http://hdl.handle.net/10900/53306 Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:52:00 GMT 2026-07-22T15:52:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46218 Capital, field, illusio. Can Bourdieu's sociology help us understand the development of literature in medieval Iceland? Tuliníus, Torfi Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology has its origin in his ethnographic work on the honor-based society of Kabyllia a region of Algeria. It is from this work as an ethnographer that he developed his concepts of different types of capital in modern society, es­pecially symbolic and cultural capital. In my paper I will discuss what new under­stand­ing Bourdieu’s sociology of culture may bring to the study of the relationship between saga-writing and the society which fostered it. Basing myself on the example of Snorri Sturluson and his milieu, I will show what role cultural activities such as saga-writing may have had for actors in early thirteenth-century society. An investigation of the different types of capital available to these actors will show the interrelationship between cultural activities and power-broking. However, the evidence also indicates that literature may also have begun to have an independent status as a cultural endeavour and opens the question whether there was an embryonic literary field in medieval Iceland which might explain the extent of the literary activity during the period. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46218 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46216 The sagas and conversion history: Kristni sagaand other texts Grønlie, Siân Different attitudes have been expressed about the historicity of Kristni saga since the saga was edited and translated into Latin in 1773. For historians up until the mid-twentieth century, it was a reliable source for conversion history, and its account of the missions to Iceland was used frequently in works of history in combination with Ari, the conversion þættir in Flateyjarbók, and extracts from the family sagas. More recently, however, it has been dismissed by those more sceptical about the historicity of saga literature as containing little of any value for the serious historian, and classed along with legendary and hagiographical works like Oddr and Gunnlaugr’s sagas of Óláfr Tryggvason. At the same time it is generally recognized not only that the saga’s skaldic verses are valuable historical sources, but also that some of the anecdotes not found in Ari may have a kernel of historical truth. The saga’s probable connection with the historian Sturla Þórðarson suggests that a serious historical purpose lies behind it. He collected and ordered his material on historical principles, adding both chronological and geographical details not found elsewhere, and including a passage on the missionary Þangbrandr’s stay in Borgarfjörðr. This is probably based on oral sources and its numerous place-names may reflect Sturla’s familiarity with the area. Although his written sources included hagiographical and fictional material from Oddr and Gunnlaugr’s work, Sturla is careful to revise and sometimes rewrite entirely those passages that contravene the saga’s impression of historicity. While it is difficult to tell whether he made these changes because he had access to more reliable information or purely on stylistic grounds, it is clear from comparison with other texts that the main impulse behind the saga was neither religious nor aesthetic, but historical in nature. There are several reasons why Sturla might have compiled Kristni saga or supervised its compilation. His model is usually thought to have been Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla and he may have wished to provide a comprehensive overview of Icelandic history just as Snorri did for the kings of Norway. In this overview, Kristni saga was the link between Landnámabók and the contemporary sagas, placing the conversion at the centre of the island’s history. Secondly, there is Sturla’s noted interest in legal matters: as in Ari’s account of the conversion, the shift from paganism to Christianity in the saga is portrayed less as a religious phenomenon than as the establishment and development of Christian law. Finally, Sturla may have seen in Iceland’s conversion an opportunity to explore the relationship between Iceland and Norway, a central problem in accounts of the conversion from Ari to the family sagas. The belief that the Norwegian king Ólafr Tryggvason brought Christianity to Iceland raised important issues concerning the political relationship between the two countries, and Iceland’s loss of independence to Norway during Sturla’s lifetime made an evaluation of that relationship especially relevant. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46216 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46222 Two Borgfirðinga sögur: the oldest or the youngest Íslendingasögur? Finlay, Alison Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa and Heiðarvíga saga alike have traditionally been described as 'primitive' sagas. Bjarnar saga is conventionally dated c. 1220; Heiðarvíga saga is often named as the oldest of the Íslendingasögur. Bjarni Guðnason turned these datings on their heads when he argued, largely on grounds of ideology, that Heiðarvíga saga is as late as c. 1260 1993), and that Bjarnar saga, post-dating Njáls saga, is one of the youngest of these sagas (1994). Taking as examples these two sagas, one set in Borgarfjörður and the other relating a feud heavily involving the Borgfirðingar, this paper reviews the possible criteria - stylistic, ideological, and those relating to literary relations and historical context ? for assessing the chronology of saga composition, and revisits Sigurður Nordal's speculations (Íslenzk fornrit III) about the conditions in which sagas may have been written in Borgarfjörður in the early thirteenth century. Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46222 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46219 The word and the world: A resonant textual fragment of Íslendinga saga Úlfar Bragason The paper investigates into the narratology of the Sturlunga compilation: how the events of the 12th and 13th centuries in Iceland are turn into narrative in the contemporary sagas. I will take examples of the ways of selecting and organizing the story material, and the principle of narration. I will argue that the recognition and appreciation of the narrative nature of the Sturlunga are long overdue and will show by the example of Islendinga saga by Sturla Thordarson that it is necessary to understand the narrative rules of the contemporary sagas before making use of them as sources of the history of the Sturlung Age. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/46219 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z