Harriet Jean Evans Tang - Animal-Human Relationships in Medieval Iceland

Animal-Human Relationships in Medieval Iceland

Nature and Environment in the Middle Ages

ISSN: 2399-3804 (Print)

ISSN: 2399-3812 (Online)

Series Editor

Michael D.J. Bintley

Editorial Board

Jennifer Neville

Aleks Pluskowski

Gillian Rudd

Questions of nature, the environment and sustainability are increasingly important areas of scholarly enquiry in various fields. This exciting new series aims to provide a forum for new work throughout the medieval period broadly defined (c.4001500), covering literature, history, archaeology and other allied disciplines in the humanities. Topics may range from studies of landscape to interaction with humans, from representations of nature in art to ecology, ecotheory, ecofeminism and ecocriticism; monographs and collections of essays are equally welcome.

Proposals or enquiries may be sent directly to the series editor or to the publisher at the addresses given below.

Dr Michael D.J. Bintley, Department of English and Humanities, School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London, 43 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD

Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF

Animal-Human Relationships in Medieval Iceland

From Farm-Settlement to Sagas

Harriet J. Evans Tang

D. S. BREWER

Harriet J. Evans Tang 2022

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sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2022

D. S. Brewer, Cambridge

ISBN 978 1 84384 643 7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978 1 80010 649 9 (ePUB)

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Cover image: A man bowing to his horse (AM 147 4to f.56r). rni Magnsson Institute for Icelandic Studies.

In loving memory of Jean, Roland, Desmond, and Pearl

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures

Fig. 1 The Viking-Age longhouses at (a) Eirksstair, (b) Granastair, (c) Vatnsfjrur, (d) Sveigakot, (e) Aalstrti 1418, and (f) lafsdalur. Adapted from Fig. 3.23.5 in Milek (Houses and Households) and Fig. 6 in Lilja Bjrk Plsdttir (lafsdalur).

Fig. 2 The byres at (a) Goatttur, (b) Gjskgar, (c) Grf, (d) Lundur, and (e) Bergrshvoll. Adapted from Fig. 3, 6, 8, 10, and 15 in Berson (The Byres).

Fig. 3 The Viking-Age enclosures at (a) Granastair, (b) Plstftir, and (c) Hofstair. After Fig. 3.42 in Lucas (The Structural Sequence).

Fig. 4 Plan of the Viking-Age site at Vatnsfjrur. After Fig. 1 in Milek (Excavations in the Viking Age Area [Vatnsfjrur 2010]).

Fig. 5 The proposed animal-buildings at Vatnsfjrur: (a) S9, (b) S7, and (c) S8. Adapted from Fig. 3 and 6 in Milek (Excavations in the Viking Age Area [Vatnsfjrur 2009]), and Fig. 78 in Daxbck et al. (Excavations in Area 23).

Fig. 6 Plan of the Viking-Age (and medieval) site at Sveigakot. Image provided by and used with permission from Orri Vsteinsson.

Fig. 7 Structure 7 at Sveigakot and associated features. Adapted from Fig. 2 and 6 in Orri Vsteinsson (Areas S7 and SP).

Fig. 8 Spatial relationships between areas of functional variation at Vatnsfjrur, Phase 1 (post-S10). Authors own.

Fig. 9 Spatial relationships between areas of functional variation at Vatnsfjrur, Phase 2. Authors own.

Fig. 10 Spatial relationships between areas of functional variation at Sveigakot, Phases 1a2a. Authors own.

Fig. 11 Spatial relationships between areas of functional variation at Sveigakot, Phase 2b. Authors own.

Map

Map 1 Map of Iceland showing the three main archaeological sites discussed in the work.

Tables

Table 1 Proposed phases of occupation and use at Vatnsfjrur.

Table 2 Proposed phases of occupation and use at Sveigakot.

Full credit details are provided in the captions to the images in the text. The author and publisher are grateful to all the institutions and individuals for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publisher will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the support of the Wolfson Foundation for its beginning, and the Leverhulme Trust for its end (grant RPG-2019-258, COHABITing with Vikings: Social space in multi-species communities). Acknowledgements must also be given to the various people who have offered advice and clarification over the years, especially Matthew Townend, Steve Ashby, Julian D. Richards, Tom McGovern, Viar Hreinsson, and my anonymous reader, as well as Orri Vsteinsson and Cline Dupont-Hbert for answering my questions about Sveigakot and Vatnsfjrur respectively. Profound thanks must also go to Caroline Palmer and Mike Bintley, without whom this book would never have materialised; and unmeasurable gratitude is owed to my parents and Tsz-Chiu for helping with just about everything else while I was writing.

NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS

All translations in the following work are those of the author unless otherwise indicated. An effort to remain true to the original text is made in all cases, though the tense is generally standardised, and some phrasing rendered more accessible for the anglophone reader.

The Animal Acts

Ok er hestrinn kemr fyrir dyrr, hneggjai hann htt. Jn Jhannesson (ed.), Hrafnkels saga Freysgoa, in Austfiringa sgur (Reykjavk, 1950), pp. 95133, at p. 104.

And when the horse came in front of the door, then he neighed loudly.

T here is a scene in Hrafnkels saga Freysgoa, famous among saga scholars, in which a horse and a man communicate, and more than one person dies as a result. It is a remarkable moment in which the horse, Freyfaxi, uses his voice and body to provoke his human into action, and alter the course of the narrative: the animal acts, and the man responds.

On hearing the neigh, Hrafnkell immediately recognises the sound as that of his horse and calls on his serving woman to go to the door. When he eventually ventures out to see Freyfaxi himself, he speaks to the horse, calling him fstri (foster-kin), acknowledging that he has been poorly treated, and vowing revenge against the perpetrator of the ill-treatment. He tells Freyfaxi to return to his followers, and Freyfaxi understands the command, returning to his pasture and his stud-mares. Although the episode may seem quite remarkable to a modern reader, the wording of the episode, Hrafnkells initial casual response and immediate recognition of the neigh suggests something mundane. Hrafnkell seems used to such visits, and this interspecies communication may have been nothing out of the ordinary but scholarship has often made it out to be so. Interpretations of Freyfaxi have frequently neglected his status first and foremost as a horse, and a horse who can act for himself; and Hrafnkells reference to his horse as