Icelandic: goði, goðorð

[gramster]

I'm trying to understand the meaning of the following passage from Snorra Saga, by Þórarinn Eldjárn, located online here:

"Hann var goði, það er að segja einn af höfðingjunum. Veldi og embætti goðanna nefndust goðorð. Sturla í Hvammi réð yfir Snorrungagoðorði sem var kennt við afkomendur Snorra goða Þorgrímssonar. Sturla átti í sífelldum deilum við menn út af valdabrölti og vígaferlum. Hann sá eftir ýmsu sem hann hafði gert áður eða látið ógert og kveið fyrir öðru sem framundan var."

Both Google Translate and Microsoft Translator appear to make a number of mistakes with this passage, but fortunately they make different mistakes, and their respective strengths, along with my own guesses based on what I find in various online dictionaries and my own growing but still quite incomplete understanding of Icelandic grammar, can be used to produce the following:

"He was a chieftan-priest, that is, one of the rulers. The power and office of the chieftan-priests were called goðorð. Sturla in Hvammur ruled over the chieftan-priesthood of Snorrung, which was named after the descendants of Snorri the chieftan-priest of Thorgrimson. Sturla was constantly in dispute with men over chains of command and assassination. He regretted things he had done before or failed to do, and dreaded other things that lay ahead."

I would appreciate some feedback on this translation. In particular, I'm curious to know if there are better ways to handle the words goði, goðanna, goðorð, Snorrungagoðorði, and goða. If there are any other issues, I'd like to know about them as well.

Thanks!

 

[Rafeind]

Firstly in regards to the word "goði": by the time of Snorri Sturluson or Sturla í Hvammi, the goðar were not priests. It is true the name came from there but by Sturlungaöld, Iceland was a christian country with christian priests. At that point goði was an entirely worldly office which for the most part was inherited. "Chieftain" also feels strange even if it probably is the best translation, "nobleman" implies to much splendor and "ruler" to much direct power.

Goðar were the ones voting on the laws, making judgement in court proceedings and had some sort of enforcing power. In principle people could choose which goði they followed. But there was an geographical factor to this, choosing a goði that lived very far a way was not practical. So some kind of aristocrats but the relationship between the title and the land was different than that word normally implies.

Going back to your paragraph I would not translate the word "goði" at all. My best attempt at translating the text (using your translation as a starting point) is:

"He was a goði, that is one of the rulers(1). Both the area ruled by(2) and the office of a goði were called goðorð. Sturla í Hvammi held/had/possessed(3) Snorrungagoðorð, which was names after the descendants of Snorri goði Þorgrímsson(4). Sturla was constantly in dispute with men because of his(5) power struggles and armed conflicts(6). He regretted things he had done before or failed to do, and dreaded other things that lay ahead."

1. Höfðingi is another difficult word. It does mean "chieftain", "powerful person" or "ruler" (though in my mind at least it does imply a non-absolute ruler) or often today "a generous person (especially towards guests)".

2. Veldi in this case does mean power, but more in the sense of the people following the goði and area the represented than the raw power. One general meaning of veldi is "area ruled over"

3. The best word here is whatever the word for aristocratic titles is (I do not know). "Ráða yfir" means"possess" more so than "rule over" so the meaning of the sentence is more that he had this title than that he ruled over an area (even if he kind of did).

4. The man was named Snorri, called goði because he was one and was the son of Þorgrímur.

5. It is implied that Sturla was trying to get more power for himself. Valdabrölt is not the most impressive way to formulate this and even kind of implies he wasn't that successful.

6. Vígaferli is more violent than assassinations, it could be used even if Sturla wasn't involved in an actual battle (though I think he was anyway) but it at the very least refers to tat-for-tat back and forth killings out in the open. (The difference between víg and morð in old texts is whether the person doing the killing declared he had done it or not. If he didn't is was morð (murder), if he did it was víg which carried far less stigma (I am not sure when this changed but I do think it lagged behind convertion to Christianity).)

 

[gramster]

Thank you for all of that. A few things come to mind:

1. Höfðingi is another difficult word. It does mean "chieftain", "powerful person" or "ruler" (though in my mind at least it does imply a non-absolute ruler) or often today "a generous person (especially towards guests)".

Such aristocratic titles as lord, baron, or king might work in this context.

2. Veldi in this case does mean power, but more in the sense of the people following the goði and area the represented than the raw power. One general meaning of veldi is "area ruled over"

Here words like domain, dominion, and realm might fit.

3. The best word here is whatever the word for aristocratic titles is (I do not know). "Ráða yfir" means"possess" more so than "rule over" so the meaning of the sentence is more that he had this title than that he ruled over an area (even if he kind of did).

In English I think we say that aristocratic titles are held.

 

[Segorian]

Such aristocratic titles as lord, baron, or king might work in this context.

The problem with titles like that is that they imply a hierarchy of rulers (of the type king>duke>earl etc.), a system resisted by the Icelanders until the late 13th century. Instead, goðar were chieftains who were, at least in principle, equals. To a considerable extent, the terms goði and höfðingi were synonyms during this period (when referring to the situation in Iceland), and ‘chief’ or ‘chieftain’ can be used for both. I recommend reading the historical remarks found here.

Here words like domain, dominion, and realm might fit.

Yes, I think both domain and realm fit well. The choice of the word veldi in the text is a bit odd, however, considering that both in Old and Modern Icelandic it tends to be used to refer to larger entities, such as the domain of a king or emperor.

"Ráða yfir" means"possess" more so than "rule over" so the meaning of the sentence is more that he had this title than that he ruled over an area (even if he kind of did).

I don’t agree with this. Ráða yfir can mean both things, and I think that in this context ‘rule over’ is what is meant. The same meaning is seen in the following sentence, which is taken from another book published by Menntamálastofnun and which refers to the change that happened when the goðar finally accepted the rule of the king of Norway: “Í staðinn fyrir goðana komu sýslumenn og aðrir embættismenn sem konungur réð yfir.”