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WHEN THE “RIGHT” TEXT IS WRONG. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BYNAME OF THE PRINCE SIGURĐR RISI
Get PDFThe author discusses the byname of King Haraldr Fairhair’s son, Sigurðr, with the
Sami women, Snæfríðr. In Old Icelandic, the form is hrísi, ‘illigitime son of a free
women conceived in the bushes’. In Old Norwegian, h before r fell in beginnings of
words and the byname had the form risi, which is an ambiguous form when the length
of the vowel is not marked, and could stand both for older hrísi and risi, ‘giant|troll’. The author argues that the byname means ‘giant/troll’, and that it calls forth associations
to a mythic pattern and to Sigurðr’s Sami background. This interpretation is supported
by the translation of risi to gigas in the Norwegian Latin chronicle, Historia Norwegie,
and by the fact that the Icelander Sturla Þórðarson in his version of Landnámabók,
chose the form risi. Further, the author shows how the byname is treated by editors
of scholarly editions. In editions of Icelandic texts, the form hrísi is of course used.
The fact that there is a Norwegian source which says that the byname meant ‘troll/
giant’ is not used to problematize the meaning. In editions of Norwegian texts printed
according to the manuscripts the form risi is of course used, but in normalized texts
this form is changed to hrísi. In the future, the form hrísi must continue to be used
in editions of Icelandic manuscripts (except in editions of Sturlubók) since this is the
only form found in the manuscripts, but a comment problematizing the meaning
would be useful. In editions of Norwegian manuscripts, risi must be the correct
form
The Relationship between Sami and Nordic Peoples Expressed in Terms of Family Associations
No full textThe article investigates motifs from medieval sources and sources from early modern times in which the relationship between the Sami people and their Nordic neighbours is expressed in terms of family associations. During Romanticism it became a custom among Scandinavians to speak about each other as broderfolk, which in English is sister nations. In Old Norse sources it was the Sami people who were spoken of as “family,” but of a slightly more distant type than siblings. Haraldr hárfagri, who united Norway, married a Sami girl, Snæfríðr. Their marriage, which was a complicated one, may be seen as a symbolic expression of the problematic and loving relationship between two peoples. The king was the foster-son of the Sami people. To express the relationship between two peoples in terms of foster-child/foster-parent relations creates a picture with a very clear symbolic meaning. The kings of Norway from Haraldr harðráði on traced their family back to a Sami girl, and the earls of Hlaðir traced their family back to Sæmingr, probably the Proto-Sami. It may have been important, at least as a symbolic expression of community, that the princely houses of Norway had family roots in both peoples of the kingdom
Sami Sieidis in a Nordic Context?
Get PDFIn the present article, the author discusses two Old Norse texts that may indicate that the Sami cult of sieidis had spread to the neighbouring Old Norse culture in the period before the Christianization of Norway. One of these texts is found in the Older Eiðsifaþing law, the law of the inland part of Eastern Norway. According to this law, it was prohibited to believe in (the power of) the finnar (Sami), and among their powerful objects, rót (the root of a tree) is mentioned. This root is in all likelihood a Sami sieidi that was sought out by Norwegians for help, probably for medical reasons. The other text is a notice in the Icelandic Landnámabók in which it is mentioned that a settler from Northern Norway worshipped some stones in the outfields on the border of his settlement, called Gunnsteinar. There are closer parallels to this outfields cult in Sami culture than in Old Norse culture
Sami Sieidis in a Nordic Context?
No full textIn the present article, the author discusses two Old Norse texts that may indicate that the Sami cult of sieidis had spread to the neighbouring Old Norse culture in the period before the Christianization of Norway. One of these texts is found in the Older Eiðsifaþing law, the law of the inland part of Eastern Norway. According to this law, it was prohibited to believe in (the power of) the finnar (Sami), and among their powerful objects, rót (the root of a tree) is mentioned. This root is in all likelihood a Sami sieidi that was sought out by Norwegians for help, probably for medical reasons. The other text is a notice in the Icelandic Landnámabók in which it is mentioned that a settler from Northern Norway worshipped some stones in the outfields on the border of his settlement, called Gunnsteinar. There are closer parallels to this outfields cult in Sami culture than in Old Norse culture
Ann-Marie Long, Iceland’s Relationship with Norway c. 870–c. 1100. Memory, History and Identity (The Northern World 81), Leiden: Brill 2017, ISBN 9789004335622, 301 pp.
No full textChristof Seidler, Das Edda-Projekt der Brüder Grimm. Hintergrund, Analyse und Einordnung, München: Herbert Utz Verlag 2015 (Münster Nordistische Studien 9), 414 pp., ISBN 978-3-8316-4158-1 [Elektronisk resurs]
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