A Hagiographical Reading of Egils saga
When the literary presentation of the character of Egill is examined carefully with an eye toward the hagiographical paradigm, one can see that it matches the presentation of a bishop’s life and...
View ArticleThe Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga
In this article I intend to discuss the role of the malevolent restless dead in medieval Iceland by making a case study of the so-called wonders of Fróðá, the Fróðárundr episode in Eyrbyggja saga. The...
View Article‘Black Men and Malignant-Looking’: The Place of the Indigenous Peoples of...
As they headed back to the ship they saw three hillocks on the beach inland from the cape. Upon coming closer they saw there were three hide-covered boats, with three men under each of them. The post...
View ArticleMiracles from Medieval Iceland
The first saint from Iceland was Thorlak Thorhallsson. The saga of his life reveals dozens of the miracles that were attributed to him after his death. Here are ten of these miracles, which reveal much...
View ArticleReconstructing the past in medieval Iceland
This paper examines the relationship between the Sagas of Icelanders, which are concerned with tenth- and eleventh-century events, and the contemporary sagas of the mid-thirteenth century. The post...
View ArticleLast Laughs: Torture in Medieval Icelandic Literature
Medieval Icelandic literature is full of violence, calculated and reasoned violence, narrated in such a way as to focus largely on issues of personal honor and justice, less so on the spectacle of...
View Article30 Sagas in 30 Days on Twitter
This month, a scholar is using Twitter to tell the stories of thirty lesser known tales written by Icelanders. The post 30 Sagas in 30 Days on Twitter appeared first on Medievalists.net.
View ArticleManifestations of psychiatric illness in texts from the medieval and Viking era
The medicine of medieval Europe was influenced above all by the Hippocratic and Galenic legacies, conveyed through the medical School of Salerno, albeit also to an extent embedded in demonological and...
View ArticleGrief, Gender and Mourning in Medieval North Atlantic Literature
This dissertation explores the relationship between grief, cultural constructs of gender, and mourning behaviour in the literatures of medieval Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Iceland The post...
View Article‘Hann lá eigi kyrr’: Revenants and a Haunted Past in the Sagas of Icelanders
From Antiquity to the present day, the idea of the dead returning to interact with the living has greatly influenced human imagination, and this has been reflected in literature — the product of that...
View ArticleThe Making of a Legend: The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and the TV series ‘Vikings’
Thus neither The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok nor ‘Vikings’ are immediately recognisable as straight works of history, although they both have certain strongly historical elements to their content. The post...
View Article7 Things One Should Know When Dealing with Kings: The Icelander’s Version
Here is MaryAnn R. Adams’ winning advice on how to deal with Norse kings. The post 7 Things One Should Know When Dealing with Kings: The Icelander’s Version appeared first on Medievalists.net.
View ArticleSnorri Sturluson: Viking Mythographer and Historian
I shall first tell you briefly about Snorri's background and his education and discuss his Edda, where he appears as mythographer, among other things, and then tell you about his career as a politician...
View ArticlePulling the Strings: The Influential Power of Women in Viking Age Iceland
Icelandic women during the Viking Age managed households, raised their children, tended to the animals, and wove the cloth, along with a host of other duties overlooked by their male counterparts. The...
View ArticleNumber Symbolism in Old Norse Literature
It is generally agreed that some numbers such as three and nine which appear frequently in the two Eddas hold special significances in Norse mythology. Furthermore, numbers appearing in sagas not only...
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Kings, Wars, and Duck Eggs: Interpretations of Poetry in Egil’s Saga
Although Egil’s Saga is memorable enough for its bloodshed, feuds, and comically disgusting mead-hall scenes, the one characteristic which most distinctly sets it apart from the other Icelandic sagas...
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Landscape, Maternal Space, And Child Exposure In The Sagas Of Icelanders
A survey of these episodes, then, suggests that maternal space in the sagas reasserts itself generally—and particularly reasserts itself onto the northern landscape—during instances of child exposure,...
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Buried Alive with an Undead Corpse! A Medieval Tale
A medieval tale from northern Europe tells the story of Asmund, who gets buried alive. His friend then rises from the dead!
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Historical Oddity: The Birth of a Commonwealth in Medieval Iceland
Iceland is an odd place with an odd history. Despite being ranked among the wealthiest nations today, for much of its history it was left out of the growth and development of culture and technology...
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From Heroic Legend to ‘Medieval Screwball Comedy’? The Origins, Development...
New types of popular texts emerged, bringing with them new images of women, especially the maiden-king or meykongr, a figure that features prominently in many of the late-medieval indigenous romances...
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