Free World Literature Literature Reviews

The sagas of Icelanders developed as a new literary genre among the Icelandic authors. These sagas describe characters who are essentially farmers or their sons who were at the lower strata of the social ladder. These authors depicted the life in Iceland as they had experienced it or visualized it in the past. In fact, the Icelandic literature is seen as an authentic source of information by the historians who find a significant amount of truth in each saga. These sagas offer a valuable insight into the framework of a unique medieval community. Egil’s Saga records origins of Icelanders’ thus establishing a new “national” identity in Iceland. The saga is an excellent depiction of a complex personality who is a ruthless Viking as well as a sensitive poet. Right from an early childhood, he is shown as a rebel against authority. The Saga is clearly structured and literary rich as it carries several themes that develop their own substance in the course. Egil introduces tales of his immediate ancestors and descendants. Thus, the saga paints the historical portrait of the man who composed them (Hines and Slay 15). The presentation of the kings in the saga vary considerably, as they have their own strings of failure and success as well as impact other characters in the saga. Egil is the eponymous hero of the saga, who is heroic as well as measured strangely by his actions. The saga is only marginally concerned with love and goes beyond the temperamental extremes of the hero. The full blow characterization of the poets; temperament finds him in attacks of depression, fits of aggression and adds more individualist details. He is a fitting hero for the saga whose life offers an extraordinary exhibition. It is the life of a warrior during the period of the Scandinavians and the early 13th century Iceland as well as towards the 20th century. The composition of the Egil’s saga describes the conscious and sub-conscious social ideals and exploits their attitude and ideals literary. He gives a fine portrait of the Viking poet and succeeds in expressing genuine emotions in his verses The Viking Age is believed to extend from AD 793 to 1066. This is an important phase in the history of medieval Europe that saw an expansion of Viking activities (The Study Of Old Icelandic 2015). Those activities played an essential role in the linguistic development in late medieval England. The Icelandic sources carry a primary importance for the study of the Vikings, their culture, and traditions. Viking Age holds great importance for not just the history of Iceland itself, but also the history of the whole of Europe. It holds great significance as it points to the unique early experiment in non-monarchic government while asserting political freedom. It is the language of the Vikings who settled in Iceland during the ninth and early tenth centuries that formed the basis of the Icelandic language (The Study Of Old Icelandic 2015). It is reasonable to predict that Egil’s saga seems consistent to the standardized medieval Icelandic view of the 9th and 10th century. The Norse settlement of Iceland is seen as a result of the reaction of the independently- minded Norsemen to the royal power of Haraldr over the whole of Norway (Hines and Slay 16). This is the historical context the saga opens with. There are more instances of conflicts of interest shown in the sags between the Icelanders and the Norwegian kings. The menacing Olafr Tryggvasson and his aggressive interference may be resented. Moreover, herein lies the story of the conversion of Iceland to Christianity. Here lies an essence of a dilemma as the introduction to Christianity is seen as a good thing. Attitudes among those kings in the saga are perhaps more of a suspicion towards the Norwegian kings. There is evidence of Christian involvement with the start of the Viking settlement on the island.

Works Cited

Hines, J. and Slay, D. “Introductory essay of Egil’s Saga and Njals Saga.” Viking society for Northern Research 1.1 (1992): 1-140.
“The Study Of Old Icelandic.” vsnrweb-publications. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.

SOURCE