for the protagonist himself. The contraposition of Skuli
and Halfdan is clearly traced in the saga. The latter
at first doesn’t possess Skuli’s virtues: on the
contrary, he’s searching in every way to avenge on his father’s murder. The
ethics of patrimonial heathen society required him to avenge his father’s death
at any cost; the just way of dealing with it, however, would be to forgive the
murder of Eystein by Skuli,
since Eystein did him so much hard. Besides, by
saving Halfdan’s life Skuli
redeemed himself anyway – especially since Skuli
saved the very man who was looking to kill him. Thereby Skuli
showed an example of ethically correct behavior, and in the end of the saga,
when Halfdan faces a choice prepared by the whole
course of events, he managed to act as honorably as Skuli
did.
As
I said, the Fornaldarsögur were
essentially stories about the past of Icelanders, moreover – on many occasions,
these texts told about the direct ancestors of the future inhabitants of the
island. Small wonder the saga authors attempted to present their forefathers in
the best possible light and even glorify them. However, the Christian authors
of the saga faced a problem there: the scene of the Fornaldarsögur was laid in pagan times, and there was no way
around the fact that the heroes themselves were inevitably pagan as well.
Adherence to a false religion was a sin in the eyes of Christians – the notion
of the ‘noble heathen’, however, offered a solution, allowing the Icelanders to
finally exonerate their pagan ancestors from blame for good and all (cf. McCreesh; that idea has definite
parallels in the conception of ‘Christians before Christ’, which was applied to
classical philosophers in continental medieval tradition). This notion first
appeared in the Sagas of Icelanders. But, as I intended to show here, this
motive can be found in the Fornaldarsögur
as well, sometimes constituting an important and integral part of the story’s
structure.
Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar. Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda / Utg. av
Guðni Jónsson, Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík, 1944. Bd. 3. S.
285–319.
Lönnroth L. The Noble
Heathen: A Theme in the Sagas // Scandinavian
Studies. Lawrence, Kansas, 1969. Vol. 41. P. 1–29
McCreesh B. How Pagan
Are the Icelandic Family Sagas? // Journal
of English & Germanic Philology. Bd. 79. Urbana,
Ill, 1980. P. 58–66.
© 2005 Alexey Eremenko