Origins of Icelandic Literature

Description

Reprinted lithographically from corrected sheets of the first edition. Many books and papers have been published in the last fifty years about the origins of various branches of Icelandic literature, and in particular about the origins of 'Kings’ Sagas' and 'Icelanders’ Sagas'. Much of this work has been valuable, although often speculative and controversial. In this book I have attempted to avoid controversy and guess-work, although I may not always have succeeded. The origins of the classical prose can perhaps be discerned best if Icelandic literature of pre-classical ages is considered. It is plain that the greatest 'Kings’ Sagas' and 'Icelanders’ Sagas' were written in the thirteenth century, but it is well known that much poetry was composed and much prose was written in Iceland before that century. The origins of the classical sagas may thus be found, in part at any rate, in the prose and poetry of preceding ages, such as I have attempted to describe here. ABBREVIATIONS xii I. PAGAN ICELAND 1 II. THE CONVERSION OF ICELAND 48 III. THE FIRST CENTURY OF CHRISTIANITY 70 IV. ARI AND HIS INFLUENCE 88 V. THE SCHOOL OF HÓLAR AND EARLY RELIGIOUS PROSE 109 VI. THE POETRY OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN PERIOD 143 VII. HISTORICAL LITERATURE OF THE LATE TWELFTH CENTURY 166 VIII. EPILOGUE: THE CLASSICAL AGE 213 INDEX 254