Medieval Legal Dramas? Justice in Icelandic Sagas
Examining Icelandic justice through the legal stories found in Njal’s Saga.
Medieval Iceland: A Timeline
A look at the events and history of Iceland between the ninth and fifteenth centuries.
Were Icelandic Sagas Sleazy Tabloids?
While Icelandic sagas might not be written in a sensational tone, they are often filled with rumors, gossip and various love lives.
The Famous Headdress of Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir
One of the most famous pieces of clothing in Icelandic saga literature is the headdress that appears in Laxdæla saga.
Adventures in Iceland’s Saga Country
For me, Iceland‘s landscape and the sagas are intertwined and inseparable.
Canadian library acquires rare medieval Scandinavian book
A rare first edition of Ole Worm’s Runir, seu, Danica literatura antiqvissima (Runes, or, the ancient literature of the Norse people) has come to the University of Manitoba.
Five Examples of Saga Men Being Terrible
Almost every saga has at least one terrible sentence uttered by a man towards or about a woman. Often these are stated at the climax of the sagas, and carry a lot of meaning within them.
How Did Deaf and Non-Speaking People Communicate in Medieval Iceland?
In my research on deaf and non-speaking people in medieval Iceland, one question that particularly stuck with me was whether those who could not or did not want to engage in verbal communication had any other tools at their disposal.
Telling Saga Stories at Þingvellir
Yoav Tirosh talks about the Saga of Njáll the Burner with a Portuguese tourist.
10 Tips on Reading an Icelandic Saga
Here are some neat tips and tricks that will make your lives easier and your reading of sagas much more enjoyable.
The Sagas and the Worst Film Ever Made
How can one connect Ljósvetninga saga to The Room? Perhaps in the editing.
Epidemics in Medieval Iceland: The Evidence of Contemporary Annals
Elizabeth Rowe discusses how epidemics repeatedly struck the isolated community of Iceland in the later Middle Ages, and contemporary annals record them in ways that range from the horrifying to the humorous.
‘Viking’ Humour
Do we share a sense of humour with Vikings? Dr Hannah Burrows talks about what might have made the Vikings laugh, and what was considered a serious matter in medieval Scandinavia. She will explore what puns, jokes, insults, and satire can tell us about early Scandinavian culture and social concerns.
Did the ancient Greeks discover Iceland before the Vikings?
We know that Norse settlers came to Iceland in the ninth century, and that Irish monks likely lived on the island before that. However, new research suggests that the ancient Greeks came to the northern island before the year 300 BC.
The weird story of an Icelandic ghost named Þórgunna
Then, in the middle of the night, the party was awakened by a noise as of someone fumbling about in the darkness: someone had broken into the farmhouse. The larder: the thief was in the larder.
Does the medieval past affect the present? In Iceland it does
As a medievalist it is sometimes a difficult task and I’m all too familiar with the refrain, “Why does something that happened 1,000 years ago matter?
Medieval Scandinavia: The Rise and Fall of the Icelandic Commonwealth
Beñat Elortza Larrea describes the settlement of Iceland, the formation of its commonwealth and the eventual incorporation into the Norwegian tributary territories of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wood And Woodlands In Icelandic Literary, Documentary And Archaeological Sources
The 12th-century AD Íslendingabók describes Iceland as having been ‘covered with woodland from the mountains to the seashores’ at the time of the Norse settlement in the late 9th-century AD.
Looking for the Northern Lights in Medieval Iceland, finding Jane Austen
Ármann Jakobsson attempts to answer the questions he keeps being asked about Icelandic sagas.
The mystery of plague in medieval Iceland
Icelandic annals record two severe plague epidemics for 1402-4 and 1494-95.
Cannibalism in the Icelandic Sagas: a bad habit or an ancient magical practice?
In Icelandic sagas, giants are described as awkward, evil and uncivilized, and curiously their diet mainly consists of two elements: horse meat and human flesh.
Weather and Ideology in Íslendinga saga: A Case Study of the Volcanic Climate Forcing of the 1257 Samalas eruption
This eruption, which took place in 1257 at the Samalas caldera in Indonesia, caused a cooling effect across Europe until 1261, as the sulfur emissions from the volcano encircled the globe.
The Yule Cat of Iceland: A Different Kind of Christmas Tradition
By Minjie Su You know the Christmas Cat, – That cat was enormous. People know not where he came from Nor to what…
What Imported Viking Age and Medieval Artifacts Can Tell Us about Trade and Exchange in Mývatn, Iceland
This article examines how Mývatn Icelanders were able to partially connect to the continental trade in beads, the Baltic trade in flint, and to other European trade networks operating between the 9th and 15th centuries, and to what extent these networks were able to influence the early Mývatn economy.