<Articles>Peacemaking in 13th-Century Iceland : A Consideration of the Submission to Norwegian Kingship

Iceland was settled mainly by Norwegian Vikings in the period c.870-c.930. Towards the end of this period, settlers established laws and an assembly system. They kept Iceland's 'independent' status until 1262/64, at which time Icelanders swore to pay tribute and submit to the king in Norway. Subsequently, the country was under foreign rule until the foundation of the republic in 1944. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, under the influence of the struggle for independence, the society that had existed during the period c.930-1262 began to be called Pjodveldi, usually translated as 'the Commonwealth' or 'the Free State'. It was thought of as a 'commonwealth' composed of free farmers, who refused the rule of any king. Since then, the Icelandic Commonwealth Period has been praised as a golden age, while the period under foreign rule was thought of as an Icelandic dark age. There was a tendency to revise such a nationalistic view in the 1970s as the Sagas (prose stories written in Old Norse in the 12th-14th centuries) began to be reevaluated as historical sources, but little attention has been paid to the period after the year 1262/64. Given this historiography, we should pay more attention to the period after the submission, as an examination of the period might reveal the uniqueness of the Icelandic Commonwealth and its relationship with the monarchy more clearly. In this paper, I try to throw new light on the changes and continuities under the Norwegian monarchy. For this purpose, I focus on peacemaking and power throughout the 13th century, because, in spite of a large stock of knowledge about peacemaking in the Commonwealth period, we know very little about it thereafter. The American anthropological school has made valuable contributions since 1980s in understanding the Icelandic peacemaking system. They clarified the mechanism of peacemaking through blood-feuds (mutual vengeance) from the Sagas and presented a new image of society based on it. This now serves as the model for the Icelandic blood-feud. Sagas about the period of internal struggle, i.e. the Sturlung Age (c.1220-1262), however, often depict exceptions to the model. Accordingly, many scholars have thought that the peacemaking system based on the blood-feud had broken down by the Sturlung Age, and the breakdown consequently led to the collapse of the Icelandic Commonwealth. Although Icelandic chieftains were closely connected with the King in the 13th century, their power was still based on the consent of the famers, and farmers expected their chieftains to control blood-feuds to keep the peace. On the other hand, the Norwegian King had a certain judicial influence on the Icelanders, mainly through the relationship with his retainers. Icelandic retainers thought of the king as an arbitrator or peacemaker among them. Farmers also recognized the authority of the king, and the decision for submission was made with their accord. Therefore it could be said that Icelandic farmers selected the king as their peacemaker, instead of chieftains who had lost the power to make peace. Few studies have been made about Icelandic society under the monarchy. Some legal historians, however, have studied the new laws that accompanied the constitutional changes brought about by the king and believe that large-scale conflicts and blood-feuds decreased after the submission. This was because the new laws contained articles forbidding blood-feuds, reflecting the political ideals of the Norwegian court. However, a survey of the conflicts and their resolution under the monarchy through Contemporary Sagas points out that revenge was still the custom of Icelanders even in that period. As a result of new laws and administration, the king meanwhile expanded his judicial influence to Icelandic famers without the limitations of a face-to-face relationship that he would maintain with a retainer. To sum up, the Kings of Norway had influence on peacemaking in Iceland before the contracts of submi