Cultural Memory in the Icelandic Contemporary Sagas : Constructing Continuity at a Time of Transformation

This series focuses on cultural memory studies in relation to the extensive and varied Nordic cultural goods from, and since, pre-modern times. Its interdisciplinary monographs and essay collections analyze the roles of memory, remembrance, commemoration, and other forms of anamnesis in, and deriving from, the Viking Age and the Middle Ages in Scandinavia.

The objective of this book is to analyse the Old Icelandic sagas dealing with the twelfth to fourteenth centuries – the secular contemporary sagas and the bishops’ sagas – from the perspective of cultural memory studies. This approach foregrounds their function as sources of the late medieval Icelanders’ collective identity, shaped by the narrative tradition and the current concerns. It is argued here that the intertextual relations between the Old Icelandic historiographical texts extend beyond the literary level and influence the perception of the past itself. The accounts of events from the settlement to the fourteenth century form a coherent narrative that acknowledges the historical development but accentuates the themes and values that continued to define the collective identity. Within this framework, the book presents a detailed analysis of how this function of the narrative shaped the sagas depicting the time when Iceland was gradually integrated into the Norwegian kingdom. As such, it contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how this culturally significant period of medieval Icelandic history was perceived when the memory of it was still crossing the boundary between common knowledge and foundational history.