Descripción de principales iniciativas

Throughout the sagas it is made clear that an important way of paying honour to the dead was to hold a funeral feast in his memory; and this was important for the living as well as for the dead, since it was at the feast that the son took over the inheritance of his father. Snorri describes the proceedings at such a feast:

It was time custom at that time when a funeral feast should be made in honour of king or jarl that he who held it and who was to succeed to the inheritance should sit on the step before the high-seat up to the time when the cup was borne in which was called Bragi’s cup. Then he should stand up with the cup of Bragi and make a yow, and drink off the cup afterwards; then he should proceed to the high-seat which his father had had, and then he succeeded to all the inheritance after him.1

It seems probable that there is a connection between this ascent to the high-seat amid the descent from the king’s seat on top of the mound described in Heimskringla, when Hrollaugr ‘rolls himself down’ into the seat of a jarl;2 _{thesignificance of the seat on the}

mound will be discussed later.3

The grandest feasts were of course those of the kings, when the royal title was handed over; but the important men of Iceland could distinguish themselves when they chose; in

Laxdæla Saga we have a description of the elaborate memorial feast held by the sons of

Höskuldr for their father, carried through by the enthusiasm of Olaf, who was determined that his father should be fittingly honoured. All the great men were invited, and the saga records that there were nearly eleven hundred guests, and that no such feast had been held in Iceland since that of the sons of Hjalti (XXVII), on which occasion, Landnámabók tells us,4 _{there were over fourteen hundred guests. Important guests were always sent}

away with gifts. The feast might be held immediately after the laying in howe, like the two described in Gisla Saga,5 or, as with Höskuldr’s feast, sonic months might elapse. If

there were no children to succeed the dead man, the brother might hold the feast, and it is interesting to find what a sacred duty one brother at least makes of it, in a passage already quoted from Svarfdæla Saga.6

1 Ynglinga Saga, XXXVI. 2 Heimskringla: Haralds Saga Hárfagra, VIII. 3 See p. 105 below.

4 Lndn. III, 9, p. 145.

5 Gisla Saga, XIV, XVII, XVIII. 6 See p. 36 above.

What then was the original motive behind this custom? Was there sonic idea of well- being for the dead dependent on the holding of a feast for them? We know that poems in honour of the dead man were recited, for in the famous scene in Egils Saga Egill’s daughter proposes that her father shall make a poem to be recited at his son’s funeral feast (LXXVIII). The poem that resulted was the Sonatorrek, and this contains clear allusions to some kind of future life shared with the gods. It has been suggested that this may be due to the fact that Egil, who must certainly have mixed with Christian people on his travels, was influenced by Christian teaching about immortality.1 _{and this may well be}

the case; on the other hand, it is interesting to notice that in a passage from Snorri’s

Hákonar Saga Góða (XXXII), we find that at the funeral of the king it is said ‘men spoke

at his burial as was the custom with heathen men, and directed him to Valhöll’. We may note too the subject-matter of the Hákonarmál and the Eiríksmál, tenth-century skaldic poems describing the entry of the kings into Valhöll; could this be a late development of a once well-established tradition, and if so, is the Christian influence in Egill’s poem shown in the reticence he displays on the subject of the future life rather than in the brief allusions to it? We may remember at the same time the belief stated in Eyrbyggia Saga (LIV) that it was a lucky omen if drowned men appeared at their own funeral feasts, since it was a sign that they had been well received by Rán.

In the case of important people, the funeral least does not seem, in later times at any rate, to have been confined to men, for the wedding banquet at Auðr’s house in Laxdæla

Saga (VII) turned into a funeral feast in her honour. It seems to have been a privilege for

those who left wealth or a position to be inherited, or for a specially loved son or brother who died and left no succession. It is not recorded in the case of poor and unimportant people with few possessions.

In the accounts of funeral feasts and of honors paid to the dead there is the same contradiction which has already become apparent in the literature. As practised in Iceland the feast was evidently considered to be a last mark of respect paid to those who were to dwell in the tomb, since this was the general conception of the fate of those laid in howe. Such eccentric customs sometimes recorded at funerals as the carrying of the corpse through a hole in the wall instead of a door, as in the funeral of old Skallagrimr in Egils

Saga (LVIII) or Þórólfr in Eyrbyggja Saga (XXXIII), are clearly somewhat crude