Ármann Jakobsson - The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas

Sirpa Aalto (Oulun Yliopisto, Finland)

Haki Antonsson (University College London, UK)

Massimiliano Bampi (Universit Ca Foscari Venezia, Italy)

Bjrn Bandlien (Universitetet i Oslo, Norway)

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough (Durham University, UK)

Santiago Barreiro (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Patricia Pires Boulhosa (University of Cambridge, UK)

Chris Callow ( University of Birmingham, UK)

Christopher Crocker (Hskli slands, Iceland)

Stefka G. Eriksen (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research)

Jhanna Katrn Fririksdttir (Stofnun rna Magnssonar slenskum frum, Iceland)

Stefanie Gropper (formerly Wrth) (Eberhard Karls Universitt Tbingen, Germany)

Pernille Hermann (Aarhus Universitet, Denmark)

rmann Jakobsson (Hskli slands, Iceland)

Sverrir Jakobsson (Hskli slands, Iceland)

Annette Lassen (Kbenhavns Universitet, Denmark)

Miriam Mayburd (Hskli slands, Iceland)

Jan Alexander van Nahl (Stofnun rna Magnssonar slenskum frum, Iceland)

Ralph OConnor (University of Aberdeen, UK)

Hans Jacob Orning (Universitetet i Oslo, Norway)

Viar Plsson (Hskli slands, Iceland)

Carl Phelpstead (Cardiff University, UK)

Lena Rohrbach (Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, Germany)

Elizabeth Ashman Rowe (University of Cambridge, UK)

Daniel Svborg (Tartu likool, Estonia)

Jonas Wellendorf (University of California, Berkeley, US)

Julia Zernack (Goethe-Universitt, Frankfurt, Germany)

Sarah B. Eriksen

Jacob A. Malone

Vds Ragnheiardttir

Julia Zernack

The medieval saga literature of Iceland has long been a source of inspiration for artists from different genres. Since the nineteenth century it has in various ways inspired works of literature, music, visual arts, and, increasingly, popular culture. These works borrow plots, characters and motifs, make use of a supposedly characteristic saga style, and not least adopt the term saga itself, which has become an international shorthand to denote narratives of particularly epic breadth or historical depth. The artistic reception of the sagas is an international phenomenon. Its core areas are Iceland and Scandinavia, and English- and German-speaking areas. Offshoots also stretch into Russia and the Romance-speaking countries as far as Latin America.

The artistic perception of sagas has not yet been subjected to a systematic scholarly survey. Yet, the existence of a large number of individual studies shows that it has been of interest to some researchers. These studies focus almost exclusively on the literary reception of sagas (in the broadest sense). However, Jran Mjbergs extensive work on the Scandinavian fascination with Nordic prehistory ( sagatiden ) tracks (amongst other subjects) saga motifs in literature and the visual arts. A preliminary survey of saga motifs in the visual arts in Iceland has also been made, while the perception of sagas throughout other media, such as music or film, remains largely unresearched.

Even if research so far has focused almost exclusively on the literary reception of sagas, the relevant studies are heterogeneous and therefore difficult to categorize in a systematic manner. In a brief overview of the state of scholarship like the present one, it is impossible to do justice to all research questions and findings. Instead, the focus will be on exploring the most important research tendencies. For a better understanding of these, it will first be necessary to gain an overview of the artistic reception of the Icelandic sagas and its historical development.