The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (1180–1280) - Softcover

Andersson, Theodore M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801477824 ISBN 13: 9780801477829

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2012

Synopsis

In this eagerly awaited book, Theodore M. Andersson, a leading scholar of the Norse sagas, introduces readers to the development of the Icelandic sagas between 1180 and 1280, a crucial period that witnessed a gradual shift of emphasis from tales of adventure and personal distinction to the analysis of political and historical propositions. Beginning with the first full-length sagas and culminating in the acknowledged masterpiece Njáls saga, Andersson emphasizes a historical perspective, establishing a chronology for seventeen of the most important sagas and showing how they evolve thematically and stylistically over the century under study. He revisits the long-standing debate about the oral and literary components of the sagas by arguing that there is a clear progression from the somewhat mechanical gathering of oral lore in the early sagas to an increasingly tight and authorially controlled composition in the later sagas.

The early sagas―including The Legendary Saga of Saint Olaf and Odd Snorrason's Saga of Olaf Tryggvason―focus on conspicuous individuals and their memorable deeds; later works are more apt to formulate the abstract problems and ideas that preoccupied their authors. As the authors begin to impose their views on the inherited narratives, the sagas become more and more critical and self-conscious, to the point where Njáls saga may be considered not only to approximate a novel in our sense of the term but also to comment on the saga form.

About this title

About the Author

Theodore M. Andersson is Professor of Germanic Studies Emeritus at Indiana University. He is the author of several books, including Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy and The Legend of Brynhild; translator of The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason; and cotranslator, with Kari Ellen Gade, of "Morkinskinna": The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157), all from Cornell.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801477824
• ISBN 13: 9780801477829
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248