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The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic
Sagas (1180–1280)

Hans Jacob Orning

a

a

H

⊘gskulen i Volda , Volda Norway E-mail:

Published online: 24 Mar 2009.

To cite this article: Hans Jacob Orning (2009) The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas
(1180–1280), Scandinavian Journal of History, 34:1, 93-97, DOI:

10.1080/03468750802340389

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The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (1180–1280)
T

HEODORE

M. A

NDERSSON

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006
237 pp., $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8014-4408-1

About 10 years ago Theodore Andersson held the concluding speech at the saga
conference in Trondheim, in which he drew a comparison between previous and
contemporary saga scholars. His main point was that whereas 19th-century scholars
were like big cats covering vast territories, they nowadays were more like obedient
and subdued dogs (only a gifted speaker could of course convey such a message
without making it sound like an insult to the audience of saga scholars). I cannot
guarantee that this was the way his words actually fell – my memory has distorted the
exact phrasing, but I nevertheless consider it sufficiently reliable to be rendered here,
as I trust that my oral memory can preserve historical information without changing it
completely. The oral component in the writing of sagas is the main theme of
Andersson’s recent book, and – needless to say – he liquidates his own thesis. This
bold work is not the product of some sleepy, subservient dog, but rather of some
tiger with the guts and will to cover the whole jungle.

Andersson’s main project is to ‘clarify how the book-length sagas of medieval

Iceland evolved in literary terms from circa 1180 to circa 1280’ (p. 1). This is no
small undertaking, as the chronology of the sagas has been a theme discussed over
generations. Why then try to sort it out again? The main reason must be that a lot of
water has poured into the basin since the bookprose/freeprose-debate raged (in which
Andersson has himself played a main role since the 1960s).

Firstly, an anthropological turn has swept through the saga studies, disentangling

the debate from the question of whether the saga writers were tellers of truth or
writers of novels. By treating the saga corpus more like one entity, and shifting the
focus from the historical truth of particular statements to the social mechanisms
operating in a stateless society, new topics and methods have been brought to the
fore. Andersson himself has participated in these discussions and cooperated with
several of these more anthropologically inclined historians, though – as far as I can
judge – without adhering to the new doctrines completely.

1

Secondly, a large literature dedicated to the question of orality and literacy has

emerged during the last decades, which throws new light on the formerly debated
questions about the Icelandic saga origins. Much of this literature has come from other
disciplines and areas, and it has definitely called upon a more theoretical appoach to
the study of sagas. Andersson is not the one brawling about his competence. Rather,
he chooses to highlight some expressions of these new insights in the field of sagas
made by other scholars like Gı´sli Sigurðsson and Tommy Danielsson.

When approaching the problem of saga origins, Andersson is quite aware that

there is no question of reconstructing ‘oral sagas’. One paradox about oral traditions
which the new studies substantiate is that on the one hand ‘there were full oral

Scandinavian Journal of History Vol. 34, No. 1. March 2009, pp. 93–118
ISSN 0346-8755 print/ISSN 1502-7716 online
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

DOI: 10.1080/03468750802340389

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traditions underlying the sagas’, but on the other hand ‘these traditions are so elusive
that it is pointless to speculate about them’ (p. 5, with reference to Danielsson). His
method is rather to try to construct a saga chronology based on two factors: a
transition from a ‘quasi-folkloristic gathering of tradition to an increasingly focused
literary composition’, and a transition from a ‘scattered biographical form […] to a
form in which the narrative is controlled by an ever more dominant authorial point of
view’ (p. 2). Thus, both the substance of the sagas, as well as the way of writing
them, can be studied in the perspective of literacy, in which a more systematic and
abstract outlook will imply a more literate writer, and subsequently a later dating of
the saga in question.

In this way the questions of dating the sagas and of their oral origins transcend the

traditional mode of discussing these themes. I judge Andersson to be more
preoccupied with these lines of literary developments than with the exact or relative
datings of the sagas. Well into the book he exclaims that his chronological set-up has
small chances of being correct (p. 84). However, this does not undermine his task.
On another occasion he admits that the writers of the various sagas may have had their
personal idiosyncrasies which undoubtedly affected the way they wrote. His
undertaking is however not to deal with details or deviations, but to reflect upon the
main development in the transition from oral stories to written sagas.

In this area wrought with pitfalls Andersson takes his stand without much

hesitation. Already in the introduction he establishes the oral tradition as consisting of
fairly long stories, arguing against the þættir-theory with arguments which hardly can
be considered as conclusive. Furthermore, he pays relatively little attention to other
literary impulses on the sagas. Now and then he refers to potential foreign influences
on the sagas, but they are never treated as impulses influencing the way the authors
wrote in a more fundamental manner. The external, literate impulses are mainly
limited to form a somewhat passive background for the early kings’ sagas, mainly in
the form of hagiographical biographies. These impulses played an important role in
stimulating Icelanders into putting words into writing, but they nevertheless remain
some kind of residual category from which the writers were to free themselves as they
transformed their own oral outlook into dramatic, written histories ever more firmly.

The book

It must be remarked that it is a pleasure to read Andersson’s book. He could easily be
a saga writer himself. One thing is that his own delight in the sagas penetrates the
book. Another is that a quite substantial part of the book consists of retellings of sagas.
But a retelling is no mere reflection, and what characterizes the book is that the reader
is firmly guided through a multitude of sagas with the main focus always present.

Andersson starts out with the earliest kings’ sagas attributed to Icelandic authors –

Odd Snorrason’s Saga of Olaf Tryggvason and The Legendary Saga of Saint Olaf, both
probably written before 1200. In his view, these sagas demonstrate an Icelandic effort
to appropriate the Christian literary tradition. This explains why they are so clumsy in
their form. The saga writer is not (yet) able to grasp the traditional stuff and
transform it into a story, but he is still some sort of collector of traditions, which are
put together in a rude, episodic fashion. The only exceptions to this are the retellings

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of the Svold battle in the former saga, and the Dala-Gudbrand incident in the latter.
Here the story rises to great drama, something he attributes to oral traditions, which
enables the author to tell a story in vivid terms. Such storytelling skills are
independent on what is the actual stuff of the story, as the Dala-Gudbrand episode has
clear hagiographic models.

Then follows a chapter dealing with what Andersson considers to be early

Icelandic sagas (Vı´ga-Glu´ms saga, Reykdæla saga, Fo´stbræðra saga, Heiðarvı´ga saga, Gı´sla
saga

), written in the first two decades of the 13th century. The dating of these sagas is

of course uncertain, but they show two tendencies: a thematic transition to Iceland,
and a formal development from scattered biography towards an analysis of human
character. These characteristics can be viewed in Morkinskinna, which differs much
from the earliest kings’ sagas, in Andersson’s concluding words: ‘The initiative has
passed more decisively from informant to author’ (p. 101).

In Egils saga this storytelling is for the first time used with the goal of ‘founding a

nation’ (p. 103). Unlike many of Egils saga’s readers, for instance Preben
Meulengracht Sørensen, Andersson finds an ambiguity in the depiction of Egil and
his opponents. This is no straight story of Icelandic freedom versus Norwegian
oppression, but an interpretation leaving the moral question open. In this way,
Andersson considers this to be one of the first examples of how the saga author
managed to remain neutral in his descriptions. (Another unusual point he makes is
that the family as a thematic frame was not invented until Gı´sla saga).

Ljo´svetninga saga

cuts the relation to Norway by focusing exclusively on Icelandic

affairs, but continues the tendency towards a more abstract and moral saga form.
Here the persons or regions are not depicted for their own sake, but as examples of
good and bad behavior. Laxdæla saga continues this universalist ambition, and adds to
it thematically by including enormous amounts of information, which could be a
possible response to the development of the kings’ sagas. It also accords Iceland with
some quasi-royal flavour, though put in a nostalgic tone. Eyrbyggja saga and Vatnsdæla
saga

develop these themes.

The sagas of the latter 13th century reflect a growing scepticism about the

Icelandic condition, especially about the virtues of chieftains. In Hænsa-Þoris saga new
money is contrasted negatively to old money, in Bandamanna saga money and wisdom
clash, whereas in Hrafnkels saga no chieftains possess the right virtues. In Nja´ls saga this
culminates in failure: ‘failed characters, failed institutions, the failed values of valor
and wisdom, and, not least, the failed literary conventions of the saga, which are
shown to be hollow or perverse’ (p. 203). In this way the saga genre ends in tragedy,
just like the political system which it is part of.

Comments

Andersson’s reading of the sagas as commentaries on the contemporary condition is
not new. However, he offers a row of new interpretations. His reading of Nja´ls saga as
a failure will probably not be accepted by everyone. Neither will all agree that Egils
saga

starts the saga tradition of author neutrality. The chronology of sagas is also prone

to provoke opposition, even though Andersson is well aware of the uncertainties.
However, this book does not pretend to present the final verdict on the sagas, but is

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rather one contribution in the long dialogue about the development of saga writing.
As such it is a very well-informed and suggestive one.

One advantage with Andersson’s book is that his premises are stated clearly, and

that his hypotheses follow consistently from this. The metaphor of ‘growth’ suits the
project well. Sagas originate in an oral tradition, but it is its meeting with a written,
Christian tradition that produces the sagas. The ‘growth’ consists in how sagas are
created and how they develop from this double starting point. The oral tradition
furnishes the narrative categories and the subject matter, but the modes of telling the
stories are derived from writing. Thus, he separates between a biographical, a regional
or chronicle-like, and a feud narrative mode (p. 17). The development consists in
how episodes narrated in a registrative mode are gradually transformed into consistent
and far-stretched plots, in which the narrator plays an active part in structuring the
events into a coherent story.

Andersson believes that the oral tradition lays at the foundation of the sagas.

Thus, they convey the narrative patterns of the sagas. External impulses, such as
motifs from abroad or the historical tradition associated with monasteries, are
accorded less importance, and often emerge as residual categories. Those who view
sagas as highly crafted products consciously imitating an oral tradition rather than
transforming it into writing, will find no supporter in Andersson. To him, the
disentanglement of sagas from the oral tradition is a gradual one, which one can
follow through the ‘growth’ of saga writing.

The growth of the sagas is also connected to the whole question of an Icelandic

identity and self-consciousness. To Andersson, the initial phase of saga writing testifies
to how the Icelanders broke out of Norwegian hegemony by starting to write about
themselves rather than about kings, eventually to re-enter into Norwegian dominance
after 1264. Nja´ls saga represents the eclipse both of the saga genre and the Icelandic
people, and therefore reads as the ultimate Icelandic tragedy.

I wonder how far this interpretation holds water. One thing is that the saga itself

can be interpreted in less pessimistic ways.

2

As an historian I also have some hesitation

about making the loss of independence such a decisive event. Several scholars in the
last decades have pointed to the continuities in political life on Iceland in the period
after 1264.

3

Furthermore, this scheme does not suit well if we consider the manuscript

tradition. Previous scholars often considered Icelandic sagas to develop according to a
scheme of rise (early Icelandic sagas), climax (the classical Icelandic sagas), and decay
(the fornaldarso¨gur). In the last period, as reality no longer consisted in chieftains
struggling for power in a stateless society, Icelanders sought refuge in a mythical
universe of a distant past filled with exaggerations and distortions, from which they
could dream of better days. However, Icelandic sagas continued to be copied and
adapted in the late middle ages, so their message cannot have been considered totally
foreign. Moreover, Torfi Tulinius has argued that fornaldarso¨gur were already being
written from the early 13th century on, and that these sagas are not signs of decay,
but rather of an Icelandic aristocracy about to be transformed into a more hereditary
class.

4

Lastly, the riddaraso¨gur does not fit into the ‘organic’ image. Now, it would be

unfair to demand more from a book so wide in scope and material as Andersson’s is,
but considering his minimalizing of foreign influence now and again, a side view to the

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riddaraso¨gur could have supplemented the presentation. There is no reason to resort
to von Ru¨bow’s thesis that saga writing originated with the translated Tristrams saga ok
I´so¨nd, but on the other hand reducing foreign influences to hagiographical and
monarchical models risk missing half the picture. Would Gudrun’s love for Kjartan
have been the same without Tristrams saga?

The fate of books like The Growth of the Medieval Icelandic Sagas is not only that they

provide new answers and insights, but also that they trigger new questions. Theodore
Andersson’s book will certainly have a central position in future saga studies.

Notes

1

Cf. for instance his voluminous introduction to Ljo´svetninga saga written together
with William Ian Miller.

2

Cf. Lars Lo¨nnroth’s critical remarks on the interpretation of Nja´ls saga in his review
in Scripta Islandica 2006.

3

Byock, ‘History and the Sagas: The Effect of Nationalism’; Jo´n Viðar Sigurðsson,
‘The Icelandic Aristocracy After the Fall of the Free State’; Helgi Þorla´ksson,
‘Konungsvald ok hefnd’; Sigriður Beck, ‘At vinna va¨nner: Va¨nskap som politiskt
redskap pa˚ Island ca. 1250–1400’.

4

Tulinius, The Matter of the North. Cf. also Mitchell, Heroic Sagas and Ballads.

References

Andersson, Theodore M., and William Ian Miller. Law and Literature on Medieval Iceland:

Ljo´svetninga saga and Valla-Ljots saga

. Standford: Standford University Press, 1989.

Beck, Sigriður. ‘At vinna va¨nner: Va¨nskap som politiskt redskap pa˚ Island ca. 1250–

1400’. In Va¨nner, patroner och klienter i Norden 900–1800, ed. L. Hermanson, T.
Sma˚berg, J.V. Sigurðsson, and J. Danneskiold-Samsøe, 101–22, Reykjavı´k: Islands
Universitets Fo¨rlag, 2007.

Byock, Jesse L. ‘History and the Sagas: The Effect of Nationalism’. In From Sagas to Society,

ed. G. Pa´lsson, 43–60, Hisarlik: Hisarlik Press, 1992.

Lo¨nnroth, Lars. ‘The Growth of the Sagas, Review of Theodore M. Andersson, The

Growth of the Medieval Sagas (1180–1280)’. Scripta Islandica 57 (2006): 121–30.

Mitchell, Stephen. Heroic Sagas and Ballads. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,

1991.

Sigurðsson, Jo´n Viðar. ‘The Icelandic Aristocracy After the Fall of the Free State’.

Scandinavian Journal of History

20, no. 3 (1995): 153–66.

Tulinius, Torfi. The Matter of the North. Odense: Odense University Press, 2002.
Þorla´ksson, Helgi. ‘Konungsvald ok hefnd’. Sagas and the Norwegian Experience: Preprints for

the 10th Saga Conference, Trondheim, August 3–9, 1997, 249–61.

H

ANS

J

ACOB

O

RNING

Høgskulen i Volda

Volda Norway

[e-mail]

ß 2009, Hans Jacob Orning

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