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The Present and the Past in the Sagas of the Icelanders

Antonsson, HT; (2017) The Present and the Past in the Sagas of the Icelanders. In: Weiler, B and Lambert, P, (eds.) Beyond the Invention of Tradition: The Uses of the Past in Past Societies. (pp. 69-90). Proceedings of the British Academy: London, UK. Green open access

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Abstract

This chapter examines how the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), which were mostly written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, re�ected their present in a particularly period of the past, the socalled ‘Saga-Age’ which roughly covers the period between the Settlement of Iceland in the late ninth century to the second half of the eleventh century. Iceland’s peculiar constitutional arrangement during the Commonwealth period (930–1262/64), most notably the absence of kingship, freed authors from following a clearly demarcated narrative arch that focused on a single royal dynasty (as, for instance, in Denmark and Norway). Though predominantly concerned with disputes, saga writers could address issues of contemporary relevance, such as the nature of lordship and role of law, through stories set in a society similar, but not identical, to their own.

Type: Book chapter
Title: The Present and the Past in the Sagas of the Icelanders
ISBN-13: 9780197266120
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197266120.003.0003
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266120.001.00...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Iceland, sagas, saga writers, Settlement of Iceland, lordship, law
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1498786
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