Kumlbúa þáttr , an Eschatological Event

The summary of Kumlbúa þáttr runs nearly as short as its actual content. This brief thirteenth-century text presents an account of a man who removes a sword from a mound, is confronted in a dream by the sword's owner, and thereafter attempts to return the sword but fails due to his inability to find the mound again. Once part of the Vatnshyrna manuscript codex, a late fourteenth-century compilation of Íslendingasögur and Íslendingaþættir that perished in the great Copenhagen fire of 1728, the þáttr owes its textual transmission to the diligent efforts of Árni Magnússon, who made copies of its content.1Despite Kumlbúa þáttr's intriguing brevity and inconclusiveness, it remains largely neglected in saga scholarship, having only been explored at length in four studies to date.2 John Lindow has recently interpreted the ambiguous dream-apparition in the þáttr as the pagan past intruding and manifesting in the Christian present of the story's narrative time frame. His interpretation juxtaposes the past versus the present as linear opposites and assumes tension between the two as a point of departure. A reading like this, in effect, explains away the ambiguity of such scenes, to the point where their haunting eeriness somewhat loses its edge. If the pagan past intrudes into the Christian present, does it not then subvert the very notion of presumed linearity of time? Such intrusions only imply that the past is not limited to “the past” at all, and their lingering reverberations in the present blur boundaries of chronological divisions, suggesting the medieval experience of temporality to be fluctuating and more unstable than it appears from a modern perspective.This article offers a phenomenological reading of Kumlbúa þáttr, contending that its depiction of strange events triggered by its protagonist's haphazard interactions with the world around him offers auspicious grounds to investigate medieval experiences of situated temporality. By taking a closer look at how the text constructs, narrates, and performs the experience of temporality, I bring it into dialogue with continental medieval philosophical and theological discourses, not as a search for influences or borrowings but to demonstrate the liveliness and creativity of these cultural encounters in the medieval Icelandic milieu. Turning to the þáttr's (and, more broadly, Íslendingasögur's) performance of the experience of temporality, I argue that time was depicted not as a linear progression of events, but as discrete and non-linear emergences, manifestations, and glimpses. This view allows for a reconceptualization of paranormal experience in the sagas not as experience of beings or entities, but as traumatic and overwhelming events exceeding the capacity to be understood.The fluid concept of temporality in critical theoretical discourse has come to largely replace the static term “time,” underlining the latter as a historically negotiable construct rather than any kind of absolute unit. However, there remains a relative dearth of its applied usage in saga studies.3 As the dynamics of temporality are predicated upon subjective experience and historical consciousness, “self-knowledge was inextricably bound to the individual's relationship to time—past, present, future, and the hereafter,” as Gerhard Jaritz and Gerson Moreno-Riaño recently observed in their effort to reopen the questions of medieval temporality and eternity to new revaluations. “To understand the human experience,” they go on, “involved understanding the flow of time and the ways in which this flow affected people,”4 underpinning the link between the two, as well as the value which the study of one provides for shedding light upon the other. The present inquiry is thus concerned not only with the temporal as premodern structuring of worldly processes, but with the elusive and problematic experience of subjectivity in medieval Icelandic ontological orientation: elusive for the terse reticence of medieval Icelandic texts, and problematic for the apparent inadequacies of modern critical theoretical apparatus in engaging such perishable and historically multidimensional concepts. It is posited that the critical theoretical apparatus presently employed in engaging these dynamics of temporality may itself serve as a case study in the dialogic entanglement between phenomenologically-grounded methodology and the medieval philosophical foundations from which it stems.A good starting point to broach these ontological questions is to begin with a central concept in medieval thought concerned with the nature of being and existence: that of natura. In early medieval discourse, the Latin word natura encompassed reality at large as conceivable by intellect, both physical and metaphysical, pertaining to generative potentiality inherent in all matter. John Scotus Eriugena's ninth-century Periphyseon, a vastly influential work of Neoplatonic theology centering around the concept of natura, opens with establishing it as “omnium quae sunt et quae non sunt ” (the totality of all things which are and which are not).5 Elucidating that “Nihil enim in uniuerso cogitatioibus nostris potest occurrere quod tali uocabulo ualeat carere” (nothing at all can come into our thought that would not fall under this term),6 he qualifies that Saepe mihi cogitanti diligentiusque quantum uires suppetunt inquirenti rerum omnium quae uel animo percipi possunt uel intentionem eius superant primam summamque diuisionen esse in ea quae sunt et in ea quae non sunt, horum omnium generale uocabulum occurrit quod graece φyςις, latine uero natura uocitatur.(As I frequently ponder and, so far as my talents allow, ever more carefully investigate the fact that first and fundamental division of all things which either can be grasped by the mind or lie beyond its grasp is into those that are and those that are not, there comes to mind the general term for them all is what in Greek called φyςις and in Latin natura.)7Natura thus emerges as a general term for reality at large, insofar as the human mind can experience it or imagine any of its potentialities. Eriugena approaches the category of being from the position of intelligibility: what falls under this category is everything that can be understood, imagined, or encompassed by human cognition. It is thus not an issue of what does or does not exist, but concerns only what is mentally comprehensible. Crucially, by situating the mind as a reference point in this definition, the term natura refers more precisely to a situated, perspectival reality of human experience, that which is accessible to the senses and mental faculties. We may find the same phenomenological idea of the limitation of human experience in Boethius: “omne enim quod cognoscitur non secundum sui uim sed secundum cognoscentium potius comprehenditur facultatem” (everything that is perceived is grasped not according to its own force but rather according to the capability of those who perceive).8As has been repeatedly pointed out, Eriugena's influence on medieval philosophical currents was considerable up to and through the twelfth century. His reception of Augustinian tradition as well as his own rearticulations in its transmission became authoritative for shaping the flow of subsequent speculative discourse.9 Augustine's earlier depiction of time in spatio-cognitive terms as distentio animi (extension of the mind) established the notion of temporality as relative to the situated perspective of the experiencing consciousness, as time appears to emerge through the very act of contemplating it.10 In its capacity as potentiality of all imaginable things, the concept of natura extends into the temporal dimension as well: the wholeness of time. The universe in this cosmological orientation was seen as a plenum: a wholeness without void, where all potentialities converged. Similarly, medieval typological readings of history and the natural world regarded natura “in and as the fullness of time,” in which past, present, and future were simultaneously encompassed.11Bearing in mind these conceptualizations of natura, particularly its radical difference and all-encompassing vastness in contrast to present colloquial usage of terms such as “nature” and “the natural,” it becomes possible to consider the Latin prefix super. Remarkably, no discrete category for “supernatural” existed in the early medieval period, pointing perhaps not so much to a lack of necessity for establishing it as to the very notion of such a discrete category being problematic. Instead, early medieval conceptualizations of what a modern reader might call supernatural phenomena were summed up in a formula employed by Augustine and Isidore of Seville in their discussions of miracles and portents: “non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota natura” (not contrary to nature, but contrary to what is understood about nature).12 As natura denoted all generative potential contained in imaginable reality at large, what extended beyond (super) reality was not any less real, but simply beyond the human experience of reality. It was not a dialectical either-or, but instead a matter of multidimensionality, to borrow conceptual imagery from theoretical physics which is not amiss in illustrating this cognitive dynamic. Just as the observable night sky forms a mere fraction of the incomprehensible vastness of the surrounding universe, the early medieval ontological orientation of natura builds up on the scale of nonanthropocentric magnitude. Postulating certain phenomena as beyond or above natura is a nonanthropocentric formulation that leaves open a discursive space for the unexplained, or as yet undiscovered, underpinning the finitude and limitation of human experience and comprehension concerning the workings of the world.It was only in the thirteenth century that a discrete adjectival term supernaturalis came into usage, made popular by Thomas Aquinas in his theory on miracles where he devised a hierarchy to rank them.13 To this day, some saga studies engaging the medieval concept of the supernatural still lean upon Thomistic scholastic categorizations of miracles and theological boundaries between what is and is not “supernatural,” as if representing an established doctrine for the medieval mentality as a whole.14 Yet the rich complexity, and indeed inconclusiveness, of medieval learned speculative discourses concerning being and reality is seldom problematized. Indeed, such concepts were far from uniform, and their interpretations far from stable. The intellectual landscape of Western Europe underwent changes and developments in the so-called twelfth-century Renaissance, attesting to the vibrancy and complexity of its ontological debates.15 It must be reemphasized that the medieval matter of portents, miracles, and wonders was not segregated to theological and but an part of medieval ontological at between and are the medieval categorizations of miracles thus emerge not as static on the boundaries of the real, but rather as in this by to it in a of and early theological concerned with the of miracles there a medieval surrounding the and the into and learned and to and the of human experience in ways and accessible to As and in medieval in the of its so its cultural with The and of medieval Icelandic saga in with these and textual The was not an but an in and upon medieval The narrative of experiences may for their to as such with their ontological and of the that in the of human was not a matter to be and but a wholeness of potentialities that only be in its very is about its to of to yet to its to its and by its incomprehensible the to the Vatnshyrna manuscript compilation from the late it becomes possible for to the of its by the it was a with dream paranormal and which about the world surrounding saga Vatnshyrna with paranormal such as and þáttr, as well as pointed in by its of and Kumlbúa þáttr the so-called which was with the in the late century and of which contained saga and saga all the texts, the on dream and The of in the very same manuscript to these sagas in a historical with their not perceived as any less real, and not any less than the of The textual the of and manuscript is supernatural in that according to this early medieval definition, which has less to with of and more with a ontological orientation of experiencing as it was by early medieval philosophical theology with its nonanthropocentric of human experience in a of historical idea of time as a without in mind that natura is an in which past, present, and future are contained in in the early to concepts of time and time. The human being was regarded in medieval natural in terms the world as a to the its and Just temporal events of any were open to interpretation and readings in terms the great historical from the to the of matter how this the to any historical it a potential of the matter how any thus a in the of a a limited of a historical to be in its The in its early medieval is thus is not an of but an of being as well as of an exceeding the capacity to be of temporality as on the and history the of the not at all that future events may be or according to this In it is the there was no as to any or in the temporal of historical Augustine that human attempts at be and that of the great to in the century to his that (the of this world come this to is that to medieval and the much the but in an of and This of situated temporality that may at any if by and indeed portents, and miracles a new of in this it is of to of what is to to potential of these and historical no matter how thus becomes a limited of far this medieval ontological orientation of temporality in his reconceptualization of as a of it not as an absolute but as a of the Greek word for in its as he the act as a for is that must first be from of their The of is as it a kind of it that the as to the of they a that any of remains for from can only in situated predicated upon their own is not the of on to the contrary is the of it is the ontological for the that can be either or they may or things the in thought is the in as the of the as either or it remains or in the of this fluctuating one the act all In reality is than the of its observable a formulation that the medieval ontological of human as the of the are for they are on what is accessible at that in all is thus relative to the situated temporal is the same that medieval to and a of into the same text or historical at no of A of textual and the of in medieval in an of This of medieval was not regarded as for but as to in new of as to the that the be it or by were thus and in large part A or depicted in a saga may for its medieval Icelandic and yet one reading no for the same text to of for its medieval that of of was in medieval and thus of interpretation be to account for the of a work as a as is may more force than of Just as the supernatural in Íslendingasögur and Íslendingaþættir may be in light of lingering of the pagan past still haunting and thus still very much present so the same supernatural may be in light of pertaining to the future with its of and If the is the pagan of then the is the temporal of in of these were both were by and of it was the thirteenth-century of the that into and may be what of Vatnshyrna and to new of sagas with supernatural to the the was on the in the but and at the of the and the of the a of more than of This is not to that fourteenth-century around those are to I it only as an that one of is bound to its own and of from a is to Kumlbúa þáttr closer in light of the This þáttr was not by its In the is only in by in his first of this In manuscript it was as more the the human and his own subjective The of the the story's supernatural by it to mere dream yet a like this is intriguing for the it of what may the of the þáttr's earlier A mere of the the in of the as the narrative in a somewhat was an account about or a to his subjective experience, may into a mere by its of a who is in fact depicted as in a may to the Kumlbúa þáttr is to a of the latter an at the Augustinian at from to and a of This historical the þáttr in closer to and well of the chronological Kumlbúa þáttr appears to been with the latter on the of its narrative dream content. of the to and his The to the a which the of the with of this may be as the of an strange itself on the which up and It is both an of and a of yet it is The of in medieval them into paranormal in their own as their are with supernatural is with imagery of in not in the into the saga in comes the a dream-apparition the human on the of a It comes to the point where the may itself be with a what to Kumlbúa þáttr and how these experiences John Lindow the in the þáttr's as for establishing mental the was having an and on his was to the it may be and these no to the narrative tension by illustrating his mind is perhaps with of or of being his his of the space around him is by his subjective a at was in these there was one time he late in the and upon a strange into a and there a human he around under his and human there and a the sword and it with and to come there in the that the about to is strange or is a subjective in the terse and Íslendingasögur and It is that this of or the on which the þáttr was Indeed, this may well precisely due to being a it was in a is by the narrative and and his for the night or John Lindow to the of this þáttr's as the same where was as would that the were in than Icelandic light of narrative it may be that the mound is not a such as those depicted in saga scenes, but is more an lie to the with the surrounding As upon this it is a and of time as remains from the him is no static but a of of processes, a of and this is from the pagan may be not only by its of but by its It is not an for a medieval to upon an for the þáttr's to to pagan in from the The in the open not of natural and there is no as to the were or were of this on his a certain of to may be the very fact of this to the nature of the open Icelandic where any may its presumed own haphazard an he appears to up it as one would a As if of his he is in his has a dream in which he the sword's owner, the who appears to him human and with a The him by some of his him by some of his in those are the that in of this þáttr's in the thirteenth this is no the as his they both the same it that in his perhaps an of triggered to by the of a with and where are his own is he not a to an The narrative more than it to the same of extends to the remains he upon earlier at a of that he in this fluctuating of his the sword's in a of and the dream-apparition the sword to Yet to be this, to the point that his him to he so his not bring him any to and the þáttr's that it light both to the of his up of the well as his he up to return to that in the for the same mound, but he find it is some kind of to his experience that would him to it him and there is no no The strange sword he remains with haunting him as a and to the he and no no The on this The open remains The landscape in the remains the same where he find the mound he is no the His and what he around and how he is experiencing a reality that is and in the of ever on the protagonist's mental in the þáttr becomes and space itself becomes time. can the same and on the but he the same again. The mound is to as its was upon his own being at that point in to which he to his he in a of reality. The of the mound, or rather upon it is an that be It is a of in that an and by a mental by and through his traumatic the same in this it the of a In this experience may be not only the of the that him from as in his own but a of a the very of which the human capacity to The subjective of the medieval textual an experiencing historical time in its comes to the It becomes possible to history itself as a events are with and potentialities with which the human mind in its to of it Such ontological orientation is traumatic on both of the as it saga as well as saga and their into their own their own situated a nonanthropocentric it them to with the of any and to the and of in the in þáttr, they experience reality not as it but as they the act of influences the observed underpinning the phenomenological between the and the and the very notion of this like quantum it is perhaps not as the of quantum physics in the early century with the of in the theoretical from with of that the of the to and Yet any remains upon the apparatus and employed to as both and quantum theory for any is predicated only on that which is and its itself is situated and it might about an linear by reality according to the real, on the presents itself in a of medieval speculative discourses and ontological that to the of in medieval and on the may be as of As a of textual of situated experience, has of critical with premodern to reception in the of continental still his as a As has been for or but rather for and the presumed of by into the the cultural and cognitive influences from which no and no textual can absolute interpretation is a of the time and of which it As by the act of understanding is a historical as any with text to the reader what is in that point in in effect, does not the same text as in Kumlbúa þáttr does not find in the same landscape

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