Cross and Scepter (24 page)

The State and the People: Nationalism and Loyalty

As in the rest of Europe, the Church was the main source of explicit ideology in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, and the evidence of its output is overwhelming. Its precise effect on the people is more difficult to ascertain. Less is known about similar attempts by the monarchy. Recent debates about nationalism have focused on the question of whether this is a specifically modern phenomenon, only to be found in the period after the French Revolution, or whether it goes back to, or at least was anticipated in earlier periods, including the Middle Ages. The answer is largely a matter of definition, but there is at least some evidence of patriotic sentiments in the Middle Ages, in Scandinavia as elsewhere. Despite his strongly religious attitude, even Theodoricus Monachus, writing around 1180, gives voice to some patriotic pride at the exploits of his Viking ancestors who raided
all over Europe. Saxo similarly opens his work by pointing to national pride as the main motive for writing history. As all other nations boast of their great deeds and take pleasure in remembering their ancestors, so too the Danish archbishop Absalon, always intent on the glory of his fatherland, could not bear the thought of its being cheated of such fame and remembrance. He therefore commissioned Saxo himself with the task of preserving Denmark's heroic legacy. And Saxo did not confine his accolades to his preface; his entire narrative is filled with heroes; the Danes are a great nation and their enemies (Norwegians, Germans, and others) far inferior in virtue and military skill, only able to defeat Danes by means of treachery and deceit. In Sweden, where the writing of history began late, the early-fourteenth-century
Chronicle of Erik
expresses similar ideas. The prologue, praising God and his creation, soon turns to Sweden:

There can be found good men
chivalry and good heroes
who held their own against Didrik of Bern.

Didrik of Bern is the Gothic king Theodoric (493-526) who in medieval legend was transformed into one of the greatest and bravest knights of all Europe. The Swedes eventually developed a particular relationship with him by identifying themselves with the ancient Goths, allegedly the most ancient people on the earth. The connection is to be found already in a history of Gotland written in the thirteenth century, in which the Goths are said to have emigrated from this island. Later, the myth was further developed in Ericus Olai's (Erik Olofsson's)
Chronica regni Gothorum
of the 1470s or 80s. Swedish representatives at the Council of Basel (1431–1449) used the Gothic origins of the Swedes as an argument for claiming precedence, although unsuccessfully. The
Chronicle of Erik
continues with numerous examples of the Swedes' heroism and great deeds. During an expedition in Karelia
against the Russians, they defeat an army ten times the size of their own. When their leader, Matts Kettilmundsson—later the leader of the rebellion against King Birger—challenges the Russians to single combat, no one dares to take up the challenge, even though Matts spends the whole day waiting.

Such examples are not necessarily evidence of a strong attachment to the established kingdom; all of these sources deal as well with internal struggles and often celebrate heroes from both camps. However, we at least see here the king and the central government urging their subjects to defend the country and the common welfare against external enemies. During the war against the Swedish dukes (1308–1309), King HÃ¥kon V in a letter expresses his gratitude to the people of Trøndelag for their brave defense of their territory, adding that they will be rewarded for their efforts. Having given instructions for the coming expedition against the enemy, the king ends by expecting that they will defend “the country and their own peace and freedom.”

We cannot draw any conclusions from these statements about nationalist sentiments within the ordinary population; only that the king occasionally found it necessary to appeal to such sentiments. We are on a somewhat firmer ground when it comes to the upper classes. Although there are many examples of shifting loyalties within the elites, such as Danish outlaws who fought their own king and raided their home country, there was a sufficient amount of interest within the elites in the continued existence of independent kingdoms.

Nationalism in its nineteenth- and twentieth-century shape is often associated with poets and freedom fighters willing to die for their country, but wealthy businessmen, landowners, and bureaucrats who find their interests best served by an independent state are equally prone to nationalist sentiments, and their influence is probably greater. Nationalism is not only the willingness of idealists to sacrifice everything for an imagined community,
but also an expression of the fact that every organized government relies on a number of people who are interested in its continued existence. An example of this is the promise made by his councilors to King HÃ¥kon V on his deathbed in May 1319, shortly before Norway entered its first union with Sweden, not to give foreigners military commands or administrative positions in Norway. The king may have believed that native-born men would make better rulers over his subjects than foreigners, but the initiative is more likely to have come from the Norwegian aristocracy, which certainly wanted to reserve such positions for its own members. Both the people and the aristocracy repeatedly articulated these demands in the following period of unions with Sweden and Denmark, thus illustrating the concrete interest they attached to the existence of an independent Norwegian kingdom.

The stakes in independent states were certainly less obvious in the Middle Ages than in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but they did exist. Snorri repeatedly points to the difficulties kings experienced in establishing themselves in another country, which clearly derived from their lack of networks. There was a national elite in each country that resented attempts by foreigners to gain influence, whose own position was limited to that particular country, and who could expect prominent and advantageous positions in the royal government. A standard condition in election charters during the union period was that such positions should be reserved for a country's own inhabitants. Moreover, while in the Viking Age raids in foreign countries and even permanent settlement there had contributed to wealth, in the High Middle Ages wealth was increasingly based on landownership. Loss of territory or increased foreign influence might threaten landowners' interests. These considerations apply not only to the lay aristocracy but also to the Church. Although the Church was a universal organization, it was in practice largely local and territorial, having its main income from land, which, at least in Scandinavia,
was mostly located within one particular country. The churchmen had the same interests as lay aristocrats in protecting their property and, in addition, needed organized government and peaceful conditions to carry out their work. Their long-term interests therefore largely coincided with those of the king, although there might be periods of conflict between the two. As we have seen, ecclesiastical ideology saw the king, who held his power from God, as a territorial king, whose power was confined to this particular territory and who had to respect the rights of his counterparts in other territories.

CHAPTER FOUR

Royal, Aristocratic, and Ecclesiastical Culture

T
HE SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
discussed in the previous chapters has a parallel in the cultural field, for art, architecture and literature are the products of institutions and social classes: in this case of the Scandinavian monarchy, Church, and aristocracy. The art and literature they created add to our understanding of their values and concerns. These sources also shed light on the question of change vs. continuity over time and help to untangle the threads of culture that derive from local traditions vs. European impulses.

The relationship between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe has been the subject of particularly intense discussion in the cultural field. All three kingdoms had a national-romantic movement in the nineteenth century that attempted to identify what was original to Scandinavian culture in contrast to imports from elsewhere in Europe. The work of N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) in Denmark and E. G. Geijer (1783–1847) in Sweden are prominent examples of this movement. It was particularly strong in Norway and Iceland, both of which regained or tried to regain their independence in the nineteenth century. These countries also—particularly Iceland—had the richest national tradition in the form of vernacular literature. The founders of Norwegian historical
writing, R. Keyser (1803–1864) and P. A. Munch (1810–1863) strongly defended the specifically Norwegian character of Old Norse literature against Danish and Swedish attempts to present it as pan-Scandinavian. Later, the Icelanders in their turn claimed that it was specifically Icelandic, in opposition to Norwegian claims. Nowadays, the issue is less emotional and there is even a strong impulse in the direction of explaining Scandinavian culture as mainly the result of European influences, but the debate still goes on.

Viewed from a wider perspective, this debate appears as part of a broader controversy about unity versus diversity within Western Christendom as a whole in the Middle Ages. On the one hand, the Catholic Church was a centralizing element, boasting a tight, hierarchical organization and a learned elite with its special language, Latin, and promoting a universal ideology, based on a set of canonical texts. On the other hand, the number of local languages and dialects was an obstacle to communication and hence to centralization, as was a manuscript culture that allowed wide distribution to only a limited number of texts. In addition, the enormous legacy of the medieval Church may give an exaggerated picture of its dominance. It was the main patron of architecture and of the visual arts and the main producer of texts, but the latter in particular may have had limited impact in a culture where most people were illiterate. Thus, there are reasons other than nationalistic ideology to examine the relationship between Scandinavian and European traditions. The following discussion will deal mainly with four themes: religious versus secular literature, the social importance of Christianity, the writing of history, and the formation of a courtly culture from the mid-thirteenth century onwards. Historical writing forms one of the most important literary genres and also constitutes an intellectual crossroads where indigenous and external impulses meet, whereas Scandinavian religious and courtly literature are the most
prominent examples of European influence. Finally, all four topics raise the question of the connection between cultural development and the social change discussed in the previous chapters. To what extent do we find cultural and literary expressions of the social changes discussed above? And to what extent were such expressions actively used to promote the interests of the monarchy, the Church, and the aristocracy?

Scandinavians and European Learning

The Church was the main institution of learning in Scandinavia as in the rest of Europe, and the main transmitter of European impulses, in the form not only of religious texts but also of classical literature, scientific knowledge, and Roman and canon law. It is not easy to know what and how much of this learning was imported to Scandinavia during the Middle Ages or how widely it was known there. Most of the original texts have been lost or survive only in fragments, whereas some others can be traced indirectly, through library catalogues. Most libraries were small. Bishop Arne of Bergen (1305–1314) had a private library of thirty-six volumes, which was a goodly collection for the day. The largest library in Scandinavia belonged to the Vadstena monastery in the fifteenth century. Around five hundred medieval manuscripts and some incunabula have been preserved from it, but much more must have been lost. Probably because of its size, this library was also, in contrast to most others, arranged like a modern library in which the books have shelfmarks and are placed on the shelves in a particular order. According to extant lists of books, larger cathedral libraries seem to have contained around a hundred volumes. This was fewer than the collections in similar institutions abroad, which, however, were also small by our standards. The cathedral library of Canterbury had 1,300 volumes around 1300,
while the private libraries of some bishops and leading intellectuals in the thirteenth century contained around a hundred volumes. Considering the poverty and the small population of the country, Iceland's libraries were remarkably large. The diocesan library in Holar contained 332 volumes in 1525 and even local churches could have more than a hundred volumes. These libraries evidently contained the books necessary for teaching, liturgy, and administration, as well as the Bible, liturgical books, theological treatises, and canon-law texts, but classical authors were represented as well. Bishop Kurt Rogge of Strängnäs (d. 1501) had works by Cicero, by Greek authors such as Demosthenes, Polybius, and Procopius in Latin translation, and by Italian humanists like Boccaccio and Petrarch. A 1519 inventory of books belonging to the cathedral library of Slesvig lists Persius, Juvenal, Martial, and Lucan, plus Latin translations of Herodotus and Plutarch. In contrast to most ecclesiastical libraries, Vadstena had a number of vernacular texts. Bishop Arne of Bergen owned several sagas in Old Norse in addition to Latin texts. Some translations of classical works into Old Norse have also been preserved, such as the
Saga of the Romans,
based on Sallust's and Lucan's works on the Late Republican civil wars, the
Saga of the Trojans,
and works on geography and nature.