Table of Contents

List of Illustrations.

Chronology.

Preface.

1. Iceland.

The Beginnings.

Language.

Cultural Heritage.

Discovery and Settlement.

2. The Saga.

What Is a Saga?.

Are Family Sagas Medieval Novels?.

Are Family Sagas Chronicles of Times Past?.

Three Extracts: Egils saga, Vatnsdœla saga and Laxdœla saga.

3. New Knowledge and Native Traditions.

Latin Learning.

Eddaic and Skaldic Verse.

Historical Writings.

Fornaldarsögur.

Riddarasögur and Rímur.

4. The Politics of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature.

Iceland and Scandinavian Nationalism.

Old Norse-Icelandic as ‘Ancient Poetry’.

Bishop Percy’s Translations.

Gray’s ‘Norse Odes’.

The Romantic Viking.

Our Friends in the North.

Old Norse-Icelandic Studies in Academia.

The Debate about Saga Origins.

Why is Old Norse English Literature?.

Old Norse-Icelandic and English Medieval Literature.

5. The Influence of Old Norse-Icelandic Literature.

BlakeTolkien and Fantasy Literature.

Scott, Kingsley and Haggard.

Landor, Arnold and Morris.

Stevenson, Hardy and Galsworthy.

MacDiarmid, Mackay Brown, and Auden and MacNeice.

Heaney and Muldoon.

Appendix: Hrafnkell’s Saga.

Glossary.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index

About the Author

Heather O'Donoghue is Reader in Old Norse at Oxford University. She is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.