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"The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas" (1200–1250) is a study of the genesis of Old Icelandic prose literature from its roots in oral tradition to the compilation of key early sagas at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Theodore M. Andersson devotes special attention to the Icelandic sagas (kings' sagas or "konungasögur") that narrate the careers of Norwegian kings, Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson prominent among them.
The author considers the "self-consciously Icelandic filter" that balances Icelanders' perception of Norwegian kings and Icelandic protagonists. He also treats the volatile balance of power between the monarch and the jarls of Norway that permeates the narrative of a now-lost *"Hlaðajarla saga", whose traces are evident in the major compilations "Morkinskinna" and "Fagrskinna".
Five of the book's chapters are revisions of previously published papers. The final two chapters carry the discussion of textual interrelationships in the kings' sagas to somewhat later Icelandic native sagas ("Íslendingasögur") originating in the north and the west of the country.
E-Book Content
Islandica A Series in Icelandic and Norse Studies Cornell University Library patrick j. stevens, managing editor volume lv
Ee The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250) THEODORE M. ANDERSSON
The Partisan Muse in the Early Icelandic Sagas (1200-1250)
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Theodore M. Andersson
isl a n dic a lv
cornell university library ithaca, new york 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University Library All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. First published 2012 by Cornell University Library Printed in the United States of America Design and composition: Jack Donner, BookType A complete version of this book is available through open access at http://cip.cornell.edu/Islandica ISBN: 978–0–935995–14–5 Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface Abbreviations
vii ix
chapter 1:
The Oral Prelude to Saga Writing
1
chapter 2:
The Prehistory of the Kings’ Sagas
35
chapter 3:
The First Written Sagas of Kings and Chieftains
45
chapter 4:
Sources and Attitudes in Óláfs saga helga in Heimskringla
83
chapter 5:
Political Subtexts in Morkinskinna, Heimskringla III, and Egils saga
119
chapter 6:
Domestic Politics in Northern Iceland
143
chapter 7:
Warrior Poets in the Northwest
171
Epilogue
189
Notes Sources for the Present Volume Bibliography
197 213 215
Preface
The present volume assembles several papers from the last ten to fi fteen years in slightly corrected and updated form and combined in such a way as to argue a general thesis. Chapters 1–5 substantially reproduce previously published papers (listed before the Bibliography); chapters 6–7 are new, though based on earlier work. To some extent the last five chapters make an attempt to work out the chronology of the early sagas. A number of these have traditionally been dated in the middle or toward the end of the thirteenth century, but I argue that some are appreciably earlier. Part of the project is therefore to establish what the repertory of early sagas is likely to have been. The larger project is an experiment in literary history at the time when the fi rst sagas came into being. Readers will inevitably fi nd the detailed exposition of the texts under study somewhat trying, but it is necessary for the purpose of establishing the textual interplay and the historical framework. The general argument is