Konec řádu na kraji světa. K historické sociologii islandských ság

• Published in: HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE
• Main Author: Jóhann Páll Árnason
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Czech; English; Slovak
• Published: Karolinum Press 2023
• Subjects: Sociology (General); HM401-1281; Gunnar; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.14712/23363525.2023.20; https://doaj.org/article/ec101f4615fa4d56a66e3a2deb66dfba

This article discusses the historical background to the medieval Icelandic sagas. It draws on the work of Icelandic historians, especially Gunnar Karlsson, to argue that the key factor was a distinctive political order established in Iceland before the conversion to Christianity. This was not a peasant democracy, as some idealizing interpretations have suggested; it was an oligarchy sui generis, with power (and a remnant of religious authority) vested in an elite of chieftains. However, there was no executive centre. This decentralized regime left its mark on the Christianizing process; the Icelanders accepted Christianity without monarchy, and for a long time without a fully empowered Church. Together with a pronounced cultural focus on narrativity, this political context explains the rise of a vernacular literature that was in many ways influenced by Christian sources, but retained a connection to pre-Christian traditions.