Department of History & Welsh History
University of Wales Aberystwyth
Myth & History in the Viking Age:
Saga & Society in Medieval Iceland
Seminars
This seminar will look more specifically at some of the philological debates surrounding saga literature. Some of the more general questions to consider are:
() Are Sagas literature or history ?
() What are the main types of saga literature ?
() What are the characteristics of family sagas ?
Among the more specific ones:
() When were the sagas written ?
() For what audience ?
() By whom ?
() What are they trying to tell their audience ?
For seminar discussion, you may want to debate specific approaches or individual articles by modern scholars.
You can also use this seminar to discuss some of the basic characteristics underpinning Icelandic society (cf. the titles listed under ‘Introduction’ in your bibliography). You may, for example, ask people to consider some of the following:
() What were the key features of Icelandic society in the Viking Age ?
() What were the internal structures of Icelandic society ?
() Where did the Icelanders come from ?
() Why would they want to settle in Iceland ?
() Where did they settle in Iceland ?
() How did they earn a living ?
For Reading, consult the bibliography, but you may find the pieces by Clover and Andersson listed particularly useful for the literary aspects of this questions, and the items by Byock on Medieval Iceland and Viking Age Iceland for the general background to the period we are considering..
This is the first of the major sources we are considering, and most of this seminar will be taken up by talking about questions helping to understand this particular source.
Among the topics to be discussed are:
() What are the key themes of Laxdaela Saga ?
() When do the events which it describes take place ?
() When was its most likely date of composition ?
() Along what lines does the narrative develop ?
You may also want to pick out specific themes which we will return to later on. These might include:
() Women (a particular good topic with Laxdaela)
() Feud
() Conflict resolution and settlement
Or, alternatively, specific, more general issues about Icelandic society in general:
() Travel
() Political Structures
() Material Culture (how did people live ?)
Njáls Saga is perhaps one of the most literary of the Icelandic family sagas, and also the one with the most elaborate narrative structure. Obvious themes to discuss include:
() What are the key themes of Njáls Saga ?
() When do the events which it describes take place ?
() When was its most likely date of composition ?
() Along what lines does the narrative develop ?
Furthermore, as with the other key texts, you may want to consider exploring more specific issues:
() Feud and conflict resolution (especially relevant in the context of Njál)
() The role of law and legal procedure in medieval Icelandic society (ditto)
() Religion and society (not a major issue, but some good bits about the conversion to Christianity [look out for references to horseflesh]).
() Political structures (how does one make/lose friends & allies ?)
() Honour and status (some very good secondary materials, and a good line in insults on the part of the author)
Egils Saga may perhaps be called the funniest of the three sagas selected, and the one covering the widest geographical range of activities explored. It just allows for some issues to be explored which you may not always find in the other two texts. Some key questions:
() What are the key themes of Njáls Saga ?
() When do the events which it describes take place ?
() When was its most likely date of composition ?
() Who was involved in its composition ?
() Along what lines does the narrative develop ?
() What does it have in common, and where does it differ, from Laxdaela Saga or Njáls Saga ?
And, as before, you may want to explore some more specific issues. These could include:
() The relationship between family saga and other forms of literary production (Egil was famed for being a great poet, and the saga does contain various examples of skaldic verse).
() What constitutes honour ? How does one acquire or lose it ?
() How important were wit and brains, and strength and brawn in medieval Icelandic society ?
() What does Egils Saga tell us about the wider world within which Icelanders moved ?
() How were feuds started/pursued/resolved ?
() How important were status, prestige and power in pursuing legal matters ?
() How important were kinship ties in medieval Icelandic politics ?
This forms the beginning of the second part of this course. That is, we will now compare the treatment of particular themes and issues in these three sample sagas and put them in relation to each other. The main question to be asked is what the Icelandic family sagas tell us about the hopes and expectations of their authors and readers, and how that can be used to construct a plausible representation of what the historical reality of Viking Age Iceland may have been like. In this and the following seminars, you will have to discuss issues with reference to specific episodes in the sagas discussed so far. Group work could consist of specific examples and excerpts to be discussed in class. You may also feel free to draw on examples from other sagas or sources. Some possible questions are:
() What was honour ?
() How was it defined ? How could one acquire it? Lose it ?
() What advantages would one gain from honourable behaviour ?
() What were the possible obligations and disadvantages ?
() Equally, how did one construct shame and dishonour ?
() What did medieval Icelanders think was shameful ?
() How could fear of shame be used as means of forcing action ?
() What does this tell us about their worldview ?
() How did one acquire status ? What was it good for ? How was it measured ?
This topic follows from the previous one, and deals with the subject matter Iceland is perhaps most commonly associated in the modern imagination, that is, the bloodfeud. As before, Egilssaga, Njáls saga and Laxdaela Saga will be used to explore, on a comparative basis, some of the key issues involved in dealing with the role of feud in Icelandic society. Some key issues to consider are:
() How important was feud in Icelandic society ?
() How was is started ? Pursued ? Settled ?
() What was the role of prestige and honour in feuding, and what that of law, and justice, of property and power ?
() How did feuds escalate ?
() How were they stopped ?
() What was the role of the lawbooks in feuding ?
() Why was feud such an integral element to the fabric of medieval Icelandic society ?
This seminar marks a further expansion of the sources we need to discuss, and you are strongly advised to consider archaeological evidence, too, and to look at some of the King’s sagas. In particular, we will be looking at the role of religion in the sagas, what they tell us about pagan beliefs and Christianity, or the role of religion in medieval Iceland. Some points to consider:
() How important was religion in medieval Iceland ?
() How do we know about this ?
() What was the attitude of Icelanders towards their pagan past ?
() How did Iceland convert to Christianity ? Why ?
() What was the relationship between Christian religious practice and that of paganism ?
() What was pagan about paganism ? What do we know about pagan beliefs ? How ?
() What is the role of religious and quasi-religious encounters (dreams, visions, miracles) in the narrative structure of the sagas ?
() How important are they, for instance, in feuding or the law courts ?
Women Vikings are, in Judith Jesch’s words, not something normally associated with Vikings. Nonetheless, they play a significant role both within Icelandic society and within the saga literature. As before, your reading of the sagas will have to be complemented by other materials. Some key questions:
() What was the legal status of women in medieval Icelandic society ?
() What was their political status ?
() What was their function within the saga narrative ?
() How could they act as peacemakers ?
() How could they start a feud ?
() How could they influence actions ?
In this seminar, we will discuss the contacts medieval Icelanders had with the outside world. Some of the questions to consider might be:
() What did medieval Icelanders know of the world outside Iceland ?
() How did they interact with it ?
() How did foreigners come to Iceland ?
() How were they integrated (or were they) ?
() What was the significant of trade or raiding ?
() Of feuds ?