Remembering England

Cultural Memory in the Sagas of Icelanders
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-50125-3
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 268 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 573 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval History and Culture

This book provides an in-depth study of depictions of England in the Saga of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur), examining their utility as sources for the history of Viking Age Anglo-Scandinavian cultural contact.

The Íslendingasögur present themselves as histories, but they are difficult historical sources. Their setting is the Saga Age, a period that begins with the settlement of Iceland in the late ninth century and ends along with the Viking Age in the late eleventh century–however, the saga texts are disconnected from this setting, having first been written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This book traces the transmission and development of Icelandic cultural memory of Saga Age England across this distance of centuries. It offers case study analyses of how historical time, place, cultures, and events are adapted and conceptualised in the Íslendingasögur and suggests methodological approaches to their study as historical literature.

Remembering England is an interdisciplinary book that will appeal to scholars and students of the history of pre-Norman England, the Icelandic sagas, medieval literature, and cultural memory.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Firth, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Mittelalterliche, neuzeitliche Archäologie (Europa)
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Historiographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Literature and Memory, History and Historiography

 

Cultural Memory and the Íslendingasögur    

Íslendingasögur as Sources of History: The Debate  

Æthelstan, Æthelred and Knútr: A Historical Overview    

Chapter Overview                        

                       

Part 1

1   Narrative, Verse and Memory

 

The Fear of Forgetting and the Value of Writing    

Cultural Memory and Medieval memoria            

Communicative Memory and Skaldic verse      

Memory and Literature                  

                               

2   Saga Age England

 

England in the Íslendingasögur              

England in the skáldasögur: Egils saga          

England in the skáldasögur: Gunnlaugs saga, Bjarnar saga

 

3   Iceland and the Writing of the Íslendingasögur

 

The Íslendingasögur Corpus              

Saga Age Iceland                        

Iceland in the Age of Saga Writing          

                       

Part 2

4   Memories of Heroism: Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa  

 

Manuscript Contexts                    

Bjorn’s Travels

Reconstructing a Chronology                

Thematic Intertextuality: Of Kings and Dragons          

                           

5   Memories of Rulers: Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu

 

Gunnlaugr’s Travels                

The skáld in Literary Frameworks                

The skáld as Poet: The Hierarchies of Verse    

The skáld as Warrior: A Fabricated Narrative        

                       

6   Memories of Conflict: Egils saga Skallagrímssonar

 

Egill’s Travels                    

The Battle of Brunanburh                    

The Court of Eiríkr blóðøx in York          

                       

Conclusion  

 

Interpretation and Reinterpretation            

Remembering England                    

                           

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Matthew Firth is Australian Research Council Fellow (DECRA) and Associate Lecturer in Medieval History at Flinders University, Australia. His research focuses on historical narrative and its transmission across time and place with particular interest in the historiography of tenth- century England. Matthew’s first monograph, Early English Queens, 850– 1000: Potestas Regina, was published by Routledge in 2024. He is also the author of over twenty articles and book chapters focused on the development of medieval history writing traditions.