Reading the Icelandic Sagas alongside the Bible

Event details

Department of English and Related Literature Annual Riddy Lecture

Speaker: Prof Siân Grønlie (University of Oxford)

The Sagas of Icelanders were written down by Christians in the thirteenth century CE about Icelanders living in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, around the time of Iceland’s conversion to Christianity. If the characters in the sagas are often pagan, the saga authors were not; they may well have been familiar with the Old Testament in Latin or perhaps in a vernacular translation. This lecture will consider the value of reading the Icelandic sagas in conjunction with stories from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It will consider both how sagas have been used by biblical scholars in the past, and how the Bible might be useful to Old Norse scholars in the future. Is it appropriate to use the sagas as comparative literature when the saga authors may have known the Old Testament in some form? How do we determine if shared patterns and motifs are the result of reception or simply resemblance, two storytelling traditions that just happen to look alike? 

Please register here to be sent a Zoom link for this lecture.

Please join us for a Reception in the Atrium of the Berrick Saul Building from 17:30.