Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Literature, by Chr. Brinchmann
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
heathen mythology of the nation, the Ase faith, in imperishable
metrical form. Fixed in heroic stanzas, the changing events of
the age also found a sure way, through the bewildering oral
traditions, down to a generation who had learnt the art of writing in
the monks’ schools.
Whereas in Danish and Swedish hands the pen, according to
the custom of the age, would only write Latin, on
Norwegian-Icelandic soil, it was practised from the very first in the use of the
spoken language. It is recorded that in 1117, the Icelandic chiefs at
their Althing (parliament), agreed to have the island’s laws, which
had been made 200 years before, after the pattern of those of
the mother-country, the ancient law of the west Norwegian fjord
districts, written in a book. This seems to have given the
impulse to the learned priest, Are Frode (died 1148), to write
down, in his native tongue, a critical account of what tradition
related regarding events that had taken place both in Icelandic
families and in the Norwegian royal house, from the time the
Norwegian kingdom was founded and the island discovered. From
this firm root, a luxuriant historical literature now rapidly sprang.
Able men set themselves simply and plainly to write down the
tales — sagas — that had lived their fresh life from generation
to generation, handed down in commemorative verses of
unchanging metre from the time when the events described took
place. Not only did there spring up all over Iceland a number
of individualising repetitions of the chieftain-stories — family
sagas — of the district, but tradition had preserved circumstantial
life-pictures of the famous princes of the mother-country, which
were gradually, by the help of Are Frode’s chronology, joined
together into a connected history of the kingdom. The
historiography in Snorre Sturlason’s (died 1241) «Heimskringla» and
Sturla Tordsson’s (died 1284) «Kongesagaer» (Royal Sagas)
attains a classic perfection both in composition and style. Abbot
Karl Jonsson’s (died 1213) Thucydidean account of contemporary
events, with the talented King Sverre as its hero, is also a
masterpiece. In the course of time there appeared also a number of
unhistorical sagas about ancient Norwegian legendary heroes, or
of the heroes of the Central-European migration. To this
last-mentioned [[** sjk]] kind of saga belongs one about the Gothic king,
Theodoric of Verona; it is founded upon the tales of north German
sailors, and was written on Norwegian soil. At King Haakon
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
