Kaos og kapital. Et tredje mønster i islændingesagaerne?

Abstract

This article is an attempt to understand the significance of money and capital in relation to honor and the larger value system of the sagas of Icelanders. Even though men of honor in the sagas are often rich, money is – in itself – not a value to which the saga writers attach great importance in their assessment of human beings. On the other hand, the saga writers are by no means disinterested in money, and the heroes’ behavior with money has direct impact on their honor and status in society. The article is thus not preoccupied with the historical value that gold, silver or cattle had in the Middle Ages or in the age of the sagas, rather it studies the relationship and behavior of the saga heroes to economic capital and the significance that capital has in the society of the sagas. The saga writers did not lack a theory of how to behave around money. The value system of the sagas appears to follow advice and rules in the Bible about how to behave with money and debt. According to the sagas and the Bible, money is a perilous power that must be handled with extreme caution.