I
Of the seven Icelandic short stories which appear here, the first
was probably written early in the thirteenth century, while the rest
all date from the early twentieth century. It might therefore be
supposed that the earliest of these stories was written in a
language more or less unintelligible to modern Icelanders, and that
there was a gap of many centuries in the literary production of the
nation. This, however, is not the case.
The Norsemen who colonized Iceland in the last quarter of the ninth
century brought with than the language then spoken throughout the
whole of Scandinavia. This ancestor of the modern Scandinavian
tongues has been preserved in Iceland so little changed that every
Icelander still understands, without the aid of explanatory
commentaries, the oldest preserved prose written in their country
850 years ago. The principal reasons for this were probably limited
communications between Iceland and other countries, frequent
migrations inside the island, and, not least important, a long and
uninterrupted literary tradition. As a consequence, Icelandic has
not developed any dialects in the ordinary sense.
It is to their language and literature, as well as to the island
separateness of their country, that the 175 thousand inhabitants of
this North-Atlantic state of a little more than a hundred thousand
square kilometres owe their existence as an independent and separate
nation.
The Icelanders established a democratic legislative assembly, the
Althingi (Alþingi) in 930 A.D., and in the year 1000 embraced
Christianity. Hence there soon arose the necessity of writing down
the law and translations of sacred works. Such matter, along with
historical knowledge, may well have constituted the earliest
writings in Icelandic, probably dating as far back as the eleventh
century, while the oldest preserved texts were composed early in the
twelfth century. This was the beginning of the so-called saga-
writing. The important thing was that most of what was written down
was in the vernacular, Latin being used but sparingly. Thus a
literary style was evolved which soon reached a high standard. This
style, so forceful in its perspicuity, was effectively simple, yet
rich in the variety of its classical structure.
There were different categories of sagas. Among the most important
were the sagas of the Norwegian kings and the family sagas. The
latter tell us about the first generations of native Icelanders.
They are all anonymous and the majority of them were written in the
thirteenth century. Most of them contain a more or less historical
core. Above all, however, they are fine literature, at times
realistic, whose excellence is clearly seen in their descriptions of
events and character, their dialogue and structure. Most of them are
in fact in the nature of historical novels. The Viking view of life
pervading them is characteristically heroic, but with frequent
traces of the influence of Christian writing.
Besides these there were short stories (þaettir) about Icelanders,
of which THE STORY OF AUDUNN AND THE BEAR (Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka)
is one of the best known. [Footnote: In this edition, the specially-
Icelandic consonants þ and ð are printed as th and d respectively,
and the superstressed vowels á,í,ó, and ú, are given without the
acute accent, when they occur in proper names in the stories, e. g.
Pórður: Thordur.]
These may be regarded as a preliminary stage in the development of
the longer family saga, simpler, yet having essentially the same
characteristics. Both types then continued to be written side by
side. Although the geographical isolation of the country was stated
above as one of the reasons for the preservation of the language,
too great a stress should not be laid on this factor, especially not
during the early centuries of the settlement. The Icelanders were
great and active navigators who discovered Greenland (shortly after
980) and North America (Leifr Eiriksson, about 1000). Thus THE STORY
OF AUDUNN AND THE BEAR recounts travels to Greenland, Norway,
Denmark and Italy. It was then fashionable for young Icelanders to
go abroad and spend some time at the courts of the Norwegian kings,
where the skalds recited poems of praise dedicated to the king. In
this story the occasion of the voyage is a less common one, the
bringing of a polar bear as a gift to the Danish king. In several
other Icelandic stories, and in some of other countries, we read of
such gifts, and of how European potentates prized these rare
creatures from Greenland.
In Scandinavia, Germany, and elsewhere, there have been legends
similar to the story of Audunn, where a man, after having been to
the Norwegian king with a tame bear, decides to present it to the
king of Denmark. However, we know of no earlier source for this
motif than the story of Audunn. Whatever its value as historical
fact, it could well be the model to which the other versions might
be traced. This story is preserved in the Morkinskinna, an Icelandic
manuscript written in the second half of the thirteenth century, as
well as in several later manuscripts. [Footnote: The most valuable
edition of THE STORY OF ADUNN AND THE BEAR is that of Guðni Jónsson
in the series Íslenzk fornrit (vol. VI. Reykjavík 1943). The text of
this edition is followed in the present translation, except in a few
cases where reference has been made to the texts of Fornmannasögur
VI, Copenhagen 1831, and Flateyjarbók III, Oslo 1868.] The story had
probably been written down by 1220, if not earlier. It is given a
historical background in so far as it is set in the time of Haraldr
the Hard-ruler, King of Norway (1046-66), and Sveinn Úlfsson, King
of Denmark (1047-76), when the two countries were at war (c. 1062-
64). Both monarchs are depicted as generous, magnanimous men, but
Audunn was shrewd enough to see which would give the greater reward
for his precious bear. For all his generosity, King Haraldr was
known to be ruthless and grasping. What the writer had in mind may
have been a character-comparison of the two kings and the
description of "one of the luckiest of men", about whom the
translator, G. Turville-Petre says: "Audunn himself, in spite of his
shrewd and purposeful character, is shown as a pious man, thoughtful
of salvation, and richly endowed with human qualities, affection for
his patron and especially for his mother. The story is an optimistic
one, suggesting that good luck may attend those who have good
morals."