Forging Ahead: Faking Sagas and Developing Concepts of Cultural Authenticity and National Identity in 17th- and 18th-Century Scandinavia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Forgery (Forging Ahead: Faking Sagas and Developing Concepts of Cultural Authenticity and National Identity in 17th- and 18th-Century Scandinavia)

Période du rapport: 2017-09-01 au 2019-08-31

The high-stakes game of forgery, from priceless art to counterfeit banknotes, has stimulated public and professional interest for centuries. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scandinavia a number of texts appeared for the first time which subsequently came to be identified as literary forgeries. The most famous (although still relatively unknown) are Hjalmars och Hramers saga, Krembres saga and Hafgeirs saga Flateyings. Since their appearance very little research has been done on these works: as literary forgeries they are deemed to have minimal value in the intellectual and literary history of Scandinavia.
This project aims to demonstrate, on the contrary, that these texts have played a central role in the development of literary and philological studies in the region, as well as having ramifications more generally as regards various key concepts used by researchers: fiction, history, textual unity and, not least, national identity. It does so by showing that they are symptomatic of a paradigm shift, linked to the widespread use of the printing press in popular and intellectual culture and the political ramifications of nascent nation-state formations. Through an in-depth study of the texts as a group, along with supporting information gleaned from a large amount of relevant peripheral material, the mechanisms by which saga forgeries could be produced and texts could, for the first time in a northern context, even be characterised as forgeries, are laid bare.

In practical terms, this project had three main objectives: (1) gathering the corpus – these texts had never been looked at alongside each other as a group – and making it available to a wider audience; (2) putting the corpus into the context of Scandinavian philology and antiquarianism as well as that of European forgery and intellectual history; and (3) determining the web of motivations and causes which led to the production of these forgeries as well as their eventual exposure.

At the start of the project the work carried out principally involved gathering all existing material on these forgeries. An early task consisted of determining where the relevant forgeries could be found (i.e. which manuscripts in which archives) and whether they had been edited or translated into English. For those which had not been edited or translated, transcriptions and translations were produced. Once the corpus had been assembled, the next stage involved research into forgeries more generally: extensive reading was carried out on the range of forgeries (not just saga forgeries) produced in Scandinavia during the period and back into the Middle Ages. Research was also carried out regarding wider European trends in forgery in the late medieval and early modern period and how these had an impact within a Scandinavian context. Following this, the third main stage involved looking at the individual saga forgeries again and investigating how they came into being: who were their authors, what were the motivations behind their production, which texts and theories did they make use of and interact with and what was the history of their reception and eventual exposure? Especial focus was laid on the nationalistic ideologies which came into play in the production of such forgeries (as in philological and antiquarian work in general during the period).

The results of all of these stages have been written up in the course of the project. In consultation with the Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Gothenburg it was agreed that one saga forgery would be selected to produce as a digital edition (Hjalmars saga) and that this test case would provide a digital platform which could later be used for other digital editions of forgeries. Alongside this, work has been ongoing on the monograph is intended to be the principal form of dissemination of the research findings: for further details on the forthcoming publications, see the section below on expected results.

The project and its results were presented on a number of occasions to different audiences, in particular in the form of papers presented at the International Saga Conference in Reykjavík in 2018 and at the Symposium, “The History of Historical Thought in Early Modern Scandinavia”, in Lund in 2019. The researcher also organised, in collaboration with the Early Modern Seminar at his host faculty, a major international conference at the University of Gothenburg in August 2019. The conference was called “Faking It! Forgery and Falsification in Late Medieval and Early Modern Culture” and included five keynote speakers of international standing and 42 other speakers. The principal investigator gave a welcome speech on forgery in general as well as presenting a paper on his specific research.

The researcher was also involved in teaching at the host institute, delivering classes on medieval Icelandic literature as part of the general literature introductory course at the humanities faculty in Gothenburg. The researcher also participated as a member of the Early Modern Committee and joined in the activities of the Medieval Committee.

The results benefit society in a number of ways. Forgeries and fabrications continue to be of great interest to both the scholarly community and the general public. Any research which nuances our understanding of how forgeries come into being and the role they play in culture – beyond mere condemnation – is of value. Moreover, only a fine line divided forgeries and genuine scholarship in early modern Scandinavia: to try and understand the one without taking into account the other will lead to only a partial and misleading picture being formed. My investigation of the forged texts allows for us to gain a better understanding of the cultural scholarship of the period in question. It also makes it possible for future researchers to carry out their own investigations on these works and to include the lessons learned from these works to refine their own research into sagas and antiquities.

Further results are expected to appear in the not-too-distant future. The monograph, one of the primary deliverables and forms of dissemination of the research resulting from the project, remains to be completed. Significant progress has been made, but it is hoped that a final draft will be available in 2020. As a result of the conference which was held at the end of the project an edited volume of essays on multimedia forgery in the early modern period is also expected to appear within the next two years. The authors are already working on their contributions and a proposal will be sent to publishers before the end of the year. The conference also allowed scholars from different fields and areas to come together, and the potential for future collaborations and conferences is being explored.

The outcomes of the project will also support the researcher’s future work and career. A new network of contacts at the University of Gothenburg and other Swedish institutions has been formed. Language skills in Swedish have been developed, and teaching experience has been gained.

“Imposturae”: note by Árni Magnússon, manuscript collector, on suspected forgeries in AM 551 d α 4to

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Forgery (Forging Ahead: Faking Sagas and Developing Concepts of Cultural Authenticity and National Identity in 17th- and 18th-Century Scandinavia)

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