Iceland Archive
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From Viking Chiefdoms to Medieval State in Iceland: The Evolution of Social Power Structures in the Mosfell Valley
Posted on March 2, 2015 | No CommentsNorse settlers from Scandinavia arrived in Iceland in the 9th century AD and encountered an unoccupied and virgin landscape. This dissertation focuses on how these Viking Age migrants interacted with the local environment and with each other to develop a new society, and how that society evolved over the following four centuries. -
The Role of the Dead in Medieval Iceland: A Case Study of Eyrbyggja Saga
Posted on February 7, 2015 | No CommentsIn this article I intend to discuss the role of the malevolent restless dead in medieval Iceland by making a case study of the so-called wonders of Fróðá, the Fróðárundr episode in Eyrbyggja saga. -
A Hagiographical Reading of Egils saga
Posted on February 6, 2015 | No CommentsWhen the literary presentation of the character of Egill is examined carefully with an eye toward the hagiographical paradigm, one can see that it matches the presentation of a bishop’s life and character... -
‘Iceland: Land of Fire, Ice and Vikings’ symposium takes place next month
Posted on January 27, 2015 | No CommentsThose interested in Iceland's history and future will be gathering at California Lutheran University next month for the 16th Annual Nordic Spirit Symposium. The two-day conference's theme is 'Iceland: Land of Fire, Ice and Vikings'. -
Trolls in the Middle Ages
Posted on January 6, 2015 | No CommentsWhere did trolls come from? What did medieval and early modern people think of trolls? How did the concept of the modern day troll evolve? -
Winter, snow and cold in the life of the Westviking
Posted on January 3, 2015 | No CommentsThe main purpose of this paper is to examine how the Westviking were influenced by winter, snow and cold in their day-to-day life as they were making progress in the West. -
Þingvellir: Archaeology of the Althing
Posted on January 1, 2015 | No CommentsThe Norse General Assembly of Iceland, called the Althing at Þingvellir, was central to early Icelandic society in the Viking Age. Not only was it the high point of the annual social calendar, but it was also the focus of their ideals of justice and law-making, which the early Icelanders refined into an art. -
Chaucer in Iceland
Posted on December 22, 2014 | No CommentsMy project is called Chaucer in Iceland and its main aim was to take the congress in Iceland as a case study for looking at the impact of Scandinavia identity on contemporary medieval studies. -
The Icelandic annals as historical sources
Posted on December 6, 2014 | No CommentsCould it be that the annals had not been written year by year in an ongoing process after all? Equally important - did there exist other sources to events annotated in the notices which could be studied as exhibits to the annals? -
![The Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga Hilda Radzin (St. John’s University) Literary Onomastics Studies: Volume 5, Article 7 (1978) Abstract In the Old […]](http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/harald_haarfager-115x115.jpg "The Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga")
The Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga
Posted on November 18, 2014 | No CommentsThe Names of Islands in the Old Norse Faereyinga Saga and Orkeyinga Saga Hilda Radzin (St. John’s University) Literary Onomastics Studies: Volume 5, Article 7 (1978) Abstract In the Old […] -
Childhood in early Icelandic society: representations of children in the Icelandic Sagas
Posted on November 16, 2014 | No CommentsThirteenth century Icelanders did not sentimentalize childhood, but rather viewed it as a learning stage, a crucial period for the acquisition of culture. -
Of sagas and sheep: Toward a historical anthropology of social change and production for market, subsistence and tribute in early Iceland
Posted on November 6, 2014 | No CommentsThis dissertation deals with the formation of chiefdoms, communities, ecclesiastical institutions and state, and with production for market, subsistence and tribute in early Iceland in the context of climatic change and ecological succession. -
Messages from the Otherworld – The Roles of the Dead in Medieval Iceland
Posted on November 2, 2014 | No CommentsI will examine the role of the restless dead in sagas by focusing on the individuals who are responsible for banishing the malevolent ghosts, or encounter the benevolent or non-harmful living dead. -
Vampires and Watchmen: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead
Posted on October 8, 2014 | No CommentsOne can imagine three ways to approach a mediaeval Icelandic draugr, a term which is usually glossed as ‘ghost’ in English. -
Vikings, the barbaric heroes: exploring the Viking image in museums in Iceland and England and its impact on identity
Posted on October 6, 2014 | No CommentsThis study analyses the responses of Icelandic and English individuals in regards to their views on the Viking image as represented within museums and in society. -
The Case of the Greenlandic Assembly Sites
Posted on September 8, 2014 | No CommentsIn the early 20th century, scholars identified two possible Greenlandic assembly sites at Brattahalíð and Garðar respectively. Later scholars, with one exception, have neither refuted nor corroborated this, and research on this topic has therefore not significantly moved forward in the last 100 years. In this article, the two proposed assembly sites are examined in the light of recent research. -
Understanding Grettir as an Ethical Hero: Comparing Havamal and Grettir’s Saga
Posted on September 6, 2014 | No CommentsThe Icelandic family sagas are replete with heroes, fighting men and strong women who stood with their teeth to the wind and carved a life for themselves out of an inhospitable world -
Advice from a Norse God: Wisdom from the Hávamál
Posted on August 24, 2014 | No CommentsThe Hávamál (Sayings of the High One) is part of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems that survive in a 13th century manuscript. -
Signs of Power. Manorial Demesnes in Medieval Iceland
Posted on August 20, 2014 | No CommentsAn important aspect of medieval Icelandic social organization, namely the manor, has been neglected in previous research, and very little research has been undertaken comparing Icelandic manorial organization with other regions. This article focuses on one aspect of manorial organization, namely the manorial demesne or central farm of the manor. -
The Fabulous Saga of Guðmundr inn ríki: Representation of Sexuality in Ljósvetninga saga
Posted on August 16, 2014 | No CommentsGuðmundr, a powerful goði living in the late 10th and early 11th century, was subjected to sexual insults by his rivals Þorkell hákr and Þórir goði Helgason. These sexual insults described him as effeminate and cowardly, and the thesis shows that the Ljósvetninga saga text follows suit with these slurs. -
Discovering Law: Hayekian Competition in Medieval Iceland
Posted on July 27, 2014 | No CommentsFrom the start, Icelandic society operated with well-developed concepts of private property and law, but, in an unusual combination, it lacked most of the formal institutions of government which normally protect ownership and enforce judicial decisions -
From Old Norse to Modern Icelandic
Posted on July 1, 2014 | No CommentsThus the language spoken and written in Iceland today is quite close to what has been called Old Norse, such as it appears in the medieval texts. -
Demonic Magic in the Icelandic Wizard Legends
Posted on June 25, 2014 | No CommentsSaemund Sigfusson is the earliest of the Icelandic wizards. According to the annals he was born in the year 1056. He was educated in France and returned to Iceland in 1076 or 1078. -
Climatic Change and the North Atlantic Seaways During the Norse Expansion
Posted on June 24, 2014 | No CommentsIn order to appreciate how the Norse expansion might have been influenced by climatic fluctuations it is necessary to consider in outline the mechanisms which control weather and climate in the North Atlantic area at the present day, and which also obtained in the past. -
Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in west iceland
Posted on June 22, 2014 | No CommentsThe name Surtshellir means, variously, the ‘Black Cave’ or the ‘Cave of Surtur’,a powerful fire giant according to norse mythology. Surtshellir is mentioned several times in icelandic medieval literature and seems to have been well-known as a threatening place, inhabited by giants or outlaws.
