Cultural Memory in the Icelandic Contemporary Sagas : Constructing Continuity at a Time of Transformation

• Autore: Korecká Lucie
• Pubblicazione: Berlin/Boston : , : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, , 2025; ©2025
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (282 pages)
• Disciplina: 839.63
• Soggetto non controllato: Iceland; Old Icelandic sagas; cultural memory; historicity; middle ages
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Constructing identity: The beginning of Icelandic history -- 3 Constructing continuity: The Saga Age and the Sturlung Age -- 4 Continuity and contact: Mutual influences between Iceland and Norway -- 5 The time of transformation: Iceland’s political integration with Norway -- 6 Integration and integrity: Iceland as a part of the Norwegian kingdom -- 7 Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: The objective of this book is to analyse the Old Icelandic sagas dealing with the twelfth to fourteenth centuries – the secular contemporary sagas and the bishops’ sagas – from the perspective of cultural memory studies. This approach foregrounds their function as sources of the late medieval Icelanders’ collective identity, shaped by the narrative tradition and the current concerns. It is argued here that the intertextual relations between the Old Icelandic historiographical texts extend beyond the literary level and influence the perception of the past itself. The accounts of events from the settlement to the fourteenth century form a coherent narrative that acknowledges the historical development but accentuates the themes and values that continued to define the collective identity. Within this framework, the book presents a detailed analysis of how this function of the narrative shaped the sagas depicting the time when Iceland was gradually integrated into the Norwegian kingdom. As such, it contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how this culturally significant period of medieval Icelandic history was perceived when the memory of it was still crossing the boundary between common knowledge and foundational history.
• Titolo autorizzato: Cultural Memory in the Icelandic Contemporary Sagas
• ISBN: 9783111348476; 3111348474
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9911011282303321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
• Serie: Memory and the Medieval North Series