Zilmer, Kristel. Scenes Of Island Encounters In Icelandic Sagas

• Author: Zilmer, Kristel
• Title: Scenes Of Island Encounters In Icelandic Sagas: Reflections Of Cultural Memory
• Published in: Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 4
• Year: 2008
• Pages: 227-248
• E-text: Brepols
• Reference: Zilmer, Kristel. "Scenes Of Island Encounters In Icelandic Sagas: Reflections Of Cultural Memory." Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 4 (2008): 227-248.

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Annotation

Zilmer explores an island-focused theme within selected works belonging to relevant konungasögur, Íslendingasögur, and þættir, primarily pertaining to travel, mobility, historical Viking-period aspects of water travel, and the construction of cultural memory. It is argued that although in literary sources islands frequently appear as, essentially, liminal places, whereby events such as violent death, identity change, and more occur. Islands were not actually isolated in the Viking-period but instead functioned as nodes of communication and interaction. It is in the context of raiding and battling that the foreign adventures of the sons of Njáll are used to illustrate the tendency for saga authors to specifically detail islands on routes, even if the islands are not explicitly named. It is thus argued that islands represent both separate places and interconnectedness and that such texts and island episodes may contain actual Viking-period information about routes and seafaring, such as Njáls saga.

Lýsing

Texta vantar

References

Chapter 89: Fóru þeir þá með honum í hernað. : “A characteristic motif is to name different islands in connection with raids and battles … A typical account of corresponding events meets us in ch. 89 of Njáls saga, which summarizes the activities of Kári and the sons of Njáll in the regions of Scotland and Wales. Among other undertakings, the men are said to have raided all around the Hebrides and killed a king’s son on the Isle of Man” (pp. 234-35)

Links

• Written by: Alex Casteel
• Icelandic/English translation: