370 Iconoclasm and Iconoclastic controversy
emulate classical Latin historiography and medieval
LATIN HAGIOGRAPHY.
The various categories of this literature were histori-
cal sagas that retraced the lives of the kings of NORWAYor
DENMARK, including SNORRISTURLUSON’SHEIMSKRINGLA
(The circle of the world) from about 1225. There were
also Icelandic sagas or family sagas, whose heroes were
the great colonizers of the island or their immediate
descendants. Very similar to these Icelandic sagas were
the contemporary sagas, that is, chronicles of events con-
temporary with their authors. There were also legendary
sagas about ancient Germanic heroes and translations or
adaptations of courtly texts from the romantic tradition
such as those by CHRÉTIEN DETROYES.
EDDASThe name Eddasdesignated two different but comple-
mentary Old Icelandic genres. The first type were the
Poetic Edda,or Elder Edda,30 or so poems of differing
length, age, and provenance. Their authors were
unknown, but in general they were probably written by
Icelanders, around the end of the 12th century. They can
be classified according to the gods they celebrate: Odin,
Thor, Freyr, and Freyja.
Very different were the Prose Edda,or the Edda of
Snorri, works by the great Icelandic writer, historian,
skald, and saga writer Snorri Sturluson, written from
about 1220. Snorri grieved that the composition of
skaldic poetry was disappearing under the influence of
Christianity. Without knowledge of the old religion
and its myths, composing authentic skaldic poetry was
impossible. Snorri determined to disseminate those reli-
gious traditions. Along with the other Edda,these works
have preserved the mythological world and system of
pagan northern Europe.
Further reading:Peter Hallberg, trans., Old Icelandic
Poetry: Eddic Lay and Skaldic Verse(Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1975); Lee Hollander, trans., The Poetic
Edda,2d ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962);
Patricia Ann Terry, trans., Poems of the Elder Edda
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990);
Jean I. Young, trans., The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson:
Tales from Norse Mythology(Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1971); Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Soci-
ety, Sagas, and Power(Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1988); Jesse L. Byock, Viking Age Iceland(London:
Penguin Books, 2001); Carol J. Clover and John Lindow,
eds. Old-Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide(Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985); Stefán Einarsson, A
History of Icelandic Literature(New York: Johns Hopkins
Press for the America-Scandinavian Foundation, 1957);
William Ian Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud,
Law, and Society in Saga Iceland(Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1990); Orri Vésteinsson, The Christianiza-
tion of Iceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change, 1000–1300
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Iconoclasm and Iconoclastic controversy(726–843)
Greek for the “breaking of images,” iconoclasmrefers to
any attempt to destroy religious images or icons, and
more specifically to the serious attempt by eighth- and
ninth-century Byzantine emperors to remove from the
empire what they perceived as a form of religious idolatry.
It can be considered a religious doctrine.
Old Testament and Jewish prohibitions against idol-
atry had a continuing influence on the church in both
East and West. It probably accounted for ecclesiastically
supported iconoclasm before 726, when Emperor Leo III
(r. 717–741) ordered that an image of Christ in the
Great Palace be removed. This imperial support of such
prohibitions was new. An order in 730 mandated the
destruction of religious images. The patriarch Germanos
I (r. 715–730) was forced to resign, and Leo III, intent
on demonstrating his control over the Eastern
Church, replaced him with the Iconoclast Anastasios
(r. 730–754). Real persecution began during the reign of
Constantine V (r. 741–775), who rejected the veneration
of all RELICS and who explicitly maintained that the
Eucharist was the only true and acceptable image of
Christ. The state was then at war with MONASTICISM,
which supported icon production and veneration.
Persecution declined during Leo IV’s reign between 775
and 780, and Iconoclasm was condemned in 787 at the
Seventh Council of Nicaea, convened by Empress IRENE
to restore icons. With this the first period of Iconoclasm
(726–787) ended.
The ninth-century revival of Iconoclasm under the
emperor Leo V (r. 813–820) and the patriarch Theophilos
(r. 824–842) constituted its second period (815–843).
Backed by the army, Theophilos, the last Iconoclastic
emperor, again singled out monks for punishment.
Theophilos’s widow, Theodora, and the patriarch Method-
ios (r. 843–847) stopped Iconoclasm in 843 without
calling a council. Thus, from 726 to 843 the Iconoclast
movement was a potent and disruptive force in Byzan-
tium. Imperial usurpers and rebels such as Artabasdos
(r. 741–743) promoted the cause of images against icono-
clast emperors who were trying to strip the church of its
iconophile (those in favor of the use of icons) bishops,
strongly persecuting those who resisted. Iconoclasm
failed because of the basic popularity of icons. This was
strongly expressed in the riots and intense devotion to
images by ordinary citizens, many of whom venerated
small icons in private.
See alsoICONS.
Further reading: Alain Besançon, The Forbidden
Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm,trans. Jane
Marie Todd (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000);
Anthony Bryer and Judith Herrin, eds., Iconoclasm(Birm-
ingham: Centre for Byzantine Studies, 1977); Kenneth
Parry, Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile Thought of
the Eighth and Ninth Centuries(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996);
Jaroslav Pelikan, Imago Dei: The Byzantine Apologia for