Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Written down during the 12th to early 14th centuries, these prose sagas look back on the
disputes, families, doomed romances and larger-than-life characters (from warrior and poet
to outlaw) who lived during the Settlement Era. Most were written anonymously, though
Egil's Saga has been attributed to Snorri Sturluson. Some are sources for historical under-
standing, such as The Saga of the Greenlanders and Saga of Erik the Red, which describe
the travels of Erik and his family, including his son Leif (a settler in North America).
The sagas, written over the long, desperate centuries of Norwegian and Danish subjuga-
tion, provided a strong sense of cultural heritage at a time when Icelanders had little else.
On winter nights, people would gather for the kvöldvaka (evening vigil). While the men
twisted horsehair ropes and women spun wool or knitted, a family member would read the
sagas and recite rímur (verse reworkings of the sagas).
The sagas are very much alive today. Icelanders of all ages can (and do) read the sagas
in Old Norse, the language in which they were written 800 years ago. Most people can
quote chunks from them, know the farms where the characters lived and died, and flock to
cinemas to see the latest film versions of these eternal tales. Check out the Icelandic Saga
Database ( www.sagadb.org ) for more on sagas.
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