The Sagas of the Icelanders by Jane Smilely

fortune.
    The classical hero as a social and psychological type was under increasingly sceptical scrutiny as time went on in Iceland. A response to the military excesses of the Age of the Sturlungs may account for it. Even though many different literary conventions contribute to the characterization of saga heroes, so that there is considerable variety among them, they all occupy a liminal space that is barely on one side or the other of what normal Icelandic society can tolerate. Typically they acquire their skill at arms and their martial reputations in the larger world of action abroad, either (as in the case of Gisli) before they settle in Iceland, or as a conscious element in the education of the aspiring hero, or in the course of temporary exile.
    Ref the Sly and Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue in different ways illustrate the Icelandic hero’s dependence on the wider scope of foreign society. As a poet, Gunnlaug relies on the larger Norse cultural scene to earn his reputation: even so, his competitive nature and outspokenness are barely contained within the fine line of royal tolerance. Emblematic of the neccessity for a foreign setting is the fact that Gunnlaug’s passionate ambition for superiority in love, in poetry and in feats of arms culminates in a duel that must take place outside Iceland, where it has been prohibited by law. It is because of these lively heroes that we read and enjoy the sagas so much. But we also learn what a dangerous game they play if they attempt to carry out a heroic career in Iceland itself, a place that is devoted to social tranquillity and to a virtual experience of the heroic through literature rather than to an actual one. When Ref the Sly is forced to leave Iceland, as mentioned above, his uncle encourages him to have a story written about his achievements, which serves to make the point that Icelanders will enjoy reading his adventures as long as they don’t have to experience them in reality.
    At the end of
Gisli Sursson’s Saga
, when the characters are all accounted for, we are told that Gisli’s wife’s nephew, also drawn into Gisli’s outlawry, was able to go beyond the reach of Icelandic authority, and is on a ship bound for Greenland. Greenland was the new frontier of the Saga Age – rough, tough, but a lively and human place, where a man could make some money.
Eirik the Red’s Saga
illustrates the progress to Iceland, as a refuge from Norwegian law, and then to Greenland as a refuge from Icelandic law. As saga places, Greenland and the interior of Iceland were somewhat analogous to Finnmark in Norway, which figures in the early chapters of
Egil s Saga
. Such places outside conventional Icelandic society help to define what is meant by civilization, and also for us to distinguish between the forms of behaviour that can be tolerated in society and those, even at times heroic and noble, which are ‘beyond the pale’. Greenland is less magical and better suited to a fresh start in life than either the interior of Iceland or most other places of refuge abroad. The action of half a dozen sagas includes episodes in Greenland, and they all illustrate the vitality and renewal associated with the place. America as a saga place is so complex and special that it cannot be spoken of briefly. It is a world beyond Greenland, Finnmark or the interior of Iceland, a brave new world, within the reach of Norse seamanship, but beyond the grasp of its civilization.

Further Reading
     
    Listed below are some of the more recent books in English about the
Íslendinga sögur
and their historical and cultural backgrounds. Much authoritative work on the sagas exists only in the Icelandic language or in journal articles and is not included. References to this more specialized literature may be found by consulting Pulsiano and Wolf,
Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia
and Clover and Lindow,
Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide
(see below).
     
    Andersson, Theodore M.
The Problem of