The Textual Life of Savants by Gisli Pálsson

Author:Gisli Pálsson [Pálsson, Gisli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781134366545
Google: hX8uAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-26T05:54:51+00:00

An example of magical chanting is provided in Fóstbrœðra saga (9:796). Here, a woman named Gríma is reported to have fondled the clothes of her slave Kolbakur, whereby he became "so charged by Grima's chants that weapons did not hurt him." Quite possibly, such ideas were inspired by the Vikings' knowledge of systematic experiments in the Byzantine army with weapon-proof garments, protected by tar, asbestos and other materials.

The less formal genre of gossip is particularly interesting, if only because of frequent references to it in the sagas. As Kress (1991) has shown, the sagas are both based on and saturated with gossip. In the absence of any strict sociolinguistic rules as to who is to talk, when, in what manner, and about what, gossip had a potentially subversive power. It needed no authorization. Like the agents of the devil in seventeenth-century witchcraft cases, "bad tongues" might crop up anywhere, anytime, setting the stage for further talk, particularly about the deeds and social honor of males. At the same time gossip was practically the only source of power available to slaves, vagabonds, and free laborers and, above all, women who were normally denied access to other avenues to politics. The Hávamál poetry repeatedly warns agains the potential devastation caused by the irresponsible and careless "tongue," the "destroyer of the head" (The Hávamál 1923:63):

I have known a man mortally hurt by the talk of a bad woman—a wily tongue brought about his death, through quite untrue accusations, (p. 73)

For the weak, gossip was an effective method of resistance, empowering the otherwise silent agenda of the mass vis-à-vis the noisy one of the wealthy and powerful. Because of its anonymity gossip might also be useful to those in power if other means of attack were considered too risky. The consulting of diviners, frequently used in legal disputes involving wrongdoings of one kind or another, was one way of spreading gossip. The mere fact that a victim consulted a diviner might force the wrongdoer to come out into the open. The diviner's statements might elicit responses from the community in general and direct the flow of gossip and discourse, making the community collectively responsible for an implicit accusation. Consulting a diviner was a way of spreading the risk of an accusation, reducing the responsibility of the accuser, an important safety valve in case the rumor, gossip, and accusation turned out to be either false or indefensible. Not surprisingly, Icelandic law books provide rather clear guidance in relation to speech and its potential misuses. Thus the authors of the medieval law book Grágás attempt to put restraints on threatening and dangerous words, advancing elaborate definitions of harmful talk—including slander, libel, love poetry, and, especially, evil witchcraft (fordœðuskapur "by means of words" (Grágás 1852, Sect. 7:23). Significantly, the chief native term for witchcraft, galdur, is derived from gala, to "sing" or "shout."4

Although important, words were not the sole means of control and contest. The saga-authors often seem to be preoccupied with other aspects of politics, namely warfare and bloodstained weapons—or, if you like, how to do things with swords (see Figure 5.

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