Freshman Seminar - Death, Revenge & Madness in Icelandic literature and culture

1. Freshman Seminar - Death, Revenge & Madness in Icelandic literature and culture Welcome to class #2 !

2. 2 Freshman Seminar - wk 2What IS Iceland?? Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland) is an island nation, a volcanic island in the northern Atlantic Ocean between Greenland, Norway, Ireland, Scotland (Great Britain), and the Faroe Islands.

3. 3 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Facts about the country Area ▪ Whole country: 39,768.5 sq. m. (103,000ﾊkm²) ▪ Vegetation: 9,191 square miles (23,805ﾊkm²) ▪ Lakes: 1,064 square miles (2,757ﾊkm²) ▪ Glaciers: 4,603 square miles (11,922ﾊkm²) ▪ Wasteland: 24,918 square miles (64,538ﾊkm²)

4. 4 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Facts about the country - Comparison Area Total 9,631,418km² Water 3,718,711mi² 4.87% Populationﾊ- 2006 est. 298,290,000 2000 census ﾊ- 282 mill. Density30/km² 3/mi²

5. 5 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Facts about the country - Cont. • Second largest island in Europe • By plane: 3 hrs to mainland Europe, 6 to US Population: about 300.000 180.000 in Reykjavík Climate: subartic _ Gulf Stream Average temp. in July 56ºF In January: 32ºF Precipitation: 32 inches Midnight sun in June 4 hrs a day of daylight in Dec.

6. 6 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Facts about the country - Cont. • Government: parliamentary democracy Fully independent since 1944 Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Language: Icelandic, the Norwegian of 1000 years ago. Fundamental part of cultural Identity - fiercely defended by purists, Conservative tongue… Currency: Icelandic krona (about 70 kr - 1 USD) Religion: Lutheran is the state religion of Iceland. Icelandic children receive mandatory religious training in public schools, and priests are state employees.

7. 7 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Facts about the country - Geology • A young country: about 17 million years • Compared to its neighbours: • Scotland and parts of continental Scandinavia • are 500 million years • * The Earth as a whole is 4600 million years The origin of Iceland has to do with Plate Tectonics: the theory that maintains that the earth's crust is composed of plates that float around slowly on the earth's molten interior. The heat and stresses created and released when these plates run into, slide past, slide under or over one another account for most if not all of the earth's earthquakes and volcanic activity

8. 8 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Tectonic plates - Geology ctd.

9. 9 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Distribution of volcanic systems -

10. 10 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Distribution of earthquakes - worldwide

11. 11 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Dynamics of plate tectonic movement island over hot spot  (G)

12. 12 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Dynamics of plate tectonic - Iceland * An island over a hot spot AND on the mid Atlantic ridge

13. 13 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Type of volcanic activity - Kröflueldar 1977

14. 14 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Type of volcanic activity - Lakagígar 1783

15. 15 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Earthquakes - distribution in Iceland

16. 16 Freshman Seminar - wk 2The positive side - geothermal energy 1 Mineral water 2 water under 70C 3 water 70-100 C 4 150 C at 1000 m

17. 17 Freshman Seminar - wk 2A negative side ? Climate in numbers

18. 18 Freshman Seminar - wk 2A negative side ? Climate in numbers

19. 19 Freshman Seminar - wk 2A negative side ? Erosion - Búlandstindur

20. 20 Freshman Seminar - wk 2A negative side ? Erosion of the soil

21. 21 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Why are there no trees? • 2500 ago 1/2 the country wooded • 900 CE 1/4 of the country • Ari Thorgilsson (XII century) • says the country was covered in forests • Now: 1/100 of the surface • Causes: wind and erosion • Ash and pumice close to volcanoes • Goats, cows and horses • Worsening climate

22. 22 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History

23. 23 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History • Germanic migrations from northern Germany, • Southern Scandinavia 4th, 5th century AD • Germanic origins - mysterious? Possibly related and • derived from Celtic (both language families are IE) • *Many of the literary motifs are common to all Gmc. • Peoples - they pre-date the Völkerwanderungen. • - the deities of the Northern pantheon • - The Sigfried myth / the dragon • - The valkyrie-type of woman tricked into marrying • below her status (part of Sigfried myth) • *Reason for migration? Possibly climate changes • *Important consequences - Fall of the Roman Empire • *Britain becomes Anglo-Saxon

24. 24 Germanic migrations

25. 25 Freshman Seminar - wk 2Characteristics of the Germanic peoples • Tribes whose social structure was based on the Sippe, • the extended family. • The Germani develop a warrior culture based on the • comitatus - a group of warriors who voluntarily swear • an oath of allegiance to a leader. • *the warriors protect the leader/king and in turn • the king rewards the individual with protection • (through the comitatus) and with wealth (gifts/ • land) • Tribal economy based on reciprocity rather than trade: • Goods/services distributed as gifts and mutual obligation • Between members of the group • *essentially oral culture - runes http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MA/GERMANS.HTM

26. 26 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History - Populating Iceland • Further waves of Germanic migrations in the 8th • century bring about the settlement of Normandy • (886, 911 ratified by Charles the Simple and Rollo) • Repeated attacks to Celtic monasteries in the • British Isles (Lindisfarne 789, 793 Jarrow 794 etc.) • Establishment of the Danelaw 886 • Settlement of Scandinavian peoples in Ireland and the • Hebrides • Settlement of Iceland 870-930 CE • Documented in the Book of the Settlement • Mostly Norwegian, some Danish, occasional Swede • and Scandinavian people previously settled in the • British Isles

27. 27 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History - Reasons for later migration • Complex factors: • Climate worsening and agricultural consequences • Demographic increase - the land could not sustain • everyone • *Political reasons - a few regional political &military • leaders were concentrating power in their hands • *Ship-building techniques improved

28. 28 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History - Settlement of Iceland • Norsemen that came to Ice. were not a planned migration • Various waves over that period of 60 years • 10.000-20.000 people settle in Iceland during that time • *No leaders - a new land, empty for the most part, limited • habitable area • *The new society’s development was dictated by • competition among succeeding generations for the land’s • limited resources Byock, Jesse. 1988. Medieval Iceland. Berkeley:UCP

29. 29 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History - Settlement of Iceland ctd. • Practices of land-taking (landnáma): both men and • women • No religious or political figure more powerful than others • Local parliaments with representatives • Some settlers were Christian, others (majority) pagan • 930 establishment of the althing, the nation-wide • assembly of representative. • *It meets for two weeks at the end of June at Thingvellir, • ‘Parliament plains’ • *The representatives are regional leaders to whom local • farmers plead allegiance and in exchange get protection, • legal representation at the althing and support in • legal disputes

30. 30 Freshman Seminar - wk 2History - Settlement of Iceland ctd. • For the establishment of the Althing in 930, a code of • laws is collected in various parts of Norway, on which • Icelandic laws are based. • Insistence on respect of laws (see Njál’s saga) • The President of the assembly was the Law Speaker, • who recited one third of the legal code by heart each year • (his term lasted 3 years, in fact) • The Althing was the place where laws were made, • modified, the Supreme court convened and judged cases • that could not be solved in the local tribunals - but it was • also much more: county fair, trade, news, marriages, • social and cultural point

31. 31 Thingvellir

32. 32 Althing at Thingvellir • Importance of parliament: • Conversion to Christianity 1000 CE • Surrendering sovereignty to Norway in 1264 • following what can be considered a civil war lasting • about 50 years • - That sovereignty will not be recovered until 1944

33. 33 Parliament and the legal system • No death penalty during the commonwealth • Problems: apart from limited natural resources • Two powers: legislative & judicial • And the executive function? Who makes people respect the laws? • In the hand of the wronged party - or his/her family • compensation (weregild) or revenge • Sometimes both

34. 34 Cultural development • Poems from a common Gmc. era: • Alliteration, common deities, common motifs • Natural references to lands with a different geography or vegetation from Iceland (Völuspá The Seeress’s Prophecy) - reindeer in the Sayings of the High One • The version we have are probably from the 10th century (MS XIV) • Attila - historical figure 406-453

35. 35 The problem of sources • Historical writings in XII • Lándnámabók and Íslendingabók • Genealogies, church documents • Very concise, often based on oral accounts • Writing about the settlement over two centuries later

36. 36 The Sagas • Sagas of Icelanders or Family Sagas - Prototypical novels… • Tales in prose, often extending 100s of pages, about the history of the people that settled in Iceland during the time of the Settlement (870-930) • Historical sources? • Written in XIII-XIV centuries Sagas online - http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/tarristi/sagas.htm