HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

ÓLÁFR TRYGGVASON AND VOLODMER THE GREAT 21The feature typical of relative chronology is its durability, based on thefact that each single segment (time interval) is perceived as a finished,independent unit. Its simple structure (e.g., "we lived χ years in the city ofy") makes it easy for human beings to retain and recall data at will.Every mentally healthy human being remembers to the end of his or herdays the time intervals between important personal events as they are datedin relative chronology. By contrast, even educated members of the mostprogressive societies who constantly use absolute dating in their public lifeoften make mistakes when they present events from their personal life interms of absolute chronology.II.2.The transition from pre-Christian oral literature to Christian written literaturethroughout Europe—including Norway and Iceland—made it necessaryto synchronize the simple time intervals given in relative chronologywith the Christian Era. In this effort the great Icelandic scholars of thetwelfth century, especially the founding fathers of Old Icelandic historicalscience, Saemundr Sigfusson inn fróoi (1056-1133) and Ari t>orgilsson innfróoi (1067-1148), found support in the absolutely dated events in the historyof the old Christian centers (Rome, Constantinople), as well as in thehistory of neighboring Christian countries, in particular, England.A quotation from Ari's íslendingabók illustrates this: 44... en Gizurr byskup andaö isk premr Thus Bishop Gizurr died thirty daystegumlaternátta síoarr í Skálaholti á enum [after Êorlakr Rúnólfsson was madepriöjahis successor]in Skalaholtdegi í viku Kalend. Junii. on the third day of theweek, on the fifth day before the CalendsofJune(=May28).Á bví ári enu sama obiitIn that same year, Pope Paschal Π diedPaschalis secundus páfi fyrr en [January 21] before the bishop Gizurr[i.e., before May 28];Gizurr byskup ok Baldvini Jór- Baldwin king of Jerusalem [April 2];salakonungr ok Amaldus patriarcha Arnulf, patriarch of Jerusalem [April IS];í Híerúsalem ok PhilippusPhilip, king of the SwedesSviakonungr, en siöarr et sama and, later [i.e., after May 28] the44íslendingabók. Landnámabók, ed. (with notes) by Jakob Benediktsson (IF, 1, pt. 1)(Reykjavik, 1968), pp. 25-26.