Feud in the Icelandic Saga

Disciplines History Medieval History & Studies

About the Book

Feud stands at the core of the Old Icelandic sagas. Jesse Byock shows how the dominant concern of medieval Icelandic society—the channeling of violence into accepted patterns of feud and the regulation of conflict—is reflected in the narrative of the family sagas and the Sturlunga saga compilation. This comprehensive study of narrative structure demonstrates that the sagas are complex expressions of medieval social thought.

About the Author

Jesse Byock is Professor of Old Norse and Scandinavian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of Medieval Iceland (California, 1988) and translator of The Saga of the Volsungs (California, 1990).

Preface
Acknowledgments

1 Introduction
2 Feud in Saga Narrative: Its Roots in Icelandic Society
3 The Syntax of Narrative Elements
4 Units of Travel and Information and the Feudeme of Conflict
5 The Feudeme of Advocacy
6 The Feudeme of Resolution
7 Feud Clusters and Feud Chains
8 The Importance of Land in Saga Feud
9 Two Sets of Feud Chains in Njals saga
10 Saga Narrative with Low Cluster Density
11 Conclusion

Appendixes
A. A Brief Account of Legal and Social Terms
B. Examples of Conflict
  Material Sources of Conflict
  Nonmaterial Sources of Conflict
C. Examples of Advocacy
  Brokerage
  Self-Advocacy
  Goading
  Information Passing
D. Examples of Resolution
  Arbitration
  Direct Resolution
  Rejected Resolution

Index
Maps