The Cross Section Journal by chloepampush

The Cross Section an exploration of all things nordic

The Cross Section: An Exploration of All Things Nordic Undergraduate Academic Journal from University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic Senior Editor Rebecca Risner, University of Wisconsin–Madison Kendall Allen-King, University of Wisconsin–Madison Managing Editors Marcus Cederström, University of Wisconsin–Madison Design Editor Brian Wiley, Boise State University Editorial Board Diane Camarda · Gwyneth DeLap · Brittany Dunnam Jenni Lien · Charles Ricchio II Graduate Student Advisory Board Colin Connors · Mirva Johnson · Ailie Kerr · Lauren Poyer Amber Rose · Bridgette Stoeckel · Kyle Swenson The Cross Section will consider submissions of any medium or genre, as long as it pertains in some way to the Nordic countries or Nordic culture abroad. All submissions must be in correct Chicago format. Translations from Nordic languages into English should be within the text of the submission, with the quoted text in the original Nordic language contained within the footnote of the citation. All contributions and communications should be sent to CrossSectionJournal@gmail.com. Information on The Cross Section can be found at TheCrossSection.com and https://www.facebook.com/crosssectionjournal. Funding and support has generously been provided by the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Additional funding and support has been provided by the Department of Art at Boise State University. Designed and illustrated by Chloe Pampush using Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Typefaces used are Mr Eaves Mod OT and LoRes 12 OT. Photographs were taken by the designer, are from Pexels.com, or are from Unsplash.com. All other designs, illustrations and photographs are property of the designer. Copyright © 2019 University of Wisconsin–Madison & Boise State University

The Cross Section an exploration of all things nordic

Table of Contents A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

The True Hero

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

The Humanitarian Superpower Myth: Norwegian shortcomings in response to the refugee crisis

At the Intersection of Religion and Divorce in History: A Comparative Analysis of Short Stories by Amalie Skram and Kate Chopin

102

Feasibility, Ethics and Consequences of the Technological Advancements in Society

118

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age By James Andersen University of Oregon

irelight dances among raucous figures, casting long twisting shadows into the smoky heights of the hall. The din of laughter echoes out into the night, resounding beneath the high-gabled roof. Warriors line the benches, finely bestowed with golden rings glinting. They hail their chieftain, sitting proud in his high-seat, giver of rings and glory. The noble war leader is poured mead by his gracious and wise queen, and standing from his seat raises a golden horn glimmering with jewels. He praises his mighty host, calling upon the gods to grant them glory, and downing the horn to great cheers signals for the food to be served. This image is inseparable from conceptions of the Viking Age, yet it represents an ideal. Then, as now, ideals do not always reflect reality. Viking Age Scandinavian society was a feasting society. The feast in this period served a number of purposes, including reinforcing hierarchies and ratifying laws, as well as providing a religious function that lasted well into the era of Christianity.1 This is well known enough, but the details of feasting and the place the event held in Viking Age society have been largely neglected by research on the period. Feasting was the most important event in Viking Age society, occasioned by the full range of lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s events from marriage to death and everything between. Scholarship on the period is yet to recognize this, and it shows in the treatment given to sources (mainly, the Sagas) that mention feasting. Taken largely for granted, few have stopped to consider what the holding of feasts in this period meant to those who attended them, and why this event, before any number of others, was pursued with such vigor by Viking Age people. Likewise, the presentation of feasts offered 1

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

by the Sagas is not scrutinized as heavily as other areas of the texts, necessitating a reexamination that considers all the available evidence, historical, archaeological, and otherwise. To fully appreciate the Saga’s depiction of feasting requires a picture of the feast provided by sources from as close to the period as possible, primarily archaeological evidence. This picture from archaeological and historical sources of the period, together with the re-examined Sagas, provides a compelling understanding of the Viking Age feast both in practice and representation. Feasting is not unique to Viking Age culture. There is written evidence of feasting in Mesopotamia,2 and it is not unreasonable to assume that some form of feasting existed throughout all of human existence.3 The act of feasting can be defined as, “any sharing of special food (in quality, preparation, or quantity) by two or more people for a special (not every day) event,”4 but this is a broad definition. Feasting, as it was known to Viking Age people, involved much more than sharing food for a special occasion, and in this paper “the feast” or “feasting” refer to a number of expressions of one event that could have been known by several names and was, itself, a powerful cultural institution. Thus, it is important to recognize the drawbacks of using this modern English word to describe a Viking Age event, but for the sake of clarity it will remain. The unique structure of the Viking Age feast seems to owe in large part to the warband or comitatus structure of earlier Germanic peoples from whom this feasting tradition was inherited. The comitatus were select warriors chosen by the ruler or chief of a tribe to be his personal retinue and bodyguard, whom he would equip, shelter, and feed in his own hall in exchange for their service as fighters.5 We know this was the case at least as early as the 2nd 2

Comitatus, like the word feast itself, offers a number of problems for those trying to understand the Viking Age feast on its own terms. Yet it bears consideration, as the words used to describe this institution in the past can tell us a great deal about it and the culture surrounding it. In his book on the language surrounding the institution of the comitatus, John Lindow answers definitively whether Tacitus chose the word comitatus based on its relation to a Germanic word of similar meaning, and the answer is he most certainly did not.7 Tacitus’s word choice could not have been arbitrary, however, and an examination of the Latin definition of comitatus is enlightening: “In partic., in the time of the empire [the era of Tacitus’ writing], an imperial escort, retinue, court, suite.”8 This implies certain aristocratic associations, which may not have been appropriate for the Germanic context in which it was applied. What about the warriors (Latin comes) themselves? They have been referred to as, “The attendants of distinguished private individuals.”9 This brings us closer to our understanding of the Germanic institution known variously in North Germanic as druhtiz or drótt and in Old Norse as the hirð or hired, giving credence to comitatus as a term describing “A distinguished individual and his attendants,” and one which will be used in this paper out of convenience and convention. The origins of this warband structure are foggy.10 It is clear, however, that the Celts had comitati as part of their society and mutual cultural influence with the Germans, which could have 3

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

century AD thanks to Roma historian Tacitus, who recorded in his Germania, “And not only in his own tribe but also in the neighbouring states it is the renown and glory of a chief to be distinguished for the number and valour of his followers.”6 It is from Tacitus that we get the Latin word comitatus used to describe this institution.

included these warbands and feasts.11 It is also plausible that they both adopted this very ancient hierarchy from a similar origin in early Indo-European tribes. The obvious cross-cultural influence on feasting between Celts and Germans is evidenced largely by similarities in the drinking practices from the Bronze/Iron-Age, as seen in burials from the period.12 It is well established that the comitati were hierarchical from the beginning. As Tacitus recounts in Germania, Even in [a chiefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s] escort there are gradations of rank, dependent on the choice of the man to whom they are attached. These followers vie keenly with each other as to who shall rank first with his chief, the chiefs as to who shall have the most numerous and the bravest followers.13

Hierarchy provided the foundation on which the feasting culture was built, with feasts serving the warband in a number of ways. First, the feast was a means for the chieftain to distribute wealth among the warband, to secure the loyalty of his followers. Generosity was a trait of a good chieftain. Several written sources, from Tacitus to Beowulf, testify that this generosity was more than just an ideal quality, it was an obligation to the warband that kept him in power.14 When this relationship became ritualized in the feast is hazy (like the origins of the warband itself), although evidence of burial rites involving containers of alcohol in Scandinavia trace back to Period II of the Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1500â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1300 B.C.).15 Alcohol in this period, being expensive to produce, was an indicator of power and wealth that would have been possessed by only a few individuals who likely held the kind of feasts we know from later sources. Regardless, the importance of this ritual of generosity is clearly attested in the 4

This practice has recently been disputed concerning the Celts. However, Loughton makes the case that many of the accounts of ritualistic gift-giving in Celtic society are based on classical sources focused on a particular place and time, and cannot speak for the entirety of the Celtic world. (This argument could easily be extrapolated onto classical sources of Germanic history as well.) Loughton likewise posits that consumption of alcohol was more widespread among varying social classes and not just the exclusive purview of the elite.20 A similar point will be made later about the Viking Age. This still does not preclude the fact that there are multiple sources accounting for hierarchical societal organizations among Celtic and Germanic cultures and the possibility that it was not alcohol consumption itself, but rather, the quality and quantity combined that distinguished the alcohol supplied by the chief. That this was a hierarchical relationship is further attested by the arrangement of burials from the Iron Age Celts up through the 5

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

material record, particularly the consistent appearance of fine drinkware assemblages among Iron-Age Celtic and Germanic burials,16 which were considered vital to maintaining oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s status in the afterlife.17 These burials usually contained a set of serving dishes and plates, large cauldrons for serving alcohol, and drinking vessels of assorted varieties, often including drinking horns.18 It is interesting to note the consistency in form of feasting equipment through to Viking Age Scandinavia. Large barrels and cauldrons, presumably for alcohol, and dining/drinking sets, including horns, have been recovered from a number of burials, perhaps most notably the Oseberg Ship in Oslo. These assemblages were tools of the chieftain, used to secure the bonds between himself and his men and to rank the members of the band via relative status.19

Viking Age,21 being tombs for a single individual with great amounts of wealth, who through their position of power within the hierarchy could arrange for such lavish burials. This was a society in which the individual was first and foremost a product of their obligations, where it was not who you were but rather who you associated with that people first used to determine your character. It is clear that this was the case at least in Anglo Saxon society (bearing in mind the issues of comparison to later Viking Age customs), evident from the way Beowulf first introduces himself in the poem when accosted by the guard on the shore, “We belong by birth to the Geat people And owe allegiance to Lord Hygelac. In my day, my father was a famous man, A noble warrior named Ecgtheow.”22 Beowulf does not mention his own name for over another fifty lines when he meets Hrothgar. It is also notable that Beowulf and Hrothgar officiate their agreement over the slaying of Grendel with a feast, the understood location for sealing pacts. Reliance on renown as a social currency made feasting exceptionally important as a place to ritually assign followers position within a chieftain’s band, and engage in bragging and gift giving to reciprocate the relationship.23 The warriors bragging bringing the chief renown for his brave followers, the gifts of the chieftain (both physical and honorary), is a key aspect of spreading his own renown and increasing that of his followers. According to Arnold, even to attain the status of chieftain required a successful inauguration feast, illustrating a clear connection between the right to host a feast and the right to rule.24 The warband-chieftain relationship predicated the social necessity of feasts as an occasion to bond and seal oaths and relationships, in which the consumption of alcohol played a major ritual role as the 6

While not itself a martial act, the social and cultural effects of the feast were vital in regulating the relationships between members of the comitatus. Feasting is then first and foremost a military activity for the early Celts and Germans, something which can be seen in its later association with Odin, the lord of hosts.27 Early Comitatus, Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary, Lindow emphasizes the comitatus’ status as an institution while downplaying its military nature, saying that it is a mistake to overemphasize the physical military aspects of the relationship (such as the taking of booty in battle to reward followers), and that instead it is the reciprocal giving of glory via deeds of valor that counted most for members of these groups.28 That being the case, the feast becomes even more important than a way to dole out spoils, but as a place to distribute the most valuable capital in Germanic society: renown. From Hávamál 77,29 Cattle die, and kinsmen die, And so one dies one‘s self; But a noble name will never die, If good renown one gets.30

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

means by which mortal rulers received divine, as well as community, sanction.25 This is the feasting tradition inherited by the Germans in the first century B.C., which Enright notes as “that period that establishes the true foundation for the subsequent political development of Germanic culture.”26 This is the Germanic culture, which would evolve into the culture of Viking age Scandinavia.

The several centuries separating the formation of warband relationships and the Viking Age witnessed a huge amount of cultural evolution and change, yet there remained a strong continuity in the relationships of the warband and feasting practices. This indicates the vital role played by feasting in these societies, withstanding the alterations of time due to its association with important institutions and rituals. For a chieftain or goði, the hosting of feasts was a vital function of his station.31 This is seen in feasts held to inaugurate a new leader, which by the Viking Age seems to have taken on a slightly different form in that it encompassed the funeral feast of the previous leader.32 The relevant aspect of this practice is that the lord set to inherit the chiefdom could not claim his full inheritance nor sit in the high seat until he had sworn an oath on the largest toast, thus consecrating his ascendance to the position of feast-lord.33 This ritually recognized the chieftain’s position as the giver of feasts, the lord of the warband, who through his generosity earned their service. But men were not the only participants in the feast, as projects of the whole community women and children certainly had their own roles to play in the preparation and rituals of the feast. Likewise, the feast had more purposes for the community than cementing the central institution of the comitatus. The roles of women in this context are the easiest to conceive of, the first and most obvious of these being the “Cup Bearing Queen” motif discussed especially by Enright in Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age,34 as exemplified by Wealhtheow in Beowulf, mediating the relationships of the comitatus. Furthermore, women played a major role in the serving and preparation of food, especially of dairy (although to what 8

The feast had more functions in society than solidifying the warband relationship, the clearest of these being as a sort of demonstration for the organizational and leadership ability required by chieftains in this society. Koch identifies three major functions for early Germanic chieftains that carry over well to the Viking Age: the collection and redistribution of economic surplus; handling diplomatic connections with neighboring chiefdoms; and reducing and managing strife among the people under his domain.37 These fit with the scheme laid out by Smith in her article â&#x20AC;&#x153;Feasts and their Failuresâ&#x20AC;? in which she identifies feasts as scenarios in which there is a high possibility of something going wrong, and through this provide opportunities for both hosts and guests to demonstrate their abilities of leadership and general management.38 In addition, feasts served the functions typically associated with any large social 9

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

degree they participated in brewing is unclear), as well as the making (and assisting in the putting on) of fine garments worn to these events and the hangings, which decorated the walls of the longhouse.35 Along with this, women managed the general daily maintenance and cleaning of the longhouse, which considering the likely size of wealthier households was no minor task.36 The roles of children (and the very elderly) are more difficult to pin down, as they are almost never mentioned in any of the original sources. This omission may be itself noteworthy, however, representing that either children were not particularly important in preparations for a feast, or shared in the menial labor involved in preparation (this, as with most things, likely varied with the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social standing). Children are however always important symbolically, their presence representing the security of wealth and family for future generations, and thus certainly attended the feasts in some capacity.

gathering, namely facilitating meeting others in the community, and (with no small help from fermented beverages) lubricating social interactions. Socializing between men and women in particular was an important aspect of feasts, with feasts being the place where many couples likely first met.39 These interactions themselves had certain rules, as in many societies, wherein women were assigned to share a horn with men by lot, so that no woman was without a drinking partner, but some men having to drink alone.40 These pairings offered opportunities for flirting, perhaps displayed most vividly in Egilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Saga SkallagrĂmsonar, in which a girl is displeased with being paired with the inexperienced Egil, but after he picks her up and places her next to himself, begins to warm up to him.41 What actually occurred at these feasts may be reconstructed via several sources, illuminating the practical realities and social customs. Beginning with the practical, the archaeological record contains a wealth of information on the tools and equipment associated with feasting, the physical reality of the rituals. The foundation of the feast may be found in the chieftainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longhouse, itself the sun around which all the activities of the feast orbit. The food for the feast is hunted, fished, or grown within its domain, much of the alcohol is brewed nearby if not stored inside, many of the utensils and serving dishes were no doubt manufactured by craftsmen from the surrounding villages, in short, the longhouse was the center of the local world to which everything and everyone contributed. Along with the regional came the international, a unique feature of the Viking Age, brought about via their extensive trading networks.42 43 The extent of Viking trade can be demonstrated by the fact that Sweden is a better source for obtaining silver (but not gold) Samanid coins than Afghanistan, 10

In terms of what was actually consumed, there is greater and greater evidence stemming from recent developments in archaeological technique and methodology, particularly in the fields of Archeobotany and Zooarchaeology. Excitingly, knowledge of what was consumed at these feasts in terms of alcohol has also become clearer in recent years, thanks to analysis of pollen samples and residue left in buried vessels.45 There are various sources that have come forth recently discussing the everyday foods and typical meals of the Viking Age, but feasting represents often a special occasion, and thus special and rare foods. This likely entailed beef and red meat more generally, as well as bread of higher quality than that usually consumed.46 In fact, it has been conjectured that, at least as far as Iceland is concerned, the production of barley itself (whether for bread or brewing) was a sign of status.47 The drinks were likely stronger and more flavorful than what was normally consumed, mead itself being reserved for special occasions well into the Middle Ages.48 These drinks likely took the form of some kind of braggot (unhopped beer sometimes mixed with mead or other herbs for flavor) or ale, along with mead, often mixed together in a sort of beer-fruit wine and honey cocktail.49 This was sometimes augmented with grape wine imported from further south in Europe, something reserved for the elite in this region since antiquity.50 A typical feast would have been a well-equipped project of the whole community, with no shortage of fine alcohol. Less easy to discern (due, in part, to the lack of physical artifacts) are the eventsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; 11

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

where the coins originated.44 Thus it is not unreasonable to expect that silks and colorful fabrics or spices rarer in mainland Europe would have been more common sights at Scandinavian feasts, although obviously less so in Iceland and Greenland.

besides eating and drinking—which took place at feasts; however, some references do exist. Drinking contests are an obvious guess, and several sources indicate that this was the case. For instance, in chapter 27 of Örvar-Odds saga, Sigurd and Sjolf make a bet that they together could outdrink Arrow-Odd.51 Interestingly, the contest involves more than just guzzling liquor, as, between horns, the opposing parties compose insulting poetry, which grows in intensity as the contest continues.52 This suggests that poetry contests could also have been a part of the feast (although it is unclear if this ever occurred sober) and the practice of flyting, i.e., ritualized exchanges of insults in verse, is well documented.53 A wide variety of games are known to have occurred, including board games.54 Wrestling and tests of strength among men were equally popular, and meeting solely for the purpose of engaging in games was not unheard of. Of course, one must be careful with saga evidence, so the exact nature of these games cannot be assured, but the fact that the Vikings did play games and engage in sports of some kind is indisputable. The final aspect of the feast needed to complete this reconstruction is its function both in bonding men and stratifying them. The organization of seating in the Viking Age hall was based on one´s position in the dominance hierarchy, where a seat closer to the chieftain was more respectable.57 It is not difficult to see how this situation could become dangerous, especially in the context of hyper-competitive warriors constantly competing for status within the warband. The mediation of this tension is the purpose of the lady of the hall, who partly through her reassurances to less successful warriors prevents violence within her husband’s retinue.58 She also plays a part in the establishment of the hierarchies, in that she serves the mead in order of importance out from the high seat.59 Through 12

Feasting was not only a mortal activity for the people of Viking Age Scandinavia. Its relevance and rituals are seen in many of the surviving religious tales, as collected in the Eddas. A survey of every instance of feasting in Norse Myth is too great a task for the current scope of this project, however there are a few important tales worth noting. The first of these is found in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál. The poem itself describes Valhalla, the resting place for warriors chosen by Odin, whose afterlife is an ever-recurring feast punctuated with battles to help them prepare for the doomsday Ragnarok.60 Stanzas 25–26 describe the goat Heiðrún, from whose udders pour out the mead consumed in Odin‘s hall, which surpasses all others.61 Likewise, in the Prose Edda story of Gylfaginning, Valhalla is described, and Sæhrímnir the boar is mentioned, being cooked and consumed and reborn every day to feed the warriors.62 These spiritual associations with feasting offer insight into the way people of the pre-Christian era of the Viking Age viewed feasts as sacred rites, not mere earthly political undertakings. That feasts are associated with Odin in particular is noteworthy, Odin himself being considered a god important for men of higher status and military occupation. This helps solidify feastings position of importance in Norse society, as well as its importance to individuals of prestige in terms of how people of the age framed it in within their beliefs. While it was not only men of immense wealth who hosted feasts, 13

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

the playing of games and the mediation of the lady, the feast serves always to enforce the hierarchies of the community and to discourage violence and internal upheaval. The feast reconstructed here was the center of the community in regards to resources, social activities, and entertainment. It entailed drinking, ritualized fighting, eating, and the spreading of wealth.

this likely represented an aspiration for landowners of lesser status, the ideal host to which one may look to for guidelines of hospitality. Feasting was the prime entertainment event in the Viking Age, and, as discussed earlier, was the bonding agent that held together chieftain-warband relationships. The feast was more than an enjoyable way to earn loyalty, however, as it was the defining cultural event of the age both religiously and secularly. It is clear that the people of the Viking Age made little distinction between religious and secular functions in many aspects of their society. The goðar in particular would seem to have drawn no lines between their role as sacrificial and legal leaders, each naturally supporting the other.63 To get a better picture of how feasts functioned in this society, it is necessary to first analyze the varieties laid out in later sources. In later sources there emerges a picture of several distinct types of feast for different purposes and occasions: the blót, sumbl, and erfi. Blót means “sacrifice” and is used to describe the three yearly ritual feasts of the pagan era, occasionally called sumbl.64 These feasts were the major yearly religious events in the Viking Age, to which all men were expected to contribute or else pay a fine to cover his share.65 Snorri mentions in Hiemskringla that the three feasts were supposed to be held “towards winter for a good season, one in the middle of winter for the crops, and a third in summer; that was the sacrifice for victory.”66 At these feasts, the chieftain would satisfy his duty as cult-leader, making sacrifices and toasting til árs ok froðar or “to good harvests and peace.”67 Sumbl, however, is a broad term, and is used to describe more than just religious gatherings.68 The term is often used as a general word for feasting, and may be a combination of the word sum (coming together) and ǫl (ale) to 14

This delineation of feasts into separate and distinct categories is a later convention, evidenced by the sources from which this misconception originates. Several sources that discuss the erfi disagree on its exact practice. These include Fagrskinna and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, which contradict each other on the order of speeches, with Ólaf placing the bragafull before the minni.71 This contradiction serves to remind that many of the sources from which we draw information about feasts are usually written much later (two to three centuries) than the time they depict and are often geographically removed as well, as in the case of Hiemskringla, a history of Norwegian kings written by an Icelander72 (bearing in mind the frequent service done for Norwegian kings by Icelanders). Hiemskringla presents further issues in its discussion of pagan rituals from a thoroughly Christian perspective, yet we have little reason outside this to doubt what is said in the description of the yulefeast along with its account of the requirements for each man to either contribute grain to the communal fund for alcohol or pay an equivalent tax to exempt himself.73 While these sources should not be completely disregarded, particularly in light of how few sources are present, the lack of 15

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

become “a coming together of ale.”69 Along with the blót and sumbl, there is the erfi, or funeral feast, described earlier when discussing the inheritance of chieftains. It is clear from the sources that the hosting of an erfi was required for an heir to claim his inheritance, and that he had to swear an oath on the great-toast or bragafull after all the lesser memorial toasts or minni and drink it before the incoming chieftain could ascend into the high seat.70 By doing this, he symbolically and ritualistically assumes the position of toastleader and feast-giver held by the previous chieftain.

alternative sources does not justify an uncritical approach, which I believe many scholars have allowed consciously or unconsciously. Many seem to accept the schema laid out by Snorri without considering the potential changes that may have occurred after several centuries of transmission, the possibility that the delineations were used by later authors for ease of reference, and likewise the mutation of word meanings and usages which naturally occur over centuries. As discussed earlier, the feast was an event with many uses, and generally symbolized the sacrifice of individual members of the group for the sake of cohesion. The uncritical approach adopted by many scholars may stem partially from the conflation of feasting with events of ritual alcohol consumption. While such events were an important part of the feast, they made up only a fraction of all the events and purposes of feasting. Yet, drinking rituals are the focus of the literature. This may be because they were the most significant and unique events and those that were associated with bonds and contracts, the writer thinking it unnecessary to include the other more mundane aspects of the feast, about which people were already familiar. Feasts seem to have been understood as platforms to which multiple purposes could be added, from a funeral feast that included an inheritance toast, to feasts for the rewarding of warriors or as a sacrifice to the gods. What is unique about the feast is not the feast itself, but the variations of it. From the feast, a variety of other events were associated. The feast was the cultural highlight of the Viking Age, serving not in specific itinerated rituals, but as a loose form to which could be adapted as needed to the specific event. The Viking Age feast was more than a religious or ceremonial event. It not only connected men to the gods and the warband to 16

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

the chieftain, but the men of the warband to each other, lords to subjects, and friends to strangers. The feast was, to borrow the term of Michael Enright, “the lady with the mead cup,” the wise queen mediating among the disparate and sometimes opposed parties. It was the event that enforced hierarchies, ratified laws, and added weight to oaths and vows. It was the axle, from which all the spokes of Viking Age culture radiated, and the event everyone in the community looked to for the whole range of life’s events. It remains the best perspective from which to view the entire culture of the Viking Age as whole, involving in some way every facet of that unique culture and society.

The benches filled with famous men Who fell to with relish; round upon round Of mead was passed; those powerful kinsmen, Hrothgar and Hrothulf, were in high spirits In the raftered hall. Inside Heorot There was nothing but friendship. The Shielding nation Was not yet familiar with feud and betrayal. Then Halfdaneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son presented Beowulf With gold standards as a victory gift, An embroidered banner; also breast-mail And a helmet; and a sword carried high, That was both precious object and a token of honor. So Beowulf drank his drink, at ease;74

Aðalsteinsson, Jón Hnefill. A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources. Reykjávik: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998. Arnold, Bettina. “‘Drinking the Feast’: Alcohol and the Legitimation of Power in Celtic Europe.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9, no. 01 (1999): 71–93. doi:10.1017/s0959774300015213. Bellows, Henry Adams. The Poetic Edda. American Scandinavian Foundation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936. Church, Alfred John, and William Jackson Brodribb. Complete Works of Tacitus. Edited by L. Cerrato. New York: Random House, 1942. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D15. Clover, Carol J. “The Germanic Context of the Unferþ Episode.” Speculum 55, no. 3 (1980): 444–468. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2847235?refreqid=search-gateway:05889fc0bd976e619f d91b838d4d7bf6.Top of FormBottom of Form Egil’s Saga. Translated by Bernard Scudder. London: Penguin, 2004. Enright, Michael J. Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Téne to the Viking Age. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007. Etting, Vivian. The Story of the Drinking Horn: Drinking Culture in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2013. Hayden, Bryan and Suzanne Villeneuve. “A Century of Feasting Studies.” Annual Review of Anthropology 40, no. 29 (2011): 433–449. Heaney, Seamus and Cynthia Krupat. Beowulf: a New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999. Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015. Koch, Eva. “Mead, chiefs and feasts in later prehistoric Europe.” Food, culture and identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Edited by M. P. Pearson. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Ltd, 2003. Lewis, Charleton T. and Charles Short. “Comitatus” and “Comes.” In Harpers’ Latin Dictionary. Edited by E. Andrews. New York: American Book Company, 1907.Top of FormBottom of Form Lindow, John. Comitatus, Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary (Vol. 83). Berkeley: University of California Publications in Linguistics, 1975. Loughton, Matthew E. “Getting Smashed: The Deposition of Amphorae and the Drinking of Wine in Gaul during the Late Iron Age.” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 28, no. 1 (2009): 77-110. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2008.00320.x. McGovern, Patrick E., Gretchen R. Hall, and Armen Mirzoian. “A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog.’” Danish Journal of Archaeology 2, no. 2 (2013): 112–131. http://dx.doi.or g/10.1080/21662282.2013.867101.

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

Bibliography

Mitchiner, Michael. “Evidence for Viking-Islamic Trade Provided by Samanid Silver Coinage.” East and West 37, no. 1/4 (1987): 139–150. O’Connor, Kaori. Never-Ending Feast: The Anthropology and Archaeology of Feasting. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. Riddell, Scott, Egill Erlendsson, Gudrún Gísladóttir, Kevin J. Edwards, Jesse Byock, and Davide Zori. “Cereal cultivation as a correlate of high social status in medieval Iceland.” Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 27, no. 5 (2017): 679–696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0665-4. Riseley, Charles. “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age.” Master’s thesis. University of Oslo, 2014. The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw. Translated by G. W. DaSent. Icelandic Saga Database, 1866. https:// sagadb.org/gisla_saga_surssonar.en. Smith, Monica L. “Feasts and Their Failures.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22, no. 4 (2015): 1215-1237. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10816-014-9222-y. Sturluson, Snorri. Edda. Translated by Anthony Faulkes. Darlington, UK: J. M. Dent, 1987. Sturluson, Snorri. Heimskringla. Translated by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes. Viking Society for Northern Research. London: University College London, 2011. Tacitus, Cornelius. Germany and its Tribes. Edited by Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb, and Lisa Cerrato. New York: Random House, 1942. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D1. Zori, Davide, Jesse Byock, Egill Erlendsson, Steve Martin, Thomas Wake, and Kevin J. Edwards. “Feasting in Viking Age Iceland: sustaining a chiefly political economy in a marginal environment.” Antiquity 87, no. 335 (2013): 150–165. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00048687. Örvar-Odds saga. Edited by Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan Forni, 1943. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2003.02.0028%3Achapter%3D27

1 Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson, A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources (Reykjávik: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998), 68–69. 2

Kaori O’Connor, Never-Ending Feast: The Anthropology and Archeology of Feasting (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), 23.

O’Connor, Never-Ending Feast, 7.

Bryan Hayden and Suzanne Villeneuve, “A Century of Feasting Studies,” Annual Review of Anthropology 40, no. 29 (2011), 434.

Michael J. Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Téne to the Viking Age (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), xiii.

6 Tacitus, Cornelius. Germany and its Tribes, eds. Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb, and Lisa Cerrato (New York: Random House), Ch. 13, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D13. While a discussion of the reliability of Tacitus is not possible here, those interested are encouraged to read Marianina Demetri Olcott’s 1985 article Tacitus on the Ancient Amber Gatherers: A Re-Evaluation of Germania. 7

John Lindow, “Comitatus, Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary,” University of California Publications in Linguistics 83 (1976), 12–17.

Charleton T. Lewis and Charles Short, “Comitatus” in Harper’s Latin Dictionary: A New Latin Dictionary, ed. Ethan Allen Andrews (New York: American Book Company, 1907), 2.

Lewis and Short, “Comes” in Harper’s Latin Dictionary, 374.

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 195.

11 Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 208–209. 12

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 99.

Church and Brodribb, Complete Works of Tacitus, ch. 13.

Bettina Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast’: Alcohol and the Legitimation of Power in Celtic Europe,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9, no. 1 (1999), 78.

McGovern et al. 2013

16 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 81–92. 17

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 97–98.

18 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 76. 19 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 79. 20

Matthew E. Loughton, “Getting Smashed: The Deposition of Amphorae and the Drinking of Wine in Gaul during the Late Iron Age,” Oxford Journal of Archeology 28, no. 1 (2009), 85–87.

21 Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 99. 22

Seamus Heaney and Cynthia Krupat, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999), 260–263.

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 10–11.

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

Endnotes

24 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 80. 25 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 81. 26

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 197.

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 217.

Lindow, “Comitatus, Individual and Honor,” 11.

Hávamál is a selection of sayings associated with Odin, which appears in the Poetic Edda. The only surviving source this section is the 13th century Codex Regius, although it is presumed to date from much earlier (See Bellows 1936).

Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda (American Scandinavian Foundation: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936), 44.

31 Charles Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” Master’s thesis, (University of Oslo, 2014), 8. 32

Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 15–16.

Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 16.

Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 4–15.

Jenny Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015), 115–125.

Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, 115–125.

Eva Koch, “Mead, chiefs and feasts in later prehistoric Europe,” in Food, Culture and Identity in the Neotlithic and Early Bronze Age, ed. Mike Parker Pearson (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Ltd, 2003), 125.

Monica L. Smith, “Feasts and their Failures,” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22, no. 4 (2014), 1215–1237.

Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, 69.

41 Egil’s Saga, trans. Bernard Scudder (London: Penguin, 2004), 48. 42 Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 72. 43

Vivian Etting, The Story of the Drinking Horn: Drinking Culture in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2013), 20–21. It is interesting to note that the Celts had for a long time imported Mediterranean wine and drinkware, and Roman glass drinking horns have been found in Danish Iron-Age burials.

Michael Mitchiner, “Evidence for Viking-Islamic Trade Provided by Samanid Silver Coinage,” East and West 37, no. 1/4 (1987), 139.

Patrick E. McGovern et al., “A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog,’” Danish Journal of Archaeology 2, no. 2 (2013): 1.

Davide Zori et al., “Feasting in Viking Age Iceland: sustaining a chiefly political economy in a marginal environment,” Antiquity 87, no. 335 (203), 150–165.

47 Scott Riddell et al., “Cereal cultivation as a correlate of high social status in medieval Iceland,” Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 27, no. 5 (2017), 679–696. 48

Koch, “Mead, chiefs and feasts in later prehistoric Europe,” 135.

McGovern et al., “A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog,’” 12–15.

50 McGovern et al., “A biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog,’” 1. 51 Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Örvar-Odds saga (Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan Forni, 1943), Ch. 27, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2003.02.0028%3Achapter%3D27. 52 Guðni Jónsson and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Örvar-Odds saga, Ch. 27. 53 Carol J. Clover, “The Germanic Context of the Unferþ Episode,” Speculum 55, no. 3 (1980), 445. 54 Board games are referenced both in Morkinskinna and Völuspá. 55

The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw, trans. G. W. DaSent (Icelandic Saga Database, 1866), Ch. 8, https://sagadb.org/gisla_saga_surssonar.en.

56 Meetings for the playing of games are referenced in chapter 8 of Gisla saga Súrssonnar, and chapter 40 of Egil´s saga Skallagrímsonnar, 98-99. 57 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 25. 58 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 25. 59 Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 6–7. Interestingly one of the queen peices from the Lewis Chessmen holds a drinking horn, in juxtaposition to the armed male figures. 60 Bellows, The Poetic Edda, 88–93. 61 Bellows, The Poetic Edda, 94. 62 Sturluson and Faulkes, Edda, 32. 63 Aðalsteinsson, A Piece of Horse Liver, 50. 64 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 5. 65 Sturluson Snorri, Heimskringla, trans. Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes, (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2011), 97–98. 66 Sturluson, Heimskringla, 11. 67 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 8. 68 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 4. 69 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 4. 70

Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 17.

71 Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in the Viking Age,” 17. 72 Aðalsteinsson, A Piece of Horse Liver, 39. 73

Sturluson and Faulkes, Edda, 106.

Heaney and Krupat, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, lines 1012-1024.

A Toast from the High Seat: The Feast in the Viking Age

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland By Jennifer Lien University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison

he immigration of the Viking pioneers to the North Atlantic islands was a period of expansive exploration, settlement, and colonization. Primary sources such as the King’s Mirror and Erik the Red’s Saga inform us about the lifestyles and the journeys of the Norse into the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean that led to the discovery of habitable islands such as the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. The Norse settlement at Greenland in the 10th century is unique because it was completely abandoned in the 15th century. The reason for the Norsemen’s abandonment of the site is still unclear, and the study of the history of their lives at the settlement is a common topic of inquiry by scholars. Beginning in the 13th century, there is evidence for a change in subsistence from domestic livestock to aquatic mammals at the site of Brattahlid North. Soil and paleoclimate analyses and archaeological remains at the Norse site of Brattahlid provide specific insight into the lifehistory of the Norse Greenlanders, and may pertain to the final abandonment of the site in the 15th century. Colonizers settled in the uncharted territory of present day Greenland for various reasons. The historical text King’s Mirror states that individuals went to Greenland for fame and rivalry, curiosity, and/or gain.1 The Book of the Icelanders states the complete settlement of Iceland occurred within sixty years of its initial occupation around the 870s AD, subsequently requiring Norsemen to find new locations to live.2 Greenland appeared to be a suitable location, for it had geographical terrain similar to Norway, along with many natural resources for economic trade.3 There was also a Medieval Warm Period in Greenland from 900–1350 AD, which 25

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

created favorable conditions for the settlers.4 The emigrants were likely able to adapt to their new surroundings with ease, responsibly managing their new environment. Greenland was also uninhabited in the south, which diminished any threat of resistance from the native Inuits.5 However, the location proved to be uninhabitable for permanent occupation since the site was ultimately abandoned. The final abandonment was likely influenced by climatic deterioration beginning in the 13th century. The environmental changes caused by the Little Ice Age in Greenland from 1350–1800 AD possibly forced the Norse Greenlanders to face new and difficult challenges. Archaeological investigations of historic sites have provided scholars with physical remains that can relate to events or places referenced in primary sources. The site of Brattahlid North is an eastern settlement of Norse Greenland, and is located in the present-day settlement of Qassiarsuk. It is often cited as the farm of the pioneering Norwegian, Erik Thorvaldsson—better known as Erik the Red—and has been subject to numerous excavations by archaeologists and explorers from the 18th through the 21st centuries. In 1751, the Dano-Norwegian Arctic explorer Peder Olsen Walloe traveled through the fjords in southern Greenland and documented a large number of ruins at the site.6 Later in the mid-1930s and 1960s, the site was unsystematically excavated and the trenches were disturbed. These historic excavations, as well as present-day farming and construction, have disturbed the site, and it is likely that these excavations damaged the archaeological sample size that is used in the site’s analysis. From 2005 to 2006, the first systematic excavation at the site was conducted. The main goal of the 2005 excavation was to locate the trench opened in 1932 and retrieve any remaining archaeological 26

The zoological remains from the 2005–2006 excavations show an intensified use of aquatic mammal resources, such as seal, during the time of the Norse occupation in Greenland. The aquatic mammal assemblages consist primarily of seal, with small proportions of whale, porpoise, and walrus. The site of Brattahlid North yields an abundance of different species of seal bones—a trend that is commonly found at Greenlandic Norse sites. A large increase in seal bones is represented in the archaeological record beginning in the 13th century. The geologic layer from the early 11th century yielded twenty-five seal (Phocidae) bone fragments, which increased to 410 fragments by the early 13th century. The maximum amount of 692 seal bone fragments was found from the later 13th century, and 374 fragments were found from the 14th–15th centuries.9 From the archaeological evidence, it is reasonable to deduce from the large quantity of seal bone remains that seals constituted a large portion of the Norse Greenlanders’ diet. It is interesting to acknowledge that fish remains were not found during the 2005–2006 excavations. Major sieving techniques were enforced, yet fish remains were absent in the archaeological record.10 Fish bones are small and fragile and 27

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

material in the refuse layer. In 2006, the aim was to excavate the undisturbed middens.7 The team used an open area method, where a 10x10 meter unit is excavated. The youngest, top-most layer was excavated by cleaning, photographing, planning, and removing the material. After the top layer was removed, the team continued excavating each chronological layer until nothing remained except the soil prior to the colonization. All the deposits were sieved with four-millimeter mesh to collect small bones (e.g. any fish remains), wood, and artifacts. Surface finds were collected and recorded.8

are thus susceptible to taphonomic processes—increasing their likelihood of deteriorating over time, and therefore, not being recoverable in the archaeological record. However, different Norse sites with comparable or even worse environmental conditions for preservation yield large quantities of fish remains, e.g. Iceland. Using fish as a subsistence and trade resource did not seem to be imperative for the Greenlanders, which is contrary to economic strategies of neighboring Scandinavian settlements.11 Christian Keller (2010) hypothesizes in his publication, Furs, Fish, and Ivory: Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe, that the “escalating fishing industry in Iceland may have left the Norse Greenland colonies in an economic backwater.”12 Since the trading of valuable fish was nearly monopolized by other Nordic cities, Greenland could have focused on other materials for export, such as ivory, for example.13 Aside from aquatic mammal remains, the domestic mammal assemblage from the archaeological layers consists primarily of sheep, goat, and cattle. This representation is common for Greenlandic Norse settlements, with other sites including a higher representation of pig bones—likely due to an increased focus on pig husbandry. The geologic layer from the early 11th century yielded fifteen domestic mammal bone fragments, and increased to 168 fragments by the early 13th century. The maximum amount of 239 seal bone fragments was found in the later 13th century, but drastically decreased to ninety-two fragments by the 14th and 15th centuries. Archaeologist Ragnar Edvardsson analyzed the marine versus terrestrial mammal representation in the archaeological record at Brattahlid. The representation of domestic mammals at the site indicate that the Norse living at the settlement were utilizing

Osteological remains offer primary evidence from once-living individuals of a change in subsistence strategy during the period of Norse occupation on Greenland. Jette Arneborg et al. analyzed the diet of twenty-seven Norse Greenlanders that lived from the 10th to 15th century through stable carbon isotope analysis and Carbon-14 dating.15 Carbon-14 dating of the osteological remains allowed Arneborg et al. to measure the deterioration of C-14 in the organic material after it was no longer living to determine the estimated, chronological age of the material. The δ¹³C of bone collagen (which is the fractional deviation of the ¹³C/¹²C ratio from the standard used for verifying the accuracy of mass spectroscopy) can indicate the primary diet of an individual. The composition of the bone collagen determines the components of a marine/terrestrial food protein or plants of C3 and C4 photosynthesis. The analysis of the stable carbon isotope Carbon-13 from the bone allowed Arneborg to determine the predominant food source. The osteological remains from the 10th through the 12th centuries show a diet consisting primarily of domestic terrestrial food. However, the analysis of osteological remains from the 13th through the 15th centuries show a diet consisting primarily of marine food found in the area which was likely from aquatic mammals such as seals, not fish.16 This is suggested through the absence of fish remains found in the archaeological assemblages. Arneborg et al. found an increase in marine consumption over time at Greenland sites in association with the cooling temperature in the Arctic.17 This supporting evidence for a subsistence change is significant because it is found 29

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

resources imported from other lands as sustenance, but relied primarily on aquatic mammals.14

directly from human remains, and doesn’t extrapolate concepts from admissible evidence. To settle in Greenland, the Norse needed to establish and maintain a type of agricultural system to support the livestock on the island. Overgrazing by common livestock such as sheep, goat, and cattle would lead to soil erosion—a natural process that can be seen in the abnormal dental deterioration of the fossil goat and sheep teeth found at the site. The abnormal deterioration of the fossil teeth found at the site led Adderley and Simpson to analyze the soil and paleo-climate at Qassiarsuk. They found that there was a frequent requirement for irrigation at the site.18 To do this, they used the winter Dye 3 ice core δ¹⁸O record to reconstruct the paleotemperature at Norse Greenland. Adderley and Simpson used paleo-soil samples to measure the moisture deficiencies in relation to the duration and intensity of winter temperatures found from icecores and concluded that the longer the winter, the more moisturedeficient the soil.19 In addition, Adderley and Simpson found that when the Little Ice Age began around 1350 AD, the colder climate would have produced moisture-deficiencies, affecting how much grassland and fodder resource was available to grazing animals. With a limitation in available natural resources to support the domestic mammals, Norse Greenlanders were likely required to shift their subsistence reliance to aquatic animals. Primary sources such as Eiríks saga rauða [Saga of Erik the Red] and Konungs skuggsjá [The King’s Mirror] provide additional information about the lifestyle of the Norse Greenlanders. The King’s Mirror, written c. 1250 AD, includes sections that detail “The Marvels of the Waters about Greenland: Monsters, Seals, and Walruses,” “The Animal Life of Greenland and the Character of the Land 30

The saga also comments on the climate of Greenland and states that overpowering cold covers the land with ice in the summer and in the winter.24 Since the text was written c. 1250, the Little Ice Age had not yet begun. The onset of the colder climate would have dramatically affected the Greenlanders lifestyle. This description, to some extent, supports the previous hypothesis stated by Adderley and Simpson (2006) of a decrease in temperature. “Eirik the Red’s Saga” composed c. 1265, mentions the struggles the Norse endured. A great famine occurred at Herjolfsnes, an eastern settlement south of Brattahlid, when Thorbjorn, a chieftain of Laugarbrekka, Iceland, visited Greenland. The men who had “gone out fishing caught poor catches, and some never came back.”25 Later in the saga, Erik the Red articulates his embarrassment with visiting merchants because he is unable to provide a lavish feast for the annual Christmas celebration. The merchants assure Erik the Red that they don’t mind, but offer the goods stored aboard their 31

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

in those Regions,” and “The Products of Greenland.”20 It lists in Norse colloquial terms the numerous species of seal found in the North Atlantic ocean such as “corse seal,” “erken-seal,” “flett-seal,” “bearded-seal,” “saddleback-seal,” and “short-seals”and notes that seal and whale were common food sources, and that seal skin was a common trade good.21 The walrus hide is stated to be thick and exceptional to make rope out of, and “can be cut into leather strips of such strength that sixty or more men may pull at one rope without breaking it.”22 The importance of trade is explicitly stated in The King’s Mirror: “everything that is needed to improve the land must be purchased abroad, both iron and all the timber used in building stones.”23 The information stated in the primary sources coincides with the archaeological evidence found at the site of Brattahlid.

ship of malt and corn to alleviate his anxiety. It states that once the feast was prepared, the others “had rarely seen such high living in a poor country.” 26 Both of these literary sources detail the lifestyle of the Norse Greenlanders. The archaeological remains found at the site of Brattahlid concur with the information in the primary sources and help establish their information as reliable. In conclusion, the archaeological remains at Brattahlid suggest a subsistence change during the Norse occupation of Greenland. Edvardsson found an increasing number of seal bones present in the archaeological assemblages from Brattahlid North, and a decreasing number of domestic, terrestrial animals such as cattle, goat, and sheep.27 Contrary to other Scandinavian sites, fish bones are absent, and thus, the primary subsistence strategy in the later centuries of Norse occupation was likely focused on aquatic mammals. In addition, stable carbon isotope analysis of the skeletal remains of the Norse Greenlanders’ bone collagen indicate a diet largely comprised of marine animals post-1300 AD, as Edvardsson demonstrates.28 Analyses by Adderley and Simpson of the paleoclimate and soil show that Brattahlid experienced moisture deficiencies in the soil, due to a decrease in the overall temperature of the region.29 A decrease in the amount of moisture and grassland would have had an impact on the diet of Norse Greenlanders, who likely consumed increasing numbers of aquatic animals during these times in order to conserve moisture and allow the grass to grow. Primary sources such as The King’s Mirror and Erik the Red’s Saga provide information about the Norse occupation of Greenland that concurs with the archaeological remains found at Brattahlid North. Seal and walrus were stated as important resources in the literary sources, and they are represented in large quantities at the 32

The evidence presented is significant for further studies about historic Scandinavian life and civilization, for the development and decline of the Norse settlement in Greenland influenced the lives of those living on and beyond the island. The Norse economy was likely affected once Greenlandic exports were no longer in circulation, and the individuals abandoning the settlement had to reestablish their livelihood in countries they had never seen before. By studying the site of Brattahlid, scholars can further construct a comprehensive history of Scandinavia.

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

site. Erik the Redâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Saga tells of the hardships that the Greenlanders had to endureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;their lifestyle was likely experimental as the land was uncharted. They had to learn how to navigate the landscape and utilize the natural resources. Zoological, osteological, soil, and paleoclimate analyses have revealed a subsistence change for the Norse during their brief occupation of Greenland. At the beginning of the Norse settlement, their predominant diet consisted of domestic terrestrial animals such as goat, sheep, and cattle. From the 14th to 15th century, their diet shifted to primarily aquatic animals, specifically seal. This shift in subsistence was likely the result of environmental pressures affecting the natural resources. This consequence could have motivated the final abandonment of the island.

Bibliography Adderley, W. Paul, and Ian A. Simpson. “Soils and Palaeo-Climate Based Evidence for Irrigation Requirements in Norse Greenland.” Journal of Archaeological Science 33 no. 12 (2006): 1666–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.014. Arneborg, Jette, Niels Lynnerup, Jan Heinemeier, Jeppe Møhl, Niels Rud, and Árný E. Sveinbjörnsdóttir. “Norse Greenland Dietary Economy Ca. AD 980-ca. AD 1450: Introduction.” Journal of the North Atlantic 301 (2012): 1–39. doi:10.3721/037.004.s303. Edvardsson, Ragnar. Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report). Bolungarvík, Greenland: Náttúrustofa Vestfjarða, NABO, Grønlands Nationalmuseum & Arkiv, 2007. “Eirik the Red’s Saga.” The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection. Translated by Keneva Kunz. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas. Translated by Gwyn Jones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Enghoff, Inge Bødker. Hunting, Fishing and Animal Husbandry at The Farm Beneath the Sand, Western Greenland: An Archaeozoological Analysis of a Norse Farm in the Western Settlement. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 2003. Keller, Christian. “Furs, Fish, and Ivory: Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe.” Journal of the North Atlantic 3 (2010): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.3721/037.003.0105. The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá). Translated by Laurence Marcellus Larson. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917. McGovern, Thomas; Pálsdóttir, Albína Hulda. Preliminary Report of a Medieval Norse Archaeofauna from Brattahlið North Farm (KNK 2629), Qassiarsuk, Greenland. New York: CUNY Northern Science and Education Center, 2006. Somerville, Angus A., and Russell Andrew McDonald. The Viking Age: A Reader. North York, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Star, Bastiaan, James H. Barrett, Agata T. Gondek, and Sanne Boessenkool. “Ancient DNA Reveals the Chronology of Walrus Ivory Trade from Norse Greenland.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285 no. 1884 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0978. Þorgilsson, Ari. The Book of the Icelanders. Translated by Halldór Hermannsson. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library, 1930.

1 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), trans. Laurence Marcellus Larson (New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917), 135–145. 2 Ari Þorgilsson, The Book of the Icelanders, trans. Halldór Hermannsson (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library, 1930). 3 Christian Keller, “Furs, Fish, and Ivory: Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe,” Journal of the North Atlantic 3 (2010), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.3721/037.003.0105. 4 Inge Bødker Enghoff, Hunting, Fishing and Animal Husbandry at The Farm Beneath the Sand, Western Greenland: An Archaeozoological Analysis of a Norse Farm in the Western Settlement (Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center, 2003), 18. 5 Angus A. Somerville and Russell Andrew McDonald, The Viking Age: A Reader (North York, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2010), 74–5, 6 Ragnar Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), (Bolungarvík, Greenland: Náttúrustofa Vestfjarða, NABO, Grønlands Nationalmuseum & Arkiv, 2007), 5–6. 7 Thomas McGovern and Albína Hulda Pálsdóttir, Preliminary Report of a Medieval Norse Archaeofauna from Brattahlið North Farm (KNK 2629), Qassiarsuk, Greenland (New York: CUNY Northern Science and Education Center, 2006), 2. 8 McGovern and Pálsdóttir, Preliminary Report of a Medieval Norse Archaeofauna from Brattahlið North Farm, 2. 9 Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), 22–8. 10 Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), 36. 11 Keller, “Furs, Fish, and Ivory: Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe,” 15. 12 Keller, “Furs, Fish, and Ivory: Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe,” 15. 13 Bastiaan Star, James H. Barrett, Agata T. Gondek, and Sanne Boessenkool, “Ancient DNA Reveals the Chronology of Walrus Ivory Trade from Norse Greenland,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285 no. 1884 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0978. 14 Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), 35. 15 Jette Arneborg, Niels Lynnerup, Jan Heinemeier, Jeppe Møhl, Niels Rud, and Árný E. Sveinbjörnsdóttir. “Norse Greenland Dietary Economy Ca. AD 980-ca. AD 1450: Introduction,” Journal of the North Atlantic 301 (2012), 22, doi:10.3721/037.004.s303. 16 Jette Arneborg, et al. “Norse Greenland Dietary Economy Ca. AD 980-ca. AD 1450: Introduction,” 160. 17 Jette Arneborg, et al. “Norse Greenland Dietary Economy Ca. AD 980-ca. AD 1450: Introduction,” 166. 18 Paul W. Adderley and Ian A. Simpson, “Soils and Palaeo-Climate Based Evidence for Irrigation Requirements in Norse Greenland,” Journal of Archaeological Science 33 no. 12 (2006), 1667, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.014. 19 Adderley and Simpson, “Soils and Palaeo-Climate Based Evidence for Irrigation Requirements in Norse Greenland,” 1675–76.

Subsistence Change for the Norse Vikings at Brattahlid, Greenland

Endnotes

20 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), 135–145. 21 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), 139–140. 22 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), 142. 23 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), 142. 24 The King’s Mirror (Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá), 147. 25 “Eirik the Red’s Saga,” The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection (New York: Penguin Books, 2001), 658. 26 “Eirik the Red’s Saga,” 665. 27 Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), 35. 28 Edvardsson, Archaeological Excavations at Qassiarsuk, 2005 – 2006 (field report), 35. 29 Adderley and Simpson, “Soils and Palaeo-Climate Based Evidence for Irrigation Requirements in Norse Greenland.”

The True Hero

By Jonathan Chang University of California, Los Angeles

eroes are subjective. According to scholar of epics Dean Miller, “the word ‘hero’ projects to us a kind of spurious solidity, so that we use it, and hear it used, as if it actually referred to a single cognitive image.”1 In this manner, the commonly accepted image of a hero in Scandinavian myth, epic, and legend is not only narrow minded, but actively resistant against the possibilities of what a hero could be and who could helm their own “heroic” journey. With a slight shift in point of view, the stories of Scandinavia allow for the discovery of the true nature of the heroic journey, one where the protagonist and the demonized antagonist are equally heroic. Only after accepting this fact can one appreciate the true liminality and heroically monstrous duality of each stories’ primary characters. Throughout the stories of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon in Beowulf, the monstrous demonstrate their capacity to be heroic through their calls to adventure, significance, and heroic resemblances thus allowing them to possess their own variation of the heroic journey. A hero is defined by their qualities, motives, and their identity. The main factors that validate a hero are outlined in the definition of a hero in the Oxford English Dictionary. When examining the etymology of the word, “hero” is found to be originated from the Greek language and was originally defined as a warrior or protector. On the contrary, it was also used to describe something of unknown origin. The word was later translated to Latin where it developed broader meaning and associations, such as a man of superhuman abilities and a person whose origin is semi-divine. Furthermore, a hero served as the main figure of a story thus holding great significance and fame. They were someone who was 39

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highly regarded by society and because of this, raised to god-like standards.2 The superhuman otherworldly features which define a hero makes it appear as if a hero is beyond human and perhaps even inhuman, a figure beyond the constraints of the human body. The more commonly accepted term for this “inhuman” figure is anti-hero: the central figure of a story, which is uncharacteristically heroic. The so-called villains of Beowulf would generally be labeled as anti-heroes—if the reader were being generous—but with respect to objectivity and open-mindedness, these villains more than qualify as genuine heroes. A character can also be classified as a hero if their own story fits into the mold of the traditional hero’s journey. The heroic journey, as illustrated by Joseph Campbell, can be broken down into three components: separation, initiation, and return.3 Each of the three stages of the journey can then be further deconstructed into over a dozen subsections, but the main sections in chronological order are “the call to adventure,” “the crossing of the first threshold,” “the passage into the realm of the night,” “the road of trials,” “apotheosis,” “the ultimate boon,” and “the crossing of the return threshold.”4 Whether or not a certain character is described by the heroic definitions previously mentioned, they can still be definitively validated as heroes through their own heroic journey. However, Campbell’s notions about what makes a hero is incomplete. His flaws fall into two categories: outdated masculinity and societal impact. First off, Campbell failed to consider the potential of the female character as a heroine and the underlying independence of heroines. As Maureen Murdock shows, Campbell believed that the “woman is primarily concerned with fostering. She can foster a body, foster a soul, foster a civilization, foster a 40

Heroes also have a tendency to leave long lasting impacts on the societies and peoples they influence. While Campbell’s theory of heroes took into consideration the internal transformations of heroes and the outer physical changes brought by the hero, it overlooked the societal changes that true heroes make. According to Victorian anthropologist Edward Tylor, “the events attributed to heroes affect the social condition of human beings more than the physical one. Adam and Eve’s misdeeds may make their descendants’ lives mortal, painful, and wearying, but the accomplishments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shape the customs, values, and institutions of Jews rather than their physical state.”7 In the case of Beowulf, the antagonists have all contributed to the richness of myth and legends of Scandinavian culture as well as the culture shift in the world of Beowulf. The monsters of Beowulf—Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon—objectively qualify as heroes due to their motivations and significance and thus warrant the validity of their own heroic journeys. Referring to the early trends in the idea of what 41

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community. If she has nothing to foster, she somehow loses the sense of her function.”5 However, from Grendel’s mother to Volsunga Saga’s Brynhild, the women of Scandinavian literature have proven time and time again that women truly foster themselves and that they are able to lead their own story without the reliance of men. The heroine’s journey described by Murdock is a more contemporary look at the inner journey of the heroine and their consequent influence on others. This rendition of the hero’s journey incorporates the stages, “Separation from the feminine” and “Integration of masculine and feminine,” which deviates from Campbell’s imperfect version of the heroic journey.6

constitutes a hero, heroes are typically the subject of stories and perform superhuman feats.8 Grendel, although not conventionally recognized as a hero, in a certain point of view, fulfills these requirements. In fact, his presence and past actions serve as the impetus to Beowulf’s own heroic journey and are the reason why Beowulf knew to travel to the land of the Danes in the first place. The epic describes Grendel’s acquisition of fame as such: “The ogre’s evil / went on so long / that news of his raids / was known everywhere.”9 Due to this, Grendel’s gravity on the plot and momentum of the story weighs as heavy as Beowulf’s. Grendel also exhibits superhuman qualities, which is evident by his ability to stand his ground against many Danish warriors. Beowulf illustrates Grendel as having fought “one against many, / until the wide ale-hall / stood unused at night.”10 Immediately, Grendel’s presence is felt by all those around him and his supernatural strength is noted. His actions alone heavily impacted the social lives, daily agenda, and religious practices of the Danes. It is mentioned that the Danes “practiced / demon worship / at dark altars, / offered sacrifice, / asked the Devil / … to send them help” as a result of Grendel’s intrusion.11 Because of these reasons and Grendel’s ability to overcome his challenges, the demonized character demonstrates the characteristics of a hero and establishes his own heroic journey. The heroic journey of Grendel follows the common template of the hero’s journey and brings about the entrance of a parallel hero: Grendel’s mother. Grendel’s journey begins with his call to adventure, the painful ringing of festivities. The epic poem describes him as a “dread demon / who dwelt in the shadows / daily endured / desperate pain, obliged to listen / to the bright music / of heroes in hall.”12 Grendel then reaches the threshold of Heorot Hall and comes 42

Grendel’s mother atones for her son by venturing to Heorot Hall and murdering one of the Danish men. By seeking vengeance for her son, Grendel’s mother demonstrates one of the core elements of Scandinavian history and literature: retribution. Retribution is a form of direct resolution that finally and securely settles a feud between two groups. Considering that feuds were at the heart of Middle Age Scandinavia, retribution—and also resolution— is of great significance. It was the way in which families and clans established authority and settled lands and can be found throughout most epics and sagas in Scandinavian literature, including Beowulf. Although there are passive forms of resolution, in heroic societies, a threatening challenge often times demanded a violent response, which came in the form of einvígi, or a duel; however, as Beowulf’s duel with Grendel would prove, einvígi, “often failed to settle matters permanently,” and usually set forth blood vengeance.13 In Beowulf, Grendel’s mother displays her heroic quality by attacking one of the Danish men in Heorot Hall as a way of retribution for the murder of Grendel. Retribution for her son was essentially 43

The True Hero

upon a revelation: to satisfy his call to adventure and cease his pain, he would rid Heorot Hall of its inhabitants. Because of the events that unfolded, Grendel’s name immediately became known across the expanse of Scandinavia and neighboring lands. This fame would bring him to the next stage in his heroic journey. The next milestone, apotheosis, comes in the form of recognition or more accurately, infamy. Once an outcast and pitiful descendent of Cain and consequently original sin, Grendel is now a formidable foe and a mighty force to be reckoned with. However, he fails to reach the ultimate boon at the hands of Beowulf and the cycle continues with the vengeful actions of his mother.

what drove her heroic journey and was her own call to adventure. This action also cemented Grendel’s mother’s role in the heroine’s journey. She is able to successfully separate from the feminine by deviating from the maternal role preordained to her and take matters into her own hands. Although short, Grendel’s mother’s heroine journey proves that it is possible and even necessary to distinguish the hero from the heroine. With Grendel gone, she is able to be independent from the male figure in her life and act for herself and by herself.14 From an objective point of view, she proves that she is no less heroic than Beowulf. Despite how barbaric it may seem in modern times, in 6th century Scandinavia, it was morally acceptable and even encouraged for bloodshed to require bloodshed in return just as Beowulf and Grendel’s mother have shown. Beowulf describes Grendel’s mother as “living still / and longing to strike / a vigorous blow / to avenge her child.”15 Grendel’s mother attempts to make up for the wrongs dealt to her son and alternatively, is justified in her pursuits as she is the protector of the creatures in the ocean and simply watches over those under her guidance. In the end, Grendel’s mother reconnects with the feminine and ultimately integrates the masculine and feminine, the last stage of the heroine’s journey, by returning to her den and serving as both mother and protector—a protector comparable to her male counterparts. Her maternal role over those in the ocean is realized when all of the beings in the ocean are wiped out as she “[leaves] this transient / and delusive world.”16 Her position as a protector resembles that of Beowulf’s, which sheds light on the common traits between the “monsters” of Beowulf and Beowulf himself. The many unrecognized similarities of the characters in Beowulf blurs and effectively erases the line between hero and monster. From significance to personal goals, the heroes of Beowulf can 44

The True Hero

be interpreted as monsters and vice versa rendering the primary characters of the epic complex liminal figures capable of qualifying as a monster or a hero. The first parallel between Beowulf and his adversaries is seen immediately as their respective call to adventures are revealed. Both Beowulf and Grendel are provoked to act as both are painfully forced to listen to dreadful sounds. Specifically, Beowulf is forced to listen to the sounds of his neighbor’s gruesome murders and Grendel, the cacophony of Heorot Hall. From the reader’s perspective, both characters are also outsiders and outcasts in their own sphere. Grendel is outlawed by God, “along with the rest / of the line of Cain,” due to his family’s reputation and thus “[prowls] / the dark borderlands, / moors and marshes.”17 Similarly, Beowulf embarked from the land of the Geats to the realm of the Danes, valiantly fighting alone in an unfamiliar environment. In addition to Grendel, Beowulf also shares commonalities with Grendel’s mother. As Æschere is murdered by Grendel’s mother, Beowulf remarks to his companion, Hrothgar, “it is far, far better / to avenge a friend / than vainly mourn him,” which is exactly what Grendel’s mother did when Beowulf slayed her son.18 The similar vengeful mindset shared between Grendel’s mother and Beowulf is telling about the sound emotional mentality of most monsters that often goes unnoticed. Due to the countenance and physical features of the antagonists in Scandinavian literature, most readers assume that what lies inside is as equally monstrous as what lies outside; however, this is proven incorrect by the identical line of thought between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother when they both lose someone of kin. The resemblance between hero and monsters does not stop with Grendel and his mother, but also continues to Beowulf’s final opponent: the dragon.

Beowulf’s superficial magnificence is only accentuated by the prominence of his monstrous dragon counterpart. The dragon, like Grendel and Grendel’s mother before him, holds many parallels with the preordained hero Beowulf. Just as Beowulf protects the people in the land of the Danes, the dragon “[guards] a gold-hoard / in a great barrow / on the rim of the heath.”19 At the point when Beowulf and the dragon are about to proceed with their ultimate battle, the two are nearly indistinguishable. From their stance to their armor and weapons to their warring mindsets, both Beowulf and the dragon are fighting for the same objective: to protect what they value most, and both are willing to risk their lives in trying to do so. This reveals a disturbing truth about Beowulf’s questionable heroic nature. The scene is established with the following lines: “The lord of retainers / stood resolutely by the high shield; / the dragon coiled quickly together; / he waited in war-gear.”20 The pronoun “he” can be interchangeably used to refer to either Beowulf or the dragon as they are both hesitant on meeting their fates. Beowulf’s war-gear includes his shield, helmet, and armor while the dragon’s war-gear consists primarily of his protective scales. The heroic presence of Beowulf is equally matched by the grand visage of the dragon revealing the indistinguishability of hero and monster. One of the main qualifications of a hero is permanence—everlasting renown. This heroic trait coincides with Tyler’s postulations about heroic impact on societies. Considering the duel between Beowulf and the dragon is the concluding event in the epic Beowulf, the dragon holds substantial importance to the overall storyline of the epic. Even in comparison to other dragon related stories, the dragon in Beowulf reigns supreme and as medieval literature scholar Jonathan Evans writes, “few dragons indeed challenge those of 46

Some may argue against the legitimacy of the monster’s role as the hero due to their questionable morality; however, when looking back at the root of the word “hero” and its beginnings it becomes clearer that the monsters are truly justified heroes. Before the moral connotations and semi-divine denotations were attributed to “hero,” the word took on the form of “ser-.” This Indo-European root of the Greek word “heros” simply means “to protect.”23 The definition opens up an avenue rarely discussed about what truly makes a hero. It reveals that it is only when we consider the 47

The True Hero

the Beowulf… [legend] in narrative prominence and thematic importance.”21 The dragon is validated as a hero not because it took vengeance for a lost loved one or because of righteousness but because it is a memorable figure and established the high reputation of dragons in stories to come. Despite not being given a name, the monster will always be remembered as the final opponent of the great Beowulf in the time of heroes. Beowulf and the dragon were both part of an age that the readers can only imagine, an age that is remembered in stories as ancient Greek author, Hesiod, would have put it. Hesiod was one of the first to write about heroes and described them as existing in an age before the current age—an age that evokes nostalgia and that is remembered in stories.22 Due to the memorialized nature of the poem, Beowulf, the dragon and the dragon’s journey is synonymous with the heroic journey of his monstrous predecessors. In the case of the epic poem’s closing scene, both Beowulf and the dragon fit the mold for the hero and the antagonist leading into the possibility of the hero taking the place of the monster. After all, as the antagonists in Beowulf have proven, anyone can be a hero and the most magnificent can be monstrous. Ultimately, the two figures obscure the fine barrier between hero and monster.

contemporary perspective of heroes when we take into account morality and the ethical justification of a heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions. For instance, the efforts of the dragon in Beowulf is no less heroic than those of certain heroes in Scandinavian epic, even though the latter pillaged and murdered fellow men for sport. Both lack morality; however, they both are protecting treasures they value at the expense of their own lives. Due to its origins, the true nature of the word hero allows for the monstrous to soundly qualify as heroes, despite how unorthodox it may seem. The primary figures of Beowulf have proven themselves liminal figures not classifying as distinct heroes or monsters, but rather monstrous heroes and equally, heroic monsters. The overarching significance in the indistinguishable quality of heroes and monsters in Scandinavian literature reveals a glaring truth about the written worlds across Scandinavia literature: in every character lies the reconciliation of heroism and monstrosity.

The True Hero

Bibliography Byock, Jesse. Feud in the Icelandic Saga. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004. Evans, Jonathan. “Semiotics and Traditional Lore: The Medieval Dragon Tradition.” Journal of Folklore Research (1985): 85-108. Liddell, Henry, Robert Scott, and Henry Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1843. Miller, Dean. The Epic Hero. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1990. Murray, James. Oxford English Dictionary. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1884. Ringler, Dick. Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, 2005. Segal, Robert A. Theorizing About Myth. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. Watkins, Calvert. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000.

Endnotes 1 Dean Miller, The Epic Hero (Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). 2 James Murray, Oxford English Dictionary (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1884). 3 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004), 28. 4 Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 34–35. 5 Maureen Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey (Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1990), 22. 6 Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey, 15. 7 Robert A. Segal, Theorizing About Myth (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 14. 8 Segal, Theorizing About Myth, 14. 9 Dick Ringler, Beowulf (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries, 2005), II 297–300. 10 Ringler, II 287–291. 11 Ringler, II 348–354. 12 Ringler, I 171–177. 13 Jesse Byock, Feud in the Icelandic Saga (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 106–107. 14 Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey, 17. 15 Ringler, Beowulf, XIX 2553–2556. 16 Ringler, Beowulf, XXIII, 3243–3244. 17 Ringler, Beowulf, I 206–214. 18 Ringler, Beowulf, XXI 2768–2770. 19 Ringler, Beowulf, XXXI 4423–4425. 20 Ringler, Beowulf, XXXV 5131–5136. 21 Jonathan Evans, “Semiotics and Traditional Lore: The Medieval Dragon Tradition,” Journal of Folklore Research (1985), 86. 22 Henry Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon (United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1843), 287. 23 Calvert Watkins, The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000), 112.

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945 By Kourtney Juhl Minnesota State University, Mankato

fter finally gaining independence in 1905,1 Norway had been a nation intent on building a national identity and relishing their freedom. The Norwegian Kingdom had successfully lived in peace, maintained neutrality through World War I, and hoped to remain neutral from the great conflict that was World War II (WWII). To the Norwegiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; utter shock, those hopes came to a shattering end during the early hours of April 9, 1940, when German forces invaded Norway.2 A Nazi invasion was not something that the Norwegians were willing to tolerate, so they resisted every aspect of the Germansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Nazification campaign. From the very beginnings of the occupation, the Norwegians united under strong leadership and implemented various resistance tactics to create cohesiveness among the people that Nazism could not penetrate. As a result, the Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation during WWII played a vital role in unifying the country and seeing the Norwegian people through the dark years of the occupation with their national identity and sense of solidarity intact. The Beginnings

The German attack on Norway, while not a surprising occurrence in the grand scheme of WWII, was entirely surprising to the Norwegians at the time due to the manner and rapidity in which it was conducted. Norway had been caught in negotiations, treaty offers, and pressure from both Great Britain and Germany, but having no desire to disrupt the peace experienced since the formation of the Eidsvoll constitution of 1814,3 Norway fought hard to uphold neutrality. It was well known to the Norwegians at the time that 53

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

both Great Britain and Germany viewed Norway as a vantage point to reach the opposing side, and both powers tried to gain Norway’s cooperation formally and politically. Yet, Norway wanted to avoid the conflict for as long as possible. However, it is important to note that while there was a group of people that supported the ideas of Nazism—as was the case with most countries at the time—the vast majority of Norwegians were strongly opposed. This sentiment is shared in a first-hand account written by Halvdan Koht, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1935–1941: “[Norwegians were] absolutely adverse to the whole Nazi ideology of tyranny with the suppression of all forms of democracy and liberty, and they detested heartily the persecutions and brutalities exercised in the name of nationalism.”4 They viewed the aggressive policies of Germany as a danger to the independence of all small nations, and they wanted to be neither friend nor foe to the Nazi regime. After Hitler became convinced that Great Britain would use Norway’s location as a major invasion route to stage an attack against Germany, he swiftly decided to send his troops northward so that he could take Norway for himself. Boats with soldiers landed in various ports around the country, and planes with soldiers filled the sky; there were Nazi forces all over the country before Norway had much of a chance to do anything about it. Despite the sudden invasion, Germany had fully expected Norway to understand the German action and show no resistance to the occupation. Kurt Brauer, the German emissary, presented an ultimatum to Foreign Minister Halvdan Koht for total surrender of the country or else the German forces would crush all resistance, which would only result in unnecessary bloodshed of the Norwegian people. Koht steadfastly replied that the Norwegians would not submit and 54

Though the Norwegians knew there was little chance of regaining their desired peace and neutrality once the Germans invaded, they maintained hope that they could at least spare their king and government. German officials met with key leaders of the Storting, the Foreign Minister, and even King Haakon himself, and both sides 55

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

that they were in fact already fighting.5 Certainly, the Norwegian forces and patrol boats were doing everything possible to deter or at least delay the German troops landing in Oslo, and Norwegians attempted to fight off the arriving Germans in all of the cities that were invaded elsewhere in the nation. In the Oslofjord, a torrent of torpedoes, shells, and cannons hit the German flagship cruiser Bluecher, causing an explosion and sinking the ship. This temporary delay was just what the King, Royal Family, members of the cabinet, and the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) needed; they now had the opportunity to arrange for the transfer of gold from the Bank of Norway as well as important documents from the Foreign Office and escape Oslo to reconvene in the town of Hamar further inland.6 Unfortunately, the Norwegians had little chance of stopping the superior German forces, and it was only a short matter of time before the Norwegian coastal cities fell to German control. Gjelsvik reflected back to that night in his book Norwegian Resistance 19401945: â&#x20AC;&#x153;A paralyzing, almost unreal nightmare; in the course of a few hours our capital and the principal towns of the country were taken, together with every important airfield, coastal fortification, and supply of weapons. Opposition was improvised in South Norway, but defeat was inescapable.â&#x20AC;?7 Nevertheless, even though the capital was lost and the initial opposition defeated, Norwegian authorities, soldiers, and civilians were still determined to fight for their nation, so they took up arms and fought against the threat of occupation.

attempted to gain the other’s cooperation. However, as neither side was willing to compromise—Germany wanted Norway and Norway wanted freedom—these negotiations accomplished nothing except gaining time for Norway’s leaders to prepare for the worst. Meanwhile, the Norwegians maintained their guerrilla attacks and military resistance, allowing for the government officials to keep relocating to safe meeting places as needed. This continued until June 7, 1940, when King Haakon and his government finally accepted the inevitable and left Norway to take refuge in England.8 King Haakon and the Storting set up an independent government once they arrived in London, so they could essentially provide as much leadership as possible to the Norwegian people from afar. Back in Norway, however, the official leadership as recognized by Nazi Germany fell to people who believed and supported the ideals of Nazi Germany. This is where Vidkun Quisling, now wellknown to the Norwegians as a national traitor, eagerly stepped up and filled the gap. Quisling was a complicated and strange man. He accomplished many things at a young age in his life: he invented a mathematical demonstration at age twelve that was taught in Norwegian schools, he graduated with the highest marks from the military academy at age twenty-four, and he worked as a secretary to Fridtjof Nansen and organized foreign aid that helped save thousands of lives in Ukraine by age thirty-five.9 Despite these great achievements, he was a solitary individual and was ironically paranoid about betrayal. In 1933, Quisling set up his own political party called Nasjonal Samling (NS)—National Union in English—and drifted increasingly toward a far-right political position.10 Eventually, Quisling met with Hitler and joined the Nazi movement.

With the absence of King Haakon and the Storting, the NS took control as the interim government and introduced various schemes to uphold and spread Nazi ideals. At first, the strategy was to convince the Norwegians that German occupation was beneficial and to win over the Nordic country through coaxing and flattery. However, as Riste and Nökleby describe, attempts at persuading the Norwegian people may have backfired: …by giving patriotic Norwegians time to be ‘persuaded,’ [the Germans and their Norwegian assistants] in fact gave them time to recover from the initial blows and to prepare

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

Quisling and his NS were destined to be viewed as a force of evil for the Norwegian people from the very beginning of the war. In the midst of the chaos that came with the Germans’ invasion of Norway, Quisling was momentarily victorious. He used the Norwegians’ initial reaction of shock and disorientation to his advantage and seized power. On the morning of April 9, 1940, Quisling broadcasted a speech in which he declared himself the new head of the Norwegian government and that he was in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.11 The country became divided over this new turn of events. Quisling had a small following in the NS and drew in several more followers with his newfound power, but a much higher percentage of the population was displeased. At this time, a person was either known as a “good” Norwegian or a Quisling follower, and if a person was labeled as a Quisling follower, that person was considered to be against the restoration of Norway and its return to independence.

the ground for an anti-Nazi front. Then, when terror and violence really hit, the front had grown sufficiently strong to react to it as a challenge rather than as a deadening blow.12

The Norwegians were unlikely to fall in line on their own, so the NS had to change tactics; they introduced policies and laws to force Nazification on the people. Yet, it was too late. Since the Norwegians already had sufficient time to come together in resistance, the NS had little chance of gaining the control they were seeking: “Each successive Nazification measure conceived by the Quisling government evoked the opposite of the intended result, clarifying the conflict for the Norwegians and drawing more of them into active resistance.”13 As the resistance grew stronger, the NS’s policies and laws were repeatedly shut down by the Norwegians’ absolute refusal to conform. Though Quisling created numerous problems for Norway both before and during Germany’s occupation of Norway, he played an instrumental role in the Norwegian resistance movement because he provided a common enemy to link the confused nation together. The way in which Quisling used the German invasion to rise to power triggered outrage among the Norwegian people. As a result, the Norwegians united across occupations, social classes, and ages to reject the various Nazification efforts. Quisling even became such a hated symbol of the German occupation that Hitler had to remove him from immediate power in hopes of earning the Norwegians’ cooperation and trust. However, though Quisling was replaced with an Administrative Council, he still actively contributed to Nazi efforts, and his party still had a large influence over policies that were imposed in Norway during the years of the occupation. Norwegians

Leadership The resistance movement was initially disorganized and without unity, caused in part by a lack of direction. The Norwegians needed leaders to guide them through the uproar and confusion in order to construct an impactful civil resistance to the Nazi occupation. Once these leaders were established, the Norwegians were able to create a system for resistance to the Nazis. In contrast to Quisling, one central figure that brought the Norwegians together and sparked resistance by much more positive means was King Haakon. King Haakon was beloved by his subjects ever since coming from Denmark to take the Norwegian throne in 1905,14 and his popularity only grew in the succeeding years of his reign. In all the turmoil that occurred throughout the German invasion and occupation, King Haakon remained a steadfast figure fighting for Norway’s liberation and was adamant that Norwegians keep resisting. He became one of the most prominent forces behind the resistance movement and served as a motivator for the forces at home. Though King Haakon had fled from Norway, he still faced substantial pressure from German leaders. He was still technically the head of the monarchy and had a significant amount of influence over his subjects. Germany needed to get rid of the King in order to have complete control and gain the cooperation of the Norwegian citizens, so they called for King Haakon’s abdication. The state of Norway was that of so much confusion and disorientation, 59

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never did accept the Nazi ideology, so instead of implementing a complete Nazification of Norway, Quisling’s actions and the resulting commands of the NS only planted the seeds for resistance.

that the remaining parliament representatives wrote to their King recommending that he relinquish his title.15 After debating the implications of his decision, King Haakon ultimately refused to abdicate and even broadcasted his reply over BBC radio. He expressed that he would be betraying his duty to his people and the Norwegian government if he did not support the nation’s sovereignty until a time when they could resume their governmental responsibilities as normal. The King’s reply was printed, duplicated, copied, and shared across occupied Norway and can be marked as a turning point of sorts in the country’s decision to resist.16 Riste and Nökleby further explain the impact the king’s actions had on the resistance: The growth of a spirit of resistance during the summer of 1940 owed much to the courage of a few farsighted men. Above all stood King Haakon, whose firm rejection of the call for his abdication dispelled much of the bewilderment and made it easier for Norwegians to decide where to make their stand.17

Once the majority of the Norwegian people had decided that they must resist, King Haakon became a symbol of Norway’s freedom and resistance. King Haakon proved to be a unifying figure that bolstered the Norwegian citizens’ resolve to resist. According to Koht, King Haakon had strong qualities that the Norwegian people responded to [he] became the hero of the nation, and he made himself worthy of the love and admiration that flowed towards him. The crisis enhanced the qualities of courage and firmness

absolute willingness to sacrifice himself for the cause of his people were put to the ultimate test, and they proved unfailing.18

King Haakon put his country and his subjects’ needs above his own, and the Norwegians respected him even more for it. With a strong leader to depend on and rally behind, the Norwegians wanted to make him proud and do what they could to resist Nazi control. Aside from King Haakon, there were two other very important organizations operating on Norwegian soil that acted as national leadership groups and helped spur resistance: Koordinasjonskomiteen (KK) and Kretsen—the Coordination Committee and the Circle. The KK was an underground committee dedicated to forming a nation-wide executive body for the resistance, uniting the various but previously separated resistance organizations. The KK also took on the responsibility of distributing secret directives or paroles across the country.19 These paroles proved to be ground-breaking in the unification of the Norwegians: “The parole created the feeling of solidarity essential for the civil struggle. It weakened the most important weapon of the Nazi terror, namely, the isolation of the individual and the dread of standing all alone.”20 Closely cooperating with the KK, the Circle, which was formed by labor leaders and former members of the Supreme Court and the Administrative Council, had a different but still vastly useful task. The Circle’s main purpose was to provide communication between the home front of the resistance movement in Norway and the exiled Norwegian government in London and Sweden.21 Together, these two organizations eventually took on leadership of

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

that were inherent in his soul. His profound sense of duty, his

the civilian resistance movement and provided the Norwegians with a much-needed unified front to resist the Nazis. Tactics of Civil Resistance Once the Norwegians had a cohesive unit of resistance and had confidence in their leadership, the resistance movement quickly gained momentum. Though there were a few instances of military resistance and physical acts against the occupying Nazi forces, most of the tactics used were nonviolent, including the circulation of an underground press, acts of demonstration, the shunning of Nazi soldiers and sympathizers, the use of humor to alienate the unwelcome Germans, and the use of symbolism to display allegiance to the resistance. Underground Press The underground press of the Norwegian resistance movement was perhaps one of the most significant tactics utilized under the German occupation. Riste and NĂśkleby describe the underground press as being an important aspect of the unification of the resistance movement: Besides offering a welcome antidote to the heavy-handed Nazi propaganda, [the underground press] provided the links in the growing barrier of patriotic solidarity. For as individuals, the Norwegians were hardly by nature any more â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;heroicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; or staunch anti-Nazi than any other nation, but with the courage and leadership of the few, and the means by which they could reach the many, a unity was created whose strength withstood the test.22 62

Another aspect of the underground press was the writing and printing of illegal newspapers. The first illegal newspapers were created in October of 1940, and over the course of the occupation, Norwegian citizens established over three hundred newspapers, most of which stressed the Norwegian ideals that were under threat of Nazification.26 There were also many watchwords of the resistance movement such as Frihet (Freedom), Norge (Norway), Norsk (Norwegian), Folke (The People), Demokraten (Democracy), Konstitusjon (Constitution), Kongen (The King) to be found in each 63

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

The Norwegians needed to stay updated on news of the war from outside sources, and the best way to do that was by working together with other Norwegians to gain access to the outside information and share it with as many people as possible. With the Norwegian news institutions shut down or forced into Nazi control, the only news that Norwegians were receiving was filled with Nazi propaganda. Therefore, if the Norwegians were to fight off Nazism, they needed reliable and credible information sources. One aspect of the underground press was hidden radios. Norwegians across the country participated in clandestine radio listening to the British BBC, as well as Swedish channels to get more reliable news updates.23 When the Nazis realized what the radio sets were really being used for, they confiscated over 470,000 sets.24 This in no way deterred the Norwegians, though. Instead they hid newly procured sets from London, and they also concealed any radio sets that were unregistered to prevent the Nazis from knowing how many radio sets still remained.25 These radio sets and the radio listening were vastly important; not only did it allow for communication with the government in London, but it also provided a social activity for people to meet up in secret to listen for news together.

of these papers.27 Two of the most well-known of these illegal papers were called Bulletinen (The Bulletin) and Vi vil oss et land (We Want a Nation). Bulletinen served as an internal publication for leaders of the resistance to communicate with each other and the general public. Speeches and articles from central individuals from the resistance made up the majority of Bulletinenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contents. This newspaper was crucial since it was authoritative and endorsed by the resistance; it also urged its readers to maintain the struggle and helped spread directions about mass actions and demonstrations.28 Vi vil oss et land functioned in a similar way, though its goal was focused more on keeping the general public informed. Vi vil loss et land gave commentary on what was really happening in Norway and, like Bulletinen, it aimed to inspire Norwegians to keep fighting. In fact, the paperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission was very clearly stated to the public in its first issue in October 1940: First and foremost, we want to prove that the fight for a free Norway continues and will be upheld until we are at last free. Secondly, we want to keep the Norwegian people informed about what is happening in their countryâ&#x20AC;ŚThe fight for a free Norway will continue, whatever the cost. It boils down to the right to stay alive. We hope that this newspaper will help strengthen your beliefs and we are convinced that a system based on hate, injustice, and suppression can never survive. Whether the nights are long or short, our spirits will show more than ever. The Norway that we love and cherish will rise once again.29

Bulletinen and Vi vil oss et land were certainly not the only newspapers to tackle such issues, but they are both excellent examples of how 64

While the printing of illegal newspapers was vital, the circulation of those newspapers and other relevant documents is what really unified the nation in resistance. It was also a relatively easy way for a person to get involved. Wehr describes these ideas further: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was an ideal resistance activity for ordinary citizens. Passing an illegal paper to a friend was an individual act of resistance. News-passing, motivated by commitment to the values of truth and national independence and the need to know what was going on, reinforced the sense of national community and resistance involvement for both passer and receiver.â&#x20AC;?30 Other circulated documents included messages from King Haakon (such as his speech rejecting the call for his abdication), instructions to help organize demonstrations, and chain letters. One such chain letter contained what Koht refers to as the ten commandments of Norwegians: 1. Thou shalt obey King Haakon whom thou thyself hast elected. 2. Thou shalt detest Hitler and all his works, and never forget that, without a declaration of war, he made his co-assassins fall upon peaceable people. 3. Thou shalt remember forever how the German Nazis, without military reason, made their aviators wipe out Norwegian farms, villages and towns, in order to satisfy their blood-lust and spread terror. 4. Thou shalt despise any form of treason and remember that its punishment is death.

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

determined the Norwegians were to access and spread reliable news and information.

5. Thou shalt regard as traitor any Norwegian who, as a private individual, keeps company with Germans or Quislings at home, in the streets, or in restaurants. 6. So, too, thou shalt regard every member of the Storting who votes in favour of deposing our gallant King and our legal Government, who are the only ones who are able, in freedom and independence, to work for the liberty of Norway. 7. Thou shalt take note that a Government of German lackeys will be judged by the whole world as a Government of rebels and bring upon us universal contempt. 8. Thou shalt daily impress upon thy children and all thy acquaintances that they are Norwegians and must remain so. 9. Thou shalt remember that only a German defeat can give us our liberty again. 10. God save the King and the Fatherland.31

These ten commandments served as encouragement for the Norwegian people to remind them of who they are and that they are one people fighting a common enemy. By circulating the illegal newspapers and other documents, the Norwegians were uniting to share information and to uplift one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s morale with reminders that they were all in the struggle together. Each of these instances of the Norwegiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; use of underground press shows how determined the nation was to stay informed of real news and communicate with each other. The Norwegians knew that if they wanted to preserve their beloved country and culture, they needed to obtain information and work together to spread encouragement across the land; through the use of radios and the establishment and circulation of illegal newspapers, that is exactly what they did. 66

The illegal press was not the only display of resistance; many Norwegians also coalesced to give demonstrations and openly defy the occupying forces and Nazi programs. A fitting example of this was a nationwide demonstration that took place to commemorate the first anniversary of the German invasion. When April 9, 1941, came, traffic halted for thirty minutes at noon, nobody was in a store or used a car, tram, or telephone, and the day was considered a day of mourning without entertainment.32 This demonstration was a blatant statement about the Norwegians’ attitude towards the occupation, and it served as a way for Norwegians across the entire nation to unite in protest and resistance. Another significant demonstration that occurred to display resistance was a parent and teacher protest against adhering to demands made by the NS. For the parents, it was unacceptable for their children to be put in the midst of Nazification. Despite their objections, the NS planned to use the Nasjonal Samlings Ungdomsfylking (NSUF), a national youth organization, to force Nazism on Norwegian youth. The NSUF was a mandatory organization where all Norwegian children between the ages of ten and eighteen would be indoctrinated with Nazi ideology.33 Parents sent in more than 200,000 letters with their full names and addresses to the Nazis saying that they would not allow their children to join the NSUF.34 At schools, teachers faced being forced to assist in the NSUF as well as mandatory membership in the Nazi teachers’ association. Like the parents, letters of protest flooded in; 12,000 out of 14,000 teachers refused to join.35 In response, the NS decided to shut down the schools to “conserve fuel” for a month before finally arresting and sending 1,300 teachers to 67

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

Defiance and Demonstration

concentration camps as well as sending five hundred to labor in the harsh winter conditions in Northern Norway.36 Despite the terror and the hardship, the teachers held out until the NS finally gave up and labeled it all a “misunderstanding.”37 By uniting in the fight and refusing to back down, Norwegians forced Quisling, the NS, and Nazi officials to concede. The Norwegian youth, parents, and teachers ultimately accomplished a huge win—the Nazi ideology would not be implemented in the schools. This was a substantial victory for the resistance movement and the Norwegians’ fight against Nazification. The NS also faced demonstrations and conflict from the Church of Norway, Norway’s national church. In October of 1940, the Church set up the basis upon which resistance could be built when leaders of various religious organizations jointly published a Declaration of Common Faith, which emphasized their faith in Christian unity and created a common front for all the churches to work together even though they had previously often been in conflict with each other.38 Then, in 1942, NS officials began ordaining priests that believed in the Nazi ideology even though they had no training in theology, and the NS changed official religious writings to include fascist concepts and language.39 When the NS started to interfere with the Church and tried to use it to Nazi advantage, the Norwegian clergymen grew weary. A total of 645 of the 699 bishops sent in resignation letters to protest the NS’s church rights violations.40 The bishops were unhappy with the NS’s interference, and they felt it was their duty to God to resist as seen in their resignation letter: The Church of Norway’s bishops would be unfaithful to their calling if they continued to cooperate with an administration that in this way without a trace of ecclesiastical basis

violence. Therefore, I hereby announce that I am resigning from the exercise of my officeâ&#x20AC;Ś to continue the administrative cooperation with a state that exercises violence against the church would be to betray the most holy.41

After resigning, the clergymen gained support from their parishioners and continued to preach on their own while an incredibly displeased Quisling attempted to intervene and infiltrate the Church with German and NS clergymen. Even when Quisling succeeded, the Nazi clergy ended up preaching to empty churches. Since all the branches of the Church decided to set their differences aside and work together to resist the Nazi interference in religion, Quisling and the NS lost control of the Church conflict. Without total control of the Church, the Norwegians were able to thwart another attempt of Nazification. Aside from the larger acts of defiance and demonstration, there was also an abundance of smaller-scale, but often still dangerous, demonstrations exhibited daily by all manner of Norwegians. Cinema strikes and the National Theatre boycott are two such demonstrations. As films became more propagandistic, local boycotts of German and Italian films ensued, and theater owners would not cooperate with NS propaganda chiefs; they would stall or refuse to show propaganda films or even display Nazi posters.42 Similar instances of boycotting occurred with the National Theatre in Oslo as German propaganda films were shown before performances and as works by Nazi playwrights became more and more common. Norwegians stopped attending, and the disinterest in the theatre became a symbol of the Norwegiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rejection of Nazi culture. Attendance dropped significantly, and even when NS groups 69

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violates the congregation and even adds injustice to

received free tickets, the boycott remained strong.43 There were also many instances where actors and other artists refused to perform for the Nazis and the NS, causing the theatres to close. Then, when German actors and artists came to replace the resistant Norwegians, they often performed in empty theatres even when all the seats were booked.44 Additionally, there were other small yet significant acts of defiance occurring across the country. Some of these acts included cutting telephone and telegraph wires, throwing rocks at German soldiers, removing German flags, tearing down Nazi posters, hissing at Nazi speakers at public meetings, and boycotting public meetings of NS and Nazi officials.45 46 This collective cultural front of resistance must have been a huge embarrassment for the Nazi campaign, yet there was no plausible way for the Nazis to win over the Norwegians. The Norwegians were simply too determined to resist everything that the Nazis represented. Shunning and the Ice Front Another tactic of resistance that Norwegians used during the occupation was the shunning of Nazi soldiers and sympathizers to alienate Nazism and those who perpetuated it. This “ice front” essentially isolated any German and Norwegian Nazis and Quisling followers from the “good” Norwegians and allowed people to display their cold and hostile feelings for the Nazi and NS forces without putting themselves in any extreme danger.47 Some behavior that the Nazis and traitors faced included Norwegians standing up or changing seats on buses or trams rather than sitting next to a German or Nazi, boycotting Nazi-owned businesses, refusing to speak German even though it was a widely known language at the time, pointing Germans in the wrong way when giving directions, 70

Anti-Nazi Jokes and Humor Like the ice front, anti-Nazi humor was another resistance tactic that allowed Norwegians to display their attitudes towards Nazi soldiers and sympathizers with little risk to their safety. The Norwegians’ anti-Nazi jokes and humor played a crucial role in unifying the Norwegian citizens against their enemy. Not only did it encourage defiance by showing that other Norwegians shared similar conceptions of their occupiers and events, but it also provided a sense of community and an “us against them” mentality. The fear of standing alone was one of the most powerful weapons employed through Nazism, and jokes helped alleviate that fear by creating an accessible sense of solidarity. In Norway, most of the quick-witted occupation jokes told by the Norwegians were focused on depicting their occupiers as fools and exposing their pompous attitudes, their cruelty, and their stupidity.51 Some examples of this sharp-tongued humor are seen below. 71

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

and dramatically avoiding public contact with the Nazis.48 49 The whole idea behind this cold dismissal was twofold: it would make the Germans feel even more uncomfortable and unwelcome than they already did, and it would help keep the faint-hearted from wavering in their resistance. An editor of one of the underground papers expressed the goal of such treatment: “We must not provoke these people, but we should refrain entirely from any intercourse with them and let them feel that they have set themselves totally outside society.”50 The ice front allowed for a blatant antagonism to Nazis who forced their way into Norwegian society, and with it came a show of solidarity of the Norwegians citizens who would never quit fighting against the Nazi occupation for their country’s liberation.

En tysker spor en gutt i Bergen: “Har du sett en bil full av apekatter kjore forbi?” “Ka hva det då? Har du dotten a’?” [A German asks a boy in Bergen: “Have you seen a car full of monkeys go by?” “Why? Did you fall off?”]52 “Quisling (entering Hitler’s office with arm extended in a Nazi salute): ‘I am Quisling.’ Hitler: ‘Yes, but what is your name?’53 På et offentlig kontor skulle det henges opp et bilde av föreren. Vedkommende spurte vaskekonen som holdt på der, om bilde hang rett. “Jeg har bare med lorten på gulvet å gjöre jeg,” sa hun. [A picture of Hitler was to be hung in a government office. The official hanging the picture asked the cleaning woman working there if the picture was hanging straight. “I only work with the dirt on the floor,” she replied.]54

Through the use of humor and anti-Nazi jokes such as these, the Norwegians could verbally put down their German occupiers and interact within the community of Norwegians with the same mindset. The constant undermining that this anti-Nazi humor presented was an essential non-violent way for the Norwegians to resist the German presence. Symbolism A subtler way of demonstrating solidarity among Norwegians and hatred for the Germans was shown through the use of symbolism. There were many different symbols that came about in occupied 72

The Resistance Movement’s Legacy The Norwegian non-violent resistance certainly did not win the war against Nazi Germany, but it did leave a lasting legacy that still pervades in Norway today. Instead of crumbling under the pressure 73

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

Norway, but some of the more famous ones include King Haakon’s monogram, paperclips, red woolen caps, and peas. The royal monogram “H7” for Haakon VII, became a common symbol of resistance. People would wear badges or broaches bearing the monogram, and it was even drawn and painted on objects such as buildings, roads, and fences to show solidarity and loyalty to King Haakon.55 Another symbolic gesture that the Norwegian resistance movement is now well-known for is the wearing of paperclips on jacket lapels or cuffs or as jewelry. Once King Haakon’s symbol and its meaning became known to the Nazis, it was quickly banned, so the Norwegians needed a new, clever, more discreet symbol. Students came up with the idea of fastening a paperclip to their jackets, symbolically binding Norwegians together in the face of the threat of Nazism.56 Other symbols of resistance include wearing red woolen caps to display loyalty to the King, putting a wooden match in the breast pocket as a sign of “flaming” hate, and wearing sweet peas on their jacket lapels for the King’s birthday since the Norwegian word for peas (erter) also means “to tease” in English.57,58 Symbolic gestures like the ones utilized by the Norwegians displayed their national feeling and detestation of the Germans and the NS, and they acted as a visual show of support to the resistance. Anyone wearing any of these symbols was immediately identified by other resistance participants, serving as a visual representation of togetherness.

of Nazi demands, the Norwegians displayed resistance in all aspects of their lives to fight with one another against the Nazification of their beloved Norway. This fighting attitude is still evident in the Norwegian people today. They firmly believe in democracy, individualism, and freedom of speech. As a nation who knows what life looks like when these things are taken from them, they know that they must uphold those ideals even now. The legacy of the Norwegians’ resistance can be observed in the Oslo museum dedicated to this five-year struggle. At Norway’s Hjemmefrontmuseet [Norway’s Resistance Museum], visitors develop a deeper understanding of the events of the resistance movement and its continued relevance: Five years of occupation from invasion to liberation are recreated through images, documents, posters, artifacts, models, original newspapers, and sound recordings to give the young people of today and coming generations a trueto-life impression of the evil represented by occupation and foreign rule, in this way helping to strengthen the sense of unity and defense of our national liberties.59

This museum tells the story of the brave Norwegians who were determined to maintain their beliefs and culture during a time of extreme duress and reminds museum patrons of what can be accomplished when a nation’s citizens unify to resist a common enemy. Conclusion While Norway faced terror, violence, and death at the hands of Nazi invaders, it is important to note that Norway suffered far less 74

While the resistance movement accomplished many things, the most significant impact it had was in uniting the confused, terrified Norwegian citizens together with the goal of preventing Nazism from taking over their culture and way of life. The resistance became much stronger once the nation had leaders to bring them together either in mutual hate of Quisling or in mutual hope, as was the case with the leadership of King Haakon, the KK, and the Circle. The resistance movement used a variety of non-violent tactics to express the Norwegiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; displeasure of the Nazi occupation and protest against new policies that threatened the institutions that Norwegians strongly believed in. The underground press played a significant role in providing the people with real, reliable information and communicating across the nation. Without radios and illegal newspapers, there may not have been a strong civil resistance simply because the strength of the resistance relied on the participation and solidarity of the Norwegian citizens. Aside from the press, there were also many instances of defiance and demonstration. Most of these demonstrations were successful 75

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

than most other occupied nations. Hitler and the Nazi regime had a more favorable opinion of Nordic peoples, so the plans for Norway were less severe than what other countries under German occupation faced. Nonetheless, the Nazis aimed to restructure the ideals, government, and national identity that the Norwegians held dear. The Germansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sudden invasion on April 9, 1940, and subsequent occupation nearly tore the Norwegian nation apart. Yet, the Norwegians constructed a civil resistance that completely caught the Nazis off guard, and the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s citizens refused to conform to the Nazi ideology that the Nasjonal Samling tried so hard to implement in Norway.

due to the cohesiveness and collective action of the oppressed parties involved. If the parents, teachers, and bishops did not all threaten to reject the new policies or actually resign because of them, the NS would not have had to admit defeat. Furthermore, the ice front and anti-Nazi humor provided a sense of community, an us-against-them mentality, and both were ultimately more offputting to the Nazis when the majority of the population adapted the same treatment rather than just encountering one or two â&#x20AC;&#x153;rudeâ&#x20AC;? Norwegians on the street. Similarly, the use of symbolism acted as a visual of the detestation of Nazism and showed other Norwegians that they were struggling together. Though the Norwegian resistance to Nazism may have had little impact on the outcome of WWII, it had a huge impact on the Norwegiansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; morale throughout the duration of the war. Instead of feeling helpless and alone in the dark period of German occupation, Norwegians united to support one another and display solidarity in their beliefs. They found hope in each other, and they had a single, common goal to fight for: the liberation and return of their beloved Norway.

Fuegner, Richard. Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke: Norwegian Resistance to the German Occupation of Norway 1940-1945. Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2002. Gjelsvik, Tore. Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1979. Hassing, Arne. Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013. Joys, Charles, Gudmund Sandvik, Jörgen Weibull, Jan Christensen, and Henrik Enander. “Norway,” Encyclopædia Britannica. Last modified March 1, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/place/Norway. Kersaudy, François. Norway 1940. Great Britain: W. Collins Sons, 1990. Koht, Halvdan. Norway: Neutral and Invaded. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Riste, Olav and Berit Nökleby. Norway 1940-45: The Resistance Movement. Oslo, Norway: Nor-Media A/S, 1970. Stokker, Kathleen. Folklore Fights the Nazis: Humor in Occupied Norway, 1940-1945. London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995. VisitOSLO. Oslo Guide 2018. Oslo, Norway: WISP Kreativt Studio AS, 2018. Wehr, Paul. “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism: Norway, 1940-45.” Peace & Change 10, no. 3–4 (1984): 77–95.

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

Bibliography

Endnotes 1 Charles Joys, Gudmund Sandvik, Jörgen Weibull, Jan Christensen, and Henrik Enander, “Norway,” Encyclopædia Britannica, last modified March 1, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Norway. 2

Paul Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism: Norway, 1940-45.” Peace & Change 10, no. 3-4 (1984): 77.

Charles Joys et al., “Norway.”

Halvdan Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded (New York: Macmillan, 1941), 16.

Richard Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke: Norwegian Resistance to the German Occupation of Norway 1940-1945 (Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2002), 18.

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 18–19.

7 Tore Gjelsvik, Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945 (London: C. Hurst & Co., 1979), 1. 8

Olav Riste and Berit Nökleby, Norway 1940-45: The Resistance Movement (Oslo, Norway: NorMedia A/S, 1970), 12.

François Kersaudy, Norway 1940 (Great Britain: W. Collins Sons, 1990), 39.

François Kersaudy, Norway 1940, 39.

11 Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded, 97. 12

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 38.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 78.

Charles Joys et al., “Norway.”

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 12.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 12–13.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 16.

Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded, 188.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 83.

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 66.

21 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 83. 22

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 36–37.

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 88.

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 93.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 90.

27 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 91. 28

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 92.

Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 91–92.

Norwegian Civil Resistance of the Nazi Occupation: 1940-1945

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 91.

31 Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded, 148. 32

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 91.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 41.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 85.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 42.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 85.

37 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 85. 38

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 23.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 85.

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 86.

41 Arne Hassing, Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 124. 42

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 87.

Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded, 177–78.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 16.

Koht, Norway: Neutral and Invaded, 178.

47 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 88. 48

Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 88.

Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 38

50 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 91. 51 Kathleen Stokker, Folklore Fights the Nazis: Humor in Occupied Norway, 1940-1945 (London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995), 207–09. 52 Stokker, Folklore Fights the Nazis, 100. 53 Fuegner, Beneath the Tyrant’s Yoke, 56. 54 Stokker, Folklore Fights the Nazis, 102. 55 Gjelsvik, Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945, 33. 56 Riste and Nökleby, Norway 1940-45, 17. 57 Gjelsvik, Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945, 33. 58 Wehr, “Nonviolent Resistance to Nazism,” 89. 59 VisitOSLO, Oslo Guide 2018, (Oslo, Norway: WISP Kreativt Studio AS, 2018), 26.

The Humanitarian Superpower Myth: Norwegian shortcomings in response to the refugee crisis

By Siri Block St. Olaf College

orway has long been established as a nation of peace; they award the Nobel Peace prize, settle conflicts between feuding nations, and act as a social progressive model for Western Europe. Despite its status as a philanthropic global leader, Norway has recently received criticism for strict immigration laws and failure to offer sufficient support in response to the refugee crisis. Why is Norway, a so-called “humanitarian superpower,” falling short in their duties to aid refugees? This paper explores and critiques the Norwegian state’s response to the refugee crisis. I will first identify Norway as a “humanitarian superpower” and dissect the meaning behind this identity. Next, I will outline Norway’s cultural values surrounding trust, and illustrate how trust is embedded in the roots of a functioning welfare state. Then, I will explain how the refugee crisis has revealed this trust’s vulnerability, ultimately compromising Norway’s status as a humanitarian superpower. With this issue established, I will dissect three problematic Norwegian responses to the refugee crisis. The responses are physical, systematic, and societal. They begin with border violence and immigration control, move into asylum camps and immigration decline, and end with social isolation and distrust. I will then highlight historical parallels of injustice relating to the indigenous Sámi people and ethnic minorities within Norway. I will conclude the paper with suggestions to mitigate unjust responses to the refugee crisis. By looking into the Swedish response, I will identify possible pathways to reduce Norwegian distrust of refugees and reclaim their role as a progressive and peaceful nation. 81

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I. Introduction

II. Norway’s Identity as a “humanitarian superpower” Norway has long been regarded a philanthropic leader internationally and wears the label “humanitarian superpower” with pride. The term “humanitarian superpower” refers to a nation that seeks to promote human welfare and does so at a higher level than other nations. In her chapter, “The Hazards of Goodness: the Legacy of Bjørnson and Nansen,” Nina Witoszek describes Norway’s welfare policy as “a policy based on an open aspiration to become a “humanitarian superpower.”1 The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, identifies major roles Norway has played as a “peace nation,” which include its involvement in a number of peace and reconciliation processes, contributing a higher portion of their GDP to international development than any other country, and having more than 50,000 Norwegian personnel take part in peacekeeping forces in the last 50 years.2 The list of peace contributions is indeed impressive, and Støre mirrors Witoszek’s claim when he concludes his list stating, “these figures and the general political debate have led to the claim that we are a ‘humanitarian superpower.’”3 It is quite clear that Norway regards and prides itself in being a country whose ideals are rooted in harmony. III. The Norwegian Value of Trust With this progressive status established, it is important to identify what a nation of peace is built upon: trust. Trust is necessary to unify Norwegians as a community in order to allow for a functioning welfare state. Norwegian society is grounded in trust, which becomes clear when accounting for notable factors such as politics, to elements as trivial as transportation.

Trust makes the welfare system in Norway function, but this quality is not just embedded in the politics of Norway’s welfare state. On a smaller and more tangible scale, literal trust is depicted when considering Norway’s public transportation system. Rather than the obligatory scanning of transport passes and physical metro barriers found in the Scandinavian equivalents of Copenhagen and Stockholm, Norway’s capital Oslo relies on an honor system. In lieu of taking unnecessary time, money, and energy to monitor individual trips, ticket officers periodically enter the metro, buses, and trams to check for and fine passengers with expired tickets. This lenient model suggests that the state of Norway trusts citizens to use the system virtuously.

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This trust occurs between the state and the people. The people must trust the government to fairly redistribute taxes to support the key tenets of a welfare state, such as universal healthcare and education systems. Second to having faith in their government, people must then put their trust in one another—trust that their fellow community members will pay into the welfare state and fully utilize its benefits. As Grete Brochmann and Anniken Hagelund assert in their article, “Migrants in the Scandinavian Welfare State: The emergence of a social policy problem,” the system “represents a particular type of welfare state characterized by universal access, generous benefits, a high degree of public involvement and comparatively high levels of redistribution.”4 This welfare state is internationally admired for its ability to achieve the rare combination of high functioning economic success and social justice—all of which can be attributed to the essential baseline of mutual trust.

IV. Trust’s Fragility: Norwegian struggles to extend trust to new neighbors This phenomenal presence of trust within Norway’s social democratic welfare state and society is certainly something to be admired, however, a problem emerges when this essential trust is rooted in likeness. As people, we trust ourselves to do what is moral and fair, and we expect people who look like us, think like us, and have similar life experiences to uphold a parallel moral standard. With the influx of immigrants arriving in Norway in the last decade, illusions of difference threaten the baseline of trust on which the “humanitarian superpower” society functions. Historically ethnic Norwegians may view arriving non-Western immigrants as a concrete “Other” rather than neighbors to partake in and contribute to the welfare system. This immediate separation due to differences cultivates Gary Freedman’s concept of a welfare state as something paid by “us” for “them.”5 Another possible explanation for Norwegian distrust of immigrants could be applied from Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s report Immigration and National Identity in Norway for the Migration Policy Institute. Eriksen emphasizes that while the social welfare state is built upon the striving for national equality, this equality is systematically structured in a foundation of likeness. In order to achieve equality, similarity is essential—something that contradicts the efforts of diversity. As Eriksen points out, “likhet means both ‘equality’ and ‘similarity’ in Norwegian” so there is no real distinction between cultural similarity and equal rights.6 In addition to linguistic components, Norwegian national identity has historically been based on ethnicity and celebrates ancient 84

This idea of the welfare state’s need for equality sheds light on a nationalistic desire for homogeneity resulting in a diversity threshold— it is rooted in the historical, political, and linguistic foundation of Norwegian culture. When considering the Norwegian response to the refugee crisis, it could be argued that Norwegians already existing within the welfare state, who uphold skepticism for new and unfamiliar neighbors, have taken measures to protect their trust-dependent society. Physical, systematic, and societal responses combat risks of the unknown that commence with immigrants, but simultaneously challenge Norway’s identity as a humanitarian superpower. V. Response One: Physical blockades through border violence The first response to perceived welfare threats is to physically prevent refugees from entering the Schengen Area. Oxford doctoral student and writer for the Washington Post, Isaac Stanley-Becker, dissects the injustices that can be found at the United Nations (UN) border. In his article on border camps, Stanley-Becker explains that the Schengen Area allows for free movement of goods and services for all European Union states, with the exception of United 85

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ancestry rooted in Viking mythology. Eriksen explains, “Following the emergence of a Romantic nationalist ideology in the mid-19th century, the heroism and boldness that characterized the warlike Vikings were largely seen as positive expressions of Norwegian national spirit.”7 This ethnic foundation is furthered when accounting for the vulnerability of Norway’s nationhood. Norway was under Swedish rule and did not receive full independence until 1905, and from 1940 to 1945, Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany.8 Erikson suggests that these historical influences inform current fears that Norway “might again be besieged by foreigners.”9

Kingdom and Ireland; however, this free movement applies solely to European citizens. Individual nation states are therefore awarded control over the movement of non-Europeans. With this in mind, screening at the Schengen border is “likely to unjustly favor white travelers, with people of color presumed to be trespassers in the privileged zone of porous Europe.”10 In order to seek asylum from warring home countries, displaced peoples must navigate natural and governmental perils to pass the EU border. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, one in every eighteen refugees drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean in just the first six months of 2018.11 In Croatia, asylum seekers including women with infants and children, report being beaten and robbed by police “pushbacks” in efforts to find safety.12 According to the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, a pushback describes authoritarian action to prevent people from seeking protection on their territory by “forcibly returning them to another country.”13 This allows a state to abdicate their responsibility to examine individual cases of border-crossers. Similar abuse while crossing the border into other Schengen countries is exemplified in the Open Society Foundation’s 2015 release of Europe’s Migration Crossing Points Captured in Six Short Films. This series of films depicts unsettling footage of men, women, and children risking their lives for a chance at a safer world. Depending on their chosen crossing point, countless individuals drown, are attacked or even shot in their attempts to cross the UN border.14 Despite abuse and increased obstacles to prevent people from crossing, the frequency of attempts has not decreased; instead, the consequences of failed crossings have only become increasingly dangerous. 86

If asylum seekers successfully pass the Schengen border and arrive in Norway, the Norwegian state makes a second effort to mitigate perceived risk that arrives with “newcomers,” often in the form of asylum camps. Such camps often supply refugees and asylum seekers with baseline necessities until they can be sent back to their home countries. Margreth Olin’s 2012 documentary De Andre portrays a potentially unjust side of this refugee response. De Andre presents the stories of four male teenagers who flee from nations of conflict to seek safety in Norway. Because they are minors upon their arrival, the boys are held in purgatory-esque states of isolation until their eighteenth birthdays, when they will be legally deported back to their “deemed-safe” countries of origin.15 While this practice of preparing youth for deportation has been abolished, the unsettling narratives in the film demonstrate unlivable and meaningless existences that have been forced upon asylum-seekers by the Norwegian government. Norway has also taken steps to reduce the number of refugees they accept. In Oslo, for example, the Directorate for Integration and Diversity (IMDi) has requested the Oslo municipality settle only 250 refugees despite the city council’s plans to settle 300 in 2019. When considering past years, the number of settled refugees in Oslo has been severely cut, with 811 in 2015, 1,000 in 2016, and 850 refugees in 2017.16 According to SSB/Norway Today, Norway took almost half the number of refugees in 2017 than the previous year’s 15,200. In his article on this strong decline in migration, Tor Ingar Oesterud writes, “[the] Schengen border controls and the EU-Turkey agreement were introduced during spring 2016 to limit the influx 87

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VI. Response Two: Systematic blockades through asylum camps and immigration decline

of refugees into Europe.”17 In other words, tightening Norwegian borders may be a symptom of greater attempts to decrease the number of refugees into and throughout Europe. These governmental responses to an influx of refugees in Norway highlights threads of a political agenda that is rooted in racism and xenophobia, disregarding the well being of individuals for the sake of blockading an imagined threat to the “society of trust” and Norway’s welfare state. In an interview with Fraser Nelson from The Spectator, Norway’s former Minister of Justice Sylvi Listhaug explains that the Norwegian model for immigration decreases the number of economic migrants or those coming from areas that have been deemed safe. Nelson quotes the former Minister: “We send people back to Afghanistan if they are not in need of protection; we send them back to Somalia if they are not in need of protection.” According to the article, police screen areas of Norway that illegal immigrants are suspected of living and working. Listhaug is quoted as asserting that, “if we find them, we send them out. That has also decreased crime in Norway, that’s very good.”18 Listhaug has since resigned from her position as Norway’s Minister of Justice after accusing the opposition Labor Party of “putting ‘terrorists’ rights’ before national security.”19 VII. Response Three: Societal blockades through social isolation and distrust Beyond violent EU border crossings and Norway’s inhumane deportation practices, the Norwegian state continues to dispute their role as a humanitarian superpower in considering social acceptance of refugees who are permitted to stay. Despite achieving refugee status or attainment of a residence permit, many 88

Jeff Crisp’s article, “Refugees and the Global Politics of Asylum,” could offer a two-tiered explanation behind the foundation of this social boundary. The first part is rooted in supplementing the unknown with fear. Crisp makes the argument that citizens or residents in the country can receive arriving refugees and asylum seekers with negativity, hostility, and tension. Crisp writes, “When asylum seekers arrive from distant and unfamiliar countries that are associated in the public mind with terrorism, radical Islam and political violence, then the public reaction is likely to be even more negative.”20 Public reaction to this dissimilarity tends to be hostile because many individuals in the accepting-country’s public body associate difference with danger.

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Norwegian immigrants struggle to integrate into their communities. Countless non-governmental and government organizations, such as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi), provide services to see that the basic living essentials of the refugees are met. For example, the NRC offers support in areas including education, food security, cash and voucher distribution, youth support programs, and legal assistance. Similarly, the IMDi provides introduction programs and Norwegian language training. While these programs propel Norway’s narrative as a philanthropic nation, refugees still struggle to find acceptance in their new homes. Although it is clear that they are given the necessary tools to learn the Norwegian language and integrate into the labor market, there is a hidden threshold for the acceptance of diversity for the sake of maintaining homogeneity in social practices of Norwegian society. Trust is not extended to the new and unfamiliar Norwegian neighbor.

The second tier of Crisp’s argument that could provide insight when considering this boundary relates back to the idea of “out-groups,” which are groups of people who are isolated for not being a part of the cultural majority. In asylum-seeking situations, there are many difficult tensions that naturally arise, and it can be tricky to create a perfect policy to respond to these conflicting struggles. With an outgroup, it becomes easy for majority culture Norwegians to alleviate blame for welfare state issues or cultural change, often targeting those who deviate from or are “interrupting” homogeneity. Crisp argues that politicians and governments uses asylum-seekers as ends to shift anger and blame: “Rather than showing real leadership in this area of public policy, government and opposition parties in a number of countries have become locked into an unseemly competition to talk tough on asylum and (like their counterparts in the developing world) to scapegoat the asylum seeker.”21 Shifting blame for the goal of self-preservation, as suggested in this quote, could certainly be a common force propelling desires for homogeneity and “social exile” for refugees residing in Norway. VIII. Indigenous and Ethnic Minority Parallels: Norwegian dissociation from historical oppressive relationships rooted in national identity It is important to note that shifting blame to a cultural “Other” is nothing new to Norway. Long before the refugee crisis, similar desires to defend homogeneity have manifested in relation to Norway’s ethnic minorities. Norway’s national minorities include Kvens (of Finnish origin), Jews, Romani (a mixed, “travelling” group), Roma, and Sámi (indigenous nomadic peoples of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia).22 There are estimated to be 90

Norway’s relationship with their indigenous Sámi people has been especially unjust. The 1930s eugenics movement in Scandinavia resulted in more than 60,000 Swedes and 40,000 Norwegians being sterilized against their will.25 These sterilizations targeted ethnic minorities and were motivated by racist desires to support a “superior Nordic race” and rid society of “genetic inferiority.”26 In addition, a surplus of emotional and mental abuse was inflicted upon the Sámi in attempts to assimilate peoples to Norwegian majority culture. Young children were taken from their parents and forced to attend abusive boarding schools, where the Sami language was forbidden and the shamanistic religion of the Sámi was suppressed through burning of sacred drums and Christianization.27 When considering traditions, history, and policy surrounding Norway’s ethnic minorities, it is impossible to separate a deep-rooted and painful history of oppression by Norwegian majority culture. The Norwegian state has begun to overcome injustices inflicted upon the Sámi through the establishment of a Sámi Parliament, which was founded in 1989 with the Parliaments passage of the Sámi Act.28 The Sámi Parliament acts as the Sámi’s own political body, and is in place “to promote political initiatives and to carry out the administrative tasks delegated from national authorities or by 91

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15,000 Kvens, 1,500–2,000 Jews, 2,000–3,000 Romani, and 400 Roma living in Norway today.23 Erikson points out that despite these low numbers, “there has been a considerable animosity toward minority groups. In the Norwegian constitution of 1814, Jews were not even allowed in the country. Groups of itinerant Roma from Southeast Europe are even today associated with begging and petty crime. “Norwegianification (fornorskning) was the official policy well into the 1970s toward the Sámi.”24

law to the Sámi Parliament.”29 In addition, the Norwegian State was the first country to ratify the ILO Convention no. 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which acknowledges the Sámi’s right to further develop their culture and the authorities’ obligation to initiate measures to support this work.30 Despite these steps forward, a narrative of dissociation from injustice lingers in Norwegian society when considering their relationship to the Sámi. Henry Minde, a professor at the University of Tromsø in northern Norway, suggests a tone of Norwegian justification for wrongdoings in his article “Assimilation of the Sámi- Implementation and Consequences.” Minde thoroughly covers Christianization, the boarding school phenomenon, the process of Sámi representation in policy, and concepts of “the white man’s burden.” While the article presents an impressive linear history of Sámi and Norwegian majority culture relations, it falls into excusing injustices rather than making amends through its disconnected vocabulary and passive tone. For example, Minde states “in this sense it could be said that it will take about 130 years from the establishment of the Sámi Parliament until the Norwegian State will have ‘settled its account’ regarding the norwegianification policy.”31 This conclusion leaves readers with the impression that the Norwegian state can simply pay off a long-term systematic relationship of physical and psychological oppression through purely monetary means. Similarly, Norwegian Laila Stien’s short story, “Skolegutt,”32 which translates to “Schoolboy,” circumvents Norwegian guilt while presenting the Sámi injustices that took place in boarding schools. The story retells incidents from the eyes of a young Sámi schoolboy, who faces mockery and is forbidden to speak his mother tongue. The reading however, takes the tone of justifying oppression 92

An incentive to dissociate from Norwegian injustices inflicted upon the Sámi peoples could be explained through considering Michael Billig’s chapter on “Banal Nationalism.” When discussing identify and categories, Billig uses the Social Identity Theory, which attributes the existence of groups to individuals choosing to associate as a member of that group. The dissociation of oppression by Norwegian majority culture becomes relevant when identifying the method in making such “groups” desirable; it is necessary to identify an “outgroup” in order to form a solid “ingroup.”33 Therefore, some ethnic Norwegians or “majority culture” subconsciously or intentionally selects ethnic minorities and indigenous groups to act as outgroups in order to raise their psychological identity as the “ingroup.” If Norwegian national identity follows the model in Billig’s chapter, fully accepting oppressive wrongdoings would conflict with maintaining a positive self-image, making it difficult for the group or nation to exist under its desired ideals. These identity-grouping theories could not only explain denial and disconnect between Norwegian majority culture and their historically tyrannical relationship with the Sámi, but could also be extended to current hostility and shortcomings surrounding the refugee crisis.

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rather than apologizing for it. The teacher is described as merely wanting the best for her students, while the Sámi student’s parents are cast unaware, scoffing at the prospect of formal education. This representation of mistreatment reveals that the dissociating of Norwegian majority culture from the historical oppression of the indigenous Sámi is a pattern that continues to cycle into modern day.

IX. Discussion When returning to our initial inquiry of why Norway, a “humanitarian superpower,” is falling short in its duties to aid refugees, there is no clear-cut answer. One could argue that some Norwegians believe refugees pose a threat to the welfare state and trust-dependent culture found in Norway. The new and unfamiliar Norwegian neighbor cannot be trusted to partake in society because they appear to be different from historically ethnic Norwegians. Therefore, the act of protecting this trust-dependent society manifests itself first through physical and systematic backlash, ranging from violent border crossings into the Schengen Area to the Norwegian government’s asylum camps and unjust political agendas. Beyond physical and systematic barriers, Norway defends their trust-reliant society using societal blockades rooted in racism and xenophobia. If this is indeed the case, how exactly can Norway begin reclaiming their role as a nation of peace? What can they do to move beyond ignorant mistrust of refugees in order seal the cracks of Norwegian support systems? Although this task is daunting and difficult to navigate, challenging ignorant ideologies surrounding the new neighbor would be a small step forward. In other words, Norway’s receiving society must find common ground between seemingly opposite cultures. With this goal in mind, it could be possible to establish the trust between old and new members of the community that the Norwegian system thrives upon. X. Solutions: Considering the Swedish model In order to find social cohesion, Norway must call upon traits that universally connect people. When searching for a solution, Norway 94

Gudshus, a community space in which Lutheran, Catholic, and Muslim religious services all occur, is a great example of efforts to band dissimilar communities together to promote positive dialogue, understanding, and ultimately trust. While religion admittedly has the potential to become divisive, it is something practiced and understood by a vast majority of nations—it is human. A concept similar to Gudshus could be incorporated in Norwegian integration in order to build a bridge between not just religions, but people. Another alternative to create trust and emphasize humanity is exemplified in the United Invitations, an organization founded by Swede Ebba Akerman. This organization connects Swedish “newcomers” and receiving society members to gather for dinner together. The act of sharing food and hosting in the intimate setting of one’s home breaks down boundaries, enabling unfamiliar groups to build new communities from a vulnerable baseline. This organization emphasizes the trust sought-after by making invitations and events completely independent of the organization itself. Hosts and guests must have trust in one another for the event to succeed. These community efforts are effective tools in beginning to mitigate public xenophobia and racism. It is crucial, however, to remember that they serve as merely a small step in an immense web of issues surrounding Norwegian response to the refugee crisis. 95

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should look east to its neighbor Sweden. Sweden serves as an example of a society that consciously strives to build community and trust between differing cultures. Gudshus and the United Invitations, two Non-Governmental organizations located in Stockholm, exemplify this goal of finding common ground to establish trust by means of religion and food.

XI. Conclusion As a globally recognized humanitarian superpower, Norway has much to improve upon when it comes to immigration policy and international negotiations. From a cultural position, however, Norwegians need not eliminate their grounding in the concept of trust, but rather expand it to create social cohesion and integration between refugees and receiving members of Norwegian society. Finding community in common ground is a necessary first step in the long journey of migrant support and political transformation. Once the Norwegian response to the refugee crisis is reformed, Norway can begin to reclaim their role as a nation of peace and as a humanitarian superpower.

The Belgrade Center for Human Rights and Macedonian Young Lawyers Association. “A Dangerous ‘Game’: The pushback of migrants, including refugees, at Europe’s borders.” Oxfam International. April 2017. https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-dangerous-gamepushback-migrants-refugees-060417-en_0.pdf. Billig, Michael. “National Identity in the World of Nations.” In Banal Nationalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995. Brochmann, Grete and Anniken Hagelund. “Migrants in the Scandinavian Welfare State: The emergence of a social policy problem.” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 1, no.1 (2011): 13–24. Crisp, Jeff. “Refugees and the global politics of asylum.” The Politics of Migration: Managing Opportunity, Conflict and Change. Edited by Sarah Spencer. Malden, M.A.: Blackwell, 2003. Davies, Thom and Karolína Augustová. “Violent Reality of the EU Border: Police Brutality in the Balkans.” openDemocracy. October 23, 2018. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europemake-it/violent-reality-of-eu-border-p/. De Andre. Produced and written by Margreth Olin. Norway: Speranza Films A/S, 2012. DVD. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Immigration and National Identity in Norway. Washington, D.C.: Migration Policy Institute, 2013. “Europe’s Migration Crossing Points Captured in Six Short Films.” Open Society Foundation. 2015. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/europe-s-migration-crossing-points-capturedsix-films/. Haavie, Siri. “Sterilization in Norway - a Dark Chapter?” Eurozine, Samtiden. April 9, 2003. https:// www.eurozine.com/sterilization-in-norway-a-dark-chapter/. “The ILO Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Edited by Kjersti Bjørgo and Ann Kristin Lindaas. Government.no. Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. August 20, 2018. https:// www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/indigenous-peoples-and-minorities/urfolkryddemappe/the-iloconvention-on-the-rights-of-indi/id487963/. Minde, Henry. “Assimilation of the Sami –Implementation and Consequences 1.” Acta Borealia: A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies 20, no. 2 (2010): 21–146. Nelson, Fraser. “Norway’s tough-love approach to the refugee crisis.” The Spectator. November 25, 2017. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/norway-is-hard-on-migrants-but-tough-love-works/. “Norway Justice Minister Quits to Avert Government Collapse.” The Guardian. March 20, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/20/norway-justice-minister-sylvi-listhaug-quitsavert-government-collapse. Oesterud, Tor Ingar. “Strong decline in refugee migration.” SSB & NorwayToday. June 20, 2018. https://norwaytoday.info/news/strong-decline-refugee-migration/.

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Bibliography:

Partida, Inga Rebecca. “Suffering Through the Education System: The Sami Boarding Schools.” Sámi Culture. The University of Texas at Austin. https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/dieda/hist/sufferedu.html. “The Sámi Act.” Edited by Kjersti Bjørgo and Ann Kristin Lindaas. Government.no. Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. May 29, 2007. https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/thesami-act-/id449701/. Stanley-Becker, Isaac. “Border Camps show the Schengen zone only ever promised Europeans free movement.” NewStatesman America. July 5, 2018. https://www.newstatesman.com/world/ europe/2018/07/border-camps-show-schengen-zone-only-ever-promised-europeans-freemovement. Stien, Laila. Nyveien: Noveller. Oslo: Nordnorsk Forfatterlag, 1979. Støre, Jonas Gahr. “Norway – a Peace Nation. Myth or Fact?” Nobel Peace Center, Oslo. April 24, 2006. https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumentarkiv/stoltenberg-ii/ud/taler-og-artikler/2006/ norway--a-peace-nation-myth-or-fact--/id420860/. Taylor, Gerard. “250 refugees to be settled in Oslo in 2019.” Norway Today Media. December 19, 2018. https://norwaytoday.info/news/250-refugees-to-be-settled-in-oslo-in-2019/. Witoszek, Nina. “The hazards of goodness: the legacy of Bjørnson and Nansen.” The Origins of the “Regime of Goodness”: Remapping the Cultural History of Norway. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2011.

1 Nina Witoszek, “The hazards of goodness: the legacy of Bjørnson and Nansen,” The Origins of the “Regime of Goodness”: Remapping the Cultural History of Norway (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2011), 191. 2 Witoszek, “The hazards of goodness: the legacy of Bjørnson and Nansen,” 193. 3 Jonas Gahr Støre, “Norway – a peace nation. Myth or fact?” (Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, 2006), https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumentarkiv/stoltenberg-ii/ud/taler-og-artikler/2006/ norway--a-peace-nation-myth-or-fact--/id420860/. 4 Grete Brochmann and Anniken Hagelund, “Migrants in the Scandinavian Welfare State: The emergence of a social policy problem,” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 1, no. 1 (2011): 13. 5 Brochmann and Hagelund, “Migrants in the Scandinavian Welfare State: The emergence of a social policy problem,” 13. 6 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway (Washington, D.C.: Migration Policy Institute, 2013), 7. 7 Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 8 Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 9 Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 10 Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Border Camps show the Schengen zone only ever promised Europeans free movement,” NewStatesman America, July 5, 2018, https://www.newstatesman.com/world/ europe/2018/07/border-camps-show-schengen-zone-only-ever-promised-europeans-freemovement. 11 Thom Davies and Karolína Augustová, “Violent Reality of the EU Border: Police Brutality in the Balkans,” openDemocracy, October 23, 2018, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europemake-it/violent-reality-of-eu-border-p/. 12 Davies and Augostová, “Violent Reality of the EU Border: Police Brutality in the Balkans.” 13 The Belgrade Center for Human Rights and Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, “A Dangerous ‘Game’: The pushback of migrants, including refugees, at Europe’s borders,” Oxfam International, April 2017, https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bpdangerous-game-pushback-migrants-refugees-060417-en_0.pdf. 14 “Europe’s Migration Crossing Points Captured in Six Short Films,” Open Society Foundation, 2015, https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/europe-s-migration-crossing-points-capturedsix-films/. 15 De Andre, prod. and written by Margreth Olin (Norway: Speranza Films A/S, 2012), DVD. 16 Gerard Taylor, “250 refugees to be settled in Oslo in 2019,” Norway Today Media, December 19, 2018, https://norwaytoday.info/news/250-refugees-to-be-settled-in-oslo-in-2019/. 17 Tor Ingar Oesterud, “Strong decline in refugee migration,” SSB & NorwayToday, June 20, 2018, https://norwaytoday.info/news/strong-decline-refugee-migration/. 18 Fraser Nelson, “Norway’s tough-love approach to the refugee crisis,” The Spectator, November 25, 2017, https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/norway-is-hard-on-migrants-but-tough-loveworks/.

The Humanitarian Superpower Myth

Endnotes

19 “Norway Justice Minister Quits to Avert Government Collapse,” The Guardian, March 20, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/20/norway-justice-minister-sylvi-listhaugquits-avert-government-collapse. 20 Jeff Crisp, “Refugees and the global politics of asylum,” The Politics of Migration: Managing Opportunity, Conflict and Change, ed. Sarah Spencer (Malden, M.A.: Blackwell, 2003), 82. 21 Crisp, “Refugees and the global politics of asylum,” 83. 22 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 23 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 24 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Immigration and National Identity in Norway, 3. 25 Siri Haavie, “Sterilization in Norway - a Dark Chapter?” Eurozine, April 9, 2003, https://www. eurozine.com/sterilization-in-norway-a-dark-chapter/. 26 Siri Haavie, “Sterilization in Norway - a Dark Chapter?” 27 Inga Rebecca Partida, “Suffering Through the Education System: The Sami Boarding Schools,” Sámi Culture, The University of Texas at Austin, https://www.laits.utexas.edu/sami/dieda/hist/ suffer-edu.html. 28 “The Sámi Act,” ed. Kjersti Bjørgo and Ann Kristin Lindaas, Government.no, Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, May 29, 2007, https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/ the-sami-act-/id449701/. 29 “The Sámi Act.” 30 “The ILO Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” ed. Kjersti Bjørgo and Ann Kristin Lindaas, Government.no, Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion, August 20, 2018, https:// www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/indigenous-peoples-and-minorities/urfolkryddemappe/the-iloconvention-on-the-rights-of-indi/id487963/. 31 Henry Minde, “Assimilation of the Sami –Implementation and Consequences 1,” Acta Borealia: A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies 20, no. 2 (2010): 143. 32 Laila Stien, Nyveien: Noveller, (Oslo: Nordnorsk Forfatterlag, 1979). 33 Michael Billig, “National Identity in the World of Nations,” in Banal Nationalism, (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995), 60–92.

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At the Intersection of Religion and Divorce in History: A Comparative Analysis of Short Stories by Amalie Skram and Kate Chopin

By Ellen Robison University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison

uthor and scholar Reza Aslan argues that “literature offers not just a window into the culture of diverse regions, but also the society, the politics; it’s the only place where we can keep track of ideas.”1 Though Aslan lives and writes in the 21st century, this understanding of literature as reflective of society is by no means modern itself; it has long been understood that authors’ writing is situated by their social identities—their identifications along race, class, and gender lines—and their locations on the historical and political timeline. Literature can be used to gain insight into the period in which it was written, especially into the facets of society not explored by other sources. Such is the case with the works of 19th-century authors Amalie Skram and Kate Chopin. Both women, hailed as early feminists in their homelands—Norway and the United States, respectively—wrote about similar issues, but the drastically different approaches they took to these topics mirror the complex differences in the cultures in which they wrote. The contrasting ways in which Skram and Chopin address religion and divorce in their short stories “Bøn og anfægtelse” [Prayer and Temptation] (1885) and “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” (1894) mirror the religious and cultural differences between 19th-century Scandinavia and America and reveal underlying societal complexities. In order to understand their short stories, it is first important to understand who Amalie Skram and Kate Chopin were as individuals and the context in which they wrote. Amalie Skram was born Berthe Amalie Alver on August 22, 1846, in Bergen, Norway.2 Though there are no records of Skram’s religious practice, it can be assumed that she was raised in the Evangelical Lutheran 103

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Church. Adherence to Evangelical Lutheran Christianity was compulsory, and the Church had a significant role in law and in the courtroom. Accordingly, divorce was legal in Norway only on biblically-recognized grounds: abandonment and infidelity.3 By the late 19th century, however, divorce proceedings began to liberalize as the women’s movement gained momentum, advocating for an understanding of marriage as a voluntary civil contract and supporting divorce for other reasons, such as abuse.4 By the 1890s, the number of divorces per year had risen from six or seven to more than fifty.5 Skram herself was divorced twice: her first marriage ended after thirteen years when Skram suffered a nervous breakdown, attributed in part to her husband’s infidelity.6 She spent several years in a mental hospital before she was able to divorce him. The dissolution of her second marriage, the one from which she gained the surname Skram, was the result of a further breakdown, this time ascribed to the overwhelming nature of her obligations as a housewife, mother, and author and to the limited acceptance for her published works.7 Though Skram’s own relationships demonstrate the increasing range of accepted grounds for divorce, religion still played a central role in divorce decisions and proceedings until the passage of the new Norwegian divorce act, which permitted various legal grounds for divorce, in 1909—four years after Skram’s death.8 Given Skram’s own experiences with marriage, divorce, and mental illness, it is unsurprising that these themes were featured in much of her writing. Two of her most well-known works, Constance Ring (1885) and Forraadt [Betrayed] (1892) depict the difficulties of women in marriage, and the two autobiographical novels she published in 1895, Professor Hieronimus and På St. Jørgen [At St. Jørgen’s], offer insight into the way she perceived her own treatment 104

Similarly, Kate Chopin’s “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” invokes clear connections to the author’s life. Chopin was born Katherine O’Flaherty on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri.10 She was raised in the French and Irish Roman Catholic traditions, and was by all accounts very invested in her faith—she graduated from the Sacred Heart Convent in St. Louis in 1868 and was heavily influenced by the Sacred Heart nuns.11 Chopin married in 1870 and relocated to her husband’s hometown, New Orleans, which served as the backdrop to most of her stories. Chopin never divorced but was widowed in 1882. Her deceased husband left her about $42,000 in debt—more than $1,040,000 in today’s dollars—and a business to run on her own.12 Perhaps as a reflection of these burdens, poverty and financial independence are prominent themes in many of Chopin’s short stories. In “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” it is a total lack of financial support that first drives Madame Célestin to pursue the titular divorce. The culture surrounding divorce in Chopin’s American south was drastically different than in Scandinavia at the same time. The official separation of church and state in America kept religious influence largely out of divorce law, in spite of the efforts of some anti-divorce groups like the Inter-Church Conference on Marriage 105

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at the mental institution in Copenhagen. Because of stories like these, Skram is recognized as an early fixture of the European women’s movement and acknowledged for her “almost boundless compassion for human suffering.”9 Skram’s short story “Bøn og anfægtelse,” the subject of comparison in this analysis, presents an unhappy marriage complicated by mental illness and subsequently broaches the topic of divorce in a religiously-charged context. It is certain that Skram’s own experiences influenced her writing of this story.

and Divorce.13 Divorce in America was instead grounded in legal issues, and when compared to most other countries, divorce was relatively common by the mid- to late-1800s. By 1880, one in sixteen U.S. marriages ended in divorce—the highest rate in the world.14 It makes sense, then, that this story of divorce initially prioritizes the legal rather than the religious, in spite of Chopin’s own Roman Catholic background. Madame Célestin put it most simply: “The Pope himse’f can’t make me stan’ that any longer, if you say I got the right in the law to sen’ Célestin sailing.”15 No religious figure, belief, or commandment would stand in the way of her legal right to divorce in late 19th-century America. In spite of the authors’ different backgrounds and disparate writing styles (an issue that will be explored later in this article), the comparison between Amalie Skram’s “Bøn og anfægtelse” and Kate Chopin’s “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” is justified because of the similar roles of the authors in their countries’ literary scenes and their matching feminist ideologies. Both women were hailed as early and strong proponents of the women’s movement, setting the trends in their respective countries. They broached topics that were considered scandalous for women to address and received significant negative feedback in their lifetimes. The literary contributions of both Skram and Chopin were only truly appreciated posthumously. Skram’s works, which had all but disappeared from popular culture following her death, were rediscovered and received strong recognition in the 1960s.16 Likewise, Norwegian literary critic Per Seyersted wrote perhaps the most affirmative review of Chopin’s writing in 1969, 65 years after her death:

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She was the first woman writer in her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction. Revolting against tradition and authority, [...] she undertook to give the unsparing truth about woman’s submerged life. She was something of a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity.17

Though both Skram and Chopin were trailblazers—women pioneers, to borrow Seyersted’s term—the short stories at hand, “Bøn og anfægtelse” and “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” reveal dominant societal ideals. In both stories, the main character, a woman desiring divorce, seeks the advice of members of her community who speak to the widely-held cultural beliefs about religion, law, and divorce. It is the commentary of these community members—and the value placed on that commentary—that really highlights the religious and cultural differences between 19th-century Scandinavia and America, as they represent not the progressive ideas of the authors but rather the more traditional beliefs of the surrounding society. “Bøn og anfægtelse” and “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” serve for a logical comparison because of their parallel plot structures. When stripped down to the basic points, each short story is about a woman who, following some outrageous behavior of her husband, contemplates a divorce. Each woman seeks out the advice of a prominent figure in her community, and both end up speaking to religious figures who advise they stay in their marriages. Neither woman ends up filing for divorce, and readers are left with the impression that this will be the undoing of them both—though the 107

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[Kate Chopin] broke new ground in American literature.

disastrous ending is much more explicit in Skram’s “Bøn og anfægtelse” than in “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” which is largely open-ended. An analysis of these short stories would be remiss not to acknowledge the radically different styles in which they were written. Most glaringly, they are of extremely different lengths: “Bøn og anfægtelse” is more than 17,000 words, while “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” is just shy of 1,500. This disparity is explained largely by the heightened level of description in “Bøn og anfægtelse,” particularly in articulating the abuses of the husband and the wife’s thoughts about her marriage. Every scene in “Bøn og anfægtelse” is chronicled carefully for readers. Conversely, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” is told almost exclusively through conversation between Madame Célestin and her friend, Lawyer Paxton. Everything readers learn about Monsieur Célestin’s character, about Madame Célestin’s conversations with the religious leaders in her town, and about the decision she makes is explained through the dialogue between those two characters. The short story is comprised mostly of these conversations with very little description interlaced; it moves at a much more rapid pace than “Bøn og anfægtelse.” The language used in the two short stories is quite different as well. Beyond the obvious difference in the languages of the original texts, Skram writes in a much more formal style than does Chopin. Skram’s sophisticated language and solemn tone indicate the story’s serious subject matter from the beginning. The first few lines of text, for example, describe “en sort Himmel, der hang lav og tung ud over Byen”18 [a black sky that lay low and heavy over the city],19 setting a scene that is dark and foreboding. Conversely, Chopin’s short story begins with a cheerful conversation between Lawyer

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In spite of these differences in narrative style, it is easy to see how the stories are related. A comparison can be made, for example, between the two women’s contemplations of divorce. Elise Holm’s husband in “Bøn og anfægtelse” abuses Elise and their children as he battles his own mental illness. Elise is forced to physically restrain him to prevent him from hurting her or her children: “‘Men Carsten, kjære snille Carsten, kom til dig selv!’ – bad hun med skjælvende Stemme. ‘Du er jo hos mig, her i Sengen din. Der er ingen, som vil gjøre dig noget, ingen, ingen, ingen’” (4)20 [“But Carsten, dear sweet Carsten, get a hold of yourself!” she asked him with trembling voice. “You’re with me, here in your bed. There is no one who wants to hurt you, no one, no one, no one”]. Unfortunately for Elise, abuse was not grounds for divorce in Norway in the 1880s; she is told that she must stay by her husband’s side and continue to love him. Elise’s pastor tells her that “hun skulde elske sin Mand, tilgive, hvad han havde forbrudt mod hende, ikke bare saadan, at hun ikke længer bar Nag til ham, men saaledes, at hun gav ham hele den forrige Kjærlighed tilbage. Hun skulde tjene, ære og adlyde ham”21 [“She should love her husband, forgive what wrongs he had committed against her, not only in such a way that she should no longer carry resentment towards him, but love him in the way she had originally. She should serve, honor, and obey him” (90)].22 This is the end of the conversation; without biblicallyaccepted grounds for divorce, the pastor insists that Elise has no reason to pursue it further. 109

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Paxton and Madame Célestin as they lean over the fence around her immaculate little garden. Like most of her other works, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” also incorporates the chaotic, French- and Creoleinfused dialect of the impoverished part of Louisiana where her stories take place. This adds to the lively, optimistic tone of the story.

The titular character of “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” has a rather different reason for divorce, one that actually might be condoned by Elise’s Lutheran pastor: abandonment. At the opening of the short story, Madame Célestin had not seen her husband for months; he had “practically deserted” her and was no longer supporting her financially.23 There is also an allusion to past instances of abuse (“a man that drinks—w’at can you expec’?”24), but this does not seem to be Madame Célestin’s primary grievance. Either way, the recommendations Madame Célestin receives from the lawyer are concerned more with her well-being than with the biblical grounds for her unhappiness; Lawyer Paxton states, “Really, madame, it’s more than human nature—women’s nature—should be called upon to endure.”25 Paxton further suggests that Madame Célestin would be “a foolish woman to endure it longer” while “the divorce court is there to offer […] redress.”26 This secularized interpretation of divorce paints it as an ideal option, rather than a last resort or nonoption as within the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Of course, both Elise Holm and Madame Célestin receive the input of other parties as well. Elise speaks with a doctor who suggests she have her husband committed. She does not heed this advice, choosing to believe instead that her burdens are a test from God: Jeg skal sige Dem, det er en Sag mellem Gud og mig, ja De kan gjerne se medlidende ud, det forstaar De Dem ikke paa, men jeg har i alle disse Aar bedt og tigget Gud hver eneste Dag om, at han skulde helbrede min Mand, ikke for min Skyld, for jeg fortjente ikke bedre, men for at han kunde faa Tid til at omvende sig og hans Sjæl bli reddet. [...] Han vil bare prøve min Tro, og derfor vil jeg være taalmodig og bie paa hans Time.27 110

you may look compassionate, but you do not understand. I have prayed and begged God every single day that he should heal my husband, not for my sake, for I deserved no better, but that he might have time to repent and save his soul. [...] He just wants to try my faith, and therefore I will be patient and pray in his time.)

Conversely, Madame Célestin speaks with a priest and a bishop (at the advice of her mother, who hopes it will change her mind about the divorce) but ignores all attempts to dissuade her from leaving Monsieur Célestin. She places her own experiences above their admonishments that “it is the duty of a Catholic to stan’ everything till the las’ extreme,” arguing that the religious leaders “don’t know w’at it is to be married to a man like Célestin, an’ have to endu’ that conduc’” as she has had to.28 The advice Elise and Madame Célestin receive and their reactions to the advice demonstrate the differences in the cultures in which they live. Elise speaks with both a Lutheran pastor and a doctor and chooses to follow the pastor’s word, though the doctor would be arguably a more objective source. Elise is part of a society, which chooses religion over reason, and she must follow suit—though this choice has calamitous effects for Elise, her husband, and her children. Across the Atlantic Ocean and less than a decade later, Madame Célestin values the word of the lawyer over that of a priest and a bishop, thus choosing legal objectivity—reason—over religion. This decision was made possible for Madame Célestin by the relative secularity of the culture in which she lived. Though there are still members of her southern, Roman Catholic community that 111

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(I shall tell you, it is a matter between God and me. Yes,

disapprove of her decision—“Certainly, to be sure; that’s to be expected, madame, in this community of Creoles”29—the culture of divorce in late 19th-century America was relatively well-established. It makes sense that Madame Célestin was not deterred by religious warnings. In the end, neither woman actually gets a divorce. Elise, having followed religious teachings, opted to stay with her husband and is widowed when her husband takes his own life. Madame Célestin, despite her resolve to leave Monsieur Célestin, chooses to give him another chance when he returns home abruptly and promises her “on his word an’ honor he’s going to turn ova a new leaf.”30 Readers are likely to be as skeptical of this as Lawyer Paxton is in the short story, and it does not take much creativity to imagine a timeline in which Monsieur Célestin again lets down his wife. Perhaps a divorce is still in Madame Célestin’s future. Regardless of the stories’ endings, “Bøn og anfægtelse” and “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” serve an important role in demonstrating the realities of life when and where they were written. It is simple enough to determine the laws that governed divorce practices in the final decades of the 19th century, but it is more difficult to understand the effects of those laws and the ways they impacted and were influenced by other prominent institutions. When Skram wrote “Bøn og anfægtelse,” she had already been divorced once, yet she chose to write the story of a woman so restricted by religious barriers that she was unable to leave an abusive marriage. In spite of a growing women’s movement, this storyline was the reality for many of the women in Skram’s society. Historical records do not tell their story, but writers can—so Skram did.

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By providing more well-rounded looks at the complex and interlocking cultures of religion and divorce in the 19th century, Skram’s and Chopin’s short stories offer insight into facets of society not explored by other historical sources. They are sterling examples of Reza Aslan’s concept of the literary window into culture, society, and law by demonstrating the intersection of all three. Though “Bøn og anfægtelse” and “Madame Célestin’s Divorce” are not among their respective authors’ most well-known works, they should not be overlooked; they provide invaluable windows into history, their importance emphasized all the more through their analysis, comparison, and appreciation.

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At the same time, the more flexible laws and rapidly rising divorce rate in the United States led many to believe that the practice had achieved relative national acceptance. Chopin wrote a short story that revealed the opposite. Though divorce may have had legal backing, individuals seeking divorce may still struggle with a lack of support from family and community members, especially in religious areas. Once again, this offers a perspective not provided by mere marriage statistics or historical accounts. Chopin fills in gaps in the understanding of American divorce history in much the same way as Skram does for Norway.

Bibliography Aslan, Reza. “Reza Aslan on Religion Today.” Interview by Sahil Badruddin. Radio Public. December 14, 2018. https://radiopublic.com/candid-insights-with-sahil-badrud-WdQrKp/ep/s1!92c30. Bergstrøm, Ida. “Until Infidelity, Disappearance or Impotence Do Us Part – the History of Divorce in Norway.” Kilden. May 16, 2017. http://kjonnsforskning.no/en/2017/05/until-infidelitydisappearance-or-impotence-do-us-part-history-divorce-norway. “Biography.” KateChopin.org. Accessed November 24, 2018. N.d. http://www.katechopin.org/ biography/. Chopin, Kate. “Madame Célestin’s Divorce.” In Bayou Folk, 163–69. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894. Clark, Charles S. “Marriage and Divorce.” CQ Researcher 6.18 (1996): 409–32. library.cqpress.com/ cqresearcher/cqresrre1996051000. Houe, Poul. “Amalie Skram.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Last modified March 8, 2018. N.d. http://www. britannica.com/biography/Amalie-Skram. Sandström, Glenn, and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir. 2017. “Long-Term Perspectives on Divorce in the Nordic Countries – Introduction.” Scandinavian Journal of History 43 (1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/034 68755.2017.1384661. Amalie Skram, “Bøn Og Anfægtelse.” Tilskueren, 3 (1886): 345–87. Skram, Amalie. “Prayer and Doubt.” In Sex and the Modern Breakthrough, 83–92. Translated by Susan Brantly. Madison: WITS, 2004.

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1 Reza Aslan, “Reza Aslan on Religion Today,” interview by Sahil Badruddin, Radio Public, December 14, 2018, https://radiopublic.com/candid-insights-with-sahil-badrud-WdQrKp/ep/ s1!92c30. 2 Poul Houe, “Amalie Skram,” March 8, 2018, http://www.britannica.com/biography/AmalieSkram. 3 Ida Irene Bergstrøm, “Until Infidelity, Disappearance or Impotence Do Us Part – the History of Divorce in Norway,” May 16, 2017, http://kjonnsforskning.no/en/2017/05/until-infidelitydisappearance-or-impotence-do-us-part-history-divorce-norway. 4 Glenn Sandström and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, “Long-Term Perspectives on Divorce in the Nordic Countries – Introduction,” Scandinavian Journal of History 43, no.1 (2017): 1–17, doi:10.1080/034 68755.2017.1384661. 5 Bergstrøm, “History of Divorce in Norway.” 6 Houe, “Amalie Skram.” 7 Houe, “Amalie Skram.” 8 Bergstrøm, “History of Divorce in Norway.” 9 Houe, “Amalie Skram.” 10 “Biography,” KateChopin.org, November 24, 2018, http://www.katechopin.org/biography/. 11 “Biography,” KateChopin.org. 12 “Biography,” KateChopin.org. 13 Charles S. Clark, “Marriage and Divorce,” CQ Researcher 6, no. 18 (1996): 409–32, library. cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1996051000. 14 Clark, “Marriage and Divorce,” 422. 15 Kate Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” in Bayou Folk, (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1894), 163–69. 16 Houe, “Amalie Skram.” 17 “Biography,” KateChopin.org. 18 Amalie Skram, “Bøn Og Anfægtelse,” in Tilskueren 3 (1886), 345 19 Unless otherwise noted, all translations are the work of the author. 20 Skram, Bøn Og Anfægtelse, 349. 21 Skram, Bøn Og Anfægtelse, 372. 22 Amalie Skram, “Prayer and Doubt” in Sex and the Modern Breakthrough trans. Susan Brantly (Madison: WITS, 2004), 83–92. This translation of “Bøn og anfægtelse” is taken from Susan Brantly’s Sex and the Modern Breakthrough, which includes only excerpts from Amalie Skram’s short story 23 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 165. 24 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 165.

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Endnotes

25 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 164. 26 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 165. 27 Skram, Bøn Og Anfægtelse, 377. 28 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 167. 29 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 165. 30 Chopin, “Madame Célestin’s Divorce,” 169.

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Feasibility, Ethics and Consequences of the Technological Advancements in Society

By Michelle Peterson University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison

ublished in 1969, Freezing Down introduces readers to the unique and futuristic life of a fiction editor named Bruno. Living in a time with technological advancements, individuals can choose to be “frozen down,” a process in which their lives are essentially frozen in time, stopped, and later awoken at a time they specify beforehand.1 The exact time may be when a specific medical procedure has been developed, a new technology is available, or other times significant to the individual. The novel, initially seeming to depict a society in transition to a utopian lifestyle, reveals that the scientific and technologic advances actually have the opposite effect. The technological advancements depicted in Bodelsen’s Freezing Down, though created with intent to enhance lives, ultimately produce the deterioration of society. These depicted technological advancements, though feasible, come with complex ethical considerations and severe consequences to society, as observed in both Bodelsen’s Freezing Down and modern times. One of these technological advances described in Freezing Down is modern medication. In the beginning of the novel, the main character, Bruno, is provided two yellow pills upon receiving the news surrounding his health status. These pills appear to yield both anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects for the character.2 It was not long into routine pill usage that the character begins requesting additional doses of the medication and develops a minor reliance on their effects for his daily life. Moving forward from 1973, a different medication is invented in 1995, “Eternol,” as it is coined, that provides anti-aging and antidepressant effects for its consumers.3 Though seemingly a solution for the “now-life” society members 119

Feasibility, Ethics and Consequences of the Technological Advancements in Society

who wish to lead a normal aging life while also showing a younger appearance, the medication has a drastic mood-swing side effect, and consequently leads to one character’s death from overdose.4 The last of the medications depicted in the novel is “Obliviol”— appropriately named for its ability to remove targeted memories from its consumers’ conscious mind.5 This medication is invented in 2022, when the medical perspective on waking up participants from their freezing procedures is rooted strongly in beginning a new life, and having “...a clean sheet – tabula rasa.”6 Unfortunately, the medical staff appears to misuse the medication. For example, a doctor tries to remove two of the main character’s memories, one involving a past love interest and the other an agreement that had been arranged between the character and the doctor. Although all of the medications intended to improve life in society, they all inadvertently result in misuse or adverse effects. Unfortunately, the inadvertent trend of misuse or adverse effects of medications is also present in modern society; the medications in Freezing Down could be likened to modern-day antidepressants, opioids, and concentration-enhancing stimulants such as Adderall. All of these modern medications were also created with the intent of improving health conditions, but in many cases, have inadvertently led to overuse and adverse effects. While many advancements have occurred in society, antidepressant use has rapidly increased over time, the reliance on opioids has become so severe that it is currently considered an epidemic in the US and Canada, and a significant number of students have reported abusing concentration-enhancing stimulants.7 8 9 Another technological advancement to highlight from Freezing Down is the process of organ donation and organ synthesis. When Bruno wakes up in 1995, he is informed that his kidneys had been 120

In modern society, we have put an enormous amount of time, money, and research into this domain. Our progress has included realistic prosthetics, effective joint development, and electronic 121

Feasibility, Ethics and Consequences of the Technological Advancements in Society

removed and, in turn, replaced with younger, “organic” kidneys.10 To his surprise, the technological advancements had led to the creation and implementation of simple, computerized human organs and body structures throughout society. These components can replace one’s original organ or specific body structure, often functioning at an even better level than the original. It took until around 2022 before more complex structures, such as the spine, could be successfully developed and transplanted.11 Coming from a point in time in which all organs were “indispensable,” this is quite a shocking concept for Bruno.12 Later in the novel, we see these advancements portrayed in a more negative light, especially in 2022—as the advancements have consequently removed the main purpose of life for “now-life” society members. Originally used only in dire situations, such as replacing failing organs, many people of society start choosing to replace slightly damaged or sub-par body parts or organs, following the desire to have only the best of the best quality for their life.13 Additionally, at the conclusion of the novel, Bruno becomes depressed and unhappy with the current society, wanting to put an end to his seemingly eternal life. Trying to persuade the doctors by offering to donate his organs to those in need, Bruno discovers that his body has essentially zero value to society since all of the human body components are able to be made synthetically.14 This concept leads the reader to question what is the value of human life when man can artificially create all components of the human body, and what is the value of religion when eternal life prevents one from ever encountering life’s end.

organ replacements such as pacemakers and artificial lungs. In some ways, modern society has gone technologically further than the society depicted in Freezing Down. Modern medicine has successfully grown beating cardiac muscle cells and sheets of skin cells in vitro from stem cells, synthesized and transplanted a trachea, and 3D- bioprinted a thyroid gland, tibia, and sample of beating heart cells.15 16 17 18 Although these advancements have provided great benefits and life-improvements, they are not without heavy ethical consideration. The issue of using stem cells has been a topic of controversy since its beginning, as many people liken the process of changing stem cells into human body parts to the process of man playing the role of God. Essentially, the advances in medical capabilities highlight the issue of knowing precisely when scientific advancements go “too far” and overstep the proverbial ethical line. Additionally, the misuse of the advancements may lead to detrimental effects on society—at what point do we stop trying to change behaviors to prevent organ damage, and rather maintain our poor behaviors because we know we can simply replace the damaged organ? One of the non-medical advancements depicted in Freezing Down is an autonomous car. While Bruno is living in 1995, he travels with Dr. Cavalcanti to and from the hospital in a modern vehicle, which is lacking a driver. To direct the vehicle to their destination, the physician appears to place a small card, perhaps similar to a modern-day SD card or flash drive, into a port on the car’s dashboard.19 Presumably loaded with information of the final destination, the car turns on and navigates its passengers along the notably empty roadways to their destination. Later, readers are informed that Bruno notices he rarely sees any cars driving on the roads in view from his window. Upon asking, he is informed 122

The development of autonomous transportation is also a topic in today’s society. Many of the newest model cars are equipped with at least some semi-autonomous driving capability, as many of the fully autonomous vehicles are still being tested. This technology is still in its beginning stages, and often requires drivers to remain alert and fully monitor the functioning of the car while in use. Luxury vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, encountered the first “autopilot” vehicle driver death in 2016, when a driver was using the autopilot function and failed to notice an error in the vehicle’s sensor algorithm, driving full-speed into a white trailer that was crossing the road.22 Another debated topic when discussing autonomous vehicles is the determination of the individual, or entity, which shall be held responsible in the event of an accident. Moreover, changing weather conditions, GPS accuracy, software hackers, elimination of jobs, and human traffic signals are a few of the many additional barriers this technology has yet to overcome before being accepted and adapted into society. The final advancement depicted in Freezing Down that is worth mentioning is the surveillance and entertainment system at The Ackermann Center. Bruno is not initially notified of the device and 123

Feasibility, Ethics and Consequences of the Technological Advancements in Society

that generally only politicians and physicians have cars in society.20 At this point in time, it also appears that so many people have opted to be frozen down that there are only a select few individuals functioning on a daily basis. Even many of the all-lifers who are “up” engage in the practice of hibernation, or being in a state described as “low.”21 With this heavy emphasis on strategizing every moment of life, people no longer wish to waste their time driving cars or have the need to use chauffeured transportation and thus, with the technological advancements, it would not be long until driving would completely vanish from the society.

would occasionally hear clicking noises from the grafting above his bed.23 Unaware he was susceptible to being watched and listened to at any moment, Bruno finally questions his doctor about the mysterious clicking noises he was hearing from the overhead grating of his room. He is informed that the device was equipped with a camera, microphone, and audio system. Appearing to have dual purposes, the device both acts as a patient surveillance system for the medical staff and as an entertainment system for the patients.24 Although the device seems like a source of great intent and ingenuity, it is later shown to be controlling towards the patient. Being not only a severe threat towards one’s privacy, the device is also shown attempting to prevent patients’ anti-“all- life” conversations. With intent to cover their conversation by the noise of running water in the bathroom sink, Bruno and Henry discuss events that had occurred, and what was really happening behind closed doors – topics apparently forbidden to discuss. Following a clicking noise from the overhead grate, signifying the conversation had been heard by the device’s controllers, orchestral music thunders into the room so loudly that it is impossible for Bruno and Henry to continue their conversation.25 Another time, the device was mentioned as playing endless music, not giving Bruno a clear moment to think other than the minuscule breaks between songs. What initially appeared to be a patient safety and entertainment device is really more of a human monitoring and censoring device. Some modern time equivalents of the depicted device include baby monitors, home security systems, Apple’s Siri, and the Amazon Alexa. Although these devices were all created to enhance daily living, safety or security, the devices have all included various moments of questioning. For example, the Amazon Alexa is a device, 124

In the true science fiction genre fashion, the similarities between Freezing Down and modern society lead readers to question exactly how far away modern society is from becoming like the society in the novel. Initially seeming to pose no threats, Bodelsen reveals how truly dangerous the advances are to mankind. While the technological advancements depicted in Freezing Down were wellahead of their time at the book’s release, many of these devices have near equivalents today. These technologies, although generally created with good intent, have severe consequences, present complicated ethical considerations, and ultimately demonstrate negative impacts to society, both in Freezing Down and modern times.

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equipped with a microphone, speaker, and occasionally a camera, that sits in one’s home. Created to provide auditory weather reports, news stories, information searches, music and entertainment to the user, the device has been highly criticized for its numerous invasions of privacy. Being susceptible to hacking, constantly listening to nearby conversations, recording all of your interactions, inserting advertisements into the verbal purchasing feature, and revealing eerie quirks and responses to certain questions are just a few of the device’s current criticisms.26 27 Inviting this security-exposing device into one’s home poses a true threat to one’s privacy, information, and individual choice.

Bibliography Anders Bodelsen, Freezing Down. Berkeley: Berkeley International: 1969, 118. Coghlan, Andy. “Man Receives World’s First Synthetic Windpipe.” New Scientist. July 8, 2011. www. newscientist.com/article/dn20671-man-receives-worlds-first-synthetic-windpipe/. Barfoot, Jan. “Eurostemcell.” Stem Cell Therapy & Treatment - Diseases and Conditions. www. eurostemcell.org/what-diseases-and-conditions-can-be-treated-stem-cells. Galeon, Dom. “Artificial Organs: We’re Entering an Era Where Transplants are Obsolete.” Futurism. December 4, 2017. futurism.com/artificial-organs-entering-era-transplants-obsolete/. Hopkin, Michael.“Beating Heart Tissue Grown in Lab.” Nature News. Nature Publishing Group. April 23, 2008, www.nature.com/news/2008/080423/full/news.2008.775.html. MacLaren, Erik. “History and Statistics of ‘Study Drugs.’”DrugAbuse.com. September 17, 2016. drugabuse.com/library/history-and-statistics-of-study-drugs/#prescription-stimulant-abuse. “Opioid Crisis Fast Facts.” CNN. March 2, 2018. www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/health/opioid-crisis-fastfacts/index.html. Pratt, Laura A., Debra J. Brody, and Qiuping Gu. “Antidepressant Use Among Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States, 2011–2014.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 15, 2017. www. cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db283.html. Stegner, Ben. “7 Ways Alexa and Amazon Echo Pose a Privacy Risk.” MakeUseOf. January 10, 2018. www.makeuseof.com/tag/alexa-amazon-echo-privacy-risk/. Tamburro, Paul. “Alexa Has a Creepy Response When Asked If It’s Connected to the 9CIA.” CraveOnline. March 10, 2017. www.craveonline.com/design/1227739-alexa-creepy-responseasked-connected-cia#/slide/1. Yadron, Danny, and Dan Tynan. “Tesla Driver Dies in First Fatal Crash While Using Autopilot Mode.” The Guardian. June 30, 2016. www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/30/tesla-autopilotdeath-self-driving-car-elon-musk.

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1 Anders Bodelsen, Freezing Down, (Berkley International, 1969), 76. 2 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 14. 3 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 115. 4 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 115. 5 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 135. 6 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 134 7 Laura A. Pratt, et al.,“Antidepressant Use Among Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States, 2011–2014,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 15, 2017, www.cdc.gov/nchs/ products/databriefs/db283.html. 8 Erik MacLaren, “History and Statistics of ‘Study Drugs,’” DrugAbuse.com, September 17, 2016, www.drugabuse.com/library/history-and-statistics-of-study-drugs/#prescription-stimulantabuse. 9 “Opioid Crisis Fast Facts,” CNN, Cable News Network, March 2, 2018, www.cnn. com/2017/09/18/health/opioid-crisis-fast-facts/index.html. 10 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 71. 11 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 165. 12 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 90. 13 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 134. 14 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 87, 178. 15 Michael Hopkin, “Beating Heart Tissue Grown in Lab,” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, April 23, 2008, www.nature.com/news/2008/080423/full/news.2008.775.html. 16 Dom Galeon, “Artificial Organs: We’re Entering an Era Where Transplants Are Obsolete,” Futurism, December 4, 2017, www.futurism.com/artificial-organs-entering-era-transplantsobsolete/. 17 Andy Coghlan, “Man Receives World‘s First Synthetic Windpipe,” New Scientist, July 8, 2011, www.newscientist.com/article/dn20671-man-receives-worlds-first-synthetic-windpipe/. 18 “Eurostemcell,” ed. Jan Barfoot, ”Stem Cell Therapy & Treatment - Diseases and Conditions”, EuroStemCell, www.eurostemcell.org/what-diseases-and-conditions-can-be-treated-stem-cells. 19 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 120. 20 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 110. 21 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 133. 22 Danny Yadron and Dan Tynan, “Tesla Driver Dies in First Fatal Crash While Using Autopilot Mode,” The Guardian, June 30, 2016, www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/30/teslaautopilot-death-self-driving-car-elon-musk. 23 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 77. 24 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 83.

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Endnotes

25 Bodelsen, Freezing Down, 93. 26 Paul Tamburro, “Alexa Has a Creepy Response When Asked If It’s Connected to the 7CIA,” CraveOnline, March 10, 2017, www.craveonline.com/design/1227739-alexa-creepy-responseasked-connected-cia#/slide/1. 27 Ben Stegner, “7 Ways Alexa and Amazon Echo Pose a Privacy Risk,” MakeUseOf, January 10, 2018, www.makeuseof.com/tag/alexa-amazon-echo-privacy-risk/.

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