Scandinavian history in the Viking age - Department of Anglo-Saxon ...

Scandinavian History in the Viking Age
Origins, composition, and transmission
The vexed questions of how sagas were transmitted as oral narratives (roughly ‘freeprose’) or freely
composed in the thirteenth century (roughly ‘bookprose’) have largely fallen out of debate on the
grounds that they are effectively insoluble.
[B365] K. Liestøl, The origin of the Icelandic family sagas, transl. A.G. Jayne, Institutt for
sammenlignende kulturforskning A:10 (1930) [UL 499.b.39.13]
[B366] W. Baetke, ‘Über die Entstehung der Isländersagas’, Berichten über die Verhandlungen der
sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, philos.-historische Klasse 102:5 (1956), 1-108; a
classic article
[B367] E.Ó. Sveinsson, Dating the Icelandic sagas: an essay in method, transl. E.O.G. Turville-Petre,
VSNR TS 3 (1958) [UL 752:1.d.2.3]
[B368] T.M. Andersson, The problem of Icelandic saga origins: a historical survey, Yale Germanic
studies 1 (1964) [UL 752:37.c.95.10]
[B369] H.S. Joseph, ‘The þáttr and the theory of saga origins’, ANF 87 (1972), 89-96
[B370] H. Röhn, Untersuchungen zur Zeitgestaltung und Komposition der Íslendingasögur, Beiträge zur
nordischen Philologie 5 (1976) [UL 752:01.c.7.5]
[B371] J. Kristjánsson, ‘The roots of the sagas’, (O42):183-200
[B372] T. Danielsson, Om den isländska släktsagans uppbyggnad, Skrifter utgivna av Litteraturvetenskapliga
institutionen vid Uppsala universitet 22 (1986) (E.s) [UL 700:01.b.1.22]
[B373] A. Kristinson, ‘Lords and literature: the Icelandic sagas as political and social instruments’, SJH
28:1 (2003), 1-17
[B374] T. Túliníus, The matter of the North: the rise of literary fiction in thirteenth-century Iceland, tr. R
C. Eldevik. The Viking collection: studies in northern civilization 13 (2002)
The historicity of the sagas
Questions of ‘historicity’ are similarly difficult to tackle, but a particularly striking recent approach treats
them from a socio-anthropological perspective as expressions of ideals or mentality that can, to some
degree at least, be considered timeless.
[B375] G. Jones, ‘History and fiction in the sagas of the Icelanders’, SBVS 13 (1946-53), 285-306
[B376] S. Nordal, ‘The historical element in the Icelandic family sagas’, SI 10 (1959), 9-24
[B377] V.W. Turner, ‘An anthropological approach to the Icelandic saga’, The translation of culture:
essays to E.E. Evans-Pritchard, ed. T.O. Beidelman (1971), 349-74 [UL 460:2.c.95.129]
[B378] J. Harris, ‘Saga as historical novel’, (O44):187-219
[B379] P.M. Sørensen, ‘Historical reality and literary form’, (O72):172-81
Cultural influences
[B382] L. Lönnroth, European sources of Icelandic saga-writing: an essay based on previous studies
(1965) [UL 9752.b.3]
[B383] M. Chesnutt, ‘Popular and learned elements in the Icelandic saga tradition’, (A61a):28-65
Collections and anthologies
[B385] At least some versions of most family sagas are to be found in various large compilations in late
mediaeval manuscripts. Striking examples are: V. Finsen et al., Hauksbók udgiven efter de
arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4o, samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter (1892-96)
[UL 752:34.c.85.45]; A. van Arkel, Möðruvallabók. AM 132 fol. I: Index and concordance. II: Text
(1987) [UL 752:34.b.95.7]
Modern editions
Several of the Íslenzk fornrit series (B6) contain a number of sagas from particular parts of Iceland:
[B390] S. Nordal and G. Jónsson, Borgfirðinga s²gur, ÍF 3 (1938) [UL 752:1.c.3.3]
[B391] B.K. Þórólfsson and G. Jónsson, Vestfirðinga s²gur, ÍF 6 (1943) [UL 752:1.c.3.6]
[B392] J. Jóhannesson, Austfirðinga s²gur, ÍF 11 (1950) [UL 752:1.c.3.11]
[B393] J. Kristjánsson, Eyfirðinga s²gur, ÍF 9 (1956) [UL 752:1.c.3.9]
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