A Long Time in Politics: The relevance of Icelandic techniques of time reckoning for our understanding of the medieval Icelandic world view

• Main Author: Allport, Benjamin
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Time; Reckoning; Icelandic; World; View; Norwegian; Relations; Norway; Ari; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/40785; http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-45547

The topic of the medieval Icelandic world view during the Commonwealth period has attracted many scholars in recent years; most can agree that this seemingly autonomous, remote island society, asserting its independence from Norway at the same time as it was inextricably connected to it, is a unique phenomenon in a period in which the authority of kingship was beginning to dominate Europe. This study attempts to join the ranks of previous considerations of Icelandic world views, but does so from a position that has not yet been extensively explored; that Icelandic historiographers were able to use the reckoning of the annual progression of time to carefully construct texts that reflected their understanding of the world and their position in it. By pursuing an analysis of four key medieval Icelandic historiographical texts based primarily on the use of annual chronologies, drawn from all over the medieval world, this thesis will test whether this approach can indeed take its place among existing scholarship. The analysis first considers Íslendingabók, the earliest surviving example of Icelandic historiography, and reveals the intricacy of the way in which its author, Ari fróði, wove the use of different chronologies together to create an Icelandic identity which emphasised its autonomy and at the same time was keenly aware of its cultural heritage. The next two sources, the Konunga sögur compilations Fagrskinna and Morkinskinna, explore the involvement of Icelanders at the Norwegian court and, through the use of personal chronologies relating to the lives of individual kings, emphasise the significance of the relationships that courtly life involved, and altogether reveal the Icelandic engagement in the Norse sphere. The final text, Sturla Þórðarson s Hákonar saga Hákonar, manipulates local chronologies from throughout Norwegian territories to incorporate Iceland into the Norwegian context following its recent submission. This study also considers Icelandic perceptions of those outside of the immediate Norse sphere, and in particular has revealed an intriguing level of Icelandic identification with the English, perhaps due to an awareness of shared historical and cultural origins.