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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2014
Comparative history may be fashionable these days, but references to the past of precolonial sub-Saharan Africa in the literature on early Scandinavia, and vice versa, are still hard to come by. Perhaps this is as it should be, as Scandinavia and Sub-Saharan Africa are generally considered to be worlds apart. Besides, there is the time-lag involved: pre-Christian Scandinavia, including the Norse world, came to an end in roughly the eleventh century, whereas the precolonial era in sub-Saharan Africa lasted into the 1880s at the earliest. But many years ago, when after a prolonged immersion in African history, I picked up some books, including printed primary sources, related to pre-Christian Norway, I was invaded by a strange feeling of déjà vu, of having seen it all before, precisely in sub-Saharan Africa of old. Pre-Christian Norwegian, or Norse, society suddenly began to make sense to me as it had never done before.
Why the similarities I believe I have detected, and how significant are they? Is it possible that they are in some way more relevant or meaningful than the differences? Can we even speak of a problem of similarities à la Henri Frankfort? I have no ready-made answers to these questions. In fact my aim in this paper is a fairly modest one, that of offering some tentative, possibly speculative, observations, thoughts, and/or conclusions. I take as my point of departure the obvious, or trivial, point that precolonial sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Christian Norway did have something quite essential in common: the prevalence in both cases of ”pagan” (or “heathen”) and overwhelmingly agrarian kinship-type societies. In the case of Norway and Scandinavia, the Viking era (790s to somewhere in the tenth century), with its marked maritime orientation, constituted perhaps a rupture. Extensive seafaring, including maritime raiding and pillaging, not to mention the emergence of so-called sea kings, implies mobility, and mobile people do not fit readily into the “model” that is outlined in this essay. It may be, however, that the inland regions of the Nordic world were not always directly or even deeply influenced by what happened on the coast. Note that the words “pagan” and “heathen” are used here for want of a better expression, in the sense of “non-revealed” or “ethnic” religions. By kinship-type societies I mean collectivist-oriented societies composed not primarily of individuals, but of kindreds or lineages.
My thanks to Penelope Wrightson for help with my English.
1 Strictly speaking, the “Norse world” implies only ancient Norway, the main object of this article, and “The Norse island communities of the Western Ocean”, to use the title of Magnus Stefânsson's contribution to the first volume of the Cambridge History of Scandinavia (henceforth CHS) (Cambridge, 2003). But as we shall see, it is difficult to treat Norway and the Norse world in isolation from the other Scandinavian or Nordic countries. Finland and Iceland belong to the Nordic world, but are not normally considered to be Scandinavian countries from a strictly geographic point of view. Despite its title, CHS covers all the Nordic countries.
2 I am not the first to ask that kind of question. In fact, I have been inspired by Emil Birkeli, missionary and scholar, who, thanks to his Malagasy experience, produced pioneering works on ancestor worship in pre-Christian Norway. In the Malagasy context Birkeli is best known for his classic Les Vazimba de la côte occidentale de Madagascar: notes d'ethnologie (Antananarivo, 1936)Google Scholar, and in the Scandinavian context his relevant books include Fra norsk folkeliv i hedensk og kristen tid (Oslo, 1943)Google Scholar, and Huskult og hinsidighetstro. Nye studier over fedrekult i Norge (Oslo, 1944)Google Scholar.
3 See his The Problem of Similarities in Ancient Near Eastern Religions. The Frazer Lecture 1950 (Oxford, 1951)Google Scholar.
4 The dates from Sawyer, Peter, “Viking Expansion” in CHS, 105–20Google Scholar.
5 For sea kings see Thomas Lindkvist, “Kings and Provinces in Sweden”, ibid., 221-36.
6 The world of the Roman Empire was initially “pagan,” but it was not as kinship oriented as, e.g., the indigenous societies the Romans conquered in the Iberian peninsula.
7 The third edition of The Golden Bough was published between 1911 and 1915, and contains numerous references to Africa.
8 Fuglestad, Finn, “Earth-Priests, ‘Priest-Chiefs’ and Sacred Kings in Ancient Norway, Iceland, and West Africa,” Scandinavian Journal of History 4(1979), 47–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 The future Saint Olav was king from 1015 to 1028, when he fled before the Danes and their local allies. He was slain at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 while trying to recover his realm. Krag, Claus, “The Early Unification of Norway” in CHS, 195Google Scholar.
10 Claus Krag for one admits as much, although indirectly. See his Vikingtid og rikssamling 800-1130 (Oslo, 1995), 69Google Scholar.
11 It is symptomatic that Claus Krag (ibid., 62) argues against comparing myths and legends, a very relevant subject in this context, as we shall see. Generally, one detects an aversion against comparisons in the relevant literature, except with other Germanic societies of the same period.
12 For references, see Fuglestad, “Earth-Priests.” Among more recent works are Kopytoff, Igor, The African Frontier (Bloomington, 1987)Google Scholar; Schoffeleers, J. Matthew, River of Blood. The Genesis of a Martyr Cult in Southern Malawi, c. A.D. 1600 (Madison, 1992)Google Scholar; Baum, Robert M., Shrines of the Slave Trade. Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia (London, 1999)Google Scholar; Perrot, Claude Hélène, ed., Lignages et territoire en Afrique au XVIIIe et XIXe siècles: strategies, compétition, intégration (Paris, 2000)Google Scholar; and many of the contributions in Mcintosh, Susan Keech, ed., Beyond Chiefdoms. Pathways to Complexity in Africa (Cambridge, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 I have elaborated upon this theme in my The Ambiguities of History. The Problem of Ethnocentrism in Historical Writing (Oslo, 2005)Google Scholar.
14 See ibid., esp. 133-37, for an attempt at substantiating that point.
15 See in particular his Le sacré et le profane (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar.
16 Roesdahl, Else and Sørensen, Preben Meulengracht, “Viking culture” in CHS, 123Google Scholar. But Bjørn Myhre argues that already the society of the third to sixth centuries was dominated by a martial ideology. Contradictory? See Myhre’, “The Iron Age” in ibid., 74.
17 This corpus of works includes de Vries, Jan, Die geistige Welt der Germanen (Darmstadt, 1963)Google Scholar; Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent (London, 1971)Google Scholar; Cbaney, W. A., The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England. Transition from Paganism to Christianity (Manchester, 1970)Google Scholar.
18 An honorable exception is Gro Steinsland, but she is a specialist on the history of religion. See her “The Change of Religion in the Nordic Countries: a Confrontation between Two Living Religions,” Collegium Medievale 3(1990/1992), 121–37Google Scholar.
19 This is another point made in my Ambiguities.
20 Many of the losers are believed to have migrated to Iceland and to the other islands of the west (Shetland, Faroes, Orkneys, etc). On the origin of the date 872 see Moseng, Ole Georget al, Norsk historie I. 750-1537 (Oslo, 1999), 57Google Scholar.
21 Ibid.
22 Krag, , “Early Unification,” 196–98Google Scholar, sums up the consensual position among historians on the role of Saint Olav.
23 Cases in point are Saint Vàclav (Wenceslas) of Bohemia (ruled 921-29), Saint Istvàn (Stephen) of Hungria (997-1038), Saint Knud of Denmark (1080-86), and Saint Erik Jedvardsson of Sweden (ca. 1156-60); possibly also Saint Leopold of Austria, although he was a mere duke (1095-1136). Mieszko I, prince of Poland (ca. 960-92), performed roughly the same task as the others, but never made it to sainthood. See Castellan, Georges, Histoire des peuples d'Europe centrale (Paris, 1994), 34-35, 52–53Google Scholar; Fenger, Ole, “Kirker rejses alle vegne” (Copenhagen, 1989/1993), 65–71Google Scholar; Skovgaard-Petersen, Inge, “The Making of the Danish kingdom,” in CHS, 179–80Google Scholar; Sawyer, Peter, När Sverige blev Sverige (Alingsås, 1991), 59–61Google Scholar; Davies, Norman, God's Playground: a History of Poland I (Oxford, 1981), 4–21Google Scholar.
24 Jóhannesson, J. Björn, Islands historie i mellomalderen. Fristatstida (Oslo, 1969), 304Google Scholar.
25 Thorsteinsson, , Island (Copenhagen, 1985), 79–84Google Scholar.
26 Krag, , Vikingtid, 129Google Scholar.
27 I have relied on the standard Norwegian translation by Anne Holtsmark and Didrik Arup Seip from 1934, republished 1959 and many subsequent times. It is known as Snorres kongesagaer, i.e., The Royal Sagas of Snorre.
28 The oldest surviving sagas are from the twelfth century, but as a rule they are very short and not very informative; see Krag, , Vikingtid, 72Google Scholar.
29 Krag, Claus, Ynglingatal og Ynglingasaga. En Studie i historiske kilder (Oslo, 1991), chapter 1Google Scholar.
30 For a discussion, see Roesdahl, and Sørensen, Meulengracht, “Viking culture”, 138Google Scholar; Sawyer, , När Sverige, 14–16Google Scholar; Norr, Svante, “Gamla Uppsala, kungamakt och skriftliga källor” in Duczko, Wladyslaw, ed, Arkeologi och miljögeologi i Gamla Uppsala (Uppsala, 1996), 25Google Scholar. The possibility that the author might be Snorre himself is not seriously contemplated by any of the authorities I have consulted.
31 Snorre, 13-14.
32 I believe that it is necessary to make a distinction between divine and sacred kings. A divine king is the living incarnation of a deity (as in Egypt), whereas sacred kingship implies “only” that the body of the ruler is mana-filled and that there is a connection between the king's body and the forces of nature. In my opinion the institution of divine kingship did not exist in sub-Saharan Africa.
33 The closest one gets is in Moseng, et al., Norsk historié, 43Google Scholar, where it is argued that the kings/rulers were always responsible for the fertility of the land.
34 See, for instance, Andersen, Per Sveaas, Samlingen av Norge og kristningen av landet (Oslo, 1977), 274Google Scholar; Gunnes, Erik, Rikssamling og kristendom 800-1177 (Oslo, 1976), 65Google Scholar.
35 Magistri Adam Bremensis Gesta Hammdburgensis ecclesiae Pontificum, ed. Schmeidler, Bernard (Hannover, 1917)Google Scholar, is the standard edition. I have relied on the Norwegian translation (Oslo, 1993), 206-08, but note that Adam's sources are considered to have been very deficient and generally not what one calls primary sources. See Sawyer, Birgit and Sawyer, Peter, “Scandinavia Enters Christian Europe” in CHS, 154Google Scholar; Skovgaard-Petersen, , “Making,” 170Google Scholar; Sawyer, , När Sverige, 16–19Google Scholar; Lindkvist, , “Kings,” 228Google Scholar.
36 On Old Uppsala generally see the contributions of Wladyslaw Duczko and especially Norr (“Gamla Uppsala”), in Duczko, Arkeologi.
37 Krag, , Vikingtid, 264Google Scholar; Norr, , “Gamla Uppsala”, 26Google Scholar. Several other datings have been advanced for the composition of this epic as well.
38 Thomas Lindkvist has qualified Sweden of this period as “a literary and cultural backwater;” idem., “Early Political Organisation: Introductory survey” in CHS, 161.
39 Krag, , Vikingtid, 61–62Google Scholar.
40 Moseng, el al., Norsk historie, 45Google Scholar.
41 Snorre, 8-10.
42 Rouch, Jean, La religion et la magie Songhay (Paris, 1960), 62–63Google Scholar.
43 See Nicholson, H.B., Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: the Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs (Niwot, 2001)Google Scholar.
44 Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 77Google Scholar.
45 Krag mentions that possibility (Vikingtid, 63), but concludes that it must be characterized as purely speculative. However, two pages later (ibid., 65) he contradicts himself when he admits that the belief in the Æser was imported, whereas the fertility cults are very ancient. Moseng et al (Norsk historie, 45) are not in doubt that the Vaner were far more ancient, but it is difficult to follow them when they argue that the Vane cult was specific to the Nordic countries.
46 On the veneration of Tor, see Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 42–43Google Scholar.
47 Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel, A History of Pagan Europe (London, 1995), 3, 135Google Scholar.
48 Snorre, 30-31.
49 Ibid., 38.
50 I am referring here to the institution known as têg-soba among the Mossi, labukoy among the Songhay, treza among the Gouro, mwaantaangaand among the Lunda, kito-mi among the BaKongo, and so on. See Fuglestad, , “Earth-Priests,” 52Google Scholar; Thornton, John K., The Kingdom of Kongo. Civil War and Transition 1641-1718 (Madison, 1983), 17–18Google Scholar.
51 Compare a case from India, among the Muria: “[w]here other castes participate in Muria calendrial feasts, … then these castes, even if they are officially higher than the Muria in the caste hierarchy … attend under Muria patronage, as their ritual clients. This is because the Muria are the original owners of the land, and it is their local clan gods, not the Hindu ones, who ensure its fertility.” See Gell, Alfred, The Anthropology of Time. Cultural Constructions of Temporal Maps and Images (Oxford, 1992), 90Google Scholar.
52 But see Bjørn Myhre, “Iron Age,” Myhre argues (70-72) that private ownership of the land dates back to at least the third century CE., if not earlier, and not only in Denmark—possibly, in Myhre's opinion, as the result of influences from the Roman Empire.
53 For references, see Fuglestad, “Earth-Priests,” 53.
54 Hagen, Anders, Norges oldtid (Oslo, 1967), 207Google Scholar; Magnus, B. and Myhre, B., Forhistorien. Fra jegergrupper til høvdingsamfunn (Oslo, 1976), 376–77Google Scholar. On runic inscriptions generally see Sawyer, /Sawyer, , “Scandinavia,” 157–58Google Scholar.
55 Alfred Jakobsen and Ola Stemshaug of the University of Trondheim.
56 In Eljas Orrman's view it is roughly similar to the laudatio parentum, the approbation of relatives, in some continental societies. See his “Rural Conditions” in CHS, 297.
57 For references see Fuglestad, , “Earth-Priests,” 53, 62–63Google Scholar.
58 Goody, Jack, Succession to High Office (London, 1966), 5Google Scholar.
59 Fortes, Meyer, “The Political System of the Tallesi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast” in Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E.E., eds., African Political Systems (London, 1940), 245–46Google Scholar; Law, R.C.C., The Oyo Empire c. 1600-C.1836: a West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade (London, 1977), 61–82Google Scholar; Vansina, Jan, Kingdoms of the Savanna (Bloomington, 1968), 37–69Google Scholar; Izard, Michel, Introduction à l'histoire des royaumes mossi (2 vols: Paris, 1970)Google Scholar; other examples in Fuglestad, , “Earth-Priests,” 56–58Google Scholar; idem., A History of Niger, 1850-1960 (Cambridge, 1983), 21-24.
60 Deduced from Hocart, Arthur Maurice, The Northern States of Fiji (London, 1952)Google Scholar; idem., Kings and councillors (Chicago, 1936); Kaplan, Martha, Neither Cargo nor Cult. Ritual Politics and the Colonial Imagination in Fiji (Durham, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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63 Gluckman, Max, “The Kingdom of the Zulu of South Africa” in Fortes, /Evans-Pritchard, , African Political Systems, 35–55Google Scholar.
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67 Snorre, 40.
68 Gro Steinsland has argued that the partition of the body was a Christian practice which Snorre “invented” or projected back into the pagan period, but she does not substantiate her point. In any case, her theory is not incompatible with the idea that Halv-dan was a sacred king. See her “Hvordan ble hedendommen utfordret og påvirket av kristendommen?” in Lidén, Hans-Emil, ed., Møtet mellom hedendom og kristendom i Norge (Oslo, 1995), 22Google Scholar.
69 Fagrskinna. En norsk kongesaga, trans, and ed. Schreiner, J. (Oslo, 1972), 16Google Scholar. For a discussion of this saga see Krag, , Vikingtid, 73Google Scholar.
70 Among those who do not concur are Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 54Google Scholar, who argue that the surname applied originally to a later king, not to the first Harald. But if so, why this transfer?
71 Snorre, 52.
72 Kent, Raymond K., Early Kingdoms in Madagascar 1500-1700 (New York, 1970), 159–204Google Scholar.
73 Judges 13-16.
74 Le Jan, Régine, “La sacralité de la royauté mérovingienne,” Annales 6(2003), 1217–41Google Scholar; Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., The Long-Haired Kings and other Studies in Prankish history (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Wood, Ian N., The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (Harlow, 1993)Google Scholar; Collins, Roger, Visigothic Spain 409-711 (Oxford, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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76 Snorre, 63.
77 Ibid, 73
78 For a very different interpretation see Krag, “Early unification,” 188.
79 I have tried to substantiate this point in my “Earth-Priests”; and in idem., “The ‘tom-pon-tany’ and the ‘tompon-drano’ in the History of Central and Western Madagascar,” HA 9(1982), 61-76.
80 Harald Fairhair figures nevertheless as the first ruler of Norway in all the kinglists I have seen so far, including in academic works.
81 See, e.g., Krag, , “Early Unification,” 191Google Scholar; Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 53Google Scholar.
82 Krag, , Ynglingatal, 209Google Scholar
83 In its most extreme form in Moseng, el al., Norsk historie, 52Google Scholar.
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87 Articles by Halvorsen, Eyvind Fjeld and Rooth, Anna Birgitta in Hødnebø, Finn, ed., Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformasjonen (Oslo 1962), 7:693-97, 697–700Google Scholar; personal communication from Gro Steinsland, 1 October 2005.
88 Fuglestad, “‘Tompon-tany’.”
89 Binchy, D.A., Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Kingship (Oxford, 1970), 10–11Google Scholar.
90 Krag, , Ynglingatal, 205Google Scholar; Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 56Google Scholar.
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92 Ibid., 46-47.
93 For a discussion see Jóhannesson, Islands historie; Sawyer, /Sawyer, , “Scandinavia,” 153Google Scholar; and Làrusson's, Ó. article in Hødnebø, F. (ed), Kulturhistorisk leksikon (Oslo, 1960), 5:363–66Google Scholar. Magnús Stefànsson represents a dissenting voice. He has argued (in “Norse Island Communities,” 216) that “[i]t does not seem reasonable to suppose that the chieftains who established the Icelandic constitution based their rule and political functions on pagan concepts and functions; they came from the Norwegian areas most infiltrated by Christianity”. It does not seem reasonable to suppose…, well, maybe not, but then why not? One could for instance speculate that the migration to Iceland represented some kind of anti-Christian reaction. The subject remains in any case open to all sorts of speculation.
94 Krag, , Vikingtid, 85Google Scholar; Lindkvist, , “Kings,” 227Google Scholar; Sawyer, När Sverige.
95 For references see Fuglestad, , “Earth-Priests,” 58Google Scholar.
96 Based primarily on Per Hernæes: “Kristen innflytelse i Rogalands vikingtid” in Lidén, Møtet, 80-120.
97 All dates for Norwegian rulers from Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 411Google Scholar.
98 Ibid., 70-71.
99 Here I have deliberately plagiarized Farriss, Nancy, Maya Society under Colonial Rule: the Collective Enterprise of Survival (Princeton, 1984), 293–95Google Scholar.
100 As did in fact (in my opinion) the Maya of Petén and the Khmer of Angkor.
101 See the works by Emil Birkeli cited in footnote 2; see also Moseng, et al., Norsk historie, 43Google Scholar.
102 On Songhay we now have a fairly complete bibliography thanks to Singleton, Brent, “Rulers, Scholars, and Invaders: a Select Bibliography of the Songhay Empire,” HA 31(2004), 357–68Google Scholar. On Kongo see Vansina, , Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1966)Google Scholar; and Thornton, Kingdom of Kongo.
103 Feierman, Steven, “Colonizers, Scholars, and the Creation of Invisible Histories” in Bonnell, Victoria E. and Hunt, Lynn, eds., Beyond the Cultural Turn. New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture (Berkeley, 1999), 182–216Google Scholar. See also the case of the Vazimba of Madagascar (Fuglestad, “‘Tompon-tany’”), where the original owners of the land literally went underground.
