Viking Age Iceland

Medieval Iceland was unique amongst Western Europe, with no foreign policy, no defence forces, no king, no lords, no peasants and few battles. It should have been a utopia yet its liberature is dominated by brutality and killing. The reasons for this, argues Jesse Bycock, lie in the underlying structures and cultural codes of the islands' social order. Viking Age Iceland is an engaging, multi-disciplinary work bringing together findings in anthropology and ethnography interwoven with historical fact and masterful insights into the popular Icelandic sagas.

Jesse Byock is a professor of Icelandic and Old Norse studies at UCLA. He is the translator of The Saga of the Volsungs and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki for Penguin Classics.

List of Illustrations

xiii

List of Maps

xiv

Acknowledgements

xvi

Preface

xviii

Note on Names, Spelling and Pronunciation

xx

Introduction

1

(4)

An Immigrant Society

5

(20)

Language and the Term `Viking'

11

(2)

Leadership

13

(1)

Mord the Fiddle: A Leader and the Law

14

(7)

The Sagas: An Ethnography of Medieval Iceland

21

(4)

Resources and Subsistence: Life on a Northern Island

25

(18)

Turf Housing

34

(9)

Curdled Milk and Calamities: An Inward-looking Farming Society

43

(20)

Provisions, Subsistence Strategies, and Population

46

(9)

Bad Year Economics: Difficulties of Life in the North Atlantic

55

(8)

A Devolving and Evolving Social Order

63

(18)

Ranking, Hierarchy and Wealth

66

(3)

Complex Culture and Simple Economy

69

(4)

Privatization of Power in the Tenth Century

73

(2)

A Proto-democratic Community?

75

(2)

Icelandic Feud: Conflict Management

77

(4)

The Founding of a New Society and the Historical Sources

81

(18)

The Effect of Emigrating from Europe

82

(2)

Land-taking and Establishing Order

84

(5)

Dating the Settlement: Volcanic Ash Layers

89

(3)

Closing the Frontier and Establishing Governing Principles

92

(3)

Written Sources: The Book of Settlements and The Book of the Icelanders

95

(4)

Limitations on a Chieftain's Ambitions, and Strategies of Feud and Law: Eyrbyggja saga

99

(19)

Arnkel's Quest for Wealth and Power

103

(1)

Ulfar's Land Shifts to Arnkel

104

(4)

Thorolf's Land Shifts to Snorri Gooi

108

(2)

Ulfar Claims Orlyg's Land

110

(2)

Ulfar's Demise

112

(3)

The End of Arnkel's Ambitions

115

(3)

Chieftain-Thingmen Relationships and Advocacy

118

(24)

The Nature of the Goooro

119

(1)

Advocacy

120

(3)

Arbitration and Legalistic Feuding

123

(3)

The Flexibility of the Gooi-Thingman Relationship

126

(6)

The Social Effects of Concubinage

132

(2)

Distinctions of Rank

134

(3)

Hreppar: Communal Units

137

(2)

The Orkneys: A Comparison

139

(1)

Freedmen

140

(2)

The Family and Sturlunga Sagas: Medieval Narratives and Modern Nationalism

142

(28)

The Family Sagas

143

(3)

The Sturlunga Compilation

146

(3)

The Sagas as Sources

149

(2)

Modern Nationalism and the Medieval Sagas

151

(5)

Conclusions

156

(3)

The Locations of the Family Sagas

159

(11)

The Legislative and Judicial System

170

(15)

Thing: Assemblies

171

(12)

Options

183

(2)

Systems of Power: Advocates, Friendship, and Family Networks

185

(22)

Advocacy

186

(2)

The Role of Kinship

188

(2)

A Balancing Act

190

(2)

Friendship (Vinfengi and Vinatta)

192

(5)

Women and Choices of Violence and Compromise

196

(1)

Vengeance and Feud: Goading in Laxdæla saga

197

(7)

A Goading Woman from Sturlunga saga

204

(1)

Restraint Within a Major Chieftain's Household in the Sturlung Age

205

(2)

Aspects of Blood Feud

207

(12)

Territory

211

(3)

Marriage and Confused Loyalites

214

(3)

Some Conclusions

217

(2)

Feud and Vendetta in a `Great Village' Community

219

(14)

The Language of Feud

223

(2)

Norms of Restraint

225

(5)

Bluffing and Violence

230

(1)

Outlawry

231

(2)

Friendship, Blood Feud, and Power: The Saga of the People of Weapon's Fjord

233

(19)

Inheriting a Foreigner's Goods

236

(1)

Brodd-Helgi's Revenge against Thorleif

237

(4)

Struggle to Claim a Dowry

241

(2)

Skirmishes over a Woodland

243

(1)

Seeking a Thingman's Allegiance

244

(1)

Brodd-Helgi Breaks Vinfengi

245

(2)

Geitir Establishes Vinfengi

247

(5)

The Obvious Sources of Wealth

252

(20)

Sources of Income Available Only to Chieftains

253

(1)

Early Taxes

253

(2)

Price-setting

255

(5)

Additional Privileged Sources of Wealth

260

(1)

The Sheep Tax

261

(2)

Sources of Income Available to All Freemen

262

(1)

Trade

263

(5)

Slavery and the Rental of Land and Livestock

268

(4)

Lucrative Sources of Wealth for Chieftains

272

(20)

The Acquisition of Property in the Family Sagas

275

(1)

Disputed Property in the East Fjords: The Saga of the People of Weapon's Fjord

275

(3)

Disputed Property in the Salmon River Valley: Laxdæla saga

278

(5)

Inheritance Claims in the Sturlunga Sagas

281

(2)

The Struggle to Inherit Helgastaoir: The Saga of Gudmund the Worthy

283

(3)

Inheritance Rights to Heinaberg: The Saga of Hvamm-Sturla

286

(3)

Resurgence of the Dispute over Heinaberg: The Saga of the Icelanders

289

(3)

A Peaceful Conversion: The Viking Age Church

292

(16)

Pagan Observance

294

(3)

A Viking Age Conversion

297

(5)

Geography and the Church

302

(1)

Early Bishops, Priests and Nuns

303

(1)

The Beginnings of a Formal Church Structure

304

(4)

Gragas: The `Grey Goose' Law

308

(16)

Manuscripts and Legal Origins

309

(7)

Women and the Law

316

(4)

Marriage and the Church

320

(4)

Bishops and Secular Authority: The Later Church

324

(17)

Bishops

324

(2)

The Tithe and Church Farmsteads

326

(3)

Bishops and Priests in the Later Free State

329

(2)

The Church's Struggle for Power in the Later Free State

331

(5)

Priests

336

(2)

Monasteries

338

(3)

Big Chieftains, Big Farmers and their Sagas at the End of the Free State

341

(14)

Big Farmers and the Family Sagas

343

(1)

Advantages Enjoyed by the Storbændr

344

(3)

The Saga of the Icelanders in the Sturlunga Compilation

347

(1)

The Storgooar, Not Quite Rulers

348

(2)

Iceland's Jarl

350

(1)

1262-4: The Covenant with Norway's King and the End of the Free State

351

(4)

Appendix 1: The Law-speakers

355

(2)

Appendix 2: Bishops During the Free State

357

(1)

Appendix 3: Turf Construction

358

(11)

Appendix 4: A Woman Who Travelled from Vinland to Rome

369

(4)

Notes

373

(23)

Bibliography

396

(35)

Index

431

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials