Description
Book SynopsisA compelling argument that far from developing in a literary vacuum, saga literature interacts in lively, creative and critical ways with one of the central genres of the European middle ages. The relationship between that most popular of medieval genres, the saint's life, and the sagas of the Icelanders is investigated here. Although saga heroes are rarely saints themselves - indeed rather the reverse - they interact with saints in a variety of ways: as ancestors or friends of saints, as noble heathens or converts to Christianity, as innocent victims of violent death, or even as anti-saints, interrogating aspects of saintly ideology. Via detailed readings of a range of the sagas, this book explores how saints' lives contributed to the widening of medieval horizons, allowing the saga authors to develop multiple perspectives (moral, eschatological, psychological) on traditional feud narratives and family dramas. The saint's life introduced new ideals to the saga world, such as suffering, patience and feminine nurture, and provided, through dreams, visions and signs, ways of representing the interior life and of engaging with questions of merit and reward. In dialogue with the ideology of the saint, the saga hero develops into a complex and multi-faceted figure. Siân Grønlie is Associate Professor and Kate Elmore Fellow in English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.
Trade ReviewThe Saint and the Saga Hero is an inspiring, well-researched and well-written book. It has not left my desk since I was fortunate to get it, and I think it is going to stay there. * EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE *
Grønlie has produced a study that manages to use its own wide horizons of knowledge to elevate the peripheral and the particular, as only the best scholarship can. * MEDIUM ÆVUM *
Grønlie has done a tremendous service to the field of Old Norse-Icelandic, and her monograph will undoubtedly be consulted for years to come as scholars continue to examine the various and complex ways in which the lives of saints shaped saga literature and the characters therein. * SPECULUM *
The Saint and the Saga Hero has been a pleasure to read and review. It is a book well served by Grønlie's evident attention to detail, innovative approach to intertextuality, and patient and thoughtful approach to medieval 'genre.' This volume adds a valuable new perspective to the study of Old Norse-Icelandic texts and their interaction with, and place within, wider European literary endeavours. * CERÆ *
The Saint and the Saga Hero should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the Icelandic sagas. No one, after completing it, will be able to deny that in medieval Icelandic writing, "interaction with the saint's life should be recognised as a self-conscious literary act: the saga can only define its owns horizons in interaction with other types of narrative prose" (p. 257). * Catholic Historical Review *
Table of ContentsPreface Saints' Lives and Sagas of Icelanders The Failed Saint: Oddr's Óláfr Tryggvason The Confessor, the Martyr and the Convert The Noble Heathen and the Missionary Saint The Outlaw, the Exile and the Desert Saint The Saint as Friend and Patron Conclusion
