ABSTRACT
The sagas about early Icelanders concern, among other things, the issues and mechanisms of political leadership and often display realistic relationships between leaders and their followers. Some of them, such as Eyrbyggja saga, can be read as illustrations of an ideology promoting political pragmatism. Others, such as Hœnsa-Þóris saga, present a much less clear message regarding the matter. At the same time, the sagas abound in complicated figures, such as Skalla-Grímr and Egill, who arguably succeed as local leaders despite their antisocial personalities. By contrast, some sagas present figures of famous outlaws whose image includes long-lasting prestige, emotion-driven behaviour, and formal exclusion from politics. Drawing on these observations, this chapter argues that political failure presented in selected Íslendingasögur can be driven by emotional reactions in the contexts in which pragmatic answers to particular problems could be expected. This idea is supported by means of the presented analysis of the connections between political achievements and pragmatic action in selected sagas.
