ABSTRACT
The Icelandic sagas are long prose narratives that were transmitted orally for about 100 years before they were written anonymously during the 13th century. The genre covers a wide range of material distinguished primarily by subject matter, but the sagas that have received the most scholarly attention and inspired the most literary imitators are the family sagas (islendinga sogur), which include about 30 narratives varying in length in modern editions from about 20 pages (Thorstein Staffstruck) to more than 400 (Njals saga). The family sagas deal with historical events that occurred in Iceland and Norway during the period of settlement, from about 870 to 1050, yet they are not simply chronicles of a district; indeed, the complexity of their characterization has led some critics to conclude that the sagas were written as historical fiction with the attendant alterations and elaborations appropriate to the novel.
