"of these include ""Njáls saga"", about an epic blood feud, and ""Grænlendinga saga"" and ""Eiríks saga"", describing the discovery and settlement of Greenland and Vinland (now the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador). ""Egils saga"", ""Laxdæla saga"", ""Grettis saga"", ""Gísla saga"", and ""Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu"" are also notable and popular. W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice wrote ""Letters From Iceland"" (1937) to describe their travels through that country. The first professional secular painters appeared in Iceland in the 19th century. This group of artists included Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, who was famous for his paintings portraying village life in Iceland. Ásmundur"
"in Iceland's age of settlement. The most famous of these include ""Njáls saga"", about an epic blood feud, and ""Grænlendinga saga"" and ""Eiríks saga"", describing the discovery and settlement of Greenland and Vinland (modern Newfoundland). ""Egils saga"", ""Laxdæla saga"", ""Grettis saga"", ""Gísla saga"" and ""Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu"" are also notable and popular Icelanders' sagas. A translation of the Bible was published in the 16th century. Important compositions since the 15th to the 19th century include sacred verse, most famously the Passion Hymns of Hallgrímur Pétursson, and ""rímur"", rhyming epic poems. Originating in the 14th century, ""rímur"" were popular into the"
"Sagas of Icelanders The Sagas of Icelanders (), also known as family sagas, are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. They are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history. They reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Icelandic settlers. Eventually many of Icelandic sagas were recorded, mostly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The 'authors', or rather recorders of these sagas are unknown."
"German epic poem ""Nibelungenlied"". Material from the cycle was translated into English by such figures as Andrew Lang and Edward Thomas, and had a significant impact on the thought and writings of the Inklings. Theodore Andersson, ""The Legend of Brynhild"" (1980) Völsung Cycle The Völsung Cycle is a series of legends in Norse mythology that were first recorded in medieval Iceland, but which were also known (as carvings show) in Sweden, Norway, England and (perhaps) the Isle of Man. The original Icelandic tales were greatly expanded with native Scandinavian folklore, including that of Helgi Hundingsbane, which, in turn, originally appears"
"sagas (""Samtíðarsögur"" or ""Samtímasögur""), Legendary sagas (""Fornaldarsögur""), Chivalric sagas (""Riddarasögur""), Saints' sagas (""Heilagra manna sögur"") and bishops' sagas (""Biskupa sögur""). Kings' sagas are of the lives of Scandinavian kings. They were composed in the 12th to 14th centuries. The Icelanders' sagas (""Íslendinga sögur""), a.k.a. Family Sagas, are stories of real events, passed in oral form till they eventually were recorded, mostly in the 13th century. These are the highest form of the classical Icelandic saga writing. Some well-known examples include ""Njáls saga"", ""Laxdæla saga"" and ""Grettis saga"". The material of the Short tales of Icelanders sagas is similar to ""Íslendinga"
"named ""Goðatrú"" or ""Ásatrú"", ""truth of the gods"". Icelanders worshipped ""landvættir"", local land spirits, and the gods of the common northern Germanic tradition, within ""hof"" and ""hörgar"". The most popular deity was apparently Thor, whom the Icelanders worshipped in the form of high pillars; poets worshipped Odin, as highlighted by Hallfreðr Vandræðaskáld, the ""Landnámabók"" and the ""Eyrbyggja saga"". Other people worshipped Freyr, as attested in the ""Víga-Glúms saga"". Apart from the Irish ""papar"", Christianity had been present in Iceland from the start even among the Germanic settlers. The ""Landnámabók"" gives the names of Christian settlers, including an influential woman named"
"Canada) were authenticated. Most sagas of Icelanders take place in the period 930–1030, which is called ""söguöld"" (Age of the Sagas) in Icelandic history. The sagas of kings, bishops, contemporary sagas have their own time frame. Most were written down between 1190 and 1320, sometimes existing as oral traditions long before, others are pure fiction, and for some we do know the sources: the author of King Sverrir's saga had met the king and used him as a source. Norse sagas are generally classified as: the Kings' sagas (""Konungasögur""), sagas of Icelanders (""Íslendinga sögur""), Short tales of Icelanders (""Íslendingaþættir""), Contemporary"
"of the famous ""Prose Edda"", a collection of Norse myths; and Hallgrímur Pétursson, author of Iceland's beloved Passion Hymns. Leading poets include Bjarni Thorarensen and Jónas Hallgrímsson, pioneers of the Romantic movement in Iceland; Matthías Jochumsson, author of Iceland's national anthem; Þorsteinn Erlingsson, lyricist; Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran, a pioneer of realism in Icelandic literature and an outstanding short-story writer; Einar Benediktsson, ranked as one of the greatest modern Icelandic poets; Jóhann Sigurjónsson, who lived much of his life in Denmark and wrote many plays based on Icelandic history and legend, as well as poetry; and the novelist Halldór Laxness, who"
"Legendary saga A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga (literally, ""story/history of the ancient era"") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as ""Yngvars saga víðförla"", which takes place in the 11th century. The sagas were probably all written in Iceland, from about the middle of the 13th century to about 1400, although it is possible that some may be of a later date, such as ""Hrólfs saga kraka"". In terms of form, ""fornaldarsögur"" are similar to various other saga-genres, but tend towards fairly linear, episodic narratives. Like"
"sögur"", in shorter form. The narratives of the Contemporary Sagas are set in 12th- and 13th-century Iceland, and were written soon after the events they describe. Most are preserved in the compilation ""Sturlunga saga"", though some, such as ""Arons saga Hjörleifssonar"" are preserved separately. Legendary Sagas blend remote history with myth or legend. The aim is on a lively narrative and entertainment. Scandinavia's pagan past was a proud and heroic history for the Icelanders. Chivalric sagas are translations of Latin pseudo-historical works and French chansons de geste as well as native creations in the same style. While sagas are generally"
"be divided into several categories. Three are best known to foreigners: Eddic poetry, skaldic poetry, and saga literature, if saga literature is understood broadly. Eddic poetry is made up of heroic and mythological poems. Poetry that praises someone is considered skaldic poetry or court poetry. Finally, saga literature is prose, ranging from pure fiction to fairly factual history. Written Icelandic has changed little since the 13th century. Because of this modern readers can understand the Icelanders' sagas. The sagas tell of events in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries. They are considered to be the best-known pieces of"
"Greenland saga Grœnlendinga saga () (spelled Grænlendinga saga in modern Icelandic and translated into English as the Saga of the Greenlanders) is one of the sagas of Icelanders. Along with ""Saga of Erik the Red"", it is one of the two main literary sources of information for the Norse exploration of North America. It relates the colonization of Greenland by Erik the Red and his followers. It then describes several expeditions further west led by Erik's children and Þorfinnr ""Karlsefni"" Þórðarson. The saga is preserved in the late 14th Century ""Flateyjarbók"" manuscript and is believed to have been first written"
"tend to overlap with the Chivalric sagas, particularly those composed in medieval Iceland. The legendary sagas have influenced later writers, for instance the Swede Esaias Tegnér, who wrote ""Frithiof's saga"", based on the ""Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna"". For a comprehensive list of the medieval ""fornaldarsögur"", with information about manuscripts, bibliography, etc., see ""Stories for all time: The Icelandic fornaldarsögur"". Legendary saga A legendary saga or fornaldarsaga (literally, ""story/history of the ancient era"") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as ""Yngvars saga víðförla"", which takes place"
"mythical world; ""Skáldskaparmál"", a dialogue between Ægir, a Norse god connected with the sea, and Bragi, the skaldic god of poetry; and ""Háttatal"", a demonstration of verse forms used in Norse mythology. Edda ""Edda"" (; Old Norse ""Edda"", plural ""Eddur"") is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ""Prose Edda"" and an older collection of poems without an original title now known as the ""Poetic Edda"". The term historically referred only to the ""Prose Edda"", but this since has fallen out"
"Þáttr The þættir (Old Norse singular ""þáttr"", literally meaning a ""strand"" of rope or yarn) are short stories written mostly in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries. The majority of þættir occur in two compendious manuscripts, Morkinskinna and Flateyjarbók, and within them most are found as digressions within kings' sagas. Sverrir Tómasson regards those in Morkinskinna, at least, as ""exempla"" or illustrations inseparable from the narratives that contain them, filling out the picture of the kings' qualities, good and bad, as well as adding comic relief. The short tales of Icelanders or Íslendinga þættir focus on Icelanders, often relating"
"written around 1100 AD. Much of the texts are based on poetry and laws traditionally preserved orally. The most famous of the texts, which were written in Iceland from the 12th century onward, are the Icelandic Sagas. They comprise the historical works and the eddaic poems. The language of the sagas is Old Icelandic, a western dialect of Old Norse. The Dano-Norwegian, then later Danish rule of Iceland from 1536 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic (in contrast to the Norwegian language), which remained in daily use among the general population. Though more archaic than the"
"with success outside of Iceland. Icelandic literature Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic works constitute most of Old Norse literature, Old Norse literature is often wrongly considered a subset of Icelandic literature. However, works by Norwegians are present in the standard reader ""Sýnisbók íslenzkra bókmennta til miðrar átjándu aldar"", compiled by Sigurður Nordal on the grounds that the language was the same. The medieval Icelandic literature"
"Icelandic Sagas, the historical writings of Snorri Sturluson; and eddaic poems. The language of the era of the sagas is called Old Icelandic, a dialect of (Western) Old Norse, the common Scandinavian language of the Viking era. The Danish rule of Iceland from 1380 to 1918 had little effect on the evolution of Icelandic, which remained in daily use among the general population: Danish was not used for official communications. The same applied to English during the British (and later American) occupation of Iceland during World War II. Though Icelandic is considered more archaic than other living Germanic languages, especially"
"the story of their travels abroad to the court of a Norwegian king. List of short tales: Þáttr The þættir (Old Norse singular ""þáttr"", literally meaning a ""strand"" of rope or yarn) are short stories written mostly in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries. The majority of þættir occur in two compendious manuscripts, Morkinskinna and Flateyjarbók, and within them most are found as digressions within kings' sagas. Sverrir Tómasson regards those in Morkinskinna, at least, as ""exempla"" or illustrations inseparable from the narratives that contain them, filling out the picture of the kings' qualities, good and bad, as well"
"The Tale of Thorstein Shiver The Tale of Thorstein Shiver ( Icelandic: þorsteins þáttur skelks) is an Icelandic þáttur (pl. þættir) about the conversion of the Nordic countries to Christianity. The þáttur tells the humorous tale of Thorstein Thorkelsson’s encounter with a demon and how he earns his nickname. The þáttur is contained in the Flateyjarbók. The story's status as a þáttur has been questioned. After refusing an order from King Olaf not to go to the bathroom at night alone, Thorstein finds a demon in the restroom. Thorstein engages it in conversation, asking the demon’s name. The demon claimed"
"Icelandic folklore. Thus, for example, Vigdís fulfils the trope of the final girl, while the fact that the house is in fact a rock recalls the homes of trolls and elves in Icelandic folklore, as does the name of Ása herself. The novel prominently addresses the power of the natural world in Iceland, and the lack of understanding and respect of the characters for it; Icelandic culture at the height of the early twenty-first century boom; and characters' psychology. Hálendið: Skáldsaga The novel is implicitly set around the time of the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis. It has four main characters,"
"Danish, Swedish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Czech, Finnish, Faroese and Japanese. There have been six complete English translations of the saga. Laxdæla saga Laxdæla saga (); also Laxdœla saga ( [ˈlaksˌdøːla ˈsaɣa]), Laxdoela saga, Laxdaela saga, or The Saga of the People of Laxárdalr) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. Written in the 13th century, it tells of people in the Breiðafjörður area of Iceland from the late 9th century to the early 11th century. The saga particularly focuses on a love triangle between Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir, Kjartan Ólafsson and Bolli Þorleiksson. Kjartan and Bolli grow up together as close friends"
"been used. Norse mythology is primarily attested in dialects of Old Norse, a North Germanic language spoken by the Scandinavian people during the European Middle Ages, and the ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland, where the oral tradition stemming from the pre-Christian inhabitants of the island was collected and recorded in manuscripts. This occurred primarily in the 13th century. These texts include the ""Prose Edda"", composed in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and the ""Poetic Edda"", a collection of poems from earlier traditional material anonymously compiled in the 13th"
"Völsung Cycle The Völsung Cycle is a series of legends in Norse mythology that were first recorded in medieval Iceland, but which were also known (as carvings show) in Sweden, Norway, England and (perhaps) the Isle of Man. The original Icelandic tales were greatly expanded with native Scandinavian folklore, including that of Helgi Hundingsbane, which, in turn, originally appears to have been a separate tradition the Ylfings. Mythological material in this cycle of some twenty Edda poems includes the ""Völsunga saga"" and the tale of the Otter's Ransom, and covers much of the same subject matter as the Middle High"
"Sturlunga saga Sturlunga saga (often called simply Sturlunga) is a collection of Icelandic sagas by various authors from the 12th and 13th centuries; it was assembled in about 1300. It mostly deals with the story of the Sturlungs, a powerful family clan during the Age of the Sturlungs period of the Icelandic Commonwealth. ""Sturlunga saga"" covers the history of Iceland between 1117 and 1264. It begins with ""Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns"", the legend of Geirmundr heljarskinn, a regional ruler in late 9th-century Norway, who moves to Iceland to escape the growing power of King Harald Finehair. The more historical sagas commence"
"the last one with the epithet ""Kraki"". In the case of the ""Skjöldunga saga"" (""Saga of the Scyldings"") only a Latin summary has survived, and so their names are Latinized. The Icelandic sources can be divided into two groups: the ""Hrólfr Kraki's saga"" on the one hand, and the ""Skjöldunga saga"" and ""Bjarkarímur"" on the other. Both groups tell a version of Hrothgar and Halga's feud with Froda (Fróði) and Ingeld (Ingjaldr). However, whereas the ""Hrólfr Kraki's saga"" make Froda the brother of Healfdene, the ""Skjöldunga saga"" and ""Bjarkarímur"" make Ingeld the brother of Healfdene. ""Hrólfr Kraki's saga"" also disagrees"
"vital traditions of Icelandic music are epic alliterative and rhyming ballads called rímur. Rímur are epic tales, usually a cappella, which can be traced back to skaldic poetry, using complex metaphors and elaborate rhyme schemes. The best known rímur poet of the 19th century was Sigurður Breiðfjörð (1798–1846). A modern revitalisation of the tradition began in 1929 with the formation of Iðunn. Among Iceland's best-known classical composers are Daníel Bjarnason and Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir (Anna Thorvaldsdottir), who in 2012 received the Nordic Council Music Prize and in 2015 was chosen as the New York Philharmonic's Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor"
"Icelandic literature. The elder or ""Poetic Edda"", the younger or ""Prose Edda"", and the sagas are the major pieces of Icelandic literature. The ""Poetic Edda"" is a collection of poems and stories from the late 10th century, whereas the younger or ""Prose Edda"" is a manual of poetry that contains many stories of Norse mythology. Iceland embraced Christianity in c. AD 1000, in what is called the ""kristnitaka"", and the country, while mostly secular in observance, is still predominantly Christian culturally. The Lutheran church claims some 84% of the total population. While early Icelandic Christianity was more lax in its"
"Norse mythology with the notion of heaven in Christianity to create a theological bridge between the belief systems. This however was a later addition to the written version, which has been compromised by later bias. Due to this fact, the composition is now regarded as largely mythical, despite being taught as Icelandic History for centuries. The lone source on the Life of Eric the Traveller is the Icelandic manuscript of ""Skálholtsbók"". Eireks saga víðförla Eireks Saga Víðförla is a legendary saga on a Norwegian, Eric the Traveller. He travels to Miklagard, modern Istanbul, with Eric the Dane. There he interects"
"incantations and the fallen soldiers started to fight anew, and this went on until Ragnarök. Sörla þáttr is a short story in Flateyjarbok, a collection of tales about Norwegian kings written by two Christian priests in the 15th century, owned by a family from Flatey island. Sörla þáttr is about King Olaf I of Norway (Olaf Tryggvason), who was the first to encourage Christianity in Norway and Iceland. The story borrowed parts of ""Heimskringla"", parts of the poem ""Lokasenna"" (of Gefjon sleeping with a boy for a necklace), parts of the ""Húsdrápa"" poem (of Loki stealing Brisingamen), and the eternal"
"the latter-day Icelandic and ."" He also writes: "" and undoubtedly arose from the same need. The Norse settlers had the , the Irish slaves had the hill fairies or the Good People. Over time, they became two different beings, but really they are two different sets of folklore that mean the same thing."" Precursors to elves/hidden people can be found in the writings of and in skaldic verse. Elves were also mentioned in ""Poetic Edda"", and appear to be connected to fertility. The Christianization of Iceland in the 11th century brought with it new religious concepts. According to one"
"accused of slaughtering a blue whale. The country's cultural relationship with whales is reflected in the Icelandic language: ""hvalreki"" is the word for ""beached whale"", while also meaning something good that is unexpectedly yours or at your disposal. Iceland now has its own whale watching sector, which exists in uneasy tension with the whaling industry. Ancient literature, such as the Norse sagas, does not reveal a history of whale fisheries in Iceland but occasionally describes conflicts between various families over whale carcasses and early links between Scandinavian people and whales. For example, Vikings from Norway introduced the whaling techniques of"
"in Finnish was Seven Brothers (1870) by Aleksis Kivi (1834—1872): still generally considered to be one of the greatest of all works of Finnish literature. The Icelanders' sagas ()—many of which are also known as family sagas—are prose histories describing mostly events that took place in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries. They are the best known of specifically Icelandic literature from the early period. In late medieval times ""rímur"" became the most popular form of poetic expression. Influential Icelandic authors since the reformation include Hallgrímur Pétursson, Jónas Hallgrímsson, Gunnar Gunnarsson and Halldór Laxness. The period from the"