ABSTRACT
Marginality usually refers to identity shaped on the edge of social structure, often in the sense of being set apart from social institutions, central places, and power structures. Marginal groups are those excluded from the dominant social and economic structures within a community and include, for example, vagrants, monstrous beings, the disabled, and ethnic others. The complexity of marginality relating to the household as a social focal point in the sagas is indicated by the categories of beggars and vagrants. In the wake of structural and anthropological studies, marginality in the sagas has been connected to the dichotomy of the social order with household society and legal organization on the one hand and the wilderness, filled with dangerous beings, on the other. Scholars have applied different methods and perspectives to the sagas, notably historical and literary anthropology, mythological discourse, the influence of Christian world view, and the construction of identities.
